CHAPTER ELEVEN
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IN THE DARK CASTLE WHEN the meal (which igeon pie, cold ham, salad, and cakes) had been brought, and all had drawn their chairs up to the table and begun, the Knight tinued: "You must uand, friends, that I know nothing of who I was and whence I came into this Dark World. I remember no time when I was not dwelling, as now, at the court of this all but heavenly Queen; but my thought is that she saved me from some evil entment and brought me hither of her exceeding bounty. (Ho Frogfoot, your cup is empty. Suffer me to refill it.) And this seems to me the likelier because even now I ambound by a spell, from which my Lady alone free me. Every night there es an hour when my mind is most horribly ged, and, after my mind, my body. For first I bee furious and wild and would rush upon my dearest friends to kill them, if I were not bound. And soon after that, I turn into the likeness of a great serpent, hungry, fierce, and deadly. (Sir, be pleased to take another breast of pigeon, I e you.) So they tell me, and they certainly speak truth, for my Lady says the same. I myself know nothing of it, for when my hour is past I awake fetful of all that vile fit and in my proper shape and sound mind - saving that I am somewhat wearied. (Little lady, eat one of these honey cakes, which are brought for me from some barbarous land in the far south of the world.)
Now the Queens majesty knows by her art that I shall be freed from this entment when once she has made me king of a land in the Overworld as upon my head. The land is already chosen and the very place of our breaking out. Her Earthmen have worked day and night digging a way beh it, and have now gone so far and so high that they tunnel not a score of feet beh the very grass on which the Updwellers of that try walk. It will be very soon now that those Uplanders fate will e upon them. She herself is at the diggings tonight, and I expect a message to go to her. Thehin roof of earth which still keeps me from my kingdom will be broken through, and with her to guide me and a thousahmen at my back, I shall ride forth in arms, fall suddenly on our enemies, slay their chief men, cast down their strong places, and doubtless be their ed king within four and twenty hours.”
"Its a bit rough lu them, isnt it?" said Scrubb.
"Thou art a lad of a wondrous, quick-w wit!" exclaimed the Knight. "For, on my honour, I had hought of it so before. I see your meaning." He looked slightly, very slightly troubled for a moment or two; but his face soon cleared and he broke out, with another of his loud laughs, "But fie on gravity! Is it not the most ical and ridiculous thing in the world to think of them all going about their business and never dreaming that uheir peaceful fields and floors, only a fathom down, there is a great army ready to break out upon them like a fountain! And they o have suspected! Why, they themselves, when ohe first smart of their defeat is over, hardly choose but laugh at the thought!”
"I dont think its funny at all," said Jill. "I think youll be a wicked tyrant.”
"What?" said the Knight, still laughing and patting her head in a quite infuriating fashion.
"Is our little maid a deep politi? But never fear, sweetheart. In ruling that land, I shall do all by the sel of my Lady, who will then be my Queen too. Her word shall be my law, even as my word will be law to the people we have quered.”
"Where I e from," said Jill, who was disliking him more every minute, "they dont think muen who are bossed about by their wives.”
"Shalt think otherwise when thou hast a man of thine own, I warrant you," said the Knight, apparently thinking this very funny. "But with my Lady, it is another matter. I am well tent to live by her word, who has already saved me from a thousand dangers. No
mother has taken pains more tenderly for her child, than the Queens grace has for me.
Why, look you, amid all her cares and business, she rideth out with me in the Overworld many a time and oft to acy eyes to the sunlight. And then I must go fully armed and with visor down, so that no man may see my face, and I must speak to no one. For she has found out by art magical that this would hinder my deliverance from the grievous entment I lie under. Is not that a lady worthy of a mans whole worship?”
"Sounds a very nice lady indeed," said Puddleglum in a voice which mealy the opposite.
They were thhly tired of the Knights talk before they had finished supper.
Puddleglum was thinking, "I wonder what game that witch is really playing with this young fool." Scrubb was thinking, "Hes a great baby, really: tied to that womans apron strings; hes a sap." And Jill was thinking, "Hes the silliest, most ceited, selfish pig Ive met for a long time." But when the meal was over, the Knights mood had ged.
There was no more laughter about him.
"Friends," he said, "my hour is now very near. I am ashamed that you should see me yet I dread bei alohey will e ily and bind me hand and foot to yonder chair. Alas, so it must be: for in my fury, they tell me, I would destroy all that I could reach.”
"I say," said Scrubb, "Im awfully sorry about your entment of course, but what will those fellows do to us when they e to bind you? They talked of putting us in prison.
And we dont like all those dark places very much. Wed much rather stay here till youre . . . better . . . if we may.”
"It is well thought of," said the Knight. "By the Queen herself remains with me in my evil hour. Such is her tender care for my honour that she would not willingly suffer any ears but her own to hear the words I utter in that frenzy. But I could not easily persuade my attendant ghat you should be left with me. And I think I hear their soft feet even now upoairs. Gh yonder door: it leads into my other apartments. And there, either await my ing when they have unbound me; or, if you will, return and sit with me in my ravings.”
They followed his dires and passed out of the room by a door which they had not yet seen opened. It brought them, they were pleased to see, not into darkness but into a lighted corridor. They tried various doors and found (what they very badly needed) water for washing and even a looking glass. "He never offered us a wash before supper," said Jill, drying her face. "Selfish, selftred pig.”
"Are we going back to watch the entment, or shall we stay here?" said Scrubb.
"Stay here, I vote," said Jill. "Id much rather not see it." But she felt a little inquisitive all the same.
"No, go back," said Puddleglum. "ick up some information, and we need all we get. I am sure that Queen is a witd an enemy. And those Earthmen would knock us on the head as soon as look at us. Theres a stronger smell of danger and lies and magid treason about this land than Ive ever smelled before. We o keep our eyes and ears open.”
They went back down the corridor aly pushed the door open. "Its all right," said Scrubb, meaning that there were hmen about. Then they all came back into the room where they had supped.
The main door was now shut, cealing the curtaiween which they had first ehe Knight was seated in a curious silver chair, to which he was bound by his ankles, his knees, his elbows, his wrists, and his waist. There was sweat on his forehead and his face was filled with anguish.
"e in, friends," he said, glang quickly up. "The fit is not yet upon me. Make no noise, for I told that prying chamberlain that you were in bed. Now . . . I feel it ing. Quick! Listen while I am master of myself. Whe is upon me, it well may be that I shall beg and implore you, with eies and threatenings, to loosen my bonds.
They say I do. I shall call upon you by all that is most dear and most dreadful. But do not listen to me. Harden your hearts and stop your ears. For while I am bound you are safe.
But if once I were up and out of this chair, then first would y fury, and after that”
- he shuddered - "the ge into a loathsome serpent.”
"Theres no fear of our loosing you," said Puddleglum. "Weve no wish to meet wild men; or serpeher.”
"I should think not," said Scrubb and Jill together.
"All the same," added Puddleglum in a whisper. "Dos be too sure. Lets be on uard. Weve muffed everything else, you know. Hell be ing, I shouldnt wonder, once he gets started. we trust one another? Do romise that whatever he says we dont touch those cords? Whatever he says, mind you?”
"Ra<big></big>ther!" said Scrubb.
"Theres nothing in the world he say or do thatll make me ge my mind," said Jill.
"Hush! Somethings happening," said Puddleglum.
The Knight was moaning. His face ale as putty, and he writhed in his b<q></q>onds. And whether because she was sorry for him, or for some other reason, Jill thought that he looked a nicer sort of man than he had looked before.
"Ah," he groaned. "Entments, entments . . . the heavy, tangled, cold, clammy web of evil magic. Buried alive. Dragged down uhe earth, down into the sooty
blaess . . . how many years is it? . . . Have I lived ten years, or a thousand years, i? Maggotmen all around me. Oh, have mercy. Let me out, let me go back. Let me feel the wind ahe sky . . . There used to be a little pool. When you looked down into it you could see all the trees growing upside-down ier, all green, and below them, deep, very deep, the blue sky.”
He had been speaking in a low voiow he looked up, fixed his eyes upon them, and said loud and clear: "Quick! I am sane now. Every night I am sane. If only I could get out of this ented chair, it would last. I should be a man again. But every night they bind me, and so every night my ce is gone. But you are not enemies. I am not your prisoner. Quick! Cut these cords.”
"Stand fast! Steady," said Puddleglum to the two children.
"I beseech you to hear me," said the Knight, f himself to speak calmly. "Have they told you that if I am released from this chair I shall kill you and bee a serpent? I see by your faces that they have. It is a lie. It is at this hour that I am in my right mind: it is all the rest of the day that I am ented. You are hmen nor witches. Why should you be on their side? Of your courtesy, cut my bonds.”
"Steady! Steady! Steady!" said the three travellers to one another.
"Oh, you have hearts of stone," said the Knight. "Believe me, you look upon a wretch who has suffered almost more than any mortal bear. What wrong have I ever done you, that you should side with my eo keep me in such miseries? And the minutes are slipping past. Now you save me; when this hour has passed, I shall be witless again - the toy and lap-dog, nay, more likely the pawn and tool, of the most devilish sorceress that ever plahe woe of men. And this night, of all nights, when she is away! You take from me a ce that may never e again.”
"This is dreadful. I do wish wed stayed away till it was over," said Jill.
"Steady!" said Puddleglum.
The prisoners voice was now rising into a shriek. "Let me go, I say. Give me my sword.
My sword! Once I am free I shall take such revenge ohmen that Underland will talk of it for a thousand years!”
"Now the frenzy is beginning," said Scrubb. "I hope those knots are all right.”
"Yes," said Puddleglum. "Hed have twice his natural strength if he got free now. And Im not clever with my sword. Hed get us both, I shouldnt wonder; and then Pole on her own would be left to tackle the snake.”
The prisoner was now so straining at his bonds that they cut into his wrists and ankles.
"Beware," he said. "Beware. One night I did break them. But the witch was there that time. You will not have her to help you tonight. Free me now, and I am your friend. Im your mortal enemy else.”
"ing, isnt he?" said Puddleglum.
"Ond for all," said the prisoner, "I adjure you to set me free. By all fears and all loves, by the bright skies of Overland, by the great Lion, by Aslan himself, I charge you -“
"Oh!" cried the three travellers as though they had been hurt. "Its the sign," said Puddleglum. "It was the words of the sign," said Scrubb more cautiously. "Oh, what are we to do?" said Jill.
It was a dreadful question. What had been the use of promising one ahat they would not on any at set the Knight free, if they were now to do so the first time he>?99lｉb?</a> happeo call upon a hey really cared about? Oher hand, what had been the use of learning the signs if they werent going to obey them? Yet could Aslan have really meant them to unbind anyone even a lunatic - who asked it in his name? Could it be a mere act? Or how if the Queen of the Underworld knew all about the signs and had made the Knight learn this name simply in order to entrap them? But then, supposing this was the real sign? . . . They had muffed three already; they darent muff the fourth.
"Oh, if only we knew!" said Jill.
"I think we do know," said Puddleglum.
"Do you mean you think everything will e right if we do untie him?" said Scrubb.
"I dont know about that," said Puddleglum. "You see, Aslan didnt tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of us once hes up, I shouldnt wonder. But that does us off following the sign.”
They all stood looking at one another with bright eyes. It was a siing moment. "All right!" said Jill suddenly. "Lets get it ood-bye, everyone ...!" They all shook hands. The Knight was screaming by now; there was foam on his cheeks.
"e on, Scrubb," said Puddleglum. He and Scrubb drew their swords and went over to the captive.
"In the name of Aslan," they said and begahodically cutting the cords. The instant the prisoner was free, he crossed the room in a single bound, seized his own sword (which had been taken from him and laid oable), and drew it.
"You first!" he cried and fell upon the silver chair. That must have been a good sword.
The silver gave way before its edge like string, and in a moment a few twisted fragments, shining on the floor, were all that was left. But as the chair broke, there came from it a bright flash, a sound like small thunder, and (for one moment) a loathsome smell.
"Lie there, vile engine of sorcery," he said, "lest your mistress should ever use you for another victim." Theurned and surveyed his rescuers; and the something wrong, whatever it was, had vanished from his face.
"What?" he cried, turning to Puddleglum. "Do I see before me a Marsh-wiggle - a real, live, ho, Narnian Marsh-wiggle?”
"Oh, so you have heard of Narnia after all?" said Jill.
"Had I fotten it when I was uhe spell?" asked the Knight. "Well, that and all other bedevilments are now over. You may well believe that I know Narnia, for I am Rilian, Prince of Narnia, and Caspian the great King is my father.”
"Your Royal Highness," said Puddleglum, sinking on one knee (and the children did the same), "we have e hither for no other end than to seek you.”
"And who are you, my other deliverers?" said the Prio Scrubb and Jill.
"We were sent by Aslan himself from beyond the worlds end to seek your Highness,”
said Scrubb. "I am Eustace who sailed with him to the island of Ramandu.”
"I owe all three of you a greater debt than I ever pay," sai<bdo>藏书网</bdo>d Prince Rilian. "But my father? Is he yet alive?”
"He sailed east again before we left Narnia, my lord," said Puddleglum. "But yhness must sider that the King is very old. It is ten to one his Majesty must die on the voyage.”
"He is old, you say. How long then have I been in the power of the witch? "It is more than ten years since yhness was lost in the woods at the north side of Narnia.”
"Ten years!" said the Prince, drawing his hand across his face as if to rub away the past.
"Yes, I believe you. For now that I am myself I remember that ented life, though while I was ented I could not remember my true self. And now, fair friends - but wait! I hear their feet (does it not si a man, that padding woolly tread! faugh!) oairs. Lock the door, boy. Or stay. I have a better thought than that. I will fool these Earthmen, if Aslan gives me the wit. Take your cue from me.”
He walked resolutely to the door and flung it wide open.
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