Ragueneau

“ ROXANE:
Now serve up—carve! Look a little closer at my coachman, gentlemen, and you will recognize a man most welcome. All the sauces can be sent to table hot, if we will!
THE CADETS (rushing pellmell to the carriage) :
’Tis Ragueneau!
(Acclamations) :
Oh, oh!
ROXANE (looking after them) :
Poor fellows!
CYRANO (kissing her hand) :
Kind fairy!
RAGUENEAU (standing on the box like a quack doctor at a fair) :
Gentlemen!. . .
(General delight.)
THE CADETS:
Bravo! bravo!
RAGUENEAU:
. . .The Spaniards, gazing on a lady so dainty fair, overlooked the fare so dainty!. . . ”

“ CYRANO.
Assuredly, we are!
ROXANE.
Tell him to write!.... One hundred men!.... You'll tell me all about it later. To-day I cannot listen. One hundred men! How brave!
[Pg 71]
CYRANO (bowing) .
Oh! I have done better since.
(Exit Roxane. Cyrano remains motionless, his eyes on the floor. Silence. The door to the right opens, and Ragueneau passes in his head.)
SCENE VII. CYRANO, RAGUENEAU, THE POETS, CARBON OF HAUGHTY-HALL, THE CADETS, THE CROWD, etc., later LE BRET, and then GUICHE.
RAGUENEAU.
The coast is clear?
CYRANO (motionless) . ”

“ Apollo among master-cooks—
Ragueneau
[whom they surround and embrace] .
Ah! how quick a man feels at his ease with them!...
First Poet.
We were stayed by the mob; they are crowded all round the Porte de Nesle!...
Second Poet.
Eight bleeding brigand carcasses strew the pavements there—all slit open with sword-gashes!
Cyrano
[raising his head a minute] .
Eight?... hold, methought seven.
[He goes on writing.]
Ragueneau
[to Cyrano] .
Know you who might be the hero of the fray?
Cyrano
[carelessly] .
Not I.
Lise
[to the Musketeer] .
And you? know you? ”

“ The officers surround Cyrano, congratulating him. Ragueneau dances for joy. Le Bret is happy, but anxious. The viscount’s friends hold him up and bear him away.)
THE CROWD (with one long shout) :
Ah!
A TROOPER:
’Tis superb!
A WOMAN:
A pretty stroke!
RAGUENEAU:
A marvel!
A MARQUIS:
A novelty!
LE BRET:
O madman!
THE CROWD (presses round Cyrano. Chorus of) :
Compliments!
Bravo! Let me congratulate!. . .Quite unsurpassed!. . .
A WOMAN’S VOICE:
There is a hero for you!. . .
A MUSKETEER (advancing to Cyrano with outstretched hand) :
Sir, permit ”

“ CYRANO (to Guiche, pointing to Roxane) .
Carry her off! I will charge!
ROXANE (in dying tones, as she kisses the letter) .
His blood! His tears!....
RAGUENEAU (jumping off the coach and running toward her) .
She is fainting!
GUICHE (on the embankment, fiercely, to the Cadets) .
Steady, for your lives!
[Pg 187]
A VOICE (outside) .
Lay down your arms!
THE CADETS.
Never!
CYRANO (to Guiche) .
You have proved your valour, Sir! You can afford to fly (pointing to Roxane) and save her!
GUICHE (runs to Roxane and takes her in his arms) .
So be it! Hold fast a few moments and we shall win the day! ”

“ Ragueneau
[in a low voice, smiling] .
Oh ay! I see well enough, but I never will seem to look, fearing to distress them; thus I gain a double pleasure when I recite to them my poems; for I leave those poor fellows who have not breakfasted free to eat, even while I gratify my own dearest foible, see you!
Cyrano
[clapping him on the shoulder] .
Friend, I like you right well!...
[Raguebeau goes after his friends. Cyrano follows him with his eyes, then, rather sharply.]
Ho there! Lise!
[Lise, who is talking tenderly to the Musketeer, starts, and comes down towards Cyrano.] ”

“ A circle of curious spectators in the pit; the marquises and officers mingled with the common people; the pages climbing on each other’s shoulders to see better. All the women standing up in the boxes. To the right, De Guiche and his retinue. Left, Le Bret, Ragueneau, Cyrano, etc. ”

“ Lise
[offended] .
One haughty glance of my eye can conquer any man that should dare venture aught 'gainst my virtue.
Cyrano.
Pooh! Conquering eyes, methinks, are oft conquered eyes.
Lise
[choking with anger] .
But—
Cyrano
[incisively] .
I like Ragueneau well, and so—mark me, Dame Lise—I permit not that he be rendered a laughing-stock by any...
Lise.
But...
Cyrano
[who has raised his voice so as to be heard by the gallant] .
A word to the wise...
[He bows to the Musketeer, and goes to the doorway to watch, after looking at the clock.] ”

“ Soon after passing the island of Sand, we had a perspective view of St. Goar, of the strong fortress of Rhinfels, on the rocks beyond, and of the small fortified town of Goarhausen, on the opposite bank. The mountains now become still more stupendous, and many rivulets, or becks, which latter is a German, as well as an English term, descend from them into the river, on either hand, some of which, in a season less dry than the present, roar with angry torrents. But the extreme violence, with which the Rhine passes in this district, left us less leisure than in others to observe its scenery. ”

“ Thus, Raleigh, who was born a gentleman of only moderate estate, willed to be the favorite of a Queen, aspired to found an empire across the seas in the teeth of Imperial Spain and undertook in prison to write the history of the world! For the glory and enrichment of England, Sir Francis Drake pillaged the cities and mighty galleons of Spain and dared to sail around the globe. Sir Richard Grenville, shortly after his memorable voyages to Roanoke Island, gave the British Navy an immortal tradition by duelling for a day and a night with one small ship against a Spanish fleet of 53. ”

“ And it was for this boy friend that Raleigh began the book by which we know him best, his History of the World. Never has such a great work been attempted by a captive. To write the history of even one country must mean much labor, much reading, much thought. To write a history of the world still more. And I have told you about Raleigh because with him begins an interest in history beyond the bounds of our own island. Before him our historians had only written of England. ”

“ The Ill and the Rhine, two lovely rivers, enliven this dark mass with their plashing waters, so clear and green. Beyond the walls, as far as the eye can reach, stretches an immense country richly wooded and dotted with villages. The Rhine, which flows within a league90 of the town, winds through the landscape. In walking around this bell-tower you see three chains of mountains—the ridges of the Black Forest on the north, the Vosges on the west, and the Alps in the centre....
The sun willingly makes a festival for those who are upon great heights. ”

“ Its quays, extending far along the bank, its lofty ramparts, shaded with old chesnuts, and crowned by many massy towers, black with age; the old gateways opening to the Rhine, and the crowd of steeples, overtopping all, give it a venerable and picturesque character. But, however thronged the city now was, the shore without was silent and almost deserted; the sentinels, watching at the gates and looking out from the ramparts, or a few women gliding beneath, wrapt in the nun-like scarf, so melancholy in its appearance and so generally worn at Cologne, were nearly the only persons seen. ”

“ The shores are now less enlivened by villages than in the Rheingau and other districts to the southward, where the cultivation and produce of the vineyards afford, at least, so much employment, that six or seven little towns, each clustered round its church, are frequently visible at once. The course of the river being also wider and less rapid, the succession of objects is slower, and the eye is often wearied with the uniform lowness of the nearer country, where the antient castle and the perched abbey, so frequent in the Rheingau, seldom appear. ”

“ Poor Raleigh! if peace and comfort in this world were of much importance to him, it was in an ill day that he provoked the revenge of Spain. The strength of England was needed at the moment at its own door; the Armada came, and there was no means of executing such an enterprise. And afterwards the throne of Elizabeth was filled by a Stuart, and Guiana was to be no scene of glory for Raleigh; rather, as later historians are pleased to think, it was the grave of his reputation. ”

“ It is not as a literary man proper that I have spoken of Raleigh; the poems that he wrote were very few, nor were they overfine; but they did have the glimmer in them of his great courage and of his clear thought. They were never collected in book shape in his own day, nor, indeed, till long after he had gone: they were only occasional pieces, [2] coming to the light fitfully under stress of mind—a trail of fire-sparks, as we may say, flying off from under the trip-hammer of royal wrath or of desperate fortunes. ”

“ The Rhine has ever held a wide fame in the domain of literature. For there is scarcely a place on the river’s banks but has its legend which has been enshrined in song, and some of these songs are so old that the names of their makers have long since been forgotten. Yes, we have to go very far back indeed would we study the poetry of the Rhine adequately; we have to penetrate deeply into the Middle Ages, dim and mysterious. ”

“ They are empty now and deserted, these grim old castles. Vines creep over the crumbling walls. Mice scurry through the dim rooms, and bats flit about tower and turret. And the great Rhine, as it winds along, buries their secrets under its hurrying water. ”

“ From Coire we made a little excursion across the Rhine to a place called Ragatz,—a kind of summer resort for visitors who come to bathe and drink the waters of Pfeffers, one of the most extraordinary sights I ever beheld. These baths are built in a cleft of the mountain, about a thousand feet in depth, and scarcely thirty wide in many parts; the sides of the precipices are straight as a wall, and only admit of a gleam of the sun when perfectly vertical. The gloom and solemnity of the spot, its death-like stillness and shade, even at noonday, are terribly oppressive. ”

“ With thee, my friend, 'tis joy to die!—'tis glory!
For who would wait the tardy stroke of time?
Or cling like reptiles to the verge of being,
When we can bravely leap from life at once,
And spring, triumphant, in a friend's embrace?
Enter Raleigh.
Ral. To you, my Lord Southampton, from the queen,
A pardon comes; your life her mercy spares.
Essex. For ever blest be that indulgent power
Which saves my friend! ”

“ Beside the baths and the Gorge and its ways of pleasantness in general, Ragatz has many pretty walks along the hills between houses and gardens, and up steep, zigzag forest-paths to the ruins of Freudenberg and Wartenstein. A broad, sunny landscape lies before you,—the valley of the Rhine, Falknis in the background, green pastures and still waters. Blessed are the eyes that see what we see. ”

“ All the way along the river, from here to beyond Coblenz, the Rhine is a succession of constantly changing views as the boat winds its way around the tortuous channel, every one more beautiful and picturesque than its predecessor. There are castles on high hills on the right bank, some close to the river, others further inland, just discernable through the trees. On the left bank are pretty villas and more castles, and occasionally an island is passed that has on it a ruined watch tower built hundreds of years ago, when might was right in this romantic country. ”

“ Regensburg acquired the freedom of the empire in the 13th century, and was for a time the most flourishing city in southern Germany. It became the chief seat of the trade with India and the Levant, and the boatmen of Regensburg are frequently heard of as expediting the journeys of the Crusaders. The city was loyally Ghibelline in its sympathies, and was a favourite residence of the emperors. Numerous diets were held here from time to time, and after 1663 it became the regular place of meeting of the German diet. ”

“ LETTER XLII. COLOGNE, 10 o'clock, Hotel Bellevue.
DEAR:— The great old city is before me, looming up across the Rhine, which lies spread out like a molten looking glass, all quivering and wavering, reflecting the thousand lights of the city. We have been on the Rhine all day, gliding among its picture-like scenes. But, alas I I had a headache; the boat was crowded; one and all smoked tobacco; and in vain, under such circumstances, do we see that nature is fair. It is not enough to open one's eyes on scenes; one must be able to be en rapport with them. ”

“ Ralegh's settlement on the Virginian coast, the first attempt which Englishmen had made to claim North America for their own, had soon proved a failure. The introduction of tobacco and the potato into Europe dates from his voyage of discovery, but the energy of his colonists was distracted by the delusive dream of gold, the hostility of the native tribes drove them from the coast, and it is through the gratitude of later times for what he strove to do, rather than for what he did, that Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, preserves his name. ”

“ Finally, to contrast the scenery of the Rhine and the Rhone, in vine- covered hills they are alike— the rivers are much on a par— the Rhine rather the grander— the Rhone more varied by the hills coming forward and again receding or folding in the most romantic manner back and forward. No verdure from grass or pasture is to be seen on the Rhone banks, the more Southern character of the vegetation being from ferns springing from a sterile soil. The Rhine has its numerous castles, but against these are the snow-clad mountains seen from the Rhone. ”

“ From Bingen to Mentz, the Rhine is very broad. This capital City of the first Electorate of the Empire is seated on the left Side of the Rhine, over which there’s a Bridge of Boats, that is pretended to be in the very same Place where Charlemaign caused one to be made of five hundred Paces in Length, in the Year 798. The Antiquarians of this City, in spite of the best Authors, will have it to be built by a Son of Japhet, or at least by a great Lord who escaped out of Troy. Be it as it will, ’tis very ancient, and has suffered, as almost all the Towns in the World have, great Revolutions. ”