affording
to us such poor proficients in the art, while he reserved for his own
solace the 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 Duc de R--forgets
himself sufficiently to administer it to me.'

"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 honoured 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 Zanoni, gravely. 'The prince dares 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 Zanoni and myself. Zanoni 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 called for and procured. Two were offered me by
one of the party. I was about to choose one, when Zanoni placed in
my hand the other, which, from its hilt, appeared of antiquated
workmanship. At the same moment, looking towards the prince, he said,
smilingly, 'The duc takes your grandsire's sword. Prince, you are too
brave a man for superstition; you have forgot the forfeit!' Our host
seemed to me to recoil and turn pale at those words; nevertheless, he
returned Zanoni's smile with a look of defiance. 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 pr