The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-22

mis- visage. and ne believes that his fair
cousin Is offering an opportunity for his adj
yances. In this ebullient moment there
comes TO him for his powerful protection a
drunken friend. one Ligniere, who is beset
by crowd Of one hundred. CyFano. with
ten hearts twenty arms goes to en-
counter the mob and see his friend safely
past the Port de Nesle.
The meeting with ROXane was appointed to
take place the next morning in Rauueneaus
cookshop. Act discloses this busy place
just before sunrise. Cyrano comes and
meets Roxane and his blissful anticipations
are shattered by hearing from the lips
whence he expected love for him how much
she was in love with a handsome lording,
one Christian de Neuviette, for whom she
begged CyranO's protection from the bolster
Gus Gasc0gne cadets which he has just
Joined. The disappointment and irony OF
this moment are bitter TO the valiant Cy-
ranO, but he cOnquers himself and herOlcaliy
promises his protection for her lover. soon
after ROxane leaves CyranO he is joined by
his companions of the cadets including the
new recruit, Christian. The Gascons, in
way compromising to this young fellow
bravery. warn him not to speak to Cyrano
OF his nose. He is piqued and TO show MS
metal he interrupts Cyrano with illusions
to his nose at almost every sentence mo-
ment later as he tells Of the hundred who
attacked Lgniere at the Port de Nesle.
Cyrano with the utmost difficulty, refrains
from annihilating the irnpudent fellow, When
he learns that he is the new recruit, Rox-
meet no harm. Finally he can stand the
insults no longer before his companions ana
he orders them out, but only to take ChTis-
tan in his arms and renew 10 MN the
promise he made RoXane and to suggest
that to his youthful comeliness he adds hrs
own poetical gifts and give RoXane an
ideal hero A moment later a coWardly
braggart learns to his grief that Cyranos
nose is not a more welcome topic than be-
fore when the offender is not the protege
There is another sutton for Roxanes hand.
the COmte de Guiche, nephew OF Rlche-
lieu and a powerful leader in the army
One evening, while CyranO prompts Chris
tain in his love-making under ROXaneS bal
cony and later initiating him, pours forth
the poetry and passion of his heart, De
Cuiche sends a monk TO prepare Roxane to
join in the union with him which he thinks
his rank and favor have made timely Tor
his command. But Roxane misquotes the
letter which the monk bears He is led to
believe that he is sent to marry her TO
Christian, and into the house the three go.
Cyrano is left on guard without. De Gulche
comes The witty hero straightWay invents
a fiction about his being a man from the
moon and in the dark he carries II with
much grotesquerie to success, for De Gulche
is kept at bay till the welded pair return.
De Guiche, in frenzy OF dssappoi nun NJ
revokes an order previously given that the
cadets remain in Paris, and orders Christian
away from his bride to the siege OF Arfas.
But there in the moonlight, in the SHADOW
of the old walls of Marais, his heart broken
by his own sacrifice for Roxane ana her
superficial lover, Cyrano relterates 10 heI
before they depart all ms promises ana
The story leads on to the intrenchment of
the Gascony Cadets besieging Arras on the
SCarpe. They are besieged ana thelr IrehcH
is a cess of starvation and muuny. Cyran9
has braved each day the plcket ilhe 10 sehu
TO Roxane letters from Christian which he
separation no longer from the huspana
whom she first loved for his beauty put
who is now further idealiZed by his poetic
lovemaking and letters, all of which are
Cyrano's own. She comes bearing a coach
load of provisions like q fairy godmotner'
but the feast is inopportune. 1t IS inter-
rupted 1t is the hour of battle, Before she
let's her husband go into the fire she tens
him that for his character now she loves
him revealed in his letters and his pas
sionate avowals your soul fast holding
what your looks had caught, ! loVea you
for them both at once but ChIisld af ba 30
words. 1t is not his beauty but Cyrano
genius she now loves. He is crushed anu
pIunges into battle. The enemy's IlfsL IlIe
picks him and Roxane falls across his body
in n paroxysm of grief, eXtolllng MS mlnu
and his lofty character to Cyrano. CyEdho
has heard from her own lips that so much
does she love Christian for the ln5ellecI ne
has Displayed that she should love MN even en-
ugly. but he does not betray the secret OF
the dead husband. RoXane Is perhntIeu "
mourn an unwrecked ideal: -, aoh
Years pass. Cyrano visits RoX3ne eaGn
week in her convent retreat, eut aiWdyy9 WE iif f
keeps his secret. Always till one night at
dusk when the sun has set ana the autuinI s
leaves strive to give their fall the grace u
flight and he mas risen rum lll9 pOu' W 81
he had been laid by the attack of a eowardiy ny
assassin. In the gathering SHADOWS ne
reads Christians last letter Which ne nay
written and which Roxane has innocent OF
the heroic deception, kept precious =; Ih tSe
years. She wonders that he can reaq III III ne ne
mar e al He recites what bitter memory has
burned in his heart the words ne wrote Ia h IF
love The fiction diSSOlVeS, HoAanS az la9t
esnacsas the generous cheat. But Cyrano Is
diving, II have loved but once she says,
"and must lose him twice.! Cyrano meets me-
death. defiant, standing, hero to the emu