e lute and voice of the
first performer in Naples. I demanded, half laughingly, half
seriously, that he should produce the Pisani. My demand was
received with shouts of applause by the rest. We drowned the
replies of our host with uproar, and would hear no denial.
"Gentlemen," at last said the Prince, when he could obtain an
audience, "even were I to assent to your proposal, I could not
induce the signora to present herself before an assemblage as
riotous as they are noble. You have too much chivalry to use
compulsion with her, though the Due de R--forgets himself
sufficiently to administer it to inc."

I was stung by this taunt, however well deserved. "Prince," said
I, "I have for the indelicacy of compulsion so illustrious an
example that I cannot hesitate to pursue the path honored by your
own footsteps. All Naples knows that the Pisani despises at once
your gold and your love; that force alone could have brought her
under your roof; and that you refuse to produce her because you
fear her complaints, and know enough of the chivalry your vanity
sneers at to feel assured that the gentlemen of France are not more
disposed to worship beauty than to defend it from wrong."

"You speak well, sir," said Zicci, gravely;--"the Prince dare not
produce his prize."

The Prince remained speechless for a few moments, as if with
indignation. At last he broke out into expressions the most
injurious and insulting against Signor Zicci and myself. Zicci
replied not; I was more hot and hasty. The guests appeared to
delight in our dispute. None except Mascari, whom we pushed aside
and disdained to hear, strove to conciliate; some took one side,
some another. The issue may be well foreseen. Swords were drawn.
I had left mine in the ante room; Zicci offered me his own,--I
seized it eagerly. There might be some six or eight persons
engaged in a strange and confused kind of melee, but the Prince and
myself only sought each other. The noise around us, the confusion
of the guests, the cries of the musicians, the clash of our own
swords, only served to stimulate our unhappy fury. We feared to be
interrupted by the attendants and fought like madmen, without skill
or method. I thrust and parried mechanically, blind and frantic as
if a demon had entered into me, till I saw the Prince stretched at
my feet, bathed in his blood, and Zi