The Nemesis From Terra [and] Battle for the Stars (1961)

Nemesis from Terra:

IN THE THRONE ROOM, ONE BY ONE, THE TORCHES WERE TRAMPLED OUT

     From outside, in the halls and the streets beyond, from over the whole city, rose an animal howl, mingled with the thunder of fighting and the saw-edged whine of Banning shockers.
     After a time there was a silence. In the darkness of tattered flags and forgotten glories, one torch still burned in a high sconce, spilling a red and shaken light over the man pinned by knives against the stone wall. The Veunusians and the apes withdrew, taking their dead. Outside fighting still continued, but he sound of it was distant, muffled. Mayo had not moved form the place where she pressed close against he wall, touching Rick's feet.
     Jaffa Storm came and stood before them.
He smiled and stretched his giant body, muscle by muscle, as a panther does. HIs black eyes held a deep pleasure.
     "The wind is rising," he quoted softly. "Bah! it's blown itself out! These men were the leaders of Mars. What's left is nothing."

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Battle for the Stars:

FOLLOWED IN SPACE!

     The Starsong was beginning to pass between the two huge red binaries into the thicker sprawl of stars through which the channel led. the channel was not straight, and you could not take it too fast - in that swarm of suns the fabric of a ship could be torn apart in some deadly gravity drag or vaporized in collision. The only thing was that the Orionids were still following them.
     But Birrel said nothing. This was Garstang's job and he let him do it. The enormous pairs of red suns flashed past them on either side and were gone, and they were in the channel. Under his feet he could feel the  Starsong  quiver, wincing, and flinching like a live thing. On either side the overhanging cliffs of stars seemed to topple toward them. He looked upward at the nebula, like a glowing thundercloud roofing the channel, and then down at the shoaling suns below.
     Garstang said flatly, "We didn't get away quite fast enough. they'll be barreling in there after us and they;ll have us in range before we ever get through the channel."
     "As far as I can see," said Birrel, "We've only got one way out of it."
He looked up at the screens again, at the vast glow of the nebula overhead.
Garstang was silent for a moment, then he said      "I Hoped you wouldn't think of that."