In ten seconds we were among them.

As we came the savages fell back this way and that, staring at us amazed, for at first I think they took us for apparitions.

Thus Leo on foot and I galloping after him, we came to the place.
The executioners and their victim were near the fire now--a very great fire of resinous pine logs built in a pit that measured about eight feet across.

Close to it sat the priest upon his stool, watching the scene with a cruel smile, and rewarding the cat with little gobbets of raw meat, that he took from a leathern pouch at his side, occupations in which he was so deeply engaged that he never saw us until we were right on to him.
Shouting, "Leave her alone, you blackguards," Leo rushed at the executioners, and with a single blow of his sword severed the arm of one of them who gripped the woman by the nape of the neck.
With a yell of pain and rage the man sprang back and stood waving the stump towards the people and staring at it wildly.

In the confusion that followed I saw the victim slip from the hands of her astonished would-be murderers and run into the darkness, where she vanished.