Carbon.
Ah!I have paid my company—'tis mine.
I bow but to headquarters.
De Guiche.
I bow but to headquarters.So?—In faith!
That will suffice.
[Addressing himself to the Cadets.]
That will suffice.I can despise your taunts;
'Tis well known how I bear me in the war;
At Bapaume, yesterday, they saw the rage
With which I beat back the Count of Bucquoi;
Assembling my own men, I fell on his,
And charged three separate times!
Cyrano
[without lifting his eyes from his book].
And charged three separate times!And your white scarf!
De Guiche
[surpsied and gratified].
You know that detail?… Troth! it happened thus:
While caracoling to recall the troops
For the third charge, a band of fugitives
Bore me with them, close by the hostile ranks:
I was in peril—capture, sudden death!—
When I thought of the good expedient
To loosen and let fall the scarf which told
My military rank; thus I contrived
—Without attention waked—to leave the foes,
And suddenly returning, reinforced
With my own men, to scatter them! And now,
—What say you, Sir?