I interrupted him.

“I shall certainly not retire,” I said firmly.  “This behaviour on both your parts is positive madness.  Prince Ivan, please to listen to me.  The circumstances of Zara’s death were plainly witnessed by me and others—­her brother is as innocent of having caused it as I am.”

And I recounted to him quietly all that had happened during that fatal and eventful evening.  He listened moodily, tracing out the pattern of the carpet with the point of his sword.  When I had finished he looked up, and a bitter smile crossed his features.

“I wonder, mademoiselle,” he said, “that your residence in this accursed house has not taught you better.  I quite believe all you say, that Zara, unfortunate girl that she was, received her death by a lightning-flash.  But answer me this:  Who made her capable of attracting atmospheric electricity?  Who charged her beautiful delicate body with a vile compound of electrical fluid, so that she was as a living magnet, bound to draw towards herself electricity in all its forms?  Who tampered with her fine brain and made her imagine herself allied to a spirit of air?  Who but he—­he!—­yonder unscrupulous wretch!—­he who in pursuit of his miserable science, practised his most dangerous experiments on his sister, regardless of her health, her happiness, her life!  I say he is her murderer—­ her remorseless murderer, and a thrice-damned villain!”

And he sprang forward to renew the combat.  I stepped quietly, unflinchingly between him and Heliobas.

“Stop!” I exclaimed; “this cannot go on.  Zara herself forbids it!”

The Prince paused, and looked at me in a sort of stupefaction.

“Zara forbids it!” he muttered.  “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” I went on, “that I have seen Zara since her death; I have spoken to her.  She herself sent me here.”

Prince Ivan stared, and then burst into a fit of wild laughter.

“Little fool!” he cried to me; “he has maddened you too, then!  You are also a victim!  Miserable girl! out of my path!  Revenge—­revenge! while I am yet sane!”

Then pushing me roughly aside, he cast away his sword, and shouted to Heliobas: 

“Hand to hand, villain!  No more of these toy-weapons!  Hand to hand!”

Heliobas instantly threw down his sword also, and rushing forward simultaneously, they closed together in savage conflict.  Heliobas was the taller and more powerful of the two, but Prince Ivan seemed imbued with the spirit of a hundred devils, and sprang at his opponent’s throat with the silent breathless ferocity of a tiger.  At first Heliobas appeared to be simply on the defensive, and his agile, skilful movements were all used to parry and ward off the other’s grappling eagerness.  But as I watched the struggle, myself speechless and powerless, I saw his face change.  Instead of its calm and almost indifferent expression, there came a look which was