The Chronicles of Narnia

\"The boy with the wild face is Bacchus and the old one on the donkey is Silenus. Don'tyou remember Mr Tumnus telling us about them long ago?\"\"Yes, of course. But I say, Lu \"\"What?\"\"I wouldn't have felt safe with Bacchus and all his wild girls if we'd met them withoutAslan.\"\"I should think not,\" said Lucy.CHAPTER TWELVESORCERY AND SUDDEN VENGEANCEMEANWHILE Trumpkin and the two boys arrived at the dark little stone archway whichled into the inside of the Mound, and two sentinel badgers (the white patches on theircheeks were all Edmund could see of them) leaped up with bared teeth and asked them insnarling voices, \"Who goes there?\"\"Trumpkin,\" said the Dwarf. \"Bringing the High King of Narnia out of the far past.\"The badgers nosed at the boys' hands. \"At last,\" they said. \"At last.\"\"Give us a light, friends,\" said Trumpkin.The badgers found a torch just inside the arch and Peter lit it and handed it to Trumpkin.\"The D.L.F. had better lead,\" he said. \"We don't know our way about this place.\"Trumpkin took the torch and went ahead into the dark tunnel. It was a cold, black, mustyplace, with an occasional bat fluttering in the torchlight, and plenty of cobwebs. Theboys, who had been mostly in the open air since that morning at the railway station, feltas if they were going into a trap or a prison.\"I say, Peter,\" whispered Edmund. \"Look at those carvings on the walls. Don't they lookold? And yet we're older than that. When we were last here, they hadn't been made.\"\"Yes,\" said Peter. \"That makes one think.\"The Dwarf went on ahead and then turned to the right, and then to the left, and then downsome steps, and then to the left again. Then at last they saw a light ahead - light fromunder a door. And now for the first time they heard voices, for they had come to the door

of the central chamber. The voices inside were angry ones. Someone was talking soloudly that the approach of the boys and the Dwarf had not been heard.\"Don't like the sound of that,\" whispered Trumpkin to Peter. \"Let's listen for a moment.\"All three stood perfectly still on the outside of the door.\"You know well enough,\" said a voice (\"That's the King,\" whispered Trumpkin), \"whythe Horn was not blown at sunrise this morning. Have you forgotten that Miraz fell uponus almost before Trumpkin had gone, and we were fighting for our lives for the space ofthree hours and more? I blew it when first I had a breathing space.\"\"I'm not likely to forget it,\" came the angry voice, \"when my Dwarfs bore the brunt of theattack and one in five of them fell.\" (\"That's Nikabrik,\" whispered Trumpkin.)\"For shame, Dwarf,\" came a thick voice (\"Trufflehunter's,\" said Trumpkin). \"We all didas much as the Dwarfs and none more than the King.\"\"Tell that tale your own way for all I care,\" answered Nikabrik. \"But whether it was thatthe Horn was blown too late, or whether there was no magic in it, no help has come. You,you great clerk, you master magician, you know-all; are you still asking us to hang ourhopes on Aslan and King Peter and all the rest of it?\"\"I must confess - I cannot deny it - that I am deeply disappointed in the result of theoperation,\" came the answer. (\"That'll be Doctor Cornelius,\" said Trumpkin.)\"To speak plainly,\" said Nikabrik, \"your wallet's empty, your eggs addled, your fishuncaught, your promises broken. Stand aside then and let others work. And that is why -\"\"The help will come,\" said Trufflehunter. \"I stand by Aslan. Have patience, like usbeasts. The help will come. It may be even now at the door.\"\"Pah!\" snarled Nikabrik. \"You badgers would have us wait till the sky falls and we canall catch larks. I tell you we can't wait. Food is running short; we lose more than we canafford at every encounter; our followers are slipping away.\"\"And why?\" asked Trufflehunter. \"I'll tell you why. Because it is noised among them thatwe have called on the Kings of old and the Kings of old have not answered. The lastwords Trumpkin spoke before he went (and went, most likely, to his death) were, `If youmust blow the Horn, do not let the army know why you blow it or what you hope from it.'But that same evening everyone seemed to know.\"\"You'd better have shoved your grey snout in a hornets' nest, Badger, than suggest that Iam the blab,\" said Nikabrik. \"Take it back, or-\"\"Oh, stop it, both of you,\" said King Caspian. \"I want to know what it is that Nikabrikkeeps on hinting we should do. But before that, I want to know who those two strangers

are whom he has brought into our council and who stand there with their ears open andtheir mouths shut.\"\"They are friends of mine,\" said Nikabrik. \"And what better right have you yourself to behere than that you are a friend of Trumpkin's and the Badger's? And what right has thatold dotard in the black gown to be here except that he is your friend? Why am I to be theonly one who can't bring in his friends?\"\"His Majesty is the King to whom you have sworn allegiance,\" said Trufflehunter sternly.\"Court manners, court manners,\" sneered Nikabrik. \"But in this hole we may talk plainly.You know - and he knows that this Telmarine boy will be king of nowhere and nobody ina week unless we can help him out of the trap in which he sits.\"\"Perhaps,\" said Cornelius, \"your new friends would like to speak for themselves? Youthere, who and what are you?\"\"Worshipful Master Doctor,\" came a thin, whining voice. \"So please you, I'm only a poorold woman, I am, and very obliged to his Worshipful Dwarfship for his friendship, I'msure. His Majesty, bless his handsome face, has no need to be afraid of an old womanthat's nearly doubled up with the rheumatics and hasn't two sticks to put under her kettle.I have some poor little skill - not like yours, Master Doctor, of course - in small spellsand cantrips that I'd be glad to use against our enemies if it was agreeable to allconcerned. For I hate 'em. Oh yes. No one hates better than me.\"\"That is all most interesting and - er - satisfactory,\" said Doctor Cornelius. \"I think I nowknow what you are, Madam. Perhaps your other friend, Nikabrik, would give someaccount of himself?\"A dull, grey voice at which Peter's flesh crept replied, \"I'm hunger. I'm thirst. Where Ibite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from myenemy's body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie ahundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Showme your enemies.\"\"And it is in the presence of these two that you wish to disclose your plan?\" said Caspian.\"Yes,\" said Nikabrik. \"And by their help that I mean to execute it.\"There was a minute or two during which Trumpkin and the boys could hear Caspian andhis two friends speaking in low voices but could not make out what they were saying.Then Caspian spoke aloud.\"Well, Nikabrik,\" he said, \"we will hear your plan.\"

There was a pause so long that the boys began to wonder if Nikabrik was ever going tobegin; when he did, it was in a lower voice, as if he himself did not much like what hewas saying.\"All said and done,\" he muttered, \"none of us knows the truth about the ancient days inNarnia. Trumpkin believed none of the stories. I was ready to put them to the trial. Wetried first the Horn and it has failed. If there ever was a High King Peter and a QueenSusan and a King Edmund and a Queen Lucy, then either they have not heard us, or theycannot come, or they are our enemies -\"\"Or they are on the way,\" put in Trufflehunter.\"You can go on saying that till Miraz has fed us all to his dogs. As I was saying, we havetried one link in the chain of old legends, and it has done us no good. Well. But whenyour sword breaks, you draw your dagger. The stories tell of other powers beside theancient Kings and Queens. How if we could call them up?\"\"If you mean Aslan,\" said Trufflehunter, \"it's all one calling on him and on the Kings.They were his servants. If he will not send them (but I make no doubt he will), is he morelikely to come himself?\"\"No. You're right there,\" said Nikabrik. \"Aslan and the Kings go together. Either Aslan isdead, or he is not on our side. Or else something stronger than himself keeps him back.And if he did come - how do we know he'd be our friend? He was not always a goodfriend to Dwarfs by all that's told. Not even to all beasts. Ask the Wolves. And anyway,he was in Narnia only once that I ever heard of, and he didn't stay long. You may dropAslan out of the reckoning. I was thinking of someone else.\"There was no answer, and for a few minutes it was so still that Edmund could hear thewheezy and snuffling breath of the Badger.\"Who do you mean?\" said Caspian at last.\"I mean a power so much greater than Aslan's that it held Narnia spellbound for years andyears, if the stories are true.\"\"The White Witch!\" cried three voices all at once, and from the noise Peter guessed thatthree people had leaped to their feet.\"Yes,\" said Nikabrik very slowly and distinctly, \"I mean the Witch. Sit down again. Don'tall take fright at a name as if you were children. We want power: and we want a powerthat will be on our side. As for power, do not the stories say that the Witch defeatedAslan, and bound him, and killed him on that very stone which is over there, just beyondthe light?\"\"But they also say that he came to life again,\" said the Badger sharply.

\"Yes, they say,\" answered Nikabrik, \"but you'll notice that we hear precious little aboutanything he did afterwards. He just fades out of the story. How do you explain that, if hereally came to life? Isn't it much more likely that he didn't, and that the stories saynothing more about him because there was nothing more to say?\"\"He established the Kings and Queens,\" said Caspian.\"A King who has just won a great battle can usually establish himself without the help ofa performing lion,\" said Nikabrik. There was a fierce growl, probably from Trufflehunter.\"And anyway,\" Nikabrik continued, \"what came of the Kings and their reign? They fadedtoo. But it's very different with the Witch. They say she ruled for a hundred years: ahundred years of winter. There's power, if you like. There's something practical.\"\"But, heaven and earth!\" said the King, \"haven't we always been told that she was theworst enemy of all? Wasn't she a tyrant ten times worse than Miraz?\"\"Perhaps,\" said Nikabrik in a cold voice. \"Perhaps she was for you humans, if there wereany of you in those days. Perhaps she was for some of the beasts. She stamped out theBeavers, I dare say; at least there are none of them in Narnia now. But she got on all rightwith us Dwarfs. I'm a Dwarf and I stand by my own people. We're not afraid of theWitch.\"\"But you've joined with us,\" said Trufflehunter.\"Yes, and a lot of good it has done my people, so far,\" snapped Nikabrik. \"Who is sent onall the dangerous !, raids? The Dwarfs. Who goes short when the rations fail? TheDwarfs. Who -?\"\"Lies! All lies!\" said the Badger.\"And so,\" said Nikabrik, whose voice now rose to a scream, \"if you can't help my people,I'll go to someone who can.\"\"Is this open treason, Dwarf?\" asked the King.\"Put that sword back in its sheath, Caspian,\" said Nikabrik. \"Murder at council, eh? Isthat your game? Don't be fool enough to try it. Do you think I'm afraid of you? There'sthree on my side, and three on yours.\"\"Come on, then,\" snarled Trufflehunter, but he was immediately interrupted.\"Stop, stop, stop,\" said Doctor Cornelius. \"You go on too fast. The Witch is dead. All thestories agree on that. What does Nikabrik mean by calling on the Witch?\"

That grey and terrible voice which had spoken only once before said, \"Oh, is she?\"And then the shrill, whining voice began, \"Oh, bless his heart, his dear little Majestyneedn't mind about the White Lady - that's what we call her - being dead. The WorshipfulMaster Doctor is only making game of a poor old woman like me when he says that.Sweet Mastery Doctor, learned Master Doctor, who ever heard of a witch that reallydied? You can always get them back.\"\"Call her up,\" said the grey voice. \"We are all ready. Draw the circle. Prepare the bluefire.\"Above the steadily increasing growl of the Badger and Cornelius's sharp \"What?\" rosethe voice of King Caspian like thunder.\"So that is your plan, Nikabrik! Black sorcery and the calling up of an accursed ghost.And I see who your companions are-a Hag and a Werewolf!\"The next minute or so was very confused. There was an animal roaring, a clash of steel;the boys and Trumpkin rushed in; Peter had a glimpse of a horrible, grey, gaunt creature,half man and half wolf, in the very act of leaping upon a boy about his own age, andEdmund saw a badger and a Dwarf rolling on the floor in a sort of cat fight. Trumpkinfound himself face to face with the Hag. Her nose and chin stuck out like a pair of nut-crackers, her dirty grey hair was flying about her face and she had just got DoctorCornelius by the throat. At one slash of Trumpkin's sword her head rolled on the floor.Then the light was knocked over and it was all swords, teeth, claws, fists, and boots forabout sixty seconds. Then silence.\"Are you all right, Ed?\"\"I - I think so,\" panted Edmund. \"I've got that brute Nikabrik, but he's still alive.\"\"Weights and water-bottles!\" came an angry voice. \"It's me you're sitting on. Get off.You're like a young elephant.\"\"Sorry, D.L.F.,\" said Edmund. \"Is that better?\"\"Ow! No!\" bellowed Trumpkin. \"You're putting your ' boot in my mouth. Go away.\" `\"Is King Caspian anywhere?\" asked Peter.\"I'm here,\" said a rather faint voice. \"Something bit me.\"They all heard the noise of someone striking a match. It was Edmund. The little flameshowed his face, looking pale and dirty. He blundered about for a little, found the candle(they were no longer using the lamp, for they had run out of oil), set it on the table, and lit

it. When the flame rose clear, several people scrambled to their feet. Six faces blinked atone another in the candlelight.\"We don't seem to have any enemies left,\" said Peter. \"There's the Hag, dead.\" (He turnedhis eyes quickly away from her.) \"And Nikabrik, dead too. And I suppose this thing is aWerewolf. It's so long since I've seen one. Wolf's head and man's body. That means hewas just turning from man into wolf at the moment he was killed. And you, I suppose, areKing Caspian?\"\"Yes,\" said the other boy. \"But I've no idea who you are.\"\"It's the High King, King Peter,\" said Trumpkin.\"Your Majesty is very welcome,\" said Caspian.\"And so is your Majesty,\" said Peter. \"I haven't come to take your place, you know, but toput you into it.\" ,\"Your Majesty,\" said another voice at Peter's elbow. He turned and found himself face toface with the Badger.Peter leaned forward, put his arms round the beast and kissed the furry head: it wasn't agirlish thing for him to do, because he was the High King.\"Best of badgers,\" he said. \"You never doubted us all through.\"\"No credit to me, your Majesty,\" said Trufflehunter. \"1'm a beast and we don't change.I'm a badger, what's more, and we hold on.\"\"I am sorry for Nikabrik,\" said Caspian, \"though he hated me from the first moment hesaw me. He had gone sour inside from long suffering and hating. If we had won quicklyhe might have become a good Dwarf in the days of peace. I don't know which of us killedhim. I'm glad of that.\"\"You're bleeding,\" said Peter.\"Yes, I'm bitten,\" said Caspian. \"It was that - that wolf thing.\" Cleaning and bandagingthe wound took a long time, and when it was done Trumpkin said, \"Now. Beforeeverything else we want some breakfast.\"\"But not here,\" said Peter.\"No,\" said Caspian with a shudder. \"And we must send someone to take away thebodies.\"

\"Let the vermin be flung into a pit,\" said Peter. \"But the Dwarf we will give to his peopleto be buried in their own fashion.\"They breakfasted at last in another of the dark cellars of Aslan's How. It was not such abreakfast as they would have chosen, for Caspian and Cornelius were thinking of venisonpasties, and Peter and Edmund of buttered eggs and hot coffee, but what everyone gotwas a little bit of cold bear-meat (out of the boys' pockets), a lump of hard cheese, anonion, and a mug of water. But, from the way they fell to, anyone would have supposed itwas delicious.CHAPTER THIRTEENTHE HIGH KING IN COMMAND\"Now,\" said Peter, as they finished their meal, \"Aslan and the girls (that's Queen Susanand Queen Lucy, Caspian) are somewhere close. We don't know when he will act. In histime, no doubt, not ours. In the meantime he would like us to do what we can on our own.You say, Caspian, we are not strong enough to meet Miraz in pitched battle?\"\"I'm afraid not, High King,\" said Caspian. He was liking Peter very much, but was rathertongue-tied. It was much stranger for him to meet the great Kings out of the old storiesthan it was for them to meet him.\"Very well, then,\" said Peter, \"I'll send him a challenge to single combat.\" No one hadthought of this before.\"Please,\" said Caspian, \"could it not be me? I want to avenge my father.\"\"You're wounded,\" said Peter. \"And anyway, wouldn't he just laugh at a challenge fromyou? I mean, we have seen that you are a king and a warrior but he thinks of you as akid.\"\"But, Sire,\" said the Badger, who sat very close to Peter and never took his eyes off him.\"Will he accept a . challenge even from you? He knows he has the stronger . army.\"\"Very likely he won't,\" said Peter, \"but there's always the chance. And even if he doesn't,we shall spend the best part of the day sending heralds to and fro and all that. By thenAslan may have done something. And at least I can inspect the army and strengthen theposition. I will send the challenge. In fact I will write it at once. Have you pen and ink,Master Doctor?\"\"A scholar is never without them, your Majesty,\" answered Doctor Cornelius.

\"Very well, I will dictate,\" said Peter. And while the Doctor spread out a parchment andopened his ink-horn and sharpened his pen, Peter leant back with half-closed eyes andrecalled to his mind the language in which he had written such things long ago inNarnia's golden age.\"Right,\" he said at last. \"And now, if you are ready, Doctor?\"Doctor Cornelius dipped his pen and waited. Peter dictated as follows:\"Peter, by the gift of Aslan, by election, by prescription, and by conquest, High King overall Kings in Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Islands and Lord of Cair Paravel, Knight of theMost Noble Order of the Lion, to Miraz, Son of Caspian the Eighth, sometime LordProtector of Narnia and now styling himself King of Narnia, Greeting. Have you gotthat?\"\"Narnia, comma, greeting,\" muttered the Doctor. \"Yes, Sire.\"\"Then begin a new paragraph,\" said Peter. \"For to prevent the effusion of blood, and forthe avoiding all other inconveniences likely to grow from the wars now levied in ourrealm of Narnia, it is our pleasure to adventure our royal person on behalf of our trustyand well-beloved Caspian in clean wager of battle to prove upon your Lordship's bodythat the said Caspian is lawful King under us in Narnia both by our gift and by the lawsof the Telmarines, and your Lordship twice guilty of treachery both in withholding thedominion of Narnia from the said Caspian and in the most abhominable, - don't forget tospell it with an H, Doctor - bloody, and unnatural murder of your kindly lord and brotherKing Caspian Ninth of that name. Wherefore we most heartily provoke, challenge, anddefy your Lordship to the said combat and monomachy, and have sent these letters by thehand of our well beloved and royal brother Edmund, sometime King under us in Narnia,Duke of Lantern Waste and Count of the Western March, Knight of the Noble Order ofthe Table, to whom we have given full power of determining with your Lordship all theconditions of the said battle. Given at our lodging in Aslan's How this XII day of themonth Greenroof in the first year of Caspian Tenth of Narnia.\"That ought to do,\" said Peter, drawing a deep breath.\"And now we must send two others with King Edmund. I think the Giant ought to beone.\"\"He's - he's not very clever, you know,\" said Caspian.\"Of course not,\" said Peter. \"But any giant looks impressive if only he will keep quiet.And it will cheer him up. But who for the other?\"\"Upon my word,\" said Trumpkin, \"if you want someone who can kill with looks,Reepicheep would be the best.\"

\"He would indeed, from all I hear,\" said Peter with a laugh. \"If only he wasn't so small.They wouldn't even see him till he was close!\"\"Send Glenstorm, Sire,\" said Trufflehunter. \"No one ever laughed at a Centaur.\"An hour later two great lords in the army of Miraz, the Lord Glozelle and the LordSopespian, strolling along their lines and picking their teeth after breakfast, looked upand saw coming down to them from the wood the Centaur and Giant Wimbleweather,whom they had seen before in battle, and between them a figure they could not recognize.Nor indeed would the other boys at Edmund's school have recognized him if they couldhave seen him at that moment. For Aslan had breathed on him at their meeting and a kindof greatness hung about him.\"What's to do?\" said the Lord Glozelle. \"An attack?\"\"A parley, rather,\" said Sopespian. \"See, they carry green branches. They are coming tosurrender most likely.\"\"He that is walking between the Centaur and the Giant has no look of surrender in hisface,\" said Glozelle. \"Who can he be? It is not the boy Caspian.\"\"No indeed,\" said Sopespian. \"This is a fell warrior, I warrant you, wherever the rebelshave got him from. He is (in your Lordship's private ear) a kinglier man than ever Mirazwas. And what mail he wears! None of our smiths can make the like.\"\"I'll wager my dappled Pomely he brings a challenge, not a surrender,\" said Glozelle.\"How then?\" said Sopespian. \"We hold the enemy in our fist here. Miraz would never beso hair-brained as to throw away his advantage on a combat.\"\"He might be brought to it,\" said Glozelle in a much lower voice.\"Softly,\" said Sopespian. \"Step a little aside here out of earshot of those sentries. Now.Have I taken your Lordship's meaning aright?\"\"If the King undertook wager of battle,\" whispered Glozelle, \"why, either he would killor be killed.\"\"So,\" said Sopespian, nodding his head.\"And if he killed we should have won this war.\"\"Certainly. And if not?\"

\"Why, if not, we should be as able to win it without the King's grace as with him. For Ineed not tell your Lordship that Miraz is no very great captain. And after that, we shouldbe both victorious and kingless.\"\"And it is your meaning, my Lord, that you and I could hold this land quite asconveniently without a King as with one?\"Glozelle's face grew ugly. \"Not forgetting,\" said he, \"that it was we who first put him onthe throne. And in all the years that he has enjoyed it, what fruits have come our way?What gratitude has he shown us?\"\"Say no more,\" answered Sopespian. \"But look - herd comes one to fetch us to the King'stent.\" `When they reached Miraz's tent they saw Edmund and his two companions seated outsideit and being entertained with cakes and wine, having already delivered the challenge, andwithdrawn while the King was considering it. When they saw them thus at close quartersthe two Telmarine lords thought all three of them very alarming.Inside, they found Miraz, unarmed and finishing his breakfast. His face was flushed andthere was a scowl on his brow.\"There!\" he growled, flinging the parchment across the table to them. \"See what a pack ofnursery tales our jackanapes of a nephew has sent us.\"\"By your leave, Sire,\" said Glozelle. \"If the young warrior whom we have just seenoutside is the King Edmund mentioned in the writing, then I would not call him a nurserytale but a very dangerous knight.\"\"King Edmund, pah!\" said Miraz. \"Does your Lordship believe those old wives' fablesabout Peter and Edmund and the rest?\"\"I believe my eyes, your Majesty,\" said Glozelle.\"Well, this is to no purpose,\" said Miraz, \"but as touching the challenge, I suppose thereis only one opinion between us?\"\"I suppose so, indeed, Sire,\" said Glozelle.\"And what is that?\" asked the King.\"Most infallibly to refuse it,\" said Glozelle. \"For though I have never been called acoward, I must plainly say that to meet that young man in battle is more than my heartwould serve me for. And if (as is likely) his brother, the High King, is more dangerousthan he why, on your life, my Lord King, have nothing to do with him.\"

\"Plague on you!\" cried Miraz. \"It was not that sort of council I wanted. Do you think I amasking you if I should be afraid to meet this Peter (if there is such a man)? Do you think Ifear him? I wanted your counsel on the policy of the matter; whether we, having theadvantage, should hazard it on a wager of battle.\"\"To which I can only answer, your Majesty,\" said Glozelle, \"that for all reasons thechallenge should be refused. There is death in the strange knight's face.\"\"There you are again!\" said Miraz, now thoroughly angry. \"Are you trying, to make itappear that I am as great a coward as your Lordship?\"\"Your Majesty may say your pleasure,\" said Glozelle sulkily.\"You talk like an old woman, Glozelle,\" said the King. \"What say you, my LordSopespian?\"\"Do not touch it, Sire,\" was the reply. \"And what your Majesty says of the policy of thething comes in very happily. It gives your Majesty excellent grounds for a refusal withoutany cause for questioning your Majesty's honour or courage.\"\"Great Heaven!\" exclaimed Miraz, jumping to his feet. \"Are you also bewitched today?Do you think I am looking for grounds to refuse it? You might as well call me coward tomy face.\"The conversation was going exactly as the two lords wished, so they said nothing.\"I see what it is,\" said Miraz, after staring at them as if his eyes would start out of hishead, \"you are as lilylivered as hares yourselves and have the effrontery to imagine myheart after the likeness of yours! Grounds for a refusal, indeed! Excuses for not fighting!Are you soldiers? Are you Telmarines? Are you men? And if I dog refuse it (as ail goodreasons of captaincy and martial policy urge me to do) you will think, and teach otherstan think, I was afraid. Is it not so?\"\"No man of your Majesty's age,\" said Glozelle, \"would be called coward by any wisesoldier for refusing the combat with a great warrior in the flower of his youth.\"\"So I'm to be a dotard with one foot in the grave, as well as a dastard,\" roared Miraz. \"I'lltell you what it is, my Lords. With your womanish counsels (ever shying from the truepoint, which is one of policy) you have done the very opposite of your intent. I had meantto refuse it. But I'll accept it. Do you hear, accept it! I'll not be shamed because somewitchcraft or treason has frozen both your bloods.\"\"We beseech your Majesty -\" said Glozelle, but Miraz had flung out of the tent and theycould hear him bawling out his acceptance to Edmund.The two lords looked at one another and chuckled quietly.

\"I knew he'd do it if he were properly chafed,\" said Glozelle. \"But I'll not forget he calledme coward. It shall be paid for.\"There was a great stirring at Aslan's How when the news came back and wascommunicated to the various creatures. Edmund, with one of Miraz's captains, hadalready marked out the place for the combat, and ropes and stakes had been put round it.Two Telmarines were to stand at two of the corners, and one in the middle of one side, asmarshals of the lists. Three marshals for the other two corners and the other side were tobe furnished by the High King. Peter was just explaining to Caspian that he could not beone, because his right to the throne was what they were fighting about, when suddenly athick, sleepy voice said, \"Your Majesty, please.\" Peter turned and there stood the eldestof the Bulgy Bears.\"If you please, your Majesty,\" he said, \"I'm a bear, I am.\"\"To be sure, so you are, and a good bear too, I don't doubt,\" said Peter.\"Yes,\" said the Bear. \"But it was always a right of the, bears to supply one marshal of thelists.\"\"Don't let him,\" whispered Trumpkin to Peter. \"He's a good creature, but he'll shame usall. He'll go to sleep and he will suck his paws. In front of the enemy too.\"\"I can't help that,\" said Peter. \"Because he's quite right. The Bears had that privilege. Ican't imagine how it has been remembered all these years, when so many other thingshave been forgotten.\"\"Please, your Majesty,\" said the Bear.\"It is your right,\" said Peter. \"And you shall be one of the marshals. But you mustremember not to suck your paws.\"\"Of course not,\" said the Bear in a very shocked voice.\"Why, you're doing it this minute!\" bellowed Trumpkin.The Bear whipped his paw out of his mouth and pretended he hadn't heard.\"Sire!\" came a shrill voice from near the ground.\"Ah - Reepicheep!\" said Peter after looking up and down and round as people usually didwhen addressed by the Mouse.\"Sire,\" said Reepicheep. \"My life is ever at your command, but my honour is my own.Sire, I have among my people the only trumpeter in your Majesty's army. I had thought,

perhaps, we might have been sent with the challenge. Sire, my people are grieved.Perhaps if it were your pleasure that I should be a marshal of the lists, it would contentthem.\"A noise not unlike thunder broke out from somewhere overhead at this point, as GiantWimbleweather burst into one of those not very intelligent laughs to which the nicer sortsof Giant are so liable. He checked himself at once and looked as grave as a turnip by thetime Reepicheep discovered where the noise came from.\"I am afraid it would not do,\" said Peter very gravely. \"Some humans are afraid of mice -\"\"I had observed it, Sire,\" said Reepicheep.\"And it would not be quite fair to Miraz,\" Peter continued, \"to have in sight anything thatmight abate the edge of his courage.\"\"Your Majesty is the mirror of honour,\" said the Mouse with one of his admirable bows.\"And on this matter we have but a single mind... I thought I heard someone laughing justnow. If anyone present wishes to make me the subject of his wit, I am very much at hisservice - with my sword - whenever he has leisure.\"An awful silence followed this remark, which was broken by Peter saying, \"GiantWimbleweather and the Bear and the Centaur Glenstorm shall be our marshals. Thecombat will be at two hours after noon. Dinner at noon precisely.\"\"I say,\" said Edmund as they walked away, \"I suppose it is all right. I mean, I supposeyou can beat him?\"\"That's what I'm fighting him to find out,\" said Peter.CHAPTER FOURTEENHOW ALL WERE VERY BUSYA LITTLE before two o'clock Trumpkin and the Badger sat with the rest of the creaturesat the wood's edge looking across at the gleaming line of Miraz's army which was abouttwo arrow-shots away. In between, a square space of level grass had been staked for thecombat. At the two far corners stood Glozelle and Sopespian with drawn swords. At thenear corners were Giant Wimbleweather and the Bulgy Bear, who in spite of all theirwarnings was sucking his paws and looking, to tell the truth, uncommonly silly. To makeup for this, Glenstorm on the right of the lists, stock-still except when he stamped a hindhoof occasionally on the turf, looked much more imposing than the Telmarine baron who

faced him on the left. Peter had just shaken hands with Edmund and the Doctor, and wasnow walking down to the combat. It was like the moment before the pistol goes at animportant race, but very much worse.\"I wish Aslan had turned up before it came to this,\" said Trumpkin.\"So do I,\" said Trufflehunter. \"But look behind you.\"\"Crows and crockery!\" muttered the Dwarf as soon as he had done so. \"What are they?Huge people - beautiful people - like gods and goddesses and giants. Hundreds andthousands of them, closing in behind us. What are they?\"\"It's the Dryads and Hamadryads and Silvans,\" said Trufflehunter. \"Aslan has wakedthem.\"\"Humph!\" said the Dwarf. \"That'll be very useful if the enemy try any treachery. But itwon't help the High King very much if Miraz proves handier with his sword.\"The Badger said nothing, for now Peter and Miraz were entering the lists from oppositeends, both on foot, both in chain shirts, with helmets and shields. They advanced till theywere close together. Both bowed and seemed to speak,, but it was impossible to hearwhat they said. Next moment, the two swords flashed in the sunlight. For a second theclash could be heard but it was immediately drowned because both armies beganshouting like crowds at a football match.\"Well done, Peter, oh, well done!\" shouted Edmund as he saw Miraz reel back a wholepace and a half. \"Follow it up, quick!\" And Peter did, and for a few seconds it looked asif the fight might be won. But then Miraz pulled himself together - began to make realuse of his height and weight \"Miraz! Miraz! The King! The King!\" came the roar of theTelmarines. Caspian and Edmund grew white with sickening anxiety.\"Peter is taking some dreadful knocks,\" said Edmund.\"Hullo!\" said Caspian. \"What's happening now?\"\"Both falling apart,\" said Edmund. \"A bit blown, expect. Watch. Ah, now they'rebeginning again, more scientifically this time. Circling round and round, feeling eachother's defences.\"\"I'm afraid this Miraz knows his work,\" muttered the Doctor. But hardly had he said thiswhen there was such a clapping and baying and throwing up of hoods among the OldNarnians that it was nearly deafening.\"What was it? What was it?\" asked the Doctor. \"My old eyes missed it.\"

\"The High King has pricked him in the arm-pit,\" said Caspian, still clapping. \"Just wherethe arm-hole of the hauberk let the point through. First blood.'\"It's looking ugly again now, though,\" said Edmund. \"Peter's not using his shieldproperly. He must be hurt in the left arm.\"It was only too true. Everyone could see that Peter's shield hung limp. The shouting ofthe Telmarines redoubled.\"You've seen more battles than I,\" said Caspian. \"Is there any chance now?\"\"Precious little,\" said Edmund. \"I suppose he might just do it. With luck.\"\"Oh, why did we let it happen at all?\" said Caspian.Suddenly all the shouting on both sides died down. Edmund was puzzled for a moment.Then he said, \"Oh, I see. They've both agreed to a rest. Come on, Doctor. You and I maybe able to do something for the High King.' They ran down to the lists and Peter cameoutside the ropes to meet them, his face red and sweaty, his chest heaving.\"Is your left arm wounded?\" asked Edmund.\"It's not exactly a wound,\" Peter said. \"I got the weight of his shoulder on my shield - likea load of bricks and the rim of the shield drove into my wrist. I don't think it's broken, butit might be a sprain. If you could tie it up very tight I think I could manage.\"While they were doing this, Edmund asked anxiously. \"What do you think of him,Peter?\"\"Tough,\" said Peter. \"Very tough. I have a chance if can keep him on the hop till hisweight and short wind come against him - in this hot sun too. To tell the truth, I haven'tmuch chance else. Give my love to - to everyone at home, Ed, if he gets me. Here hecomes into the lists againSo long, old chap. Good-bye, Doctor. And I say, Ed, say something specially nice toTrumpkin. He's been a brick.\"Edmund couldn't speak. He walked back with the Doctor to his own lines with a sickfeeling in his stomach.But the new bout went well. Peter now seemed to be able to make some use of his shield,and he certainly made good use of his feet. He was almost playing Tig with Miraz now,keeping out of range, shifting his ground, making the enemy work.\"Coward!\" booed the Telmarines. \"Why don't you stand up to him? Don't you like it, eh?Thought you'd come to fight, not dance. Yah!\"

\"Oh, I do hope he won't listen to them,\" said Caspian.\"Not he,\" said Edmund. \"You don't know him - Oh!\" for Miraz had got in a blow at last,on Peter's helmet. Peter staggered, slipped sideways, and fell on one knee. The roar of theTelmarines rose like the noise of the sea. \"Now, Miraz,\" they yelled. \"Now. Quick!Quick! Kill him.\" But indeed there was no need to egg the usurper on. He was on top ofPeter already. Edmund bit his lips till the blood came, as the sword flashed down onPeter. It looked as if it would slash off his head. Thank heavens! It had glanced down hisright shoulder. The Dwarf-wrought mail was sound and did not break.\"Great Scott!\" cried Edmund. \"He's up again. Peter, go it, Peter.\"\"I couldn't see what happened,\" said the Doctor. \"How did he do it?\"\"Grabbed Miraz's arm as it came down,\" said Trumpkin, dancing with delight. \"There's aman for you! Uses his enemy's arm as a ladder. The High King! The High King! Up, OldNarnia!\"\"Look,\" said Trufflehunter. \"Miraz is angry. It is good.\" They were certainly at it hammerand tongs now: such a flurry of blows that it seemed impossible for either not to be killed.As the excitement grew, the shouting almost died away. The spectators were holdingtheir breath. It was most horrible and most magnificent.A great shout arose from the Old Narnians. Miraz was a down - not struck by Peter, butface downwards, having tripped on a tussock. Peter stepped back, waiting for him to rise.\"Oh bother, bother, bother,\" said Edmund to himself. \"Need he be as gentlemanly as allthat? I suppose he must. Comes of being a Knight and a High King. I suppose it is whatAslan would like. But that brute will be up again in a minute and then -\"But \"that brute\" never rose. The Lords Glozelle and Sopespian had their own plans ready.As soon as they saw their King down they leaped into the lists crying, \"Treachery!Treachery! The Narnian traitor has stabbed him in the back while he lay helpless. Toarms! To arms, Telmar!\"Peter hardly understood what was happening. He saw two big men running towards himwith drawn swords. Then the third Telmarine had leaped over the ropes on his; left. \"Toarms, Narnia! Treachery!\" Peter shouted. If all three had set upon him at once he wouldnever have spoken again. But Glozelle stopped to stab his own King dead where he lay:\"That's for your insult, this morning,\" he whispered as the blade went home. Peter swungto face Sopespian, slashed his legs from under him and, with the back-cut of the samestroke, walloped off his head Edmund was now at his side crying, \"Narnia, Narnia! TheLion!\" The whole Telmarine army was rushing toward them. But now the Giant wasstamping forward, stooping low and swinging his club. The Centaurs charged. Twang,

twang behind and hiss, hiss overhead came the archery of Dwarfs. Trumpkin was fightingat his left. Full battle was joined.\"Come back, Reepicheep, you little ass!\" shouted Peter. \"You'll only be killed. This is noplace for mice.\" But the ridiculous little creatures were dancing in and out among the feetof both armies, jabbing with their swords. Many a Telmarine warrior that day felt his footsuddenly pierced as if by a dozen skewers, hopped on one leg cursing the pain, and fell asoften as not. If he fell, the mice finished him off; if he did not, someone else did.But almost before the Old Narnians were really warmed to their work they found theenemy giving way. Toughlooking warriors turned white, gazed in terror not on the OldNarnians but on something behind them, and then flung down their weapons, shrieking,\"The Wood! The Wood! The end of the world!\"But soon neither their cries nor the sound of weapons could be heard any more, for bothwere drowned in the ocean-like roar of the Awakened Trees as they plunged through theranks of Peter's army, and then on, in pursuit of the Telmarines. Have you ever stood atthe edge of a great wood on a high ridge when a wild south-wester broke over it in fullfury on an autumn evening? Imagine that sound. And then imagine that the wood, insteadof being fixed to one place, was rushing at you; and was no longer trees but huge people;yet still like trees because their long arms waved like branches and their heads tossed andleaves fell round them in showers. It was like that for the Telmarines. It was a littlealarming even for the Narnians. In a few minutes all Miraz's followers were runningdown to the Great River in the hope of crossing the bridge to the town of Beruna andthere defending themselves behind ramparts and closed gates.They reached the river, but there was no bridge. It had disappeared since yesterday. Thenutter panic and horror fell upon them and they all surrendered.But what had happened to the bridge?Early that morning, after a few hours' sleep, the girls had waked, to see Aslan standingover them and to hear his voice saying, \"We will make holiday.\" They rubbed their eyesand looked round them. The trees had all gone but could still be seen moving awaytowards Aslan's How in a dark mass. Bacchus and the Maenads - his fierce, madcap girls- and Silenus were still with them. Lucy, fully rested, jumped up. Everyone was awake,everyone was laughing, flutes were playing, cymbals clashing. Animals, not TalkingAnimals, were crowding in upon them from every direction.\"What is it, Aslan?\" said Lucy, her eyes dancing and her feet wanting to dance.\"Come, children,\" said he. \"Ride on my back again today.\"\"Oh, lovely!\" cried Lucy, and both girls climbed on to the warm golden back as they haddone no one knew how many years before. Then the whole party moved off Aslan

leading, Bacchus and his Maenads leaping, rushing, and turning somersaults, the beastsfrisking round them, and Silenus and his donkey bringing up the rear.They turned a little to the right, raced down a steep hill, and found the long Bridge ofBeruna in front of them. Before they had begun to cross it, however, up out of the watercame a great wet, bearded head, larger than a man's, crowned with rushes. It looked atAslan and out of its mouth a deep voice came.\"Hail, Lord,\" it said. \"Loose my chains.\"\"Who on earth is that?\" whispered Susan.\"I think it's the river-god, but hush,\" said Lucy.\"Bacchus,\" said Aslan. \"Deliver him from his chains.\"\"That means the bridge, I expect,\" thought Lucy. And so it did. Bacchus and his peoplesplashed forward into the shallow water, and a minute later the most curious things beganhappening. Great, strong trunks of ivy came curling up all the piers of the bridge,growing as quickly as a fire grows, wrapping the stones round, splitting, breaking,separating them. The walls of the bridge turned into hedges gay with hawthorn for amoment and then disappeared as the whole thing with a rush and a rumble collapsed intothe swirling water. With much splashing, screaming, and laughter the revellers waded orswam or danced across the ford (\"Hurrah! It's the Ford of Beruna again now!\" cried thegirls) and up the bank on the far side and into the town.Everyone in the streets fled before their faces. The first house they came to was a school:a girls' school, where lot of Narnian girls, with their hair done very tight and ugly tightcollars round their necks and thick tickly stockings on their legs, were having a historylesson. The sort of \"History\" that was taught in Narnia under Miraz's rule was duller thanthe truest history you ever read and less true than the most exciting adventure story.\"If you don't attend, Gwendolen,\" said the mistress, and stop looking out of the window, Ishall have to give you an order-mark.\"\"But please, Miss Prizzle -\" began Gwendolen.\"Did you hear what I said, Gwendolen?\" asked Miss Prizzle.\"But please, Miss Prizzle,\" said Gwendolen, \"there's a LION!\"\"Take two order-marks for talking nonsense,\" said Miss Prizzle. \"And now -\" A roarinterrupted her. Ivy came curling in at the windows of the classroom. The walls became amass of shimmering green, and leafy branches arched overhead where the ceiling hadbeen. Miss Prizzle found she was standing on grass in a forest glade. She clutched at herdesk to steady herself, and found that the desk was a rose-bush. Wild people such as she

had never even imagined were crowding round her. Then she saw the Lion, screamed andfled, and with her fled her class, who were mostly dumpy, prim little girls with fat legs.Gwendolen hesitated.\"You'll stay with us, sweetheart?\" said Aslan.\"Oh, may I? Thank you, thank you,\" said Gwendolen. Instantly she joined hands with twoof the Maenads, who whirled her round in a merry dance and helped her take off some ofthe unnecessary and uncomfortable clothes that she was wearing.Wherever they went in the little town of Beruna it was the same. Most of the people fled,a few joined them. When they left the town they were a larger and a merrier company.They swept on across the level fields on the north bank, or left bank, of the river. Atevery farm animals came out to join them. Sad old donkeys who had never known joygrew suddenly young again; chained dogs broke their chains; horses kicked their carts topieces and came trotting along with them - clop-clop - kicking up the mud andwhinnying.At a well in a yard they met a man who was beating a boy. The stick burst into flower inthe man's hand. He tried to drop it, but it stuck to his hand. His arm became a branch, hisbody the trunk of a tree, his feet took root. The boy, who had been crying a momentbefore, burst out laughing and joined them.At a little town half-way to Beaversdam, where two rivers met, they came to anotherschool, where a tiredlooking girl was teaching arithmetic to a number of boys who lookedvery like pigs. She looked out of the window and saw the divine revellers singing up thestreet and a stab of joy went through her heart. Aslan stopped right under the window andlooked up at her.\"Oh, don't, don't,\" she said. \"I'd love to. But I mustn't. I must stick to my work. And thechildren would be frightened if they saw you.\"\"Frightened?\" said the most pig-like of the boys. \"Who's she talking to out of thewindow? Let's tell the inspector she talks to people out of the window when she ought tobe teaching us.\"\"Let's go and see who it is,\" said another boy, and they all came crowding to the window.But as soon as their mean little faces looked out, Bacchus gave a great cry of Euan, euoi-oi-oi-of and the boys all began howling with fright and trampling one another down toget out of the door and jumping out of the windows. And it was said afterwards (whethertruly or not) that those particular little boys were never seen again, but that there were alot of very fine little pigs in that part of the country which had never been there before.\"Now, Dear Heart,\" said Aslan to the Mistress, and she jumped down and joined them.

At Beaversdam they re-crossed the river and came east again along the southern bank.They came to a little cottage where a child stood in the doorway crying. \"Why are youcrying, my love?\" asked Aslan. The child, who had never seen a picture of a lion, was notafraid of him. \"Auntie's very ill,\" she said. \"She's going to die.\" Then Aslan went to go inat the door of the cottage, but it was too small for him. So, when he had got his headthrough, he pushed with his shoulders (Lucy and Susan fell off when he did this) andlifted the whole house up and it fell backwards and apart. And there, still in her bed,though the bed was now in the open air, lay a little old woman who looked as if she hadDwarf blood in her. She was at death's door, but when she opened her eyes and saw thebright, hairy head of the lion staring into her face, she did not scream or faint. She said,\"Oh, Aslan! I knew it was true. I've been waiting for this all my life. Have you come totake me away?\"\"Yes, Dearest,\" said Aslan. \"But not the long journey yet.\" And as he spoke, like the flushcreeping along the underside of a cloud at sunrise, the colour came back to her white faceand her eyes grew bright and she sat up and said, \"Why, I do declare I feel that better. Ithink I could take a little breakfast this morning.\"\"Here you are, mother,\" said Bacchus, dipping a pitcher in the cottage well and handing itto her. But what was in it now was not water but the richest wine, red as red-currant jelly,smooth as oil, strong as beef, warming as tea, cool as dew.\"Eh, you've done something to our well,\" said the old woman. \"That makes a nicechange, that does.\" And she jumped out of bed.\"Ride on me,\" said Aslan, and added to Susan and Lucy, \"You two queens will have torun now.\"\"But we'd like that just as well,\" said Susan. And off they went again.And so at last, with leaping and dancing and singing, with music and laughter and roaringand barking and neighing, they all came to the place where Miraz's army stood flingingdown their swords and holding up their hands, and Peter's army, still holding theirweapons and breathing hard, stood round them with stern and glad faces. And the firstthing that happened was that the old woman slipped off Aslan's back and ran across toCaspian and they embraced one another; for she was his old nurse.CHAPTER FIFTEENASLAN MAKES A DOOR IN THE AIRAT the sight of Aslan the cheeks of the Telmarine soldiers became the colour of coldgravy, their knees knocked together, and many fell on their faces. They had not believed

in lions and this made their fear greater. Even the Red Dwarfs, who knew that he came asa friend, stood with open mouths and could not speak. Some of the Black Dwarfs, whohad been of Nikabrik's party, began to edge away. But all the Talking Beasts surgedround the Lion, with purrs and grunts and squeaks and whinneys of delight, fawning onhim with their tails, rubbing against him, touching him reverently with their noses andgoing to and fro under his body and between his legs. If you have ever seen a little catloving a big dog whom it knows and trusts, you will have a pretty good picture of theirbehaviour. Then Peter, leading Caspian, forced his way through the crowd of animals.\"This is Caspian, Sir,\" he said. And Caspian knelt and kissed the Lion's paw.\"Welcome, Prince,\" said Aslan. \"Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the Kingshipof Narnia?\"\"I - I don't think I do, Sir,\" said Caspian. \"I'm only a kid.\"\"Good,\" said Aslan. \"If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof thatyou were not. Therefore, under us and under the High King, you shall be King of Narnia,Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands. You and your heirs while yourrace lasts. And your coronation - but what have we here?\" For at that moment a curiouslittle procession was approaching - eleven Mice, six of whom carried between themsomething on a litter made of branches, but the litter was no bigger than a large atlas. Noone has ever seen mice more woebegone than these. They were plastered with mud somewith blood too - and their ears were down and their whiskers drooped and their tailsdragged in the grass, and their leader piped on his slender pipe a melancholy tune. On thelitter lay what seemed little better than a damp heap of fur; all that was left ofReepicheep. He was still breathing, but more dead than alive, gashed with innumerablewounds, one paw crushed, and, where his tail had been, a bandaged stump.\"Now, Lucy,\" said Aslan.Lucy had her diamond bottle out in a moment. Though only a drop was needed on eachof Reepicheep's wounds, the wounds were so many that there was a long and anxioussilence before she had finished and the Master Mouse sprang from the litter. His handwent at once to his sword hilt, with the other he twirled his whiskers. He bowed.\"Hail, Aslan!\" came his shrill voice. \"I have the honour -\" But then he suddenly stopped.The fact was that he still had no tail - whether that Lucy had forgotten it or that hercordial, though it could heal wounds, could not make things grow again. Reepicheepbecame aware of his loss as he made his bow; perhaps it altered something in his balance.He looked over his right shoulder. Failing to see his tail, he strained his neck further tillhe had to turn his shoulders and his whole body followed. But by that time his hind-quarters had turned too and were out of sight. Then he strained his neck looking over hisshoulder again, with the same result. Only after he had turned completely round threetimes did he realize the dreadful truth.

\"I am confounded,\" said Reepicheep to Aslan. \"I am completely out of countenance. Imust crave your indulgence for appearing in this unseemly fashion.\"\"It becomes you very well, Small One,\" said Aslan.\"All the same,\" replied Reepicheep, \"if anything could be done... Perhaps her Majesty?\"and here he bowed to Lucy.\"But what do you want with a tail?\" asked Aslan.\"Sir,\" said the Mouse, \"I can eat and sleep and die for my King without one. But a tail isthe honour and glory of a Mouse.\"\"I have sometimes wondered, friend,\" said Aslan, \"whether you do not think too muchabout your honour.\"\"Highest of all High Kings,\" said Reepicheep, \"permit me to remind you that a very smallsize has been bestowed on us Mice, and if we did not guard our dignity, some (whoweigh worth by inches) would allow themselves very unsuitable pleasantries at ourexpense. That is why I have been at some pains to make it known that no one who doesnot wish to feel this sword as near his heart as I can reach shall talk in my presence aboutTraps or Toasted Cheese or Candles: no, Sir - not the tallest fool in Narnia!\" Here heglared very fiercely up at Wimbleweather, but the Giant, who was always a stage behindeveryone else, had not yet discovered what was being talked about down at his feet, andso missed the point.\"Why have your followers all drawn their swords, may I ask?\" said Aslan.\"May it please your High Majesty,\" said the second Mouse, whose name was Peepiceek,\"we are all waiting to cut off our own tails if our Chief must go without his. We will notbear the shame of wearing an honour which is denied to the High Mouse.\"\"Ah!\" roared Aslan. \"You have conquered me. You have great hearts. Not for the sake ofyour dignity, Reepicheep, but for the love that is between you and your people, and stillmore for the kindness your people showed me long ago when you ate away the cords thatbound me on the Stone Table (and it was then, though you have long forgotten it, thatyou began to be Talking Mice), you shall have your tail again.\"Before Aslan had finished speaking the new tail was in its place. Then, at Aslan'scommand, Peter bestowed the Knighthood of the Order of the Lion on Caspian, andCaspian, as soon as he was knighted, himself bestowed it on Trufflehunter and Trumpkinand Reepicheep, and made Doctor Cornelius his Lord Chancellor, and confirmed theBulgy Bear in his hereditary office of Marshal of the Lists. And there was great applause.

After this the Telmarine soldiers, firmly but without taunts or blows, were taken acrossthe ford and all put under lock and key in the town of Beruna and given beef and beer.They made a great fuss about wading in the river, for they all hated and feared runningwater just as much as they hated and feared woods and animals. But in the end thenuisance was over: and then the nicest parts of that long day began.Lucy, sitting close to Aslan and divinely comfortable, wondered what the trees weredoing. At first she thought they were merely dancing; they were certainly going roundslowly in two circles, one from left to right and the other from right to left. Then shenoticed that they kept throwing something down in the centre of both circles. Sometimesshe thought they were cutting off long strands of their hair; at other times it looked as ifthey were breaking off bits of their fingers - but, if so, they had plenty of fingers to spareand it did not hurt them. But whatever they were throwing down, when it reached theground, it became brushwood or dry sticks. Then three or four of the Red Dwarfs cameforward with their tinder boxes and set light to the pile, which first crackled, and thenblazed, and finally roared as a woodland bonfire on midsummer night ought to do. Andeveryone sat down in a wide circle round it.Then Bacchus and Silenus and the Maenads began a dance, far wilder than the dance ofthe trees; not merely a dance for fun and beauty (though it was that too) but a magicdance of plenty, and where their hands touched, and where their feet fell, the feast cameinto existence sides of roasted meat that filled the grove with delicious smell, andwheaten cakes and oaten cakes, honey and many-coloured sugars and cream as thick asporridge and as smooth as still water, peaches, nectarines, pomegranates, pears, grapes,strawberries, raspberries pyramids and cataracts of fruit. Then, in great wooden cups andbowls and mazers, wreathed with ivy, came the wines; dark, thick ones like syrups ofmulberry juice, and clear red ones like red jellies liquefied, and yellow wines and greenwines and yellow-green and greenish-yellow.But for the tree people different fare was provided. When Lucy saw Clodsley Shovel andhis moles scuffling up the turf in various places (which Bacchus had pointed out to them)and realized that the trees were going to eat earth it gave her rather a shudder. But whenshe saw the earths that were actually brought to them she felt quite different. They beganwith a rich brown loam that looked almost exactly like chocolate; so like chocolate, infact, that Edmund tried a piece of it, but he did not find it at all nice. When the rich loamhad taken the edge off their hunger, the trees turned to an earth of the kind you see inSomerset, which is almost pink. They said it was lighter and sweeter. At the cheese stagethey had a chalky soil, and then went on to delicate confections of the finest gravelspowdered with choice silver sand. They drank very little wine, and it made the Holliesvery talkative: for the most part they quenched their thirst with deep draughts of mingleddew and rain, flavoured with forest flowers and the airy taste of the thinnest clouds.Thus Aslan feasted the Narnians till long after the sunset had died away, and the stars hadcome out; and the great fire, now hotter but less noisy, shone like a beacon in the darkwoods, and the frightened Telmarines saw it from far away and wondered what it mightmean. The best thing of all about this feast was that there was no breaking up or going

away, but as the talk grew quieter and slower, one after another would begin to nod andfinally drop off to sleep with feet towards the fire and good friends on either side, till atlast there was silence all round the circle, and the chattering of water over stone at theFord of Beruna could be heard once more. But all night Aslan and the Moon gazed uponeach other with joyful and unblinking eyes.Next day messengers (who were chiefly squirrels and birds) were sent all over thecountry with a proclamation to the scattered Telmarines - including, of course, theprisoners in Beruna. They were told that Caspian was now King and that Narnia wouldhenceforth belong to the Talking Beasts and the Dwarfs and Dryads and Fauns and othercreatures quite as much as to the men. Any who chose to stay under the new conditionsmight do so; but for those who did not like the idea, Aslan would provide another home.Anyone who wished to go there must come to Aslan and the Kings at the Ford of Berunaby noon on the fifth day. You may imagine that this caused plenty of head-scratchingamong the Telmarines. Some of them, chiefly the young ones, had, like Caspian, heardstories of the Old Days and were delighted that they had come back. They were alreadymaking friends with the creatures. These all decided to stay in Narnia. But most of theolder men, especially those who had been important under Miraz, were sulky and had nowish to live in a country where they could not rule the roost. \"Live here with a lot ofblooming performing animals! No fear,\" they said. \"And ghosts too,\" some added with ashudder. \"That's what those there Dryads really are. It's not canny.\" They were alsosuspicious. \"I don't trust 'em,\" they said. \"Not with that awful Lion and all. He won't keephis claws off us long, you'll see.\" But then they were equally suspicious of his offer togive them a new home. \"Take us off to his den and eat us one by one most likely,\" theymuttered. And the more they talked to one another the sulkier and more suspicious theybecame. But on the appointed day more than half of them turned up.At one end of the glade Aslan had caused to be set up two stakes of wood, higher than aman's head and about three feet apart. A third, and lighter, piece of wood was boundacross them at the top, uniting them, so that the whole thing looked like a doorway fromnowhere into nowhere. In front of this stood Aslan himself with Peter on his right andCaspian on his left. Grouped round them were Susan and Lucy, Trumpkin andTrufflehunter, the Lord Cornelius, Glenstorm, Reepicheep, and others. The children andthe Dwarfs had made good use of the royal wardrobes in what had been the castle ofMiraz and was now the castle of Caspian, and what with silk and cloth of gold, withsnowy linen glancing through slashed sleeves, with silver mail shirts and jewelled sword-hilts, with gilt helmets and feathered bonnets, they were almost too bright to look at.Even the beasts wore rich chains about their necks. Yet nobody's eyes were on them orthe children. The living and strokable gold of Aslan's mane outshone them all. The rest ofthe Old Narnians stood down each side of the glade. At the far end stood the Telmarines.The sun shone brightly and pennants fluttered in the light wind.\"Men of Telmar,\" said Aslan, \"you who seek a new land, hear my words. I will send youall to your own country, which I know and you do not.\"

\"We don't remember Telmar. We don't know where it is. We don't know what it is like,\"grumbled the Telmarines.\"You came into Narnia out of Telmar,\" said Aslan. \"But you came into Telmar fromanother place. You do not belong to this world at all. You came hither, certaingenerations ago, out of that same world to which the High King Peter belongs.\"At this, half the Telmarines began whimpering, \"There you are. Told you so. He's goingto kill us all, send us right out of the world,\" and the other half began throwing out theirchests and slapping one another on the back and whispering, \"There you are. Might haveguessed we didn't belong to this place with all its queer, nasty, unnatural creatures. We'reof royal blood, you'll see.\" And even Caspian and Cornelius and the children turned toAslan with looks of amazement on their faces.\"Peace,\" said Aslan in the low voice which was nearest to his growl. The earth seemed toshake a little and every living thing in the grove became still as stone.\"You, Sir Caspian,\" said Aslan, \"might have known that you could be no true King ofNarnia unless, like the Kings of old, you were a son of Adam and came from the world ofAdam's sons. And so you are. Many years ago in that world, in a deep sea of that worldwhich is called the South Sea, a shipload of pirates were driven by storm on an island.And there they did as pirates would: killed the natives and took the native women forwives, and made palm wine, and drank and were drunk, and lay in the shade of the palmtrees, and woke up and quarrelled, and sometimes killed one another. And in one of thesefrays six were put to flight by the rest and fled with their women into the centre of theisland and up a mountain, and went, as they thought, into a cave to hide. But it was one ofthe magical places of that world, one of the chinks or chasms between chat world andthis. There were many chinks or chasms between worlds in old times, but they havegrown rarer. This was one of the last: I do not say the last. And so they fell, or rose, orblundered, or dropped right through, and found themselves in this world, in the Land ofTelmar which was then unpeopled. But why it was unpeopled is a long story: I will nottell it now. And in Telmar their descendants lived and became a fierce and proud people;and after many generations there was a famine in Telmar and they invaded Narnia, whichwas then in some disorder (but that also would be a long story), and conquered it andruled it. Do you mark all this well, King Caspian?\"\"I do indeed, Sir,\" said Caspian. \"I was wishing that I came of a more honourablelineage.\"\"You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve,\" said Aslan. \"And that is both honourenough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shouldersof the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.\"Caspian bowed.

\"And now,\" said Aslan, \"you men and women of Telmar, will you go back to that islandin the world of men from which your fathers first came? It is no bad place. The race ofthose pirates who first found it has died out, and it is without inhabitants. There are goodwells of fresh water, and fruitful soil, and timber for building, and fish in the lagoons; andthe other men of that world have not yet discovered it. The chasm is open for your return;but this I must warn you, that once you have gone through, it will close behind you forever. There will be no more commerce between the worlds by that door.\"There was silence for a moment. Then a burly, decent looking fellow among theTelmarine soldiers pushed forward and said:\"Well, I'll take the offer.\"\"It is well chosen,\" said Aslan. \"And because you have spoken first, strong magic is uponyou. Your future in that world shall be good. Come forth.\"The man, now a little pale, came forward. Aslan and his court drew aside, leaving himfree access to the empty doorway of the stakes.\"Go through it, my son,\" said Aslan, bending towards him and touching the man's nosewith his own. As soon as the Lion's breath came about him, a new look came into theman's eyes - startled, but not unhappy - as if he were trying to remember something. Thenhe squared his shoulders and walked into the Door.Everyone's eyes were fixed on him. They saw the three pieces of wood, and through themthe trees and grass and sky of Narnia. They saw the man between the doorposts: then, inone second, he had vanished utterly.From the other end of the glade the remaining Telmarines set up a wailing. \"Ugh! What'shappened to him? Do you mean to murder us? We won't go that way.\" And then one ofthe clever Telmarines said:\"We don't see any other world through those sticks. If you want us to believe in it, whydoesn't one of you go? All your own friends are keeping well away from the sticks.\"Instantly Reepicheep stood forward and bowed. \"If my example can be of any service,Aslan,\" he said, \"I will take eleven mice through that arch at your bidding without amoment's delay.\"\"Nay, little one,\" said Aslan, laying his velvety paw ever so lightly on Reepicheep's head.\"They would do dreadful things to you in that world. They would show you at fairs. It isothers who must lead.\"\"Come on,\" said Peter suddenly to Edmund and Lucy. \"Our time's up.\"\"What do you mean?\" said Edmund.

\"This way,\" said Susan, who seemed to know all about it. \"Back into the trees. We've gotto change.\"\"Change what?\" asked Lucy.\"Our clothes, of course,\" said Susan. \"Nice fools we'd look on the platform of an Englishstation in these.\"\"But our other things are at Caspian's castle,\" said Edmund.\"No, they're not,\" said Peter, still leading the way into the thickest wood. \"They're allhere. They were brought down in bundles this morning. It's all arranged.\"\"Was that what Aslan was talking to you and Susan about this morning?\" asked Lucy.\"Yes - that and other things,\" said Peter, his face very solemn. \"I can't tell it to you all.There were things he wanted to say to Su and me because we're not coming back toNarnia.\"\"Never?\" cried Edmund and Lucy in dismay.\"Oh, you two are,\" answered Peter. \"At least, from what he said, I'm pretty sure he meansyou to get back some day. But not Su and me. He says we're getting too old.\"\"Oh, Peter,\" said Lucy. \"What awful bad luck. Can you bear it?\"\"Well, I think I can,\" said Peter. \"It's all rather different from what I thought. You'llunderstand when it comes to your last time. But, quick, here are our things.\"It was odd, and not very nice, to take off their royal clothes and to come back in theirschool things (not very fresh now) into that great assembly. One or two of the nastierTelmarines jeered. But the other creatures all cheered and rose up in honour of Peter theHigh King, and Queen Susan of the Horn, and King Edmund, and Queen Lucy. Therewere affectionate and (on Lucy's part) tearful farewells with all their old friends - animalkisses, and hugs from Bulgy Bears, and hands wrung by Trumpkin, and a last tickly,whiskerish embrace with Trufflehunter. And of course Caspian offered the Horn back toSusan and of course Susan told him to keep it. And then, wonderfully and terribly, it wasfarewell to Aslan himself, and Peter took his place with Susan's hands on his shouldersand Edmund's on hers and Lucy's on his and the first of the Telmarine's on Lucy's, and soin a long line they moved forward to the Door. After that came a moment which is hardto describe, for the children seemed to be seeing three things at once. One was the mouthof a cave opening into the glaring green and blue of an island in the Pacific, where all theTelmarines would find themselves the moment they were through the Door. The secondwas a glade in Narnia, the faces of Dwarfs and Beasts, the deep eyes of Aslan, and thewhite patches on the Badger's cheeks. But the third (which rapidly swallowed up the

other two) was the grey, gravelly surface of a platform in a country station, and a seatwith luggage round it, where they were all sitting as if they had never moved from it - alittle flat and dreary for a moment after all they; had been through, but also,unexpectedly, nice in its own way, what with the familiar railway smell and the Englishsky and the summer term before them.\"Well!\" said Peter. \"We have had a time.\"\"Bother!\" said Edmund. \"I've left my new torch in Narnia.\"

THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER BY C.S. LEWISCHAPTER ONETHE PICTURE IN THE BEDROOMTHERE was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. Hisparents called him Eustace Clarence and masters called him Scrubb. I can't tell you howhis friends spoke to him, for he had none. He didn't call his Father and Mother \"Father\"and \"Mother\", but Harold and Alberta. They were very up-to-date and advanced people.They were vegetarians, non-smokers and teetotallers and wore a special kind ofunderclothes. In their house there was very little furniture and very few clothes on bedsand the windows were always open.Eustace Clarence liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and pinned on acard. He liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grainelevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools.Eustace Clarence disliked his cousins the four Pevensies, Peter, Susan, Edmund andLucy. But he was quite glad when he heard that Edmund and Lucy were coming to stay.For deep down inside him he liked bossing and bullying; and, though he was a puny littleperson who couldn't have stood up even to Lucy, let alone Edmund, in a fight, he knewthat there are dozens of ways to give people a bad time if you are in your own home andthey are only visitors.Edmund and Lucy did not at all want to come and stay with Uncle Harold and AuntAlberta. But it really couldn't be helped. Father had got a job lecturing in America forsixteen weeks that summer, and Mother was to go with him because she hadn't had a realholiday for ten years. Peter was working very hard for an exam and he was to spend theholidays being coached by old Professor Kirke in whose house these four children hadhad wonderful adventures long ago in the war years. If he had still been in that house hewould have had them all to stay. But he had somehow become poor since the old daysand was living in a small cottage with only one bedroom to spare. It would have cost toomuch money to take the other three all to America, and Susan had gone.Grown-ups thought her the pretty one of the family and she was no good at school work(though otherwise very old for her age) and Mother said she \"would get far more out of atrip to America than the youngsters\". Edmund and Lucy tried not to grudge Susan herluck, but it was dreadful having to spend the summer holidays at their Aunt's. \"But it's farworse for me,\" said Edmund, \"because you'll at least have a room of your own and I shallhave to share a bedroom with that record stinker, Eustace.\"

The story begins on an afternoon when Edmund and Lucy were stealing a few preciousminutes alone together. And of course they were talking about Narnia, which was thename of their own private and secret country. Most of us, I suppose, have a secret countrybut for most of us it is only an imaginary country. Edmund and Lucy were luckier thanother people in that respect. Their secret country was real. They had already visited ittwice; not in a game or a dream but in reality. They had got there of course by Magic,which is the only way of getting to Narnia. And a promise, or very nearly a promise, hadbeen made them in Narnia itself that they would some day get back. You may imaginethat they talked about it a good deal, when they got the chance.They were in Lucy's room, sitting on the edge of her bed and looking at a picture on theopposite wall. It was the only picture in the house that they liked. Aunt Alberta didn't likeit at all (that was why it was put away in a little back room upstairs), but she couldn't getrid of it because it had been a wedding present from someone she did not want to offend.It was a picture of a ship - a ship sailing straight towards you. Her prow was gilded andshaped like the head of a dragon with wide-open mouth. She had only one mast and onelarge, square sail which was a rich purple. The sides of the ship - what you could see ofthem where the gilded wings of the dragon ended-were green. She had just run up to thetop of one glorious blue wave, and the nearer slope of that wave came down towards you,with streaks and bubbles on it. She was obviously running fast before a gay wind, listingover a little on her port side. (By the way, if you are going to read this story at all, and ifyou don't know already, you had better get it into your head that the left of a ship whenyou are looking ahead, is port, and the right is starboard.) All the sunlight fell on her fromthat side, and the water on that side was full of greens and purples. On the other, it wasdarker blue from the shadow of the ship.\"The question is,\" said Edmund, \"whether it doesn't make things worse, looking at aNarnian ship when you can't get there.\"\"Even looking is better than nothing,\" said Lucy. \"And she is such a very Narnian ship.\"\"Still playing your old game?\" said Eustace Clarence, who had been listening outside thedoor and now came grinning into the room. Last year, when he had been staying with thePevensies, he had managed to hear them all talking of Narnia and he loved teasing themabout it. He thought of course that they were making it all up; and as he was far toostupid to make anything up himself, he did not approve of that.\"You're not wanted here,\" said Edmund curtly.\"I'm trying to think of a limerick,\" said Eustace. \"Something like this:\"Some kids who played games about Narnia Got gradually balmier and balmier-\"\"Well Narnia and balmier don't rhyme, to begin with,\" said Lucy.

\"It's an assonance,\" said Eustace.\"Don't ask him what an assy-thingummy is,\" said Edmund. \"He's only longing to beasked. Say nothing and perhaps he'll go away.\"Most boys, on meeting a reception like this, would either have cleared out or flared up.Eustace did neither. He just hung about grinning, and presently began talking again.\"Do you like that picture?\" he asked.\"For heaven's sake don't let him get started about Art and all that,\" said Edmundhurriedly, but Lucy, who was very truthful, had already said, \"Yes, I do. I like it verymuch.\"\"It's a rotten picture,\" said Eustace.\"You won't see it if you step outside,\" said Edmund.\"Why do you like it?\" said Eustace to Lucy.\"Well, for one thing,\" said Lucy, \"I like it because the ship looks as if it was reallymoving. And the water looks as if it was really wet. And the waves look as if they werereally going up and down.\"Of course Eustace knew lots of answers to this, but he didn't say anything. The reasonwas that at that very moment he looked at the waves and saw that they did look verymuch indeed as if they were going up and down. He had only once been in a ship (andthen only as far as the Isle of Wight) and had been horribly seasick. The look of thewaves in the picture made him feel sick again. He turned rather green and tried anotherlook. And then all three children were staring with open mouths.What they were seeing may be hard to believe when you read it in print, but it was almostas hard to believe when you saw it happening. The things in the picture were moving. Itdidn't look at all like a cinema either; the colours were too real and clean and out-of-doors for that. Down went the prow of the ship into the wave and up went a great shockof spray. And then up went the wave behind her, and her stern and her deck becamevisible for the first time, and then disappeared as the next wave came to meet her and herbows went up again. At the same moment an exercise book which had been lying besideEdmund on the bed flapped, rose and sailed through the air to the wall behind him, andLucy felt all her hair whipping round her face as it does on a windy day. And this was awindy day; but the wind was blowing out of the picture towards them. And suddenly withthe wind came the noises-the swishing of waves and the slap of water against the ship'ssides and the creaking and the overall high steady roar of air and water. But it was thesmell, the wild, briny smell, which really convinced Lucy that she was not dreaming.

\"Stop it,\" came Eustace's voice, squeaky with fright and bad temper. \"It's some silly trickyou two are playing. Stop it. I'll tell Alberta - Ow!\"The other two were much more accustomed to adventures, but, just exactly as EustaceClarence said \"Ow,\" they both said \"Ow\" too. The reason was that a great cold, saltsplash had broken right out of the frame and they were breathless from the smack of it,besides being wet through.\"I'll smash the rotten thing,\" cried Eustace; and then several things happened at the sametime. Eustace rushed towards the picture. Edmund, who knew something about magic,sprang after him, warning him to look out and not to be a fool. Lucy grabbed at him fromthe other side and was dragged forward. And by this time either they had grown muchsmaller or the picture had grown bigger. Eustace jumped to try to pull it off the wall andfound himself standing on the frame; in front of him was not glass but real sea, and windand waves rushing up to the frame as they might to a rock. He lost his head and clutchedat the other two who had jumped up beside him. There was a second of struggling andshouting, and just as they thought they had got their balance a great blue roller surged upround them, swept them off their feet, and drew them down into the sea. Eustace'sdespairing cry suddenly ended as the water got into his mouth.Lucy thanked her stars that she had worked hard at her swimming last summer term. It istrue that she would have got on much better if she had used a slower stroke, and also thatthe water felt a great deal colder than it had looked while it was only a picture. Still, shekept her head and kicked her shoes off, as everyone ought to do who falls into deep waterin their clothes. She even kept her mouth shut and her eyes open. They were still quitenear the ship; she saw its green side towering high above them, and people looking at herfrom the deck. Then, as one might have expected, Eustace clutched at her in a panic anddown they both went.When they came up again she saw a white figure diving off the ship's side. Edmund wasclose beside her now, treading water, and had caught the arms of the howling Eustace.Then someone else, whose face was vaguely familiar, slipped an arm under her from theother side. There was a lot of shouting going on from the ship, heads crowding togetherabove the bulwarks, ropes being thrown. Edmund and the stranger were fastening ropesround her. After that followed what seemed a very long delay during which her face gotblue and her teeth began chattering. In reality the delay was not very long; they werewaiting till the moment when she could be got on board the ship without being dashedagainst its side. Even with all their best endeavours she had a bruised knee when shefinally stood, dripping and shivering, on the deck. After her Edmund was heaved up, andthen the miserable Eustace. Last of all came the stranger - a golden-headed boy someyears older than herself.\"Ca - Ca - Caspian!\" gasped Lucy as soon as she had breath enough. For Caspian it was;Caspian, the boy king of Narnia whom they had helped to set on the throne during theirlast visit. Immediately Edmund recognized him too. All three shook hands and clappedone another on the back with great delight.

\"But who is your friend?\" said Caspian almost at once, turning to Eustace with hischeerful smile. But Eustace was crying much harder than any boy of his age has a right tocry when nothing worse than a wetting has happened to him, and would only yell out,\"Let me go. Let me go back. I don't like it.\"\"Let you go?\" said Caspian. \"But where?\"Eustace rushed to the ship's side, as if he expected to see the picture frame hanging abovethe sea, and perhaps a glimpse of Lucy's bedroom. What he saw was blue waves fleckedwith foam, and paler blue sky, both spreading without a break to the horizon. Perhaps wecan hardly blame him if his heart sank. He was promptly sick.\"Hey! Rynelf,\" said Caspian to one of the sailors. \"Bring spiced wine for their Majesties.You'll need something to warm you after that dip.\" He called Edmund and Lucy theirMajesties because they and Peter and Susan had all been Kings and Queens of Narnialong before his time. Narnian time flows differently from ours. If you spent a hundredyears in Narnia, you would still come back to our world at the very same hour of the verysame day on which you left. And then, if you went back to Narnia after spending a weekhere, you might find that a thousand Narnian years had passed, or only a day, or no timeat all. You never know till you get there. Consequently, when the Pevensie children hadreturned to Narnia last time for their second visit, it was (for the Narnians) as if KingArthur came back to Britain, as some people say he will. And I say the sooner the better.Rynelf returned with the spiced wine steaming in a flagon and four silver cups. It was justwhat one wanted, and as Lucy and Edmund sipped it they could feel the warmth goingright down to their toes. But Eustace made faces and spluttered and spat it out and wassick again and began to cry again and asked if they hadn't any Plumptree's VitaminizedNerve Food and could it be made with distilled water and anyway he insisted on beingput ashore at the next station.\"This is a merry shipmate you've brought us, Brother,\" whispered Caspian to Edmundwith a chuckle; but before he could say anything more Eustace burst out again.\"Oh! Ugh! What on earth's that! Take it away, the horrid thing.\" .He really had some excuse this time for feeling a little surprised. Something very curiousindeed had come out of the cabin in the poop and was slowly approaching them. Youmight call it - and indeed it was - a Mouse. But then it was a Mouse on its hind legs andstood about two feet high. A thin band of gold passed round its head under one ear andover the other and in this was stuck a long crimson feather. (As the Mouse's fur was verydark, almost black, the effect was bold and striking.) Its left paw rested on the hilt of asword very nearly as long as its tail. Its balance, as it paced gravely along the swayingdeck, was perfect, and its manners courtly. Lucy and Edmund recognized it at onceReepicheep, the most valiant of all the Talking Beasts of Narnia, and the Chief Mouse. Ithad won undying glory in the second Battle of Beruna. Lucy longed, as she had always

done, to take Reepicheep up in her arms and cuddle him. But this, as she well knew, wasa pleasure she could never have: it would have offended him deeply. Instead, she wentdown on one knee to talk to him.Reepicheep put forward his left leg, drew back his right, bowed, kissed her hand,straightened himself, twirled his whiskers, and said in his shrill, piping voice:\"My humble duty to your Majesty. And to King Edmund, too.\" (Here he bowed again.)\"Nothing except your Majesties' presence was lacking to this glorious venture.\"\"Ugh, take it away,\" wailed Eustace. \"I hate mice. And I never could bear performinganimals. They're silly and vulgar and-and sentimental.\"\"Am I to understand,\" said Reepicheep to Lucy after a long stare at Eustace, \"that thissingularly discourteous person is under your Majesty's protection? Because, if not-\"At this moment Lucy and Edmund both sneezed.\"What a fool I am to keep you all standing here in your wet things,\" said Caspian. \"Comeon below and get changed. I'll give you my cabin of course, Lucy, but I'm afraid we haveno women's clothes on board. You'll have to make do with some of mine. Lead the way,Reepicheep, like a good fellow.\"\"To the convenience of a lady,\" said Reepicheep, \"even a question of honour must giveway - at least for the moment -\" and here he looked very hard at Eustace. But Caspianhustled them on and in a few minutes Lucy found herself passing through the door intothe stern cabin. She fell in love with it at once - the three square windows that looked outon the blue, swirling water astern, the low cushioned benches round three sides of thetable, the swinging silver lamp overhead (Dwarfs' work, she knew at once by its exquisitedelicacy) and the flat gold image of Aslan the Lion on the forward wall above the door.All this she took in in a flash, for Caspian immediately opened a door on the starboardside, and said, \"This'll be your room, Lucy. I'll just get some dry things for myself-\" hewas rummaging in one of the lockers while he spoke - \"and then leave you to change. Ifyou'll fling your wet things outside the door I'll get them taken to the galley to be dried.\"Lucy found herself as much at home as if she had been in Caspian's cabin for weeks, andthe motion of the ship did not worry her, for in the old days when she had been a queen inNarnia she had done a good deal of voyaging. The cabin was very tiny but bright withpainted panels (all birds and beasts and crimson dragons and vines) and spotlessly clean.Caspian's clothes were too big for her, but she could manage. His shoes, sandals and sea-boots were hopelessly big but she did not mind going barefoot on board ship. When shehad finished dressing she looked out of her window at the water rushing past and took along deep breath. She felt quite sure they were in for a lovely time.

CHAPTER TWOON BOARD THE DAWN TREADER\"AH, there you are, Lucy,\" said Caspian. \"We were just waiting for you. This is mycaptain, the Lord Drinian.\"A dark-haired man went down on one knee and kissed her hand. The only others presentwere Reepicheep and Edmund.\"Where is Eustace?\" asked Lucy.\"In bed,\" said Edmund, \"and I don't think we can do anything for him. It only makes himworse if you try to be nice to him.\"\"Meanwhile,\" said Caspian, \"we want to talk.\"\"By Jove, we do,\" said Edmund. \"And first, about time. It's a year ago by our time sincewe left you just before your coronation. How long has it been in Narnia?\"\"Exactly three years,\" said Caspian.\"All going well?\" asked Edmund.\"You don't suppose I'd have left my kingdom and put to sea unless all was well,\"answered the King. \"It couldn't be better. There's no trouble at all now betweenTelmarines, Dwarfs, Talking Beasts, Fauns and the rest. And we gave those troublesomegiants on the frontier such a good beating last summer that they pay us tribute now. And Ihad an excellent person to leave as Regent while I'm away Trumpkin, the Dwarf. Youremember him?\"\"Dear Trumpkin,\" said Lucy, \"of course I do. You couldn't have made a better choice.\"\"Loyal as a badger, Ma'am, and valiant as - as a Mouse,\" said Drinian. He had been goingto say \"as a lion\" but had noticed Reepicheep's eyes fixed on him.\"And where are we heading for?\" asked Edmund.\"Well,\" said Caspian, \"that's rather a long story. Perhaps you remember that when I was achild my usurping uncle Miraz got rid of seven friends of my father's (who might havetaken my part) by sending them off to explore the unknown , Eastern Seas beyond theLone Islands.\"\"Yes,\" said Lucy, \"and none of them ever came back.\"

\"Right. Well, on, my coronation day, with Aslan's approval, I swore an oath that, if once Iestablished peace in Narnia, I would sail east myself for a year and a day to find myfather's friends or to learn of their deaths and avenge them if I could. These were theirnames - the Lord Revilian, the Lord Bern, the Lord Argoz, the Lord Mavramorn, theLord Octesian, the Lord Restimar, and - oh, that other one who's so hard to remember.\"\"The Lord Rhoop, Sire,\" said Drinian.\"Rhoop, Rhoop, of course,\" said Caspian. \"That is my main intention. But Reepicheephere has an even higher hope.\" Everyone's eyes turned to the Mouse.\"As high as my spirit,\" it said. \"Though perhaps as small as my stature. Why should wenot come to the very eastern end of the world? And what might we find there? I expect tofind Aslan's own country. It is always from the east, across the sea, that the great Lioncomes to us.\"\"I say, that is an idea,\" said Edmund in an awed voice.\"But do you think,\" said Lucy, \"Aslan's country would be that sort of country - I mean,the sort you could ever sail to?\"\"I do not know, Madam,\" said Reepicheep. \"But there is this. When I was in my cradle, awood woman, a Dryad, spoke this verse over me:\"Where sky and water meet, Where the waves grow sweet, Doubt not, Reepicheep, Tofind all you seek, There is the utter East.\"I do not know what it means. But the spell of it has been on me all my life.\"After a short silence Lucy asked, \"And where are we now, Caspian?\"\"The Captain can tell you better than I,\" said Caspian, so Drinian got out his chart andspread it on the table.\"That's our position,\" he said, laying his finger on it. \"Or was at noon today. We had afair wind from Cair Paravel and stood a little north for Galma, which we made on thenext day. We were in port for a week, for the Duke of Galma made a great tournament forHis Majesty and there he unhorsed many knights-\"\"And got a few nasty falls myself, Drinian. Some of the bruises are there still,\" put inCaspian.\"- And unhorsed many knights,\" repeated Drinian with a grin. \"We thought the Dukewould have been pleased if the King's Majesty would have married his daughter, butnothing came of that-\"

\"Squints, and has freckles,\" said Caspian.\"Oh, poor girl,\" said Lucy.\"And we sailed from Galma,\" continued Drinian, \"and ran into a calm for the best part oftwo days and had to row, and then had wind again and did not make Terebinthia till thefourth day from Galma. And there their King sent out a warning not to land for there wassickness in Terebinthia, but we doubled the cape and put in at a little creek far from thecity and watered. Then we had to lie off for three days before we got a south-east windand stood out for Seven Isles. The third day out a pirate (Terebinthian by her rig)overhauled us, but when she saw us well armed she stood off after some shooting ofarrows on either part -\"\"And we ought to have given her chase and boarded her and hanged every mother's sonof them,\" said Reepicheep.\"- And in five days more we were insight of Muil, which, as you know, is thewesternmost of the Seven Isles. Then we rowed through the straits and came aboutsundown into Redhaven on the isle of Brenn, where we were very lovingly feasted andhad victuals and water at will. We left Redhaven six days ago and have mademarvellously good speed, so that I hope to see the Lone Islands the day after tomorrow.The sum is, we are now nearly thirty days at sea and have sailed more than four hundredleagues from Narnia.\"\"And after the Lone Islands?\" said Lucy.\"No one knows, your Majesty,\" answered Drinian. \"Unless the Lone Islanders themselvescan tell us.\"\"They couldn't in our days,\" said Edmund.\"Then,\" said Reepicheep, \"it is after the Lone Islands that the adventure really begins.\"Caspian now suggested that they might like to be shown over the ship before supper, butLucy's conscience smote her and she said, \"I think I really must go and see Eustace.Seasickness is horrid, you know. If I had my old cordial with me I could cure him.\"\"But you have,\" said Caspian. \"I'd quite forgotten about it. As you left it behind I thoughtit might be regarded as one of the royal treasures and so I brought it - if you think it oughtto be wasted on a thing like seasickness.\"\"It'll only take a drop,\" said Lucy.Caspian opened one of the lockers beneath the bench and brought out the beautiful littlediamond flask which Lucy remembered so well. \"Take back your own, Queen,\" he said.They then left the cabin and went out into the sunshine.

In the deck there were two large, long hatches, fore and aft of the mast, and both open, asthey always were in fair weather, to let light and air into the belly of the ship. Caspian ledthem down a ladder into the after hatch. Here they found themselves in a place wherebenches for rowing ran from side to side and the light came in through the oarholes anddanced on the roof. Of course Caspian's ship was not that horrible thing, a galley rowedby slaves. Oars were used only when wind failed or for getting in and out of harbour andeveryone (except Reepicheep whose legs were too short) had often taken a turn. At eachside of the ship the space under the benches was left clear for the rowers' feet, but alldown the centre there was a kind of pit which went down to the very keel and this wasfilled with all kinds of things - sacks of flour, casks of water and beer, barrels of pork,jars of honey, skin bottles of wine, apples, nuts, cheeses, biscuits, turnips, sides of bacon.From the roof - that is, from the under side of the deck - hung hams and strings of onions,and also the men of the watch offduty in their hammocks. Caspian led them aft, steppingfrom bench to bench; at least, it was stepping for him, and something between a step anda jump for Lucy, and a real long jump for Reepicheep. In this way they came to apartition with a door in it. Caspian opened the door and led them into a cabin which filledthe stern underneath the deck cabins in the poop. It was of course not so nice. It was verylow and the sides sloped together as they went down so that there was hardly any floor;and though it had windows of thick glass, they were not made to open because they wereunder water. In fact at this very moment, as the ship pitched they were alternately goldenwith sunlight and dim green with the sea.\"You and I must lodge here, Edmund,\" said Caspian. \"We'll leave your kinsman the bunkand sling hammocks for ourselves.\"\"I beseech your Majesty-\" said Drinian.\"No, no shipmate,\" said Caspian, \"we have argued all that out already. You and Rhince\"(Rhince was the mate) \"are sailing the ship and will have cares and labours many a nightwhen we are singing catches or telling stories, so you and he must have the port cabinabove. King Edmund and I can lie very snug here below. But how is the stranger?\"Eustace, very green in the face, scowled and asked whether there was any sign of thestorm getting less. But Caspian said, \"What storm?\" and Drinian burst out laughing.\"Storm, young master!\" he roared. \"This is as fair weather as a man could ask for.\"\"Who's that?\" said Eustace irritably. \"Send him away. His voice goes through my head.\"\"I've brought you something that will make you feel better, Eustace,\" said Lucy.\"Oh, go away and leave me alone,\" growled Eustace. But he took a drop from her flask,and though he said it was beastly stuff (the smell in the cabin when she opened it wasdelicious) it is certain that his face came the right colour a few moments after he hadswallowed it, and he must have felt better because, instead of wailing about the storm and

his head, he began demanding to be put ashore and said that at the first port he would\"lodge a disposition\" against them all with the British Consul. But when Reepicheepasked what a disposition was and how you lodged it (Reepicheep thought it was somenew way of arranging a single combat) Eustace could only reply, \"Fancy not knowingthat.\" In the end they succeeded in convincing Eustace that they were already sailing asfast as they could towards the nearest land they knew, and that they had no more powerof sending him back to Cambridge - which was where Uncle Harold lived - than ofsending him to the moon. After that he sulkily agreed to put on the fresh clothes whichhad been put out for him and come on deck.Caspian now showed them over the ship, though indeed they had seen most it already.They went up on the forecastle and saw the look-out man standing on a little shelf insidethe gilded dragon's neck and peering through its open mouth. Inside the forecastle wasthe galley (or ship's kitchen) and quarters for such people as the boatswain, the carpenter,the cook and the master-archer. If you think it odd to have the galley in the bows andimagine the smoke from its chimney streaming back over the ship, that is because you arethinking of steamships where there is always a headwind. On a sailing ship the wind iscoming from behind, and anything smelly is put as far forward as possible. They weretaken up to the fighting top, and at first it was rather alarming to rock to and fro there andsee the deck looking small and far away beneath. You realized that if you fell there wasno particular reason why you should fall on board rather than in the sea. Then they weretaken to the poop, where Rhince was on duty with another man at the great tiller, andbehind that the dragon's tail rose up, covered with gilding, and round inside it ran a littlebench. The name of the ship was Dawn Treader. She was only a little bit of a thingcompared with one of our I ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleonswhich Narnia had owned when Lucy and Edmund had reigned there under Peter as theHigh King, for nearly all navigation had died out in the reigns of Caspian's ancestors.When his uncle, Miraz the usurper, had sent the seven lords to sea, they had had to buy aGalmian ship and man it with hired Galmian sailors. But now Caspian had begun to teachthe Narnians to be sea-faring folk once more, and the Dawn Treader was the finest shiphe had built yet. She was so small that, forward of the mast, there was hardly any deckroom between the central hatch and the ship's boat on one side and the hen-coop (Lucyfed the hens) on the other. But she was a beauty of her kind, a \"lady\" as sailors say, herlines perfect, her colours pure, and every spar and rope and pin lovingly made. Eustace ofcourse would be pleased with nothing, and kept on boasting about liners and motor-boatsand aeroplanes and submarines (\"As if he knew anything about them,\" mutteredEdmund), but the other two were delighted with the Dawn Treader, and when theyreturned aft to the cabin and supper, and saw the whole western sky lit up with animmense crimson sunset, and felt the quiver of the ship, and tasted the salt on their lips,and thought of unknown lands on the Eastern rim of the world, Lucy felt that she wasalmost too happy to speak.What Eustace thought had best be told in his own words, for when they all got theirclothes back, dried, next morning, he at once got out a little black notebook and a penciland started to keep a diary. He always had this notebook with him and kept a record ofhis marks in it, for though he didn't care much about any subject for its own sake, he

cared a great deal about marks and would even go to people and say, \"I got so much.What did you get?\" But as he didn't seem likely to get many marks on the Dawn Treaderhe now started a diary. This was the first entry.\"7 August. Have now been twenty-four hours on this ghastly boat if it isn't a dream. Allthe time a frightful storm has been raging (it's a good thing I'm not seasick). Huge waveskeep coming in over the front and I have seen the boat nearly go under any number oftimes. All the others pretend to take no notice of this, either from swank or becauseHarold says one of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes toFacts. It's madness to come out into the sea in a rotten little thing like this. Not muchbigger than a lifeboat. And, of course, absolutely primitive indoors. No proper saloon, noradio, no bathrooms, no deck-chairs. I was dragged all over it yesterday evening and itwould make anyone sick to hear Caspian showing off his funny little toy boat as if it wasthe Queen Mary. I tried to tell him what real ships are like, but he's too dense. E. and L.,o f course, didn't back me up. I suppose a kid like L. doesn't realize the danger and E. isbuttering up C. as everyone does here. They call him a King. I said I was a Republicanbut he had to ask me what that meant! He doesn't seem to know anything at all. Needlessto say I've been put in the worst cabin of the boat, a perfect dungeon, and Lucy has beengiven a whole room on deck to herself, almost a nice room compared with the rest of thisplace. C. says that's because she's a girl. I tried to make him see what Alberta says, thatall that sort of thing is really lowering girls but he was too dense. Still, he might see that Ishall be ill if I'm kept in that hole any longer. E. says we mustn't grumble because C. issharing it with us himself to make room for L. As if that didn't make it more crowded andfar worse. Nearly forgot to say that there is also a kind of Mouse thing that giveseveryone the most frightful cheek. The others can put up with it if they like but I shalltwist his tail pretty soon if he tries it on me. The food is frightful too.\"The trouble between Eustace and Reepicheep arrived even sooner than might have beenexpected. Before dinner next day, when the others were sitting round the table , waiting(being at sea gives one a magnificent appetite), Eustace came rushing in, wringing hishand and shouting out:\"That little brute has half killed me. I insist on it being kept under control. I could bringan action against you, Caspian. i could order you to have it destroyed.\"At the same moment Reepicheep appeared. His sword was drawn and his whiskerslooked very fierce but he was as polite as ever.\"I ask your pardons all,\" he said, \"and especially her Majesty's. If I had known that hewould take refuge here I would have awaited a more reasonable time for his correction.\"\"What on earth's up?\" asked Edmund.What had really happened was this. Reepicheep, who never felt that the ship was gettingon fast enough, loved to sit on the bulwarks far forward just beside the dragon's head,gazing out at the eastern horizon and singing softly in his little chirruping voice the song

the Dryad had made for him. He never held on to anything, however the ship pitched, andkept his balance with perfect ease; perhaps his long tail, hanging down to the deck insidethe bulwarks, made this easier. Everyone on board was familiar with this habit, and thesailors liked it because when one was on look-out duty it gave one somebody to talk to.Why exactly Eustace had slipped and reeled and stumbled all the way forward to theforecastle (he had not yet got his sea-legs) I never heard. Perhaps he hoped he would seeland, or perhaps he wanted to hang about the galley and scrounge something. Anyway, assoon as he saw that long tail hanging down - and perhaps it was rather tempting - hethought it would be delightful to catch hold of it, swing Reepicheep round by it once ortwice upside-down, then run away and laugh, At first the plan seemed to workbeautifully. The Mouse was not much heavier than a very large cat. Eustace had him offthe rail in a trice and very silly he looked (thought Eustace) with his little limbs allsplayed out and his mouth open. But unfortunately Reepicheep, who had fought for hislife many a time, never lost his head even for a moment. Nor his skill. It is not very easyto draw one's sword when one is swinging round in the air by one's tail, but he did. Andthe next thing Eustace knew was two agonizing jabs in his hand which made him let goof the tail; and the next thing after that was that the Mouse had picked itself up again as ifit were a ball bouncing off the deck, and there it was facing him, and a horrid long,bright, sharp thing like a skewer was waving to and fro within an inch of his stomach.(This doesn't count as below the belt for mice in Narnia because they can hardly beexpected to reach higher.)\"Stop it,\" spluttered Eustace, \"go away. Put that thing away. It's not safe. Stop it, I say. I'lltell Caspian.I'll have you muzzled and tied up.\"\"Why do you not draw your own sword, poltroon!\" cheeped the Mouse. \"Draw and fightor I'll beat you black and blue with the flat.\"\"I haven't got one,\" said Eustace. \"I'm a pacifist. I don't believe in fighting.\"\"Do I understand,\" said Reepicheep, withdrawing his sword for a moment and speakingvery sternly, \"that you do not intend to give me satisfaction?\"\"I don't know what you mean,\" said Eustace, nursing his hand. \"If you don't know how totake a joke I shan't bother my head about you.\"\"Then take that,\" said Reepicheep, \"and that - to teach you manners - and the respect dueto a knight - and a Mouse - and a Mouse's tail -\" and at each word he gave Eustace a blowwith the side of his rapier, which was thin, fine dwarf-tempered steel and as supple andeffective as a birch rod. Eustace (of course) was at a school where they didn't havecorporal punishment, so the sensation was quite new to him. That was why, in spite ofhaving no sealegs, it took him less than a minute to get off that forecastle and cover thewhole length of the deck and burst in at the cabin door - still hotly pursued by

Reepicheep. Indeed it seemed to Eustace that the rapier as well as the pursuit was hot. Itmight have been red-hot by the feel.There was not much difficulty in settling the matter once Eustace realized that everyonetook the idea of a duel seriously and heard Caspian offering to lend him a sword, andDrinian and Edmund discussing whether he ought to be handicapped in some way tomake up for his being so much bigger than Reepicheep. He apologized sulkily and wentoff with Lucy to have his hand bathed and bandaged and then went to his bunk. He wascareful to lie on his side.CHAPTER THREETHE LONE ISLANDS\"LAND in sight,\" shouted the man in the bows.Lucy, who had been talking to Rhince on the poop, came pattering down the ladder andraced forward. As she went she was joined by Edmund, and they found Caspian, Drinianand Reepicheep already on the forecastle. It was a coldish morning, the sky very pale andthe sea very dark blue with little white caps of foam, and there, a little way off on thestarboard bow, was the nearest of the Lone Islands, Felimath, like a low green hill in thesea, and behind it, further off, the grey slopes of its sister Doorn.\"Same old Felimath! Same old Doorn,\" said Lucy, clapping her hands. \"Oh - Edmund,how long it is since you and I saw them last!\"\"I've never understood why they belong to Narnia,\" said Caspian. \"Did Peter the HighKing conquer them?\"\"Oh no,\" said Edmund. \"They were Narnian before our time - in the days of the WhiteWitch.\"(By the way, I have never yet heard how these remote islands became attached to thecrown of Narnia; if I ever do, and if the story is at all interesting, I may put it in someother book.)\"Are we to put in here, Sire?\" asked Drinian.\"1 shouldn't think it would be much good landing on Felimath,\" said Edmund. \"It wasalmost uninhabited in our days and it looks as if it was the same still. The people livedmostly on Doorn and a little on Avra - that's the third one; you can't see it yet. They onlykept sheep on Felimath.\"

\"Then we'll have to double that cape, I suppose,\" said Drinian, \"and land on Doorn.That'll mean rowing.\"\"I'm sorry we're not landing on Felimath,\" said Lucy. \"I'd like to walk there again. It wasso lonely - a nice kind of loneliness, and all grass and clover and soft sea air.\"\"I'd love to stretch my legs now too,\" said Caspian. \"I tell you what. Why shouldn't we goashore in the boat and send it back, and then we could walk across Felimath and let theDawn Treader pick us up on the other side?\"If Caspian had been as experienced then as he became later on in this voyage he wouldnot have made this suggestion; but at the moment it seemed an excellent one. \"Oh dolet's,\" said Lucy.\"You'll come, will you?\" said Caspian to Eustace, who had come on deck with his handbandaged.\"Anything to get off this blasted boat,\" said Eustace.\"Blasted?\" said Drinian. \"How do you mean?\"\"In a civilized country like where I come from,\" said Eustace, \"the ships are so big thatwhen you're inside you wouldn't know you were at sea at all.\"\"In that case you might just as well stay ashore,\" said Caspian. \"Will you tell them tolower the boat, Drinian.\"The King, the Mouse, the two Pevensies, and Eustace all got into the boat and werepulled to the beach of Felimath. When the boat had left them and was being rowed backthey all turned and looked round. They were surprised at how small the Dawn Treaderlooked.Lucy was of course barefoot, having kicked off her shoes while swimming, but that is nohardship if one is going to walk on downy turf. It was delightful to be ashore again and tosmell the earth and grass, even if at first the ground seemed to be pitching up and downlike a ship, as it usually does for a while if one has been at sea. It was much warmer herethan it had been on board and Lucy found the sand pleasant to her feet as they crossed it.There was a lark singing.They struck inland and up a fairly steep, though low, hill. At the top of course theylooked back, and there was the Dawn Treader shining like a great bright insect andcrawling slowly north-westward with her oars. Then they went over the ridge and couldsee her no longer.

Doom now lay before them, divided from Felimath by a channel about a mile wide;behind it and to the left lay Avra. The little white town of Narrowhaven on Doorn waseasily seen.\"Hullo! What's this?\" said Edmund suddenly.In the green valley to which they were descending six or seven rough-looking men, allarmed, were sitting by a tree.\"Don't tell them who we are,\" said Caspian.\"And pray, your Majesty, why not?\" said Reepicheep who had consented to ride onLucy's shoulder.\"It just occurred to me,\" replied Caspian, \"that no one here can have heard from Narniafor a long time. It's just possible they may not still acknowledge our over-lordship. Inwhich case it might not be quite safe to be known as the King.\"\"We have our swords, Sire,\" said Reepicheep.\"Yes, Reep, I know we have,\" said Caspian. \"But if it is a question of re-conquering thethree islands, I'd prefer to come back with a rather larger army.\"By this time they were quite close to the strangers, one of whom - a big black-hairedfellow - shouted out, \"A good morning to you.\"\"And a good morning to you,\" said Caspian. \"Is there still a Governor of the LoneIslands?\"\"To be sure there is,\" said the man, \"Governor Gumpas. His Sufficiency is atNarrowhaven. But you'll stay and drink with us.\"Caspian thanked him, though neither he nor the others much liked the look of their newacquaintance, and all of them sat down. But hardly had they raised their cups to their lipswhen the black-haired man nodded to his companions and, as quick as lightning, all thefive visitors found themselves wrapped in strong arms. There was a moment's strugglebut all the advantages were on one side, and soon everyone was disarmed and had theirhands tied behind their backs except Reepicheep, writhing in his captor's grip and bitingfuriously.\"Careful with that beast, Tacks,\" said the Leader. \"Don't damage him. He'll fetch the bestprice of the lot, I shouldn't wonder.\"\"Coward! Poltroon!\" squeaked Reepicheep. \"Give me my sword and free my paws if youdare.\"

\"Whew!\" whistled the slave merchant (for that is what he was). \"It can talk! Well I neverdid. Blowed if I take less than two hundred crescents for him.\" The Calormen crescent,which is the chief coin in those parts, is worth about a third of a pound.\"So that's what you are,\" said Caspian. \"A kidnapper and slaver. I hope you're proud ofit.\"\"Now, now, now, now,\" said the slaver. \"Don't you start any jaw. The easier you take it,the pleasanter all round, see? I don't do this for fun. I've got my living to make same asanyone else.\"\"Where will you take us?\" asked Lucy, getting the words out with some difficulty.\"Over to Narrowhaven,\" said the slaver. \"For market day tomorrow.\"\"Is there a British Consul there?\" asked Eustace.\"Is there a which?\" said the man.But long before Eustace was tired of trying to explain, the slaver simply said, \"Well, I'vehad enough of this jabber. The Mouse is a fair treat but this one would talk the hind legoff a donkey. Off we go, mates.\"Then the four human prisoners were roped together, not cruelly but securely, and made tomarch down to the shore. Reepicheep was carried. He had stopped biting on a threat ofhaving his mouth tied up, but he had a great deal to say, and Lucy really wondered howany man could bear to have the things said to him which were said to the slave dealer bythe Mouse. But the slave dealer, far from objecting, only said \"Go on\" wheneverReepicheep paused for breath, occasionally adding, \"It's as good as a play,\" or, \"Blimey,you can't help almost thinking it knows what it's saying!\" or \"Was it one of you whattrained it?\" This so infuriated Reepicheep that in the end the number of things he thoughtof saying all at once nearly suffocated him and he became silent.When they got down to the shore that looked towards Doorn they found a little villageand a long-boat on the beach and, lying a little further out, a dirty bedraggled lookingship.\"Now, youngsters,\" said the slave dealer, \"let's have no fuss and then you'll have nothingto cry about. All aboard.\"At that moment a fine-looking bearded man came out of one of the houses (an inn, Ithink) and said:\"Well, Pug. More of your usual wares?\"

The slaver, whose name seemed to be Pug, bowed very low, and said in a wheedling kindof voice, \"Yes, please your Lordship.\"\"How much do you want for that boy?\" asked the other, pointing to Caspian.\"Ah,\" said Pug, \"I knew your Lordship would pick on the best. No deceiving yourLordship with anything second rate. That boy, now, I've taken a fancy to him myself. Gotkind of fond of him, I have. I'm that tender-hearted I didn't ever ought to have taken upthis job. Still, to a customer like your Lordship-\"\"Tell me your price, carrion,\" said the Lord sternly. \"Do you think I want to listen to therigmarole of your filthy trade?\"\"Three hundred crescents, my Lord to your honourable Lordship, but to anyone else -\"\"I'll give you a hundred and fifty.\"\"Oh please, please,\" broke in Lucy. \"Don't separate us, whatever you do. You don't know-\" But then she stopped for she saw that Caspian didn't even now want to be known.\"A hundred and fifty, then,\" said the Lord. \"As for you, little maiden, I am sorry I cannotbuy you all. Unrope my boy, Pug. And look - treat these others well while they are inyour hands or it'll be the worse for you.\"\"Well!\" said Pug. \"Now who ever heard of a gentleman in my way of business whotreated his stock better than what I do? Well? Why, I treat 'em like my own childen.\"\"That's likely enough to be true,\" said the other grimly.The dreadful moment had now come. Caspian was untied and his new master said, \"Thisway, lad,\" and Lucy burst into tears and Edmund looked very blank. But Caspian lookedover his shoulder and said, \"Cheer up. I'm sure it will come all right in the end. So long.\"\"Now, missie,\" said Pug. \"Don't you start taking on and spoiling your looks for themarket tomorrow. You be a good girl and then you won't have nothing to cry about, see?\"Then they were rowed out to the slave-ship and taken below into a long, rather darkplace, none too clean, where they found many other unfortunate prisoners; for Pug was ofcourse a pirate and had just returned from cruising among the islands and capturing whathe could. The children didn't meet anyone whom they knew; the prisoners were mostlyGalmians and Terebinthians. And there they sat in the straw and wondered what washappening to Caspian and tried to stop Eustace talking as if everyone except himself wasto blame.

Meanwhile Caspian was having a much more interesting time. The man who had boughthim led him down a little lane between two of the village houses and so out into an openplace behind the village. Then he turned and faced him.\"You needn't be afraid of me, boy,\" he said. \"I'll treat you well. I bought you for yourface. You reminded me of someone.\" '\"May I ask of whom, my Lord?\" said Caspian.\"You remind me of my master, King Caspian of Narnia.\"Then Caspian decided to risk everything on one stroke.\"My Lord,\" he said, \"I am your master. I am Caspian King of Narnia.\"\"You make very free,\" said the other. \"How shall I know this is true?\"\"Firstly by my face,\" said Caspian. \"Secondly because I know within six guesses whoyou are. You are one of those seven lords of Narnia whom my Uncle Miraz sent to seaand whom I have come out to look for - Argoz, Bern, Octesian, Restimar, Mavramorn, or- or - I have forgotten the others. And finally, if your Lordship will give me a sword I willprove on any man's body in clean battle that I am Caspian the son of Caspian, lawfulKing of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands.\"\"By heaven,\" exclaimed the man, \"it is his father's very voice and trick of speech. Myliege - your Majesty -\" And there in the field he knelt and kissed the King's hand.\"The moneys your Lordship disbursed for our person will be made good from our owntreasury,\" said Caspian.\"They're not in Pug's purse yet, Sire,\" said the Lord Bern, for he it was. \"And never willbe, I trust. I have moved his Sufficiency the Governor a hundred times to crush this viletraffic in man's flesh.\"\"My Lord Bern,\" said Caspian, \"we must talk of the state of these Islands. But first whatis your Lordship's own story?\"\"Short enough, Sire,\" said Bern. \"I came thus far with my six fellows, loved a girl of theislands, and felt I had had enough of the sea. And there was no purpose in returning toNarnia while your Majesty's uncle held the reins. So I married and have lived here eversince.\"\"And what is this governor, this Gumpas, like? Does he still acknowledge the King ofNarnia for his lord?\"

\"In words, yes. All is done in the King's name. But he would not be best pleased to find areal, live King of Narnia coming in upon him. And if your Majesty came before himalone and unarmed - well he would not deny his allegiance, but he would pretend todisbelieve you. Your Grace's life would be in danger. What following has your Majestyin these waters?\"\"There is my ship just rounding the point,\" said Caspian. \"We are about thirty swords if itcame to fighting. Shall we not have my ship in and fall upon Pug and free my friendswhom he holds captive?\"\"Not by my counsel,\" said Bern. \"As soon as there was a fight two or three ships wouldput out from Narrowhaven to rescue Pug. Your Majesty must work by a show of morepower than you really have, and by the terror of the King's name. It must not come toplain battle. Gumpas is a chicken-hearted man and can be over-awed.\"After a little more conversation Caspian and Bern walked down to the coast a little westof the village and there Caspian winded his horn. (This was not the great magic horn ofNarnia, Queen Susan's Horn: he had left that at home for his regent Trumpkin to use ifany great need fell upon the land in the King's absence.) Drinian, who was on the look-out for a signal, recognized the royal horn at once and the Dawn Treader began standingin to shore. Then the boat put off again and in a few moments Caspian and the Lord Bernwere on deck explaining the situation to Drinian. He, just like Caspian, wanted to lay theDawn Treader alongside the slave-ship at once and board her, but Bern made the sameobjection.\"Steer straight down this channel, captain,\" said Bern, \"and then round to Avra where myown estates are. But first run up the King's banner, hang out all the shields, and send asmany men to the fighting top as you can. And about five bowshots hence, when you getopen sea on your port bow, run up a few signals.\"\"Signals? To whom?\" said Drinian.\"Why, to all the other ships we haven't got but which it might be well that Gumpas thinkswe have.\"\"Oh, I see,\" said Drinian rubbing his hands. \"Andthey'll read our signals. What shall I say? Whole fleet round the South of Avra andassemble at -?\"\"Bernstead,\" said the Lord Bern. \"That'll do excellently. Their whole journey - if therewere any ships What Caspian did there would be out of sight from Narrowhaven.\"Caspian was sorry for the others languishing in the hold of Pug's slave-ship, but he couldnot help finding the rest of that day enjoyable. Late in the afternoon (for they had to doall by oar), having turned to starboard round the northeast end of Doorn and port again

round the point of Avra, they entered into a good harbour on Avra's southern shore whereBern's pleasant lands sloped down to the water's edge. Bern's people, many of whom theysaw working in the fields, were all freemen and it was a happy and prosperous fief. Herethey all went ashore and were royally feasted in a low, pillared house overlooking thebay. Bern and his gracious wife and merry daughters made them good cheer. But afterdark Bern sent a messenger over by boat to Doorn to order some preparations (he did notsay exactly what) for the following day.CHAPTER FOURWHAT CASPIAN DID THERENert morning the Lord Bern called his guests early, and after breakfast he asked Caspianto order every man he had into full armour. \"And above all,\" he added, \"let everything beas trim and scoured as if it were the morning of the first battle in a great war betweennoble kings with all the world looking on.\" This was done; and then in three boatloadsCaspian and his people, and Bern with a few of his, put out for Narrowhaven. The king'sflag flew in the stern of his boat and his trumpeter was with him.When they reached the jetty at Narrowhaven, Caspian found a considerable crowdassembled to meet them. \"This is what I sent word about last night,\" said Bern. \"They areall friends of mine and honest people.\" And as soon as Caspian stepped ashore the crowdbroke out into hurrahs and shouts of, \"Narnia! Narnia! Long live the King.\" At the samemoment - and this was also due to Bern's messengers - bells began ringing from manyparts of the town. Then Caspian caused his banner to be advanced and his trumpet to beblown and every man drew his sword and set his face into a joyful sternness, and theymarched up the street so that the street shook, and their armour shone (for it was a sunnymorning) so that one could hardly look at it steadily.At first the only people who cheered were those who had been warned by Bern'smessenger and knew what was happening and wanted it to happen. But then all thechildren joined in because they liked a procession and had seen very few. And then allthe schoolboys joined in because they also liked processions and felt that the more noiseand disturbance there was the less likely they would be to have any school that morning.And then all the old women put their heads out of doors and windows and beganchattering and cheering because it was a king, and what is a governor compared withthat? And all the young women joined in for the same reason and also because Caspianand Drinian and the rest were so handsome. And then all the young men came to see whatthe young women were looking at, so that by the time Caspian reached the castle gates,nearly the whole town was shouting; and where Gumpas sat in the castle, muddling andmessing about with accounts and forms and rules and regulations, he heard the noise.