[23] Note.--"Tu croques le marmot" (literally "you are eating the baby") is an allusion to ogres' proverbial taste for infants, coupled with the somewhat slangy meaning: "you are waiting long and impatiently." This in English would be meaningless, and was perforce replaced by what seems to be a fair equivalent. [24] Note.--A French proverb. _SCENE IV._ _The same_, GUICHE. GUICHE (_to Carbon_). Ha! Good morning! (_Aside, after looking at Carbon, with satisfaction_). His face is green! CARBON (_aside_). There is nothing left of him but his eyes. GUICHE (_looking at the Cadets_). So, here are these soreheads!.... Yes, gentlemen, I understand that I am jeered at plentifully here; that cadets, nobility and gentry, barons all, are not over-burdened with respect for their Colonel; that they charge me with intrigue and court-flattery, that my lace collar over my breastplate is an eye-sore to them,--and that it is distressing to them to find that one can be a Gascon and still not out at the elbow! (_Silence. The Cadets continue to play and smoke._) Shall I have you punished by your Captain? No. CARBON. Well, I am free and I punish only.... GUICHE. Ah!.... CARBON. I paid for my company, and it belongs to me. I obey only to war commands. GUICHE. Ah!.... Well, that is sufficient. (_speaking to the Cadets_). I can afford to scorn your bluster. Everybody knows how I behave under fire. Even yesterday, there were enough witnesses to the spirit with which I routed Count de Bucquoi; leading my people against his men like an avalanche, I charged him three successive times! CYRANO (_without lifting his eyes from his book_). How about your white scarf? GUICHE (_surprised and satisfied_). You know of this trifle?.... True, it happened, while I was circling to gather my people for the third charge, that a party of runaways forced me too close to the enemy; I was in danger of being taken or shot, when, happily, I bethought me to untie and to drop the scarf that told my rank. In this way, and without attracting notice, I managed to get away from the Spaniards, and to turn back upon them with all my men, beating them terribly!--Now, what do you say to this? (_The Cadets affect not to listen, but they have stopped playing, and they hold back the smoke of their pipes. A wait._) CYRANO. I say that Henry IV, even surrounded by a host of foes, never would have consented to diminish himself by casting off his plume of snowy white. (_Silent joy. Playing and smoking are resumed._)