d happiness!
(They come down, Cyrano brandishing the lance to which is attached Roxane's
handkerchief):
Float there! laced kerchief broidered with her name!
(He sticks it in the ground and shouts to the cadets):
FALL ON THEM, GASCONS! CRUSH THEM!
(To the fifer):
Fifer, play!

(The fife plays. The wounded try to rise. Some cadets, falling one over the
other down the slope, group themselves round Cyrano and the little flag. The
carriage is crowded with men inside and outside, and, bristling with
arquebuses, is turned into a fortress.)

A CADET (appearing on the crest, beaten backward, but still fighting, cries):
They're climbing the redoubt!
(and falls dead.)

CYRANO:
Let us salute them!
(The rampart is covered instantly by a formidable row of enemies. The
standards of the Imperialists are raised):
Fire!

(General discharge.)

A CRY IN THE ENEMY'S RANKS:
Fire!

(A deadly answering volley. The cadets fall on all sides.)

A SPANISH OFFICER (uncovering):
Who are these men who rush on death?

CYRANO (reciting, erect, amid a storm of bullets):
The bold Cadets of Gascony,
Of Carbon of Castel-Jaloux!
Brawling, swaggering boastfully,
(He rushes forward, followed by a few survivors):
The bold Cadets. . .

(His voice is drowned in the battle.)

Curtain.

Act V.

Cyrano's Gazette.

Fifteen years later, in 1655. Park of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Paris.
Magnificent trees. On the left the house: broad steps on to which open
several doors. An enormous plane tree in the middle of the stage, standing
alone. On the right, among big boxwood trees, a semicircular stone bench.

The whole background of the stage is crossed by an alley of chestnut trees
leading on the right hand to the door of a chapel seen through the branches.
Through the double row of trees of this alley are seen lawns, other alleys,
clusters of trees, winding of the park, the sky.

The chapel opens by a little side door on to a colonnade which is wreathed
with autumn leaves, and is lost to view a little farther on in the right-hand
foreground behind the boxwood.

It is autumn. All the foliage is red against the fresh green of the lawns.
The green boxwood and yews stand out dark.

Under each tree a patch of yellow leaves.

The stage is strewn with dead leaves, which rustle under foot in the alleys,
and half cover the steps and benches.

Between the benches on the right hand and the tree a larg