CYRANO.
Boasting?.... Lend it to me. I offer to hang it on my shoulder and, this very night, to scale with it the enemy's fortifications.
GUICHE.
A Gascon's offer! You know full well that the scarf remained on the enemy's ground, near the river Scarpe, a place so well covered by Spanish guns that nobody can venture there to get it!
CYRANO (taking a white scarf from his pocket and handing it to Guiche).
Here it is!
(Silence. The Cadets restrain their laughter and affect to be very busy playing. Guiche turns and looks at them; they assume an air of great gravity; one of them, in an absent-minded way, half whistles one of the airs the fife played a while before.)
GUICHE (taking the scarf).
Thank you! I can use this white fabric to make a signal,—that I hesitated to give.
(He goes to the embankment and waves the scarf several times.)