Swelter, the button-popping portly chef and Flay, the all purpose butler, valet and loyal servant of the Earl of Gormenghast, circle in for the kill in their mortal combat.  No spoilers here, read the book!  

‘… so intense was their hatred … (they) circled about one another in ever-narrowing gyres and in swifter and yet swifter flight…’

Source: Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan, introduction by Anthony Burgess (London: Vintage Books, 1998), p. 342