letter he had written):
See! Here it is--your letter!

CHRISTIAN:
What?

CYRANO:
Take it! Look, it wants but the address.

CHRISTIAN:
But I. . .

CYRANO:
Fear nothing. Send it. It will suit.

CHRISTIAN:
But have you. . .?

CYRANO:
Oh! We have our pockets full,
We poets, of love-letters, writ to Chloes,
Daphnes--creations of our noddle-heads.
Our lady-loves,--phantasms of our brains,
--Dream-fancies blown into soap-bubbles! Come!
Take it, and change feigned love-words into true;
I breathed my sighs and moans haphazard-wise;
Call all these wandering love-birds home to nest.
You'll see that I was in these lettered lines,
--Eloquent all the more, the less sincere!
--Take it, and make an end!

CHRISTIAN:
Were it not well
To change some words? Written haphazard-wise,
Will it fit Roxane?

CYRANO:
'Twill fit like a glove!

CHRISTIAN:
But. . .

CYRANO:
Ah, credulity of love! Roxane
Will think each word inspired by herself!

CHRISTIAN:
My friend!

(He throws himself into Cyrano's arms. They remain thus.)

Scene 2.XI.

Cyrano, Christian, the Gascons, the musketeer, Lise.

A CADET (half opening the door):
Naught here!. . .The silence of the grave!
I dare not look. . .
(He puts his head in):
Why?. . .

ALL THE CADETS (entering, and seeing Cyrano and Christian embracing):
Oh!. . .

A CADET:
This passes all!

(Consternation.)

THE MUSKETEER (mockingly):
Ho, ho!. . .

CARBON:
Our demon has become a saint?
Struck on one nostril--lo! he turns the other!

MUSKETEER:
Then we may speak about his nose, henceforth!. . .
(Calling to Lise, boastfully):
--Ah, Lise, see here!
(Sniffing ostentatiously):
O heavens!. . .what a stink!. . .
(Going up to Cyrano):
You, sir, without a doubt have sniffed it up!
--What is the smell I notice here?

CYRANO (cuffing his head):
Clove-heads.

(General delight. The cadets have found the old Cyrano again! They turn
somersaults.)

Curtain.

Act III.

Roxane's Kiss.

A small square in the old Marais. Old houses. A perspective of little
streets. On the right Roxane's house and the wall of her garden overhung with
thick foliage. Window and balcony over the door. A bench in front.

From the bench and the stones jutting out of the wall it is easy to climb to
the balcony. In front of an old house in the same style of brick and stone.
The knocker of thi