CHRISTIAN, CARBON OF HAUGHTY-HALL, LE BRET, THE CADETS, _later_ CYRANO. LE BRET. It's awful! CARBON. Yes, nothing left to eat. LE BRET. Mordious! CARBON (_motioning to him to speak lower_). Deaden your oaths! or you'll wake the men. (_to the Cadets_). Sleep on! (_to Le Bret_). He who sleeps eats! LE BRET. Yes, but waking starves! (_A few musket reports are heard in the distance._) CARBON. Confound the muskets!.... They'll wake up my children. (_to several of the Cadets who lift up their heads_). Sleep! (_More musketry, nearer_). A CADET (_tossing_). The Devil! again? CARBON. It's nothing! Only Cyrano coming back! (_The lifted heads lie down again._) A SENTINEL (_outside_). Who goes there? CYRANO (_outside_). Bergerac! A SENTINEL (_on the embankment_). Ventrebieu! who goes there? CYRANO. Bergerac, you idiot! (_He comes down and is met by Le Bret._) LE BRET. What, you! wounded? CYRANO (_raising his hand_). Hush! You know that they miss me regularly every morning. LE BRET. What! risk your life thus, every day, just to carry a letter without the camp! That is going too far. CYRANO (_stopping in front of Christian_). I promised that he would write often! (_looking at him_). He sleeps. How pale! If sweet Roxane knew that he is starving! But he has not lost his good looks. LE BRET. Go get some sleep! CYRANO. Don't growl, Le Bret!.... Remember this: To pass through the Spanish lines, I long ago selected a place where they are invariably drunk. LE BRET. Why don't you once bring back some provisions? CYRANO. A load would not leave me light enough to pass through. But there is going to be a change. We, the French, shall soon eat.... or die,--if my eyes did not deceive me.... LE BRET. How soon? CYRANO. You'll see!.... I'm not sure enough to speak. CARBON. Isn't it shameful that the besiegers should be the ones to starve! LE BRET. An extraordinary siege this! We are besieging Arras, and the Spanish are besieging us. CYRANO.