Narnia: The Horse and His Boy - Audiobook - Pt 4/4
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy - Audiobook - Pt 4/4
Complete unabridged, read by Alex Jennings
00:00:00 - Chapter 12
00:16:33 - Chapter 13
00:34:33 - Chapter 14
00:52:08 - Chapter 15
Complete unabridged, read by Alex Jennings
00:00:00 - Chapter 12
00:16:33 - Chapter 13
00:34:33 - Chapter 14
00:52:08 - Chapter 15
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00:00CHAPTER XII Shasta in Narnia
00:00:08Was it all a dream? wondered Shasta. But it couldn't have been a dream, for there in the
00:00:17grass before him he saw the deep, large print of the lion's front right paw. It took one's
00:00:23breath away to think of the weight that could make a footprint like that. But there was
00:00:27something more remarkable than the size about it. As he looked at it, water had already
00:00:32filled the bottom of it. Soon it was full to the brim, and then overflowing, and a little
00:00:37stream was running downhill past him over the grass. Shasta stooped and drank a very
00:00:43long drink, and then dipped his face in and splashed his head. It was extremely cold and
00:00:50clear as glass, and refreshed him very much. After that he stood up, shaking the water
00:00:56out of his ears and flinging the wet hair back from his forehead, and began to take
00:01:00stock of his surroundings.
00:01:04Apparently it was still a very early morning. The sun had only just risen, and it had risen
00:01:09out of the forests which he saw low down and far away on his right. The country which he
00:01:14was looking at was absolutely new to him. It was a green valley-land dotted with trees,
00:01:19through which he caught the gleam of a river that wound away roughly to the north-west.
00:01:24On the far side of the valley there were high and even rocky hills, but they were lower
00:01:28than the mountains he had seen yesterday. Then he began to guess where he was. He turned
00:01:33and looked behind him, and saw that the slope on which he was standing belonged to a range
00:01:37of far higher mountains.
00:01:39"'I see,' said Shasta to himself, "'those are the big mountains between Arkenland and
00:01:45Narnia. I was on the other side of them yesterday. I must have come through the pass in the night.
00:01:51What luck that I hit it! And it wasn't luck at all, really. It was him, and now I'm in
00:01:59Narnia!'
00:02:00He turned and unsaddled his horse, and took off its bridle.
00:02:03"'Though you are a perfectly horrid horse,' he said.
00:02:07It took no notice of this remark, and immediately began eating grass. That horse had a very
00:02:12low opinion of Shasta.
00:02:14"'I wish I could eat grass,' thought Shasta. "'It's no good going back to Anvard. It'll
00:02:20be besieged. I'd better get lower down into the valley, and see if I can get anything
00:02:25to eat.'
00:02:26So he went on downhill. The thick dew was cruelly cold to his bare feet, till he came
00:02:32into a wood. There was a kind of track running through it, and he had not followed this for
00:02:36many minutes, when he heard a thick and rather wheezy voice saying to him,
00:02:41"'Good-morning, neighbour!'
00:02:42Shasta looked round eagerly to find the speaker, and presently saw a small prickly person with
00:02:48a dark face, who had just come out from among the trees. At least it was small for a person,
00:02:54but very big, indeed, for a hedgehog, which was what it was.
00:02:58"'Good-morning,' said Shasta, "'but I'm not a neighbour. In fact, I'm a stranger in these
00:03:04parts.'
00:03:05"'Ah!' said the hedgehog, inquiringly, "'I've come over the mountains, from Arkenland, you
00:03:12know.'
00:03:13"'Ah! Arkenland!' said the hedgehog, "'that's a terrible long way. Never been there myself.'
00:03:19"'And I think, perhaps,' said Shasta, "'someone ought to be told that there's an army of savage
00:03:25Kalormenes attacking Anvard at this very moment.'
00:03:27"'You don't say so,' answered the hedgehog. "'Well, think of that. And they do say that
00:03:34Kalormen is hundreds and thousands of miles away, right at the world's end, across a great
00:03:39sea of sand.'
00:03:40"'It's not nearly as far as you think,' said Shasta. "'And oughtn't something to be done
00:03:45about this attack on Anvard? Oughtn't your High King to be told?'
00:03:49"'Certain sure something ought to be done about it,' said the hedgehog. "'But you see,
00:03:54I'm just on my way to bed, for a good day's sleep. Hello, neighbour!'
00:03:59The last words were addressed to an immense biscuit-coloured rabbit, whose head had just
00:04:03popped up from somewhere beside the path. The hedgehog immediately told the rabbit what
00:04:07it had just learned from Shasta. The rabbit agreed that this was very remarkable news,
00:04:13and that somebody ought to tell someone about it with a view to doing something.
00:04:17And so it went on. Every few minutes they were joined by other creatures, some from
00:04:21the branches overhead, and some from little underground houses at their feet, till the
00:04:25party consisted of five rabbits, a squirrel, two magpies, a goat-foot fawn, and a mouse,
00:04:31who all talked at the same time, and all agreed with the hedgehog. For the truth was that
00:04:36in that golden age when the witch and the winter had gone, and Peter the High King ruled
00:04:40at Caer Paravell, the smaller woodland people of Narnia were so safe and happy that they
00:04:45were getting a little careless. Presently, however, two more practical people
00:04:50arrived in the little wood. One was a red dwarf, whose name appeared to be Duffel. The
00:04:55other was a stag, a beautiful lordly creature, with wide liquid eyes, dappled flanks, and
00:05:01legs so thin and graceful that they looked as if you could break them with two fingers.
00:05:06"'Lion alive!' roared the dwarf, as soon as he had heard the news.
00:05:10"'And if that's so, why are we all standing still, chattering? Enemies at Anvard! News
00:05:16must be sent to Caer Paravell at once. The army must be called out. Narnia must go to
00:05:21the aid of King Loon.' "'Ah,' said the hedgehog, "'but you won't
00:05:26find a High King at the Caer. He's away to the north, trouncing those giants. And talking
00:05:31of giants, neighbours, that puts me in mind—' "'Who'll take our message?' interrupted
00:05:36the dwarf. "'Anyone here got more speed than me?'
00:05:39"'I've got speed,' said the stag. "'What's my message? How many kalor means?'
00:05:44"'Two hundred, under Prince Rabadash. And—' But the stag was already away, all four legs
00:05:50off the ground at once, and in a moment its white stern had disappeared among the remoter
00:05:54trees. "'Wonder where he's going,' said a rabbit.
00:05:57"'He won't find the High King at Caer Paravell, you know.'
00:06:00"'He'll find Queen Lucy,' said Duffel. And then—'
00:06:04"'Hello! What's wrong with the human?' "'Looks pretty green. Why, I don't believe
00:06:09it's quite faint. Perhaps it's mortal hungry. When did you last have a meal, youngster?'
00:06:15"'Yesterday morning,' said Shasta weakly. "'Come on, then, come on,' said the dwarf,
00:06:20at once throwing his thick little arms round Shasta's waist to support him. "'Why, neighbours,
00:06:24we all ought to be ashamed of ourselves. You come with me, lad. Breakfast better than talking.'
00:06:29With a great deal of bustle, muttering reproaches to itself, the dwarf half led and half supported
00:06:35Shasta at great speed further into the wood and a little downhill. It was a longer walk
00:06:40than Shasta wanted at that moment, and his legs had begun to feel very shaky before they
00:06:44came out from the trees on to Bear Hillside. There they found a little house with a smoking
00:06:49chimney and an open door, and as they came to the doorway Duffel called out,
00:06:53"'Hey, brothers, a visitor for breakfast!' and immediately, mixed with a sizzling sound,
00:06:59there came to Shasta a simply delightful smell. It was one he had never smelt in his life
00:07:04before, but I hope you have. It was, in fact, the smell of bacon and eggs and mushrooms
00:07:10all frying in a pan. "'Mind your head, lad,' said Duffel, a moment too late, for Shasta
00:07:16had already bashed his forehead against the low lintel of the door.
00:07:19"'Now,' continued the dwarf, "'sit you down. The table's a bit low for you, but then the stool's low too.
00:07:25That's right, and here's porridge, and here's a jug of cream, and here's a spoon.'"
00:07:31By the time Shasta had finished his porridge, the dwarf's two brothers, whose names were
00:07:36Rogan and Bricklethumb, were putting the dish of bacon and eggs and mushrooms, and the coffee
00:07:40pot and the hot milk, and the toast, on the table.
00:07:44It was all new and wonderful to Shasta, for Calormine food is quite different. He didn't
00:07:50even know what the slices of brown stuff were, for he had never seen toast before. He didn't
00:07:55even know what the yellow soft thing they smeared on the toast was, because in Calormine
00:07:59you nearly always get oil instead of butter. And the house itself was quite different from
00:08:03the dark, frosty, fish-smelling hut of Archish, and from the pillared and carpeted halls in
00:08:08the palaces of Tashban. The roof was very low, and everything was made of wood, and
00:08:14there was a cuckoo-clock, and a red-and-white Czech tablecloth, and a bowl of wild flowers,
00:08:18and little curtains on the thick-paned windows. It was also rather troublesome having to use
00:08:22dwarf cups and plates, and knives and forks. This meant that helpings were very small,
00:08:28but then there were a great many helpings, so that Shasta's plate or cup was being filled
00:08:33every moment, and every moment the dwarfs themselves were saying,
00:08:36"'Butter, please!' or,
00:08:38"'Another cup of coffee!' or,
00:08:39"'I'd like a few more mushrooms!' or,
00:08:41"'What about frying another egg or so?''
00:08:44And when at last they had all eaten as much as they possibly could, the three dwarfs drew
00:08:48lots for who would do the washing up, and Rogin was the unlucky one. Then Duffle and
00:08:53Bricklethumb took Shasta outside to a bench which ran against the cottage wall, and they
00:08:58all stretched out their legs and gave a great sigh of contentment, and the two dwarfs lit
00:09:02their pipes. The dew was off the grass now, and the sun was warm. Indeed, if there hadn't
00:09:07been a light breeze, it would have been too hot.
00:09:10"'Now, stranger,' said Duffle,
00:09:12"'I'll show you the loy of the land. You can see nearly all South Narnia from here,
00:09:17and we're rather proud of the view. Right away on your left, beyond those near hills,
00:09:21you can just see the Western Mountains, and that round hill away on your right is called
00:09:26the Hell of the Stone Table, just beyond—'
00:09:29But at that moment he was interrupted by a snore from Shasta, who, what with his night's
00:09:34journey and his excellent breakfast, had fallen fast asleep. The kindly dwarfs, as
00:09:40soon as they noticed this, began making signs to each other not to wake him, and indeed
00:09:44did so much whispering and nodding and getting up and tiptoeing away, that they certainly
00:09:48would have waked him if he had been less tired.
00:09:52He slept pretty well nearly all day, but woke up in time for supper. The beds in that house
00:09:58were all too small for him, but they made him a fine bed of heather on the floor, and
00:10:02he never stirred nor dreamed all night.
00:10:06Next morning they had just finished breakfast, when they heard a shrill, exciting sound from
00:10:10outside.
00:10:11"'Trumpets!' said all the dwarfs, as they and Shasta all came running out. The trumpet
00:10:16sounded again—a new noise to Shasta, not huge and solemn like the horns of Tash Barn,
00:10:22nor gay and merry like King Loon's hunting-horn, but clear and sharp and valiant. The noise
00:10:29was coming from the woods to the east, and soon there was a noise of horse-hoofs mixed
00:10:33with it. A moment later the head of the column came into sight.
00:10:38First came the Lord Peredan on a bay-horse, carrying the great banner of Narnia, a red
00:10:43lion on a green ground. Shasta knew him at once. Then came three people riding abreast,
00:10:49two on great chargers, and one on a pony. The two on the chargers were King Edmund,
00:10:54and a fair-haired lady with a very merry face, who wore a helmet and a male shirt,
00:10:59and carried a bow across her shoulder, and a quiver full of arrows at her side.
00:11:03"'The Queen Lucy!' whispered Duffel.
00:11:06But the one on the pony was Corrin. After that came the main body of the army—men
00:11:12on ordinary horses, men on talking horses, who didn't mind being ridden on proper occasions,
00:11:17as when Narnia went to war—centaurs, stern, hard-bitten bears, great talking dogs, and,
00:11:23first of all, six giants. For there are good giants in Narnia. But though he knew they
00:11:30were on the right side, Shasta at first could hardly bear to look at them. There are some
00:11:35things that take a lot of getting used to."
00:11:38Just as the King and Queen reached the cottage, and the dwarfs began making low bows to them,
00:11:42King Edmund called out,
00:11:43"'Now, friends, time for a halt and a morsel!'
00:11:47And at once there was a great bustle of people dismounting, and haversacks being opened,
00:11:51and conversation beginning, when Corrin came running up to Shasta, and seized both his
00:11:56hands and cried,
00:11:57"'What! you here! So you got through all right! I am glad. Now we shall have some sport.
00:12:04And isn't it luck! We only got into the harbour at Caer Paravel yesterday morning, and the
00:12:08very first person who met us was Chervie the Stag, with all this news of an attack on Anvard.
00:12:13Don't you think—'
00:12:14"'Who is your Highness's friend?' said King Edmund, who had just got off his horse.
00:12:18"'Didn't you see, sire?' said Corrin.
00:12:20"'It's my double—the boy you mistook me for at Tash Barn.'
00:12:23"'Why, so he is your double!' exclaimed Queen Lucy.
00:12:28"'As like as two twins. This is a marvellous thing!'
00:12:32"'Please, your Majesty,' said Shasta to King Edmund,
00:12:35"'I was no traitor—really I wasn't. And I couldn't help hearing your plans. But I'd
00:12:42never have dreamed of telling them to your enemies.'
00:12:45"'I know now that you were no traitor, boy,' said King Edmund, laying his hand on Shasta's
00:12:50head. But if you would not be taken for one, another time try not to hear what's meant
00:12:55for other ears. But all's well!"
00:12:58After that there was so much bustle and talk and coming and going, that Shasta for a few
00:13:03minutes lost sight of Corrin and Edmund and Lucy. But Corrin was the sort of boy whom
00:13:08one is sure to hear of pretty soon, and it wasn't very long before Shasta heard King
00:13:12Edmund saying in a loud voice, "'By the lion's mane, Princess, it's too much! Will
00:13:17your Highness never be better? You are more of a heart's skull than our whole army together.
00:13:22I'd asleep to have a regiment of hornets in my command as you!'
00:13:27Shasta wormed his way through the crowd, and there saw Edmund looking very angry indeed,
00:13:31Corrin looking a little ashamed of himself, and a strange dwarf sitting on the ground
00:13:35making faces. A couple of fawns had apparently just been helping it out of its armour.
00:13:41"'If I had but my cordial with me,' Queen Lucy was saying,
00:13:44"'I could soon mend this. But the High King has so strictly charged me not to carry it
00:13:49commonly to the wars, and to keep it only for great extremities.'
00:13:53What had happened was this. As soon as Corrin had spoken to Shasta, Corrin's elbow had been
00:13:58plucked by a dwarf in the army called Thornbutt.
00:14:01"'What is it, Thornbutt?' Corrin had said.
00:14:04"'Your Royal Highness,' said Thornbutt, drawing him aside, "'our march today will bring us
00:14:08through the pass and right to your royal father's castle. We may be in battle before
00:14:13night.'
00:14:14"'I know,' said Corrin. "'Isn't it splendid?'
00:14:16"'Splendid or not,' said Thornbutt, 'I have the strictest orders from King Edmund to see
00:14:22to it that Your Highness is not in the fight. You'll be allowed to see it, and that's treat
00:14:26enough for Your Highness's little years.'
00:14:28"'Oh, what nonsense!' Corrin burst out.
00:14:31"'Of course I'm going to fight. Why, the Queen Lucy's going to be with the archers.'
00:14:35"'The Queen's grace will do as she pleases,' said Thornbutt.
00:14:39"'But you are in my charge. Either I must have your solemn and princely word that you'll
00:14:44keep your pony beside mine, not half a neck ahead, till I give Your Highness leave to
00:14:49depart, or else—it is His Majesty's word—we must go with our wrists tied together like
00:14:54two prisoners.'
00:14:55"'I'll knock you down if you try to bind me,' said Corrin.
00:14:59"'I'd like to see Your Highness do it,' said the dwarf.
00:15:03That was quite enough for a boy like Corrin, and in a second he and the dwarf were at it
00:15:07hammer and tongs. It would have been an even match, for though Corrin had longer arms and
00:15:12more height, the dwarf was older and tougher. But it was never fought out. That's the worst
00:15:18of fights on a rough hillside, for by very bad luck Thornbutt trod on a loose stone,
00:15:23came flat down on his nose, and found when he tried to get up that he had sprained his
00:15:27ankle—a really excruciating sprain which would keep him from walking or riding for
00:15:32at least a fortnight.'
00:15:33"'See what Your Highness has done!' said King Edmund.
00:15:36"'Deprived us of a proved warrior on the very edge of battle!'
00:15:40"'I'll take his place, sire,' said Corrin.
00:15:43"'Sure,' said Edmund, "'no one doubts your courage, but a boy in battle is a danger only
00:15:47to his own side.'
00:15:48At that moment the king was called away to attend to something else, and Corrin, after
00:15:54apologising handsomely to the dwarf, rushed up to Shasta and whispered,
00:15:58"'Quick, there's a spare pony now, and the dwarf's armour. Put it on before anyone notices.'
00:16:03"'What for?' said Shasta.
00:16:05"'Why, so that you and I can fight in the battle, of course. Don't you want to?'
00:16:09"'Oh, er, yes, of course,' said Shasta.
00:16:13But he hadn't been thinking of doing so at all, and began to get a most uncomfortable,
00:16:17prickly feeling in his spine.
00:16:19"'That's right,' said Corrin.
00:16:21"'Over your head.
00:16:22Now the sword-belt.
00:16:23But we must ride near the tail of the column and keep as quiet as mice.
00:16:27"'Once the battle begins, everyone will be far too busy to notice us.'"
00:16:34CHAPTER XIII.
00:16:35THE FIGHT AT ANVARD
00:16:38By about eleven o'clock the whole company was once more on the march, riding westward
00:16:42with the mountains on their left.
00:16:44Corrin and Shasta rode right at the rear with the giants immediately in front of them.
00:16:49Lucy and Edmund and Peridam were busy with their plans for the battle, and though Lucy
00:16:52once said,
00:16:53"'But where is his goose-cap highness?'
00:16:56Edmund only replied,
00:16:57"'Not in the front, and that's good news.
00:17:00Leave well alone.'"
00:17:01Shasta told Corrin most of his adventures, and explained that he had learned all his
00:17:06riding from a horse, and didn't really know how to use the reins.
00:17:10Corrin instructed him in this, besides telling him all about their secret sailing from Tashbarn.
00:17:14"'And where is the Queen Susan?'
00:17:18"'At Caer Paravell,' said Corrin.
00:17:21"'She's not like Lucy, you know, who's as good as a man, or at any rate as good as a
00:17:24boy.
00:17:25Queen Susan is more like an ordinary grown-up lady.
00:17:28She doesn't ride to the wars, though she's an excellent archer.'"
00:17:32The hillside path which they were following became narrower all the time, and the drop
00:17:36on their right hand became steeper.
00:17:38At last they were going in single file along the edge of the precipice, and Shasta shuddered
00:17:43to think that he had done the same last night without knowing it.
00:17:46"'But of course,' he thought, "'I was quite safe.
00:17:50That is why the lion kept on my left.
00:17:52He was between me and the edge all the time.'"
00:17:55Then the path went left and south away from the cliff, and there were thick woods on both
00:18:00sides of it, and they went steeply up and up into the pass.
00:18:04There would have been a splendid view from the top if it were open ground, but among
00:18:08all those trees you could see nothing, only every now and then some huge pinnacle of rock
00:18:13above the treetops, and an eagle or two wheeling high up in the blue air.
00:18:18"'They smell battle,' said Corrin, pointing at the birds.
00:18:21"'They know we're preparing a feed for them.'
00:18:24Shasta didn't like this at all.
00:18:27When they had crossed the neck of the pass and come a good deal lower, they reached more
00:18:30open ground, and from here Shasta could see all Arkenland, blue and hazy, spread out below
00:18:36him, and even, he thought, a hint of the desert beyond it.
00:18:41But the sun, which had perhaps two hours or so to go before it set, was in his eyes, and
00:18:45he couldn't make things out distinctly.
00:18:48Here the army halted and spread out in a line, and there was a great deal of rearranging.
00:18:53A whole detachment of very dangerous-looking talking beasts, whom Shasta had not noticed
00:18:58before and who were mostly of the cat kind, leopards, panthers and the like, went padding
00:19:03and growling to take up their positions on the left.
00:19:06The giants were ordered to the right, and before going there they all took off something
00:19:09they had been carrying on their backs and sat down for a moment.
00:19:13Then Shasta saw that what they had been carrying, and were now putting on, were pairs of boots,
00:19:17horrid, heavy, spiked boots, which came up to their knees.
00:19:22Then they sloped their huge clubs over their shoulders and marched to their battle position.
00:19:27The archers, with Queen Lucy, fell to the rear, and you could first see them bending
00:19:31their bows, and then hear the twang-twang as they tested the strings.
00:19:36And wherever you looked you could see people tightening girths, putting on helmets, drawing
00:19:40swords, and throwing cloaks at the ground.
00:19:44There was hardly any talking now.
00:19:46It was very solemn and very dreadful.
00:19:48I'm in for it now.
00:19:50I really am in for it now, thought Shasta.
00:19:54Then there came noises far ahead, the sound of many men shouting, and a steady thud, thud,
00:20:00thud.
00:20:01Battering ram, whispered Corrin.
00:20:03They're battering the gate.
00:20:06Even Corrin looked quite serious now.
00:20:08Why doesn't King Edmund get on? he said.
00:20:11I can't stand this waiting about.
00:20:13It's chilly too.
00:20:15Shasta nodded, hoping he didn't look as frightened as he felt.
00:20:20The trumpet at last.
00:20:22On the move now, now trotting, the banner streaming out in the wind.
00:20:27They had topped a low ridge now, and below them the whole scene suddenly opened out,
00:20:31a little many-towered castle with its gate toward them.
00:20:35No moat, unfortunately, but of course the gate shut and the portcullis down.
00:20:40On the walls they could see, like little white dots, the faces of the defenders.
00:20:45Down below, about fifty of the Colormenes, dismounted, were steadily swinging a great
00:20:50tree trunk against the gate.
00:20:52But at once the scene changed.
00:20:54The main bulk of Rabadash's men had been on foot, ready to assault the gate.
00:20:59But now he had seen the Narnians sweeping down from the ridge.
00:21:02There is no doubt those Colormenes are wonderfully trained.
00:21:06It seemed to Shasta only a second before a whole line of the enemy were on horseback
00:21:09again, wheeling round to meet them, swinging toward them.
00:21:13And now a gallop.
00:21:15The ground between the two armies grew less every moment.
00:21:18Faster, faster.
00:21:20All swords out now, all shields up to the nose, all prayers said, all teeth clenched.
00:21:27Shasta was dreadfully frightened.
00:21:29But it suddenly came into his head.
00:21:31If you funk this, you'll funk every battle all your life, now or never.
00:21:37And when at last the two lines met, he had really very little idea of what happened.
00:21:42There was a frightful confusion and an appalling noise.
00:21:46His sword was not clean out of his hand pretty soon, and he got the reins tangled somehow.
00:21:51Then he found himself slipping.
00:21:53Then a spear came straight at him, and as he ducked to avoid it, he rolled right off
00:21:57his horse, bashed his left knuckles terribly against someone else's armour, and then—
00:22:03But it is no use trying to describe the battle from Shasta's point of view.
00:22:07He understood too little of the fight in general, and even of his own part in it.
00:22:11The best way I can tell you what really happened is to take you some miles away to where the
00:22:15Hermit of the Southern March sat gazing into the smooth pool beneath the spreading tree,
00:22:20with Brie and Hwin and Aravis beside him.
00:22:24For it was in this pool that the Hermit looked when he wanted to know what was going on in
00:22:27the world outside the green walls of his Hermitage.
00:22:30There, as in a mirror, he could see, at certain times, what was going on in the streets of
00:22:35cities far, farther south than Tashpan, or what ships were putting into Redhaven in the
00:22:40remote Seven Isles, or what robbers or wild beasts stirred in the great western forests
00:22:46between Lantern Waste and Telmar.
00:22:49And all this day he had hardly left his pool, even to eat or drink, for he knew that great
00:22:54events were afoot in Arkenland.
00:22:57Aravis and the horses gazed into it too.
00:23:01They could see it was a magic pool.
00:23:04Instead of reflecting the tree and the sky, it revealed cloudy and coloured shapes moving,
00:23:09always moving, in its depths.
00:23:11But they could see nothing clearly.
00:23:13The Hermit could, and from time to time he told them what he saw.
00:23:17A little while before Shasta rode into his first battle, the Hermit had begun speaking
00:23:21like this.
00:23:22SHASTA.
00:23:23I see one, two, three eagles wheeling in the gap by Stormness Head.
00:23:30One is the oldest of all the eagles.
00:23:33He would not be out unless battle was at hand.
00:23:36I see him wheel to and fro, peering down sometimes at Anvard, and sometimes to the east, behind
00:23:42Stormness.
00:23:43Ah, I see now what Rabadash and his men have been so busy at all day.
00:23:48They have felled and lopped a great tree, and they are now coming out of the woods carrying
00:23:52it as a ram.
00:23:54They have learned something from the failure of last night's assault.
00:23:58He would have been wiser if he had set his men to making ladders, but it takes too long
00:24:02and he is impatient, fool that he is.
00:24:06He ought to have ridden back to Tashbarn as soon as the first attack failed, for his whole
00:24:10plan depended on speed and surprise.
00:24:13Now they are bringing their ram into position.
00:24:16King Loom's men are shooting hard from the walls.
00:24:19Five Kalormenes have fallen, but not many will.
00:24:23They have their shields above their heads.
00:24:25Rabadash is giving his orders now.
00:24:27With him are his most trusted lords, fierce Tarkhans from the eastern provinces.
00:24:32I can see their faces.
00:24:34There is Corridin of Castle Tormunt, and Azru, and Clamash, and Ilgamuth of the Twisted
00:24:40Lip, and a tall Tarkhan with a crimson beard.
00:24:43By the main, my old master, Anradin," said Brie.
00:24:48"'Shh!' said Aravis.
00:24:50"'Now the ram has started.
00:24:52If I could hear as well as see, what a noise that would make!
00:24:57Stroke after stroke, and no gate can stand it for ever.
00:25:00But wait!
00:25:02Rising up by Storm Ness has scared the birds.
00:25:04They're coming out in masses.
00:25:06And wait again!
00:25:07I can't see yet.
00:25:09Ah!
00:25:10Now I can!
00:25:11The whole ridge up on the east is black with horsemen.
00:25:13If only the wind would catch that standard and spread it out!
00:25:17They're over the ridge now, whoever they are.
00:25:20Aha!
00:25:21I've seen the banner now.
00:25:22Narnia!
00:25:23Narnia!
00:25:24It's the Red Lion!
00:25:25They're in full career down the hill now.
00:25:27I can see King Edmund.
00:25:29There's a woman behind among the archers.
00:25:31Oh!'
00:25:32"'What is it?' asked Wynne, breathlessly.
00:25:35"'All his cats are dashing out from the left of the line.'
00:25:37"'Cats?' said Aravis.
00:25:40"'Great cats, leopards and such,' said the hermit, impatiently.
00:25:44"'I see!
00:25:45I see!
00:25:46The cats are coming round in a circle to get at the horses of the dismounted men.
00:25:49A good stroke!
00:25:50The Calormene horses are mad with terror already.
00:25:53Now the cats are in among them.
00:25:55But Rabadash has reformed his line, and has a hundred men in the saddle.
00:25:58They're riding to meet the Narnians.
00:26:00There's only a hundred yards between the two lines now.
00:26:03Only fifty.
00:26:04I can see King Edmund.
00:26:06I can see the Lord Peredan.
00:26:07There are two mere children in the Narnian line.
00:26:11What can the king be about to let them into battle?
00:26:14Only ten yards.
00:26:16The lines have met.
00:26:17The giants on the Narnian right are doing wonders.
00:26:21But one's down.
00:26:22Shot through the eye, I suppose.
00:26:24The centre's all in a muddle.
00:26:26I can see more on the left.
00:26:27There are the two boys again.
00:26:30Seven alive.
00:26:31One is Prince Corrin.
00:26:33The other, like him, has two peas.
00:26:35It's your little Shasta.
00:26:37Corrin is fighting like a man.
00:26:39He's killed a Calormene.
00:26:41I can see a bit of the centre now.
00:26:43Rabadash and Edmund almost met then.
00:26:45But the press has separated them.
00:26:47What about Shasta?" said Aravis.
00:26:50Oh, the fool!
00:26:51groaned the hermit.
00:26:52Poor, brave little fool!
00:26:55He knows nothing about this work.
00:26:57He's making no use at all of his shield.
00:27:00His whole side's exposed.
00:27:02He hasn't the faintest idea what to do with his sword.
00:27:05Always remembered it now.
00:27:06He's waving it wildly about, nearly cut his own pony's head off, and he will in a moment
00:27:11if he's not careful.
00:27:13It's been knocked out of his hand now.
00:27:15It's mere murder sending a child into the battle.
00:27:18He can't live five minutes.
00:27:19Duck, you fool!
00:27:21Oh!
00:27:22He's down.
00:27:23Killed?" asked three voices breathlessly.
00:27:26How can I tell?" said the hermit.
00:27:30Cats have done their work.
00:27:31All the riderless horses are dead or escaped now.
00:27:34No retreat for the Calormenes on them.
00:27:37Now the cats are turning back into the main battle.
00:27:39They're leaping on the ram's men.
00:27:41The ram is down.
00:27:42Oh, good!
00:27:43Good!
00:27:44The gates are opening from the inside.
00:27:47There's going to be a sortie.
00:27:48The first three are out.
00:27:50It's King Loon in the middle, the brothers Dar and Darin on each side of him.
00:27:54Among them are Tran and Shar and Cole with his brother Colin.
00:27:58There are ten, twenty, nearly thirty of them out by now.
00:28:01The Calormene line is being forced back upon them.
00:28:04King Edmund is dealing marvellous strokes.
00:28:06He's just slashed Corridin's head off.
00:28:09Lots of Calormenes have thrown down their arms and are running for the woods.
00:28:12Those that remain are hard-pressed.
00:28:15The giants are closing in on the right, cats on the left, King Loon from their rear.
00:28:19The Calormenes are a little naught now, fighting back to back.
00:28:23Lord Tarkhan's down, Bree.
00:28:25Loon and Azru are fighting hand to hand.
00:28:28The king looks like winning.
00:28:30The king is keeping it up well.
00:28:32The king has won.
00:28:34Azru's down.
00:28:36King Edmund's down.
00:28:37No, he's up again.
00:28:38He's at it with Rabidash.
00:28:40They're fighting in the very gates of the castle.
00:28:43Several Calormenes have surrendered.
00:28:45Darin has killed Ilgamuth.
00:28:46I can't see what's happened to Rabidash.
00:28:49I think he's dead, lying against the castle wall, but I don't know.
00:28:54Clamash and King Edmund are still fighting, but the battle is over everywhere else.
00:28:58Clamash has surrendered.
00:29:00The battle is over.
00:29:02The Calormenes are utterly defeated.
00:29:06When Shasta fell off his horse, he gave himself up for lost.
00:29:11But horses, even in battle, tread on human beings very much less than you would suppose.
00:29:16After a very horrible ten minutes or so, Shasta realised suddenly that there were no
00:29:20longer any horses stamping about in the immediate neighbourhood, and that the noise, for there
00:29:24were still a good many noises going on, was no longer that of a battle.
00:29:28He sat up and stared about him.
00:29:31Even he, little as he knew of battles, could soon see that the Arkenlanders and Narnians
00:29:35had won.
00:29:37The only living Calormenes he could see were prisoners.
00:29:40The castle gates were wide open, and King Loon and King Edmund were shaking hands across
00:29:44the battering-ram.
00:29:46From the circle of lords and warriors around them there arose a sound of breathless and
00:29:50excited but obviously cheerful conversation, and then, suddenly, it all united and swelled
00:29:56into a great roar of laughter.
00:30:00Shasta picked himself up, feeling uncommonly stiff, and ran toward the sound to see what
00:30:05the joke was.
00:30:06A very curious sight met his eyes.
00:30:09The unfortunate Rabadash appeared to be suspended from the castle walls.
00:30:14His feet, which were about two feet from the ground, were kicking wildly.
00:30:18His chain-shirt was somehow hitched up so that it was horribly tight under the arms
00:30:23and came half-way over his face.
00:30:25In fact, he looked just as a man looks if you catch him in the very act of getting into
00:30:28a stiff shirt that is a little too small for him.
00:30:32As far as could be made out afterward, and you may be sure the story was well talked
00:30:36over for many a day, what happened was something like this.
00:30:40Early in the battle one of the giants had made an unsuccessful stamp at Rabadash with
00:30:44his spiked boot.
00:30:46Unsuccessful because it didn't crush Rabadash, which was what the giant had intended, but
00:30:50not quite useless because one of the spikes tore the chain-mail, just as you or I might
00:30:55tear an ordinary shirt.
00:30:58So Rabadash, by the time he encountered Edmund at the gate, had a hole in the back of his
00:31:02haubuck, and when Edmund pressed him back nearer and nearer to the wall, he jumped up
00:31:06on a mounting-block and stood there raining down blows on Edmund from above.
00:31:10But then, finding that his position, by raising him above the heads of everyone else, made
00:31:14him a mark for every arrow from the Narnian bows, he decided to jump down again.
00:31:19And he meant to look and sound, no doubt for a moment he did look and sound, very grand
00:31:24and very dreadful, as he jumped, crying, the Boat of Tash falls from above.
00:31:29But he had to jump sideways, because the crowd in front of him left him no landing-place
00:31:34in that direction.
00:31:35And then, in the neatest way you could wish, the tear in the back of his haubuck caught
00:31:40on a hook in the wall.
00:31:43Ages ago this hook had had a ring in it for tying horses to.
00:31:46And there he found himself, like a piece of washing hung up to dry, with everyone laughing
00:31:51at him.
00:31:52"'Let me down, Edmund,' howled Rabadash.
00:31:56"'Let me down, and fight me like a king and a man.
00:32:00Or if you are too great a coward to do that, kill me at once.'
00:32:04"'Certainly,' began King Edmund.
00:32:05But King Loon interrupted.
00:32:07"'By your Majesty's good leave,' said King Loon to Edmund.
00:32:11"'Not so.'
00:32:12Then, turning to Rabadash, he said, "'Your Royal Highness, if you had given that challenge
00:32:17a week ago, I'll answer for it, there was no one in King Edmund's dominion, from the
00:32:21High King down to the smallest talking mouse, who would have refused it.
00:32:25But by attacking our castle of Anvard in time of peace without defiance sent, you have proved
00:32:31yourself no knight, but a traitor, and one rather to be whipped by the hangman than to
00:32:36be suffered to cross swords with any person of honour.
00:32:40Take him down, bind him, and carry him within till our pleasure is further known.'
00:32:46Strong hands wrenched Rabadash's sword from him, and he was carried away into the castle,
00:32:50shouting, threatening, cursing, and even crying.
00:32:54For though he could have faced torture, he couldn't bear being made ridiculous.
00:32:59In Tashbarn everyone had always taken him seriously.
00:33:03At that moment Corrin ran up to Shasta, seized his hand, and started dragging him toward
00:33:08King Loon.
00:33:09"'Here he is, father, here he is!' cried Corrin.
00:33:13"'Ay, and here thou art at last,' said the King in a very gruff voice.
00:33:19"'And hast been in the battle, clean contrary to your obedience, a boy to break a father's
00:33:26heart.
00:33:27At your age a rod to your breech were fitter than a sword in your fist, ha!'
00:33:31But everyone, including Corrin, could see that the King was very proud of him.
00:33:36"'Chide him no more, sire, if it please you,' said Lord Darin.
00:33:40"'His Highness would not be your son if he did not inherit your conditions.
00:33:44It would grieve your Majesty more if he had to be reproved for the opposite fault.'
00:33:48"'Well, well,' grumbled the King, 'we'll pass it over for this time.
00:33:53And now—'
00:33:56What came next surprised Shasta as much as anything that had ever happened to him in
00:34:00his life.
00:34:01He found himself suddenly embraced in a bear-like hug by King Loon, and kissed on both cheeks.
00:34:07Then the King set him down again, and said, "'Stand here together, boys, and let all the
00:34:13court see you.
00:34:14Parallel up your heads.
00:34:17Now, gentlemen, look on them both.
00:34:22Has any man any doubts?'
00:34:25And still Shasta could not understand why everyone stared at him and at Corrin, nor
00:34:30what all the cheering was about.
00:34:34CHAPTER XIV
00:34:36HOW BREE BECAME A WISER HORSE
00:34:40We must now return to Aravis and the horses.
00:34:44The hermit, watching his pool, was able to tell them that Shasta was not killed or even
00:34:48seriously wounded, for he saw him get up and saw how affectionately he was greeted by King
00:34:52Loon.
00:34:54But as he could only see, not hear, he did not know what any one was saying, and once
00:34:59the fighting had stopped and the talking had begun, it was not worthwhile looking in the
00:35:03pool any longer.
00:35:05Next morning, while the hermit was indoors, the three of them discussed what they should
00:35:09do next.
00:35:10"'I've had enough of this,' said Hwin.
00:35:13"'The hermit has been very good to us, and I'm very much obliged to him, I'm sure.
00:35:17But I'm getting as fat as a pet pony, eating all day, and getting no exercise.
00:35:23Let's go on to Narnia.'
00:35:24"'Oh, not to-day, ma'am,' said Bree.
00:35:28"'I wouldn't hurry things.
00:35:30Some other day, don't you think?'
00:35:32"'We must see Shasta first and say good-bye to him, and—'
00:35:36"'Apologize,' said Aravis.
00:35:39"'Exactly,' said Bree, with great enthusiasm.
00:35:42"'Just what I was going to say.'
00:35:44"'Oh, of course,' said Hwin.
00:35:46"'I expect he is in Anvard.
00:35:49Naturally we'd look in on him and say good-bye.
00:35:51But that's on our way.
00:35:53And why shouldn't we start at once?
00:35:55After all, I thought it was Narnia we all wanted to get to.'
00:35:59"'I suppose so,' said Aravis.
00:36:02She was beginning to wonder what exactly she would do when she got there, and was feeling
00:36:06a little lonely.
00:36:07"'Of course, of course,' said Bree hastily, "'but there's no need to rush things, if
00:36:12you know what I mean.'
00:36:13"'No, I don't know what you mean,' said Hwin.
00:36:16"'Why don't you want to go?'
00:36:19"'Brr!' muttered Bree.
00:36:21"'Well, don't you see, ma'am, it's an important occasion—returning to one's country, entering
00:36:28society—the best society.
00:36:31It is so essential to make a good impression—not, perhaps, looking quite ourselves yet, eh?'
00:36:38Hwin broke out into a hoarse laugh.
00:36:41"'It's your tail, Bree.
00:36:43I see it all now.
00:36:45You want to wait till your tail's grown again, and we don't even know if tails are worn long
00:36:50in Narnia.
00:36:51Really, Bree, you're as vain as that Tarkina in Tashbarn.'
00:36:55"'You are silly, Bree,' said Aravis.
00:36:58"'By the lion's mane, Tarkina, I'm nothing of the sort,' said Bree indignantly.
00:37:03"'I have a proper respect for myself and for my fellow-horses, that's all.'
00:37:07"'Bree,' said Aravis, who was not very interested in the cut of his tail, "'I've been wanting
00:37:12to ask you something for a long time.
00:37:15Why do you keep on swearing, by the lion and by the lion's mane?
00:37:19I thought you hated lions?'
00:37:20"'So I do,' answered Bree.
00:37:23"'But when I speak of the lion, of course I mean Aslan, the great deliverer of Narnia,
00:37:29who drove away the witch and the winter.
00:37:31All Narnians swear by him.'
00:37:33"'But is he a lion?'
00:37:35"'No, no, of course not,' said Bree, in a rather shocked voice.
00:37:39"'All the stories about him in Tashbarn say he is,' replied Aravis.
00:37:44"'And if he isn't a lion, why do you call him a lion?'
00:37:47"'Well, you'd hardly understand that at your age,' said Bree.
00:37:51"'And I was only a little foal when I left, so I don't quite fully understand it myself.'
00:37:57Bree was standing with his back to the green wall while he said this, and the other two
00:38:01were facing him.
00:38:02He was talking in rather a superior tone, with his eyes half shut.
00:38:07That was why he didn't see the changed expression in the faces of Hwin and Aravis.
00:38:11They had good reason to have open mouths and staring eyes, because while Bree spoke
00:38:16they saw an enormous lion leap up from outside and balance itself on the top of the green
00:38:22wall.
00:38:23Only it was a brighter yellow, and it was bigger and more beautiful and more alarming
00:38:27than any lion they had ever seen.
00:38:30And at once it jumped down inside the wall and began approaching Bree from behind.
00:38:35It made no noise at all.
00:38:37And Hwin and Aravis couldn't make any noise themselves, no more than if they were frozen.'
00:38:42"'No doubt,' continued Bree, "'when they speak of him as a lion, they only mean he's
00:38:48as strong as a lion, or to our enemies, of course, as fierce as a lion, or something
00:38:54of that kind.
00:38:55Even a little girl like you, Aravis, must see it would be quite absurd to suppose he
00:38:59is a real lion.
00:39:00Indeed, it would be disrespectful.
00:39:03If he was a lion, he'd have to be a beast, just like the rest of us.
00:39:07Why?'
00:39:08And here Bree began to laugh.
00:39:09"'If he was a lion, he'd have four paws, and a tail, and whiskers.
00:39:13I...
00:39:14Oh!
00:39:15Oh!
00:39:16Help!'
00:39:17For just as he said the word whiskers, one of Aslan's had actually tickled his ear.
00:39:23Bree shot away like an arrow to the other side of the enclosure, and there turned.
00:39:28The wall was too high for him to jump, and he could fly no further.
00:39:32Aravis and Hwin both started back.
00:39:34There was about a second of intense silence.
00:39:38Then Hwin, shaking all over, gave a strange little neigh, and trotted across to the lion.
00:39:45"'Please,' she said, 'you're so beautiful.
00:39:49You may eat me if you like.
00:39:52I'd sooner be eaten by you than fed by anyone else.'
00:39:55"'Dearest daughter,' said Aslan, planting a lion's kiss on her twitching velvet nose,
00:40:02"'I knew you would not be long in coming to me.
00:40:06Joy shall be yours.'
00:40:08Then he lifted his head and spoke in a louder voice.
00:40:11"'Now, Bree,' he said, 'you poor, proud, frightened horse, you're near, nearer still, my son.
00:40:21Do not dare not to dare.
00:40:25Touch me, smell me.
00:40:28Here are my paws, here is my tail.
00:40:31These are my whiskers.
00:40:33I am a true beast.'
00:40:35"'Aslan,' said Bree, in a shaken voice, "'I'm afraid I must be rather a fool.
00:40:45Happy the horse who knows that while he is still young.
00:40:48Or the human, either.
00:40:50Draw near, Aravis, my daughter.
00:40:53See?
00:40:54My paws are velveted.
00:40:57You will not be torn this time.'
00:40:59"'This time, sir,' said Aravis, "'it was I who wounded you.
00:41:06I am the only lion you met in all your journeyings.
00:41:09Do you know why I tore you?'
00:41:13"'No, sir.'
00:41:14"'The scratches on your back, tear for tear, throb for throb, blunt for blunt, were equal
00:41:22to the stripes laid on the back of your stepmother's slave because of the drugged sleep you cast
00:41:27upon her.
00:41:29You needed to know what it felt like.'
00:41:31"'Yes, sir.
00:41:32Please—'
00:41:33"'Ask on, my dear,' said Aslan.
00:41:38"'Will any more harm come to her by what I did?'
00:41:43"'Child,' said the lion, 'I am telling you your story, not hers.
00:41:49No one is told any story but their own.'
00:41:53Then he shook his head and spoke in a lighter voice.
00:41:56"'Be merry, little ones,' he said.
00:41:58"'We shall meet again soon.
00:42:00But before that you will have another visitor.'
00:42:04Then in one bound he reached the top of the wall and vanished from their sight.
00:42:09Strange to say, they felt no inclination to talk to one another about him after he had gone.
00:42:14They all moved slowly away to different parts of the quiet grass, and their pace to and fro,
00:42:19each alone, thinking.
00:42:21About half an hour later the two horses were summoned to the back of the house to eat something
00:42:25nice that the hermit had got ready for them, and Aravis, still walking and thinking, was
00:42:30startled by the harsh sound of a trumpet outside the gate.
00:42:33"'Who is there?' asked Aravis.
00:42:36"'His Royal Highness Prince Cor of Arkenland,' said a voice from outside.
00:42:42Aravis undid the door and opened it, drawing back a little way to let the strangers in.
00:42:47Two soldiers with halberds came first and took their stand at each side of the entry.
00:42:53Then followed a herald and the trumpeter.
00:42:57"'His Royal Highness Prince Cor of Arkenland desires an audience of the Lady Aravis,'
00:43:01said the herald.
00:43:02Then he and the trumpeter drew aside and bowed, and the soldier saluted,
00:43:07and the prince himself came in.
00:43:09All his attendants withdrew and closed the gate behind them.
00:43:13The prince bowed, and a very clumsy bow for a prince it was.
00:43:17Aravis curtseyed in the Columbian style, which is not at all like ours, and did it very well,
00:43:22because, of course, she had been taught how.
00:43:25Then she looked up and saw what sort of person this prince was.
00:43:30She saw a mere boy.
00:43:32He was bare-headed, and his fair hair was encircled with a very thin band of gold,
00:43:36hardly thicker than a wire.
00:43:38His upper tunic was of white cambric, as fine as a handkerchief,
00:43:42so that the bright red tunic beneath it showed through.
00:43:45His left hand, which rested on his enamelled sword-hilt, was bandaged.
00:43:50Aravis looked twice at his face before she gasped, and said,
00:43:54"'Why, it's Shasta!'
00:43:56Shasta all at once turned very red and began speaking very quickly.
00:44:01"'Look here, Aravis,' he said.
00:44:02"'I do hope you won't think I got up like this,
00:44:04and the trumpeter in order to try to impress you,
00:44:06or make out that I'm different, or any rot of that sort,
00:44:08because I'd far rather have come in my old clothes.
00:44:11But they're burnt now, and my father said—'
00:44:13"'Your father?' said Aravis.
00:44:16"'Apparently King Loon is my father,' said Shasta.
00:44:19"'I might really have guessed it, Corrin being so like me.
00:44:21We were twins, you see.
00:44:23Oh, um, my name isn't Shasta.
00:44:25It's Cor.'
00:44:26"'Cord is a nicer name than Shasta,' said Aravis.
00:44:30"'Brothers' names run like that in Arkenland,' said Shasta,
00:44:33or Prince Cor, as we must now call him,
00:44:36like Dar and Darin, Cole and Colin, and so on.
00:44:40"'Shasta—I mean Cor,' said Aravis.
00:44:44"'No, shut up.
00:44:45There's something I've got to say at once.
00:44:48"'I'm sorry I've been such a pig.
00:44:50"'But I did change before I knew you were a prince.
00:44:53"'Honestly, I did.
00:44:54"'When you went back and faced the lion—'
00:44:56"'It wasn't really going to kill you at all, that lion,' said Cor.
00:45:02"'I know,' said Aravis, nodding.
00:45:05Both were still and solemn for a moment,
00:45:07as each saw that the other knew about Aslan.
00:45:11Suddenly Aravis remembered Cor's bandaged hand.
00:45:14"'I say,' she cried,
00:45:15"'I forgot.
00:45:16"'You've been in a battle.
00:45:18"'Is that a wound?'
00:45:20"'A mere scratch,' said Cor,
00:45:22using for the first time a rather lordly tone.
00:45:25But a moment later he burst out laughing, and said,
00:45:28"'If you want to know the truth, it isn't a proper wound at all.
00:45:32"'I only took the skin off my knuckles,
00:45:34"'just as any clumsy fool might do without going near a battle.'
00:45:38"'Still, you were in the battle,' said Aravis.
00:45:42"'It must have been wonderful.'
00:45:44"'It wasn't at all like what I thought,' said Cor.
00:45:47"'But, Shasta—Cor, I mean,
00:45:49"'you haven't told me anything yet about King Loon
00:45:52"'and how he found out who you were.'
00:45:54"'Well, let's sit down,' said Cor,
00:45:56"'for it's rather a long story.
00:45:58"'And, by the way, father's an absolute brick.
00:46:01"'I'd be just as pleased—or very nearly—
00:46:04"'at finding he's my father even if he weren't a king,
00:46:07"'even though education and all sorts of horrible things
00:46:09"'are going to happen to me.
00:46:10"'But you want the story.
00:46:12"'Well, Corrin and I are twins,
00:46:15"'and about a week after we were both born, apparently,
00:46:17"'they took us to a wise old centaur in Narnia
00:46:19"'to be blessed or something.
00:46:21"'Now, this centaur was a prophet,
00:46:22"'as a good many centaurs are.
00:46:25"'Perhaps you haven't seen any centaurs yet.
00:46:27"'There were some in the battle yesterday.
00:46:29"'Most remarkable people.
00:46:31"'But I can't say I feel quite at home with them yet.
00:46:34"'I say, Aravis, there are going to be a lot of things
00:46:36"'to get used to in these northern countries.'
00:46:39"'Yes, there are,' said Aravis,
00:46:41"'but get on with the story.'
00:46:43"'Well, as soon as he saw Corrin and me,
00:46:45"'it seems this centaur looked at me and said,
00:46:47"'A day will come when that boy will save Arkenland
00:46:50"'from the deadliest danger in which ever she lay.
00:46:53"'So, of course, my father and mother were very pleased.
00:46:56"'But there was someone present who wasn't.
00:46:58"'This was a chap called Lord Barr,
00:47:00"'who had been father's Lord Chancellor,
00:47:03"'and apparently he'd done something wrong,
00:47:05"'bezzling or some word like that.
00:47:07"'I didn't understand that part very well,
00:47:09"'and father had had to dismiss him.
00:47:11"'But nothing else was done to him,
00:47:13"'and he was allowed to go on living in Arkenland.
00:47:15"'But he must have been as bad as he could be,
00:47:17"'for it came out afterward
00:47:18"'he had been in the pay of the Tisrock
00:47:20"'and had sent a lot of secret information to Tashbarn.
00:47:23"'So as soon as he heard I was going to save Arkenland
00:47:25"'from a great danger,
00:47:27"'he decided I must be put out of the way.
00:47:29"'Well, he succeeded in kidnapping me,
00:47:31"'I don't exactly know how,
00:47:33"'and rode away down the winding arrow to the coast.
00:47:36"'He'd had everything prepared,
00:47:37"'and there was a ship manned with his own followers,
00:47:40"'lying ready for him,
00:47:41"'and he put out to sea with me on board.
00:47:43"'But father got wind of it,
00:47:45"'though not quite in time,
00:47:46"'and was after him as quickly as he could.
00:47:49"'The Lord Barr was already at sea
00:47:51"'when father reached the coast,
00:47:52"'but not out of sight,
00:47:54"'and father was embarked in one of his own warships
00:47:56"'within twenty minutes.
00:47:58"'It must have been a wonderful chase.
00:48:00"'They were six days following Barr's galleon,
00:48:02"'and brought her to battle on the seventh.
00:48:04"'It was a great sea-fight.
00:48:06"'I heard a lot about it yesterday evening,
00:48:09"'from ten o'clock in the morning till sunset.
00:48:11"'Our people took the ship in the end,
00:48:13"'but I wasn't there.
00:48:15"'The Lord Barr himself had been killed in the battle.
00:48:18"'But one of his men said that earlier that morning,
00:48:20"'as soon as he saw he was certain to be overhauled,
00:48:23"'Barr had given me to one of his knights,
00:48:24"'and sent us both away in the ship's boat,
00:48:27"'and that boat was never seen again.
00:48:29"'But of course that was the same boat that Aslan—
00:48:32"'he seems to be at the back of all the stories—
00:48:34"'pushed ashore at the right place for Archish to pick me up.
00:48:38"'I wish I knew that knight's name,
00:48:40"'for he must have kept me alive
00:48:42"'and starved himself to do it.
00:48:45"'I suppose Aslan would say
00:48:46"'that was part of someone else's story,' said Aravis.
00:48:50"'I was forgetting that,' said Corr.
00:48:53"'And I wonder how the prophecy will work out,' said Aravis,
00:48:57"'and what the great danger is
00:48:58"'that you're to save Arkenland from.'
00:49:01"'Well,' said Corr, rather awkwardly,
00:49:04"'they seem to think I've done it already.'
00:49:06"'Aravis clapped her hands.
00:49:08"'Why, of course,' she said.
00:49:10"'How stupid I am!
00:49:12"'And how wonderful!
00:49:14"'Arkenland can never be in much greater danger
00:49:16"'than it was when Rabadash had crossed the Arrow
00:49:18"'with his two hundred horse,
00:49:19"'and you hadn't yet got through with your message.
00:49:22"'Don't you feel proud?'
00:49:24"'I think I feel a bit scared,' said Corr.
00:49:28"'And you'll be living in Anvard now,' said Aravis, rather wistfully.
00:49:33"'Oh!' said Corr.
00:49:35"'I'd nearly forgotten what I came about.
00:49:37"'Father wants you to come and live with us.
00:49:39"'He says there's been no lady in the court—'
00:49:41"'they call it the court, I don't know why—'
00:49:43"'since mother died.
00:49:45"'Do, Aravis.
00:49:46"'You're like father—and Corrin.
00:49:50"'They're not like me—they've been properly brought up.
00:49:53"'You'dn't even be afraid that—'
00:49:54"'Oh, stop it!' said Aravis.
00:49:56"'Or we'll have a real fight.
00:49:58"'Of course I'll come.
00:50:00"'Now, let's go and see the horses,' said Corr."
00:50:04There was a great and joyous meeting between Brie and Corr,
00:50:07and Brie, who was still in a rather subdued frame of mind,
00:50:10agreed to set out for Anvard at once.
00:50:13He and Nguyen would cross into Narnia on the following day.
00:50:16All four bade an affectionate farewell to the hermit,
00:50:19and promised that they would visit him again soon.
00:50:22By about the middle of the morning, they were on their way.
00:50:25The horses had expected that Aravis and Corr would ride,
00:50:29but Corr explained that except in war,
00:50:31where everyone must do what he can do best,
00:50:34no one in Narnia or Arkenland ever dreamed of mounting a talking horse.
00:50:38This reminded poor Brie again of how little he knew about Narnian customs,
00:50:43and what dreadful mistakes he might make.
00:50:45So while Nguyen strolled along in a happy dream,
00:50:48Brie got more nervous and more self-conscious with every step he took.
00:50:53"'Buck up, Brie,' said Corr.
00:50:55"'It's far worse for me than for you.
00:50:57"'You aren't going to be educated.
00:50:59"'I shall be learning reading and writing and heraldry and dancing and history and music,
00:51:04"'while you'll be galloping and rolling on the hills of Narnia to your heart's content.'
00:51:09"'But that's just the point,' groaned Brie.
00:51:12"'Do talking horses roll?
00:51:15"'Supposing they don't?
00:51:17"'I can't bear to give it up.
00:51:20"'What do you think, Nguyen?'
00:51:22"'I'm going to roll anyway,' said Nguyen.
00:51:25"'I don't suppose any of them will care two lumps of sugar whether you roll or not.'
00:51:29"'Are we near that castle?' said Brie to Corr.
00:51:33"'Round the next bend,' said the prince.
00:51:35"'Well,' said Brie,
00:51:38"'I'm going to have a good one now.
00:51:40"'It may be the last.
00:51:41"'Wait for me a minute.'
00:51:43It was five minutes before he rose again,
00:51:46blowing hard and covered with bits of bracken.
00:51:49"'Now I'm ready,' he said in a voice of profound gloom.
00:51:54"'Lead on, Prince Corr.
00:51:57"'Narnia and the North.'
00:52:00But he looked more like a horse going to a funeral
00:52:02than a long-lost captive returning to home and freedom.
00:52:07CHAPTER FIFTEEN RABBADASH THE RIDICULOUS
00:52:14The next turn of the road brought them out from among the trees,
00:52:17and there across green lawns,
00:52:19sheltered from the north wind by the high wooded ridge at its back,
00:52:22they saw the castle of Anvard.
00:52:25It was very old and built of a warm, reddish-brown stone.
00:52:29Before they had reached the gate, King Loon came out to meet them,
00:52:32not looking at all like Aravis's idea of a king,
00:52:35and wearing the oldest of old clothes.
00:52:38For he had just come from making a round of the kennels with his huntsman,
00:52:41and had only stopped for a moment to wash his doggy hands.
00:52:45But the bow with which he greeted Aravis as he took her hand
00:52:48would have been stately enough for an emperor.
00:52:51"'Little lady,' he said,
00:52:53"'we bid you very heartily welcome.
00:52:56"'My dear wife was still alive.
00:52:57"'We could make you better cheer,
00:52:59"'but could not do it with a better will.
00:53:02"'And I am sorry that you have had misfortunes
00:53:04"'and been driven from your father's house.
00:53:07"'It cannot but be a grief to you.
00:53:10"'My son, Kor, has told me about your adventures together,
00:53:13"'and all your valour.'
00:53:15"'It was he who did all that, sir,' said Aravis.
00:53:18"'Why, he rushed at a lion to save me.'
00:53:21"'Hey, what's that?' said King Loon, his face brightening.
00:53:25"'I haven't heard that part of the story.'
00:53:28Then Aravis told it,
00:53:30and Kor, who had very much wanted the story to be known,
00:53:33though he felt he couldn't tell it himself,
00:53:35didn't enjoy it so much as he had expected,
00:53:37and indeed felt rather foolish.
00:53:39But his father enjoyed it very much indeed,
00:53:42and in the course of the next few weeks
00:53:43told it to so many people that Kor wished it had never happened.
00:53:48Then the king turned to Whyn and Bree,
00:53:50and was just as polite to them as to Aravis,
00:53:52and asked them a lot of questions about their families
00:53:55and where they had lived in Narnia before they had been captured.
00:53:58The horses were rather tongue-tied,
00:54:00for they weren't yet used to being talked to as equals by humans,
00:54:03grown-up humans, that is.
00:54:05They didn't mind Aravis and Kor.
00:54:08Presently Queen Lucy came out from the castle and joined them,
00:54:11and King Loon said to Aravis,
00:54:14"'My dear, here is a loving friend of our house,
00:54:17and she has been seeing that your apartments
00:54:19are put to rights for you better than I could have done it.'
00:54:22"'You'd like to come and see them, wouldn't you?' said Lucy, kissing Aravis.
00:54:26They liked each other at once,
00:54:28and soon went away together to talk about Aravis's bedroom,
00:54:31and Aravis's boudoir, and about getting clothes for her,
00:54:34and all the sort of things girls do talk about on such an occasion.
00:54:39After lunch, which they had on the terrace—
00:54:41it was cold birds, and cold game pie, and wine, and bread, and cheese—
00:54:45King Loon ruffled up his brow, and heaved a sigh, and said,
00:54:49"'Hey-ho! We have still that sorry creature Rabadash on our hands,
00:54:54my friends, and must needs resolve what to do with him.'
00:54:57Lucy was sitting on the King's right, and Aravis on the left.
00:55:01King Edmund sat at one end of the table,
00:55:03and the Lord Darin faced him at the other.
00:55:06Dar, and Peredan, and Cor, and Corrin were on the same side as the King.
00:55:11"'Your Majesty would have a perfect right to strike off his head,' said Peredan.
00:55:16"'Such an assault as he made puts him on a level with assassins.'
00:55:19"'It is very true,' said Edmund,
00:55:22"'but even a traitor may mend. I have known one that did.
00:55:26And he looked very thoughtful.'
00:55:29"'To kill this Rabadash would—'
00:55:33said Darin.
00:55:34"'A fig for the Tisrock,' said King Loon.
00:55:37"'His strength is in numbers, and numbers will never cross the desert.'
00:55:41"'But I have no stomach for killing men, even traitors in cold blood.
00:55:45"'To have cut his throat in the battle would have eased my heart mightily,
00:55:48but this is a different thing.'
00:55:50"'By my counsel,' said Lucy,
00:55:52"'Your Majesty will give him another trial.
00:55:55"'Let him go free on straight promise of fair dealing in the future.
00:55:58"'It may be that he will keep his word.'
00:56:01"'Maybe apes will grow honest, sister,' said Edmund.
00:56:05"'But by the line, if he breaks it again,
00:56:07"'may it be in such time and place that any of us could swap off his head in clean battle.'
00:56:12"'It shall be tried,' said the King.
00:56:15"'And then to one of the attendants,
00:56:17"'Send for the prisoner, friend.'
00:56:19"'Rabbidash was brought before them, in chains.
00:56:23"'To look at him any one would have supposed
00:56:25"'that he had passed the night in a noisome dungeon without food or water,
00:56:29"'but in reality he had been shut up in quite a comfortable room
00:56:32"'and provided with an excellent supper.
00:56:35"'But as he was sulking far too furiously to touch the supper,
00:56:38"'and had spent the whole night stamping and roaring and cursing,
00:56:41"'he naturally did not now look his best.
00:56:44"'Your Royal Highness needs not to be told,' said King Loon,
00:56:48"'that by the law of nations, as well as by all reasons of prudent policy,
00:56:53"'we have as good rights to your head as ever one mortal man had against another.
00:56:57"'Nevertheless, in consideration of your youth and the ill nurture,
00:57:02"'devoid of all gentilesse and courtesy,
00:57:05"'which you have doubtless had in the land of slaves and tyrants,
00:57:08"'we are disposed to set you free, unharmed, on these conditions.
00:57:13"'First, that—'
00:57:14"'Curse you for a barbarian dog!' spluttered Rabbidash.
00:57:18"'Do you think I would even hear your conditions?
00:57:21"'Ha! you talk very largely of nurture, and I know not what.
00:57:25"'It's easy to a man in chains.
00:57:27"'Ha! take off these vile bonds, give me a sword,
00:57:30"'and let any of you who dares then debate with me.'
00:57:34"'Nearly all the lords sprang to their feet,
00:57:36"'and Corrin shouted,
00:57:38"'Father, can I box him, please?'
00:57:40"'Peace! your Majesties, my lords,' said King Loon,
00:57:44"'have we no more gravity among us than to be so chafed
00:57:47"'by the taunt of a page-hawk?
00:57:49"'Sit down, Corrin, or shalt leave the table.'
00:57:53"'I ask your Highness again to hear our conditions.'
00:57:58"'I hear no conditions from barbarians and sorcerers,' said Rabbidash.
00:58:03"'Not one of you dare touch a hair of my head.
00:58:06"'Every insult you have heaped on me
00:58:08"'shall be paid with oceans of Narnian and Auchenlandish blood.
00:58:13"'Terrible shall the vengeance of the Tisrock be, even now.
00:58:17"'But kill me, and the burnings and torturings in these northern lands
00:58:21"'shall become a tale to frighten the world a thousand years hence.
00:58:25"'Beware! beware! beware!
00:58:27"'The bolt of Tash falls from above!'
00:58:31"'Does it ever get caught on a hook half-way?' asked Corrin.
00:58:35"'Shame, Corrin,' said the King,
00:58:37"'never taunt a man save when he is stronger than you.
00:58:41"'Then, as you please.'
00:58:43"'You foolish Rabbidash!' sighed Lucy.
00:58:48"'Next moment Corr wondered why everyone at the table had risen
00:58:50"'and was standing perfectly still.
00:58:53"'Of course, he did the same himself.
00:58:55"'And then he saw the reason.
00:58:57"'Aslan was among them, though no one had seen him coming.
00:59:01"'Rabbidash started as the immense shape of the lion
00:59:04"'paced softly in between him and his accusers.
00:59:08"'Rabbidash,' said Aslan, "'take heed.
00:59:13"'Your doom is very near, but you may still avoid it.
00:59:18"'Forget your pride.
00:59:20"'What have you to be proud of?
00:59:22"'And your anger?
00:59:24"'Who has done you wrong?
00:59:26"'And accept the mercy of these good Kings!'
00:59:30"'Then Rabbidash rolled his eyes and spread out his mouth
00:59:33"'into a horrible, long, mirthless grin like a shark,
00:59:36"'and wagged his ears up and down.
00:59:39"'Anyone can learn how to do this if they take the trouble.
00:59:42"'He had always found this very effective and calormen.
00:59:45"'The bravest had trembled when he made these faces,
00:59:48"'and ordinary people had fallen to the floor,
00:59:50"'and sensitive people had often fainted.
00:59:53"'But what Rabbidash hadn't realised
00:59:55"'is that it is very easy to frighten people
00:59:57"'who know you can have them boiled alive
00:59:59"'the moment you give the word.
01:00:01"'The Grimaces didn't look at all alarming in Arkenland.
01:00:04"'Indeed, Lucy only thought Rabbidash was going to be sick.
01:00:08"'Demon!
01:00:10"'Demon!
01:00:11"'Demon!'
01:00:12"'shrieked the Prince.
01:00:13"'I know you.
01:00:14"'You are the foul fiend of Narnia.
01:00:17"'You are the enemy of the gods.
01:00:19"'Learn who I am, horrible phantasm.
01:00:22"'I am descended from Tash,
01:00:23"'the inexorable, the irresistible.
01:00:26"'The curse of Tash is upon you.
01:00:28"'Lightning in the shape of scorpions shall be rained on you.
01:00:32"'The mountains of Narnia shall be ground into dust.
01:00:35"'The—'
01:00:35"'Have a care, Rabbidash,' said Aslan quietly.
01:00:40"'The doom is nearer now.
01:00:43"'It is at the door.
01:00:45"'It has lifted the latch.
01:00:47"'Let the skies fall!'
01:00:49"'shrieked Rabbidash.
01:00:50"'Let the earth gape.
01:00:52"'Let blood and fire obliterate the world.
01:00:56"'But be sure I will never desist till I have dragged to my palace by her hair
01:01:00"'the barbarian queen, the daughter of dogs, the—'
01:01:04"'The hour has struck,' said Aslan.
01:01:07And Rabbidash saw to his supreme horror that everyone had begun to laugh.
01:01:13They couldn't help it.
01:01:15Rabbidash had been wagging his ears all the time, and as soon as Aslan said,
01:01:19"'The hour has struck,' the ears began to change.
01:01:23They grew longer and more pointed, and soon were covered with grey hair.
01:01:29And while everyone was wondering where they had seen ears like that before,
01:01:32Rabbidash's face began to change too.
01:01:35It grew longer, and thicker at the top, and larger-eyed.
01:01:40And the nose sank back into the face, or else the face swelled out and became all nose,
01:01:45and there was hair all over it.
01:01:47And his arms grew longer and came down in front of him, till his hands were resting
01:01:52on the ground.
01:01:53Only they weren't hands now.
01:01:55They were hoofs.
01:01:56And he was standing on all fours, and his clothes disappeared, and everyone laughed
01:02:01louder and louder, because they couldn't help it.
01:02:04For now, what had been Rabbidash was simply and unmistakably a donkey.
01:02:10The terrible thing was that his human speech lasted just a moment longer than his human
01:02:14shape, so that when he realised the change that was coming over him, he screamed out,
01:02:18"'Oh, not a donkey!
01:02:21Mercy, if it were even a horse!
01:02:23In a horse!
01:02:24Eee!
01:02:25Ooo!
01:02:25Eee!
01:02:26Ooo!'
01:02:27And so the words died away into a donkey's bray.
01:02:31"'Now hear me, Rabbidash,' said Aslan, "'justice shall be mixed with mercy.
01:02:39You shall not always be an ass.'"
01:02:42At this, of course, the donkey twitched its ears forward, and that also was so funny that
01:02:46everybody laughed all the more.
01:02:48They tried not to, but they tried in vain.
01:02:52"'You have appealed to Tash,' said Aslan, "'and in the Temple of Tash you shall be
01:02:57healed.
01:02:58You must stand before the Altar of Tash in Tashban at the great Autumn Feast this year,
01:03:04and there, in the sight of all Tashban, your ass's shape will fall from you, and all men
01:03:10will know you for Prince Rabbidash.
01:03:13But as long as you live, if ever you go more than ten miles away from the great Temple
01:03:18in Tashban, you shall instantly become again as you now are.
01:03:24And from that second change there will be no return.'"
01:03:31There was a short silence, and then they all stirred and looked at one another as if they
01:03:36were waking from sleep.
01:03:38Aslan was gone, but there was a brightness in the air and on the grass, and a joy in
01:03:43their hearts which assured them that he had been no dream.
01:03:47And anyway, there was the donkey in front of them.
01:03:51King Loon was the kindest-hearted of men, and on seeing his enemy in this regrettable
01:03:55condition, he forgot all his anger.
01:03:58"'Your Royal Highness,' he said, "'I am most truly sorry that things have come to
01:04:03this extremity.
01:04:05Your Highness will bear witness that it was none of our doing, and, of course, we shall
01:04:09be delighted to provide your Highness with shipping back to Tashban for the, uh, treatment
01:04:15which Aslan has prescribed.
01:04:17You shall have every comfort which your Highness's situation allows—the best of the cattleboats,
01:04:25the freshest carrots and thistles.'"
01:04:28But a deafening bray from the donkey and a well-aimed kick at one of the guards made
01:04:32it clear that these kindly offers were ungratefully received.
01:04:36And here, to get him out of the way, I better finish off the story of Rabidash.
01:04:41He, or it, was duly sent back by boat to Tashban, and brought into the Temple of Tash at the
01:04:48great autumn festival, and then he became a man again.
01:04:51But, of course, four or five thousand people had seen the transformation, and the affair
01:04:56could not possibly be hushed up.
01:04:58And after the old Tisrock's death, when Rabidash became Tisrock in his place, he turned out
01:05:03the most peaceable Tisrock Calorman had ever known.
01:05:07This was because, not daring to go more than ten miles from Tashban, he could never go
01:05:12on a war himself, and he didn't want his Tarkhans to win fame in the wars at his expense, for
01:05:18that is the way Tisrocks get overthrown.
01:05:20But though his reasons were selfish, it made things much more comfortable for all the smaller
01:05:25countries round Calorman.
01:05:27His own people never forgot that he had been a donkey.
01:05:31During his reign, and to his face, he was called Rabidash the Peacemaker.
01:05:36But after his death, and behind his back, he was called Rabidash the Ridiculous.
01:05:42And if you look him up in a good history of Calorman, try the local library, you will
01:05:46find him under that name.
01:05:48And to this day, in Calorman schools, if you do anything unusually stupid, you are very
01:05:54likely to be called a second Rabidash.
01:05:59Meanwhile at Anvad, everyone was very glad that he had been disposed of before the real
01:06:04fun began.
01:06:05Which was a grand feast held that evening on the lawn before the castle, with dozens
01:06:10of lanterns to help the moonlight.
01:06:12And the wine flowed, and tales were told, and jokes were cracked.
01:06:16And then silence was made, and the king's poet with two fiddlers stepped out into the
01:06:20middle of the circle.
01:06:22Aravis and Cor propelled themselves to be bored, for the only poetry they knew was the
01:06:26Calorman kind, and you know now what that was like.
01:06:30But at the very first scrape of the fiddles, a rocket seemed to go up inside their heads,
01:06:35and the poet sang the great old lay of Fair Ulvin, and how he fought the giant Pyre, and
01:06:41turned him into stone.
01:06:42And that is the origin of Mount Pyre.
01:06:45It was a two-headed giant, and won the Lady Lilne for his bride.
01:06:49And when it was over, they wished it was going to begin again.
01:06:52And though Bree couldn't sing, he told the story of the fight at Zalindray.
01:06:57And Lucy told again—they had all, except Aravis and Cor, heard it many times, but they
01:07:02all wanted it again—the tale of the wardrobe.
01:07:05And how she and King Edmund, and Queen Susan, and Peter, the High King, had first come in
01:07:10to Narnia.
01:07:12And presently, as was certain to happen sooner or later, King Lune said it was time for young
01:07:16people to be in bed.
01:07:18And to-morrow, Cor, he added, shall come over all the castle with me, and see the estate,
01:07:24and mark all its strength and weakness, for it will be thine to guard when I am gone.
01:07:30"'But Corrin will be the king then, father,' said Cor.
01:07:35"'Nay, lad,' said King Lune, "'thou art my heir.
01:07:40The crown comes to thee.'
01:07:43"'But I don't want it,' said Cor.
01:07:45"'I'd far rather—' "'Tis no question what thou wantest,
01:07:49Cor, nor I neither.
01:07:51"'Tis in the course of law.'
01:07:54"'But if we're twins, we must be the same age.'
01:07:57"'Nay,' said the king, with a laugh.
01:08:00"'One must come first.'
01:08:02"'Art Corrin's elder by full twenty minutes?'
01:08:05"'And his better too, let's hope, though that's no great mastery.'
01:08:09And he looked at Corrin with a twinkle in his eyes.
01:08:13"'But, father, couldn't you make whichever you like to be the next king?'
01:08:18"'No.
01:08:19The king's under the law, for it's the law makes him a king.
01:08:23Has no more power to start away from thy crown than any sentry from his post.'
01:08:28"'Oh, dear,' said Cor, "'I don't want to at all.
01:08:33And, Corrin, I'm most dreadfully sorry.
01:08:35I never dreamed my turning up was going to chisel you out of your kingdom.'
01:08:39"'Hurrah!
01:08:40Hurrah!' said Corrin.
01:08:42''I shan't have to be king!
01:08:43I shan't have to be king!
01:08:45I'll always be a prince!
01:08:47Its princes have all the fun!'
01:08:49"'And that's truer than thy brother knows, Cor,' said King Lune.
01:08:54"'For this is what it means to be a king.
01:08:57To be first in every desperate attack, and last in every desperate retreat.
01:09:01And when there's hunger in the land, as must be now and then in bad years,
01:09:06to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land.'
01:09:12When the two boys were going upstairs to bed, Cor again asked Corrin if nothing could be done
01:09:17about it, and Corrin said, "'If you say another word about it, I'll—I'll knock you down.'
01:09:23It would be nice to end the story by saying that after that,
01:09:27the two brothers never disagreed about anything again, but I am afraid it would not be true.
01:09:32In reality, they quarrelled and fought just about as often as any other two boys would,
01:09:37and all their fights ended, if they didn't begin, with Cor getting knocked down.
01:09:42For though, when they had both grown up and become swordsmen,
01:09:45Cor was the more dangerous man in battle,
01:09:47neither he nor anyone else in the North Countries could ever equal Corrin as a boxer.
01:09:54That was how he got his name of Corrin Thunderfist,
01:09:57and how he performed his great exploit against the lapsed bear of Storm Ness,
01:10:02which was really a talking bear, but had gone back to wild bear habits.
01:10:07Corrin climbed up to its lair on the Narnian side of Storm Ness one winter day,
01:10:11when the snow was on the hills, and boxed it without a timekeeper for thirty-three rounds,
01:10:17and at the end it couldn't see out of its eyes, and became a reformed character.
01:10:21Aravis also had many quarrels, and, I am afraid, even fights with Cor,
01:10:27but they always made it up again, so that years later, when they were grown up,
01:10:32they were so used to quarrelling and making up again,
01:10:34that they got married, so as to go on doing it more conveniently.
01:10:39And after King Loon's death, they made a good King and Queen of Arkenland,
01:10:43and Ram the Great, the most famous of all the Kings of Arkenland, was their son.
01:10:49Bree and Hwin lived happily to a great age in Narnia, and both got married, but not to one another.
01:10:56And there weren't many months in which one or both of them
01:10:59didn't come trotting over the pass to visit their friends at Anvard.
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