had undertaken to interpret your passion, and sometimes I wrote without having told you I should write.
CHRISTIAN Ah?
CYRANO It is very simple.
CHRISTIAN But how did you succeed since we have been so closely surrounded, in ... ?
CYRANO Oh, before daybreak I could cross the lines ...
CHRISTIAN [folding his arms] Ah, that is very simple, too? ... And how many times a week have I been writing? Twice? Three times? Four? ...
CYRANO More.
CHRISTIAN Every day?
CYRANO Yes, every day ... twice.
CHRISTIAN [violently] And you cared so much about it that you were willing to brave death....
CYRANO [seeing ROXANE who returns.] Be still ... Not before her! [He goes quickly into his tent.] [CADETS come and go at the back. CARBON and DE GUICHE give orders.]
SCENE VIII
Roxane, Christian, Cadets, Carbon de Castel-Jaloux, De Guiche
ROXANE [running to CHRISTIAN] And now, Christian ...
CHRISTIAN [taking her hands] And now, you shall tell me why, over these fearful roads, through these ranks of rough soldiery, you risked your dear self to join me?
ROXANE Because of the letters!
CHRISTIAN The ... ? ?What did you say?
ROXANE It is through your fault that I have been exposed to such and so many dangers. It is your letters that have gone to my head! Ah, think how many you have written me in a month, each one more beautiful ...
CHRISTIAN What? ... Because of a few little love letters ...
ROXANE Say nothing! You cannot understand! Listen: The truth is that I took to idolizing you one evening, when, below my window, in a voice I did not know before, your soul began to reveal itself.... Think then what the effect should be of your letters, which have been like your voice heard constantly for one month, your voice of that evening, so tender, caressing ... You must bear it as you can, I have come to you! Prudent Penelope would not have stayed at home with her eternal tapestry, if Ulysses, her lord, had written as you write ... but, impulsive as Helen, have tossed aside her yarns, and flown to join him!65
CHRISTIAN But ...
ROXANE I read them, I re-read them, in reading I grew faint ... I became your own indeed! Each fluttering leaf was like a petal of your soul wafted to me ... In every word of those letters, love is felt as a flame would be felt,—love, compelling, sincere, profound ...
CHRISTIAN Ah, sincere, profound? ... You say that it can be felt, Roxane?
ROXANE He asks me!
CHRISTIAN And so you came? ...
ROXANE I came—oh Christian, my own, my master! If I were to kneel at your feet you would lift me, I know. It is my soul therefore which kneels, and never can you lift it from that posture!—I came to implore your pardon—as it is fitting, for we are both perhaps about to die!—your pardon for having done you the wrong, at first, in my shallowness, of loving you ... for mere looking!
CHRISTIAN [in alarm] Ah, Roxane! ...
ROXANE Later, dear one, grown less shallow—similar to a bird which flutters before it can fly,—your gallant exterior appealing to me still, but your soul appealing equally, I loved you for both! ...
CHRISTIAN And now?
ROXANE Now at last yourself are vanquished by yourself: I love you for your soul alone ...
CHRISTIAN [drawing away] Ah, Roxane!
ROXANE Rejoice! For to be loved for that wherewith we are clothed so fleetingly must put a noble heart to torture.... Your dear thought at last casts your dear face in shadow: the harmonious lineaments whereby at first you pleased me, I do not see them, now my eyes are open!
CHRISTIAN Oh!
ROXANE You question your own triumph?
CHRISTIAN [sorrowfully] Roxane!
ROXANE I understand, you cannot conceive of such a love in me?
CHRISTIAN I do not wish to be loved like that! I wish to be loved quite simply ...
ROXANE For that which other women till now have loved in you? Ah, let yourself be loved in a better way.
CHRISTIAN No ... I was happier before! ...
ROXANE Ah, you do not understand! It is now that I love you most, that I truly love you. It is that which makes you, you—can you not grasp it?—that I worship ... And did you no longer walk our earth like a young martial Apollo ...
CHRISTIAN Say no more!
ROXANE Still would I love you! ... Yes, though a blight should have fallen upon your face and form ...
CHRISTIAN Do not say it!
ROXANE But I do say it, ... I do!
CHRISTIAN What? If I were ugly, distinctly, offensively?
ROXANE If you were ugly, dear,