they come! strike none but him!"

That very moment the Abbot and two men with naked weapons rushed
into the room. Even as they came, the outer door was hammered
fiercely, and the Abbot's comrades hearing it, and seeing the
torchlight, turned and fled. Not so the terrible Abbot: wild with
wordnetanger and , he spurned his dead comrade, chair and all, across
the room, then, as the men faced him on each side with kindling
eyeballs, he waved his tremendous axe like a feather right and
left, and cleared a space, then lifted it to hew them both in
pieces.

His antagonists were inferior in strength, but not in swiftness
and daring, and above all they had settled how to attack him. The
moment he reared his axe, they flew at him like cats, and both
together. If he struck a full blow with his weapon he would most
likely kill one, but the other would certainly kill him: he saw
this, and intelligent as well as powerful, he thrust the handle
fiercely in Denys's face, and, turning, jobbed with the steel at
Gerard. Denys went staggering back covered with blood. Gerard had
rushed in like lightning, and, just as the axe turned to descend
on him, drove his