"Traitor!" the latter replied, as he parried the thrust, and sent the other's sword flying to the ceiling.
"Stay, stay!" the Duke cried, as he rushed half mad with grief between the two men, who had seized each other round the waist, and had both drawn their daggers.
But this tardy interference was useless; the Count, who was endowed with a far from common strength, had easily succeeded in freeing himself from the young man's grasp, and had thrown him on the ground, where he held him by placing his knee on his chest.
All at once a mighty rumour of arms and horses was heard in the house, and the hurried steps of several men hurrying up the stairs became audible.
"Ah!" the Duke exclaimed, with a ferocious joy, "I believe my vengeance is at hand, at last!"
The Count, not deigning to reply to his enemy, turned to the sailors.
"Be off, my lads!" he shouted in a voice of thunder.
They hesitated.
"He goes if you wish to save me," he added.
"Boarders away!" Michael yelled, as he dragged away his comrade; and the two men seizing their musquetoons by the barrel, as if to use them as clubs in case of need, and to clear the way, rushed into the passage when they disappeared.