He only succeeded in half choking himself.
"You are going to swear," said Steinmetz, "never to approach the princess again--never to divulge what you know of her past life." The Frenchman was almost blue in the face.

His eyes were wild with terror.
And Karl Steinmetz thrashed him.
It did not last long.

No word was spoken.

The silence was only broken by their shuffling feet, by the startling report of each blow, by De Chauxville's repeated gasps of pain.
The fur jacket was torn in several places.

The white shirt appeared here and there.