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.