I copied not the stupid eagle of Regiomontanus, or the timid pigeon of Archytas!.... GUICHE. A madman--but a learned one. CYRANO. No, Sir. I imitated nothing ever done. (_Guiche, having managed to pass, is nearing Roxane's door, but Cyrano follows, ready to seize him._) I invented six different ways of assaulting the virgin blue! GUICHE (_turning_). Six? CYRANO (_with increased fluency_). I could, with body as bare as a taper, have comparisoned it with crystal phials o'erflowing with tears from the morning skies, and my person, then, if exposed in the sun, would have been aspirated by the luminary along with the dew! GUICHE (_astonished, goes toward Cyrano_). True! That is one way! CYRANO (_backing, so as to draw him further away_). Again, I could have created a powerful gust of wind, to lift me, if I had rarefied the air in a cedar box, by means of heated mirrors forming an icosahedron! GUICHE (_following Cyrano_). Two ways! CYRANO (_still backing_). Or else, being both a machinist and an artificer, have straddled a steel-legged grasshopper, and caused myself, through successive explosions of saltpetre, to be projected into the azure fields where the stars are wont to graze! GUICHE (_still following him, and counting on his fingers_). That is three! CYRANO. Since smoke persists in rising, I might have blown into a globe enough of it to carry me up! GUICHE (_more and more astonished_). Four! CYRANO. Since Phoebe, when her bow is the thinnest, loves to draw, O beeves! your marrow,.... anoint myself with the same! GUICHE (_stupefied_). Five! CYRANO (_who has managed, while talking, to press Guiche over to the other side of the square, near a bench_). Last: I could have placed myself upon an iron plate, taken a magnet and thrown it up into the air! This is a capital way. As soon as the magnet starts, the iron rushes in pursuit of it. The magnet is thrown up again; the iron plate follows--and, Cadedis! there is nothing to prevent the ascension from lasting indefinitely. GUICHE. Six!--All excellent systems. And, tell me, Sir, which one of the six did you adopt? CYRANO. A seventh one! GUICHE. Astonishing! And what was it, please? CYRANO. You would never dream of it!.... GUICHE (_aside_). The fellow is really interesting! CYRANO (_very mysterious and imitating the sound of waves on a beach_). Houüh! Houüh! GUICHE.