n such a state that if he found that it was the Duc de Guise he
might kill him before the eyes of the Princess and that even her life
might be at risk. He decided, in an act of extraordinary generosity, to
sacrifice himself to save a successful rival and an ungrateful mistress.

While the Prince was battering on the door, he went to the Duc, who had
no idea what to do, put him in the care of the woman who had arranged
his entry by the bridge and told her to show him the way out. Scarcely
had he left when the Prince having broken down the door entered the
room like a man possessed. However when he saw only the Comte de
Chabannes, motionless, leaning on a table with a look of infinite
sadness on his face, he stopped short. The astonishment of finding his
best friend alone at night in his wife's room deprived him of speech.
The Princess had collapsed onto some cushions and never perhaps has
fate put three people in a more unhappy position. At last the Prince
made an attempt to make sense of the chaos before his eyes. He
addressed the Comte in a tone of voice which still had some
friendliness, "What is this I see?" he said, "Is it possible that a man
I love so dearly has chosen among all other women to seduce my wife?
And you, Madame," he said, turning to his wife, "Was it not enough to
deprive me of your love and my honour without depriving me of the one
man who could have consoled me in such circumstances? Answer me, one of
you," he said to them, "And explain this affair, which I cannot believe
is what it seems." The Princess was incapable of replying and the Comte
opened his mouth once or twice but was unable to speak.

"You see me as a criminal," he said at last. "And unworthy of the
friendship you have shown me; but the situation is not what you may
think it is. I am more unhappy than you and more despairing. I do not
know how to tell you more than that. My death would avenge you, and if
you were to kill me now you would be doing me a favour." These words,
spoken with an air of the deepest sorrow, and in a manner which
declared his innocence instead of enlightening the Prince confirmed him
in the view that something mysterious was going on which he did not
understand. His unhappiness was increased by this uncertainty. "Kill me
yourself," he said. "Or give me some explanation of your words for I
can understand nothing. You owe it to my friendship, you owe it to my
restraint, for anyone but me would have already taken yo