You are improving, Sir! GUICHE (_proudly and forgetting to master his natural Gascon accent_). I know how to fight on an empty stomach! _A jeung!_ FIRST CADET (_overjoyed_). He said it with the Gascon accent! GUICHE (_laughing_). Did I? THE CADET. He is one of us! (_They all begin to dance._) CARBON (_who has been away a moment behind the embankment, reappearing on top of it_). My men are placed, and determined! (_He points to a row of lances that show over the crest of the embankment._) GUICHE (_to Roxane, bowing_). Will you accept my hand to pass them in review?.... (_She gives her hand and they go up to the embankment. Hats come off, and everybody follows._) CHRISTIAN (_going up to Cyrano_). Now! speak quickly! (_As Roxane appears on the crest, the lances disappear in a salute; she bows._) THE MEN (_outside_). Hurrah! CHRISTIAN. What is your secret?.... CYRANO. In case Roxane... CHRISTIAN. Well? CYRANO. Should speak to you of letters.... CHRISTIAN. Yes, yes, I know!.... CYRANO. Do not be silly enough to appear surprised.... CHRISTIAN. Surprised by what? CYRANO. Oh! I must tell you.... The simplest thing in the world .... and I happened to think of it only to-day, on seeing her. You have.... CHRISTIAN. I have what? CYRANO. You have....written to her more often than you think. CHRISTIAN. How so? CYRANO. Well! I had undertaken to speak for you, and I interpreted your love. Sometimes I wrote without saying to you: I'm writing! CHRISTIAN. Oh! you did? CYRANO. Yes, the simplest thing in the world, as I said! CHRISTIAN. But, since we have been hemmed in, how did you manage to.... CYRANO. Oh!.... Before dawn I could pass through the lines.... CHRISTIAN (_folding his arms_). Ah! another very simple matter, I suppose? And how many times a week did I write?.... Twice?--Three times?--Four times?-- CYRANO. More. CHRISTIAN. Every day? CYRANO. Yes, every day,--twice. CHRISTIAN (_with violence_). And this enraptured you, and the rapture was such that each day you faced death....