For this Godwin did not wait.

He was afraid, indeed, who had never before fought lions, but he knew that he must do or die.

Therefore he charged straight at it, and with all the strength of his strong arm drove his long sword into the yellow breast, till it seemed to him that the steel vanished and he could see nothing but the hilt.
Then a shock, a sound of furious snarling, and down he went to earth beneath a soft and heavy weight, and there his senses left him.
When they came back again something soft was still upon his face; but this proved to be only the hand of Masouda, who bathed his brow with a cloth dipped in water, while Wulf chafed his hands.
Godwin sat up, and in the light of the new risen sun, saw a dead lioness lying before him, its breast still transfixed with his own sword.
"So I saved you," he said faintly.
"Yes, you saved me," answered Masouda, and kneeling down she kissed his feet; then rising again, with her long, soft hair wiped away the blood that was running from a wound in his arm..