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However this may be, when these first fumes had mounted to the

brain of Renzo, wine and words continued to flow without rule or

reason. He felt a great desire to speak, and for a while his

words were arranged with some degree of order, but by little and

little he found it difficult to form a connected sentence. The

thoughts which presented themselves to his mind were cloudy and

indistinct, and his expressions, in consequence, unconnected and

obscure: to relieve his perplexity, by one of those false

instincts which, under similar circumstances, lead men to the

accomplishment of their own ruin, he had recourse to the flagon.