2 Words to use with beatings

Arthur, after gazing at her for a moment with a beating-heart, for the mysterious actions of the old farmer had made him fear the worst, softly approached the couch and knelt beside the girl he loved, thanking; God in his inmost heart for her escape.

In her eyes and gestures and laconic sentences lay the conviction of great beating issues and of menacing drama my own description fails to recapture.

2 Words to use with  beatings