For a moment he hesitated, then wheeled round to run across the courtyard.

Too late, for as he came the flames burst through the main roof of the house, and the timber front of it, blazing furiously, fell outwards, blocking the doorway, so that the place became a furnace into which none might enter and live.
Now a madness seemed to take hold of him.

For a moment he stared up at the figures of the two women standing high above the rolling smoke and wrapping flame.

Then, with his three men, he charged with a roar into the crowd of soldiers who had followed him into the courtyard, striving, it would seem, to cut his way to the Abbot, who lurked behind.

It was a dreadful sight, for he and those with him fought furiously, and many went down.