At these words the Duchess drew herself up to her full height:  All semblance of respect, or even of urbanity, disappeared in a flash.  The outraged woman was clearly revealed, the outraged woman addressing herself to the one whom she knows to be of bad faith.  It was with an expression of keenest anger and even of contempt that she said to the Prince, dwelling upon every word:—­

“I am leaving forever the States of your Most Serene Highness, in order that I shall never again hear mentioned the Fiscal Rassi, or the other infamous assassins who have condemned my nephew and so many others to death.  If your Most Serene Highness does not wish to mingle a tinge of bitterness with the last moments which I am to pass with a prince who is both polite and entertaining when he is not misled, I beg him very humbly not to recall the thought of those infamous judges who sell themselves for a thousand crowns or a decoration.”

The admirable accent, and above all the tone of sincerity, with which these words were uttered, made the Prince tremble; for an instant he feared to see his dignity compromised by a still more direct accusation.  On the whole, however, his sensations quickly culminated in one of pleasure.  He admired the Duchess, and at this moment her entire person attained a sublime beauty.

“Heavens! how beautiful she is,” the Prince said to himself:  “one may well overlook something in so unique a woman, one whose like perhaps is not to be found in all Italy.—­Well, with a little diplomacy it might not be altogether impossible to make her mine.—­There is a wide difference between such a being and that doll of a Marquise Balbi; besides, the latter steals at least three hundred thousand francs a year from my poor subjects.—­But did I understand her aright?” he thought all of a sudden:  “she said, ‘condemned my nephew and so many others.’” His anger came to the surface, and it was with a haughtiness worthy of supreme rank that the Prince said, “And what must be done to keep Madame from leaving?”

“Something of which you are not capable,” replied the Duchess, with an accent of the bitterest irony and the most thinly disguised contempt.

The Prince was beside himself, but thanks to his long practice of the profession of absolute sovereign, he found the strength to resist his first impulse.  “That woman must be mine,” he said to himself.  “I owe myself at least that; then I must let her perish under my contempt.  If she leaves this room, I shall never see her again.”  But, intoxicated as he was at this moment with wrath and hatred, how was he to find words which would at once satisfy what was due to himself and induce the Duchess not to desert his court on the instant?  “A gesture,” he thought, “is something which can neither be repeated nor turned into ridicule,” and he went and placed himself between the Duchess and the door of his cabinet.  Just then he heard a slight tapping at this door.