The next moment all was broil and disorder.

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 Zanoni bending over him, and whispering in his ear.