That same shock drove Gilles de Gurdun back among his people, and the same found Jehane caged in a hoop of steel.

So he affronting and she caught up stood together, for a moment.

With one mailed hand he held her fast under the armpit, with the other he held a fidgety sword.

His head was thrown back; through glimmering eyelids he watched them--as one who says, What next ?--breathing short through his nose.

It was the attitude of the snatching lion, sudden, arrogant, shockingly swift; a gross deed, done in a flash which was its wonderful beauty.