CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
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THE HUNTING OF THE WHITE STAG THE battle was all over a few minutes after their arrival. Most of the enemy had been killed in the first charge of Aslan and his -panions; and when those who were still living saw that the Witch was dead they either gave themselves up or took to flight. The hing that Luew was that Peter and Aslan were shaking hands. It was strao her to see Peter looking as he looked now - his face was so pale and stern and he seemed so much older."It was all Edmunds doing, Aslan," Peter was saying. "Wed have beeen if it hadnt been for him. The Witch was turning our troops into stht a. But nothing would stop him. He fought his way through three ogres to where she was just turning one of your leopards into a statue. And when he reached her he had se his sword smashing down on her wand instead to go for her directly and simply getting made a statue himself for his pains. That was the mistake all the rest were making. Once her wand was broken we began to have some ce - if we hadnt lost so many already.
He was terribly wounded. We must go and see him.”
They found Edmund in charge of Mrs Beaver a little way back from the fighting line. He was covered with blood, his mouth en, and his face a nasty green colour.
"Quick, Lucy," said Aslan.
And then, almost for the first time, Lucy remembered the precious cordial that had been given her for a Christmas present. Her hands trembled so much that she could hardly
undo the stopper, but she ma in the end and poured a few drops into her brothers mouth.
"There are other people wounded," said Aslan while she was still looking eagerly into Edmunds pale fad w if the cordial would have a.
"Yes, I know," said Lucy crossly. "Wait a minute.”
"Daughter of Eve," said Aslan in a graver voice, "others also are at the point of death.
Must more people die for Edmund?”
"Im sorry, Aslan," said Lucy, getting up and going with him. And for the half-hour they were busy - she attending to the wounded while he restored those who had been turned into stone. When at last she was free to e baund she found him standing on his feet and not only healed of his wounds but lookier than she had seen him look - oh, fes; in fact ever since his first term at that horrid school which was where he had begun to g. He had bee his real old self again and could look you in the face. And there on the field of battle Aslan made him a knight.
"Does he know," whispered Lucy to Susan, "what Aslan did for him? Does he know what the arra with the Witch really was?”
"Hush! No. Of course not," said Susan.
"Oughto be told?" said Lucy.
"Oh, surely not," said Susan. "It would be too awful for him. Think how youd feel if you were he.”
"All the same I think he ought to know," said Lucy. But at that moment they were interrupted.
That night they slept where they were. How Aslan provided food for them all I dont know; but somehow or other they found themselves all sitting down on the grass to a fine high tea at about eight ocloext day they began marg eastward down the side of the great river. And the day after that, at about teatime, they actually reached the mouth. The castle of Cair Paravel on its little hill towered up above them; before them were the sands, with rocks and little pools of salt water, and seaweed, and the smell of the sea and long miles of bluish-green waves breaking for ever and ever on the beach. And oh, the cry of the sea-gulls! Have you heard it? you remember?
That evening after tea the four children all mao get down to the beach again aheir shoes and stogs off ahe saweeoes. But day was more solemn. For then, in the Great Hall of Cair Paravel - that wonderful hall with the ivory roof and the west wall hung with peacocks feathers and the eastern door which looks towards the sea, in the presence of all their friends and to the sound of trumpets,
Aslan solemnly ed them ahem to the four thrones amid deafening shouts of, "Long Live Kier! Long Live Queen Susan! Long Live King Edmund! Long Live Queen Lucy!”
"Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen. Bear it well, Sons of Adam!
Bear it well, Daughters of Eve!" said Aslan.
And through the eastern door, which was wide open, came the voices of the mermen and the mermaids swimming close to the shore and singing in honour of their new Kings and Queens.
So the children sat ohrones and sceptres were put into their hands and they gave rewards and honours to all their friends, to Tumnus the Faun, and to the Beavers, and Giant Rumblebuffin, to the leopards, and the good taurs, and the good dwarfs, and to the lion. And that night there was a great feast in Cair Paravel, and revelry and dang, and gold flashed and wine flowed, and answering to the musiside, but stranger, sweeter, and more pierg, came the music of the sea people.
But amidst all these rejoigs Aslan himself quietly slipped away. And when the Kings and Queens noticed that he wasnt there they said nothing about it. For Mr Beaver had warhem, "Hell be ing and going," he had said. "One day youll see him and another you wont. He doesnt like being tied down and of course he has other tries to attend to. Its quite all right. Hell often drop in. Only you mustnt press him. Hes wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”
And now, as you see, this story is nearly (but not quite) at an end. These two Kings and two Queens governed Narnia well, and long and happy was their reign. At first much of their time ent in seeking out the remnants of the White Witchs army aroying them, and indeed for a long time there would be news of evil things lurking in the wilder parts of the forest - a haunting here and a killing there, a glimpse of a werewolf one month and a rumour of a hag the . But in the end all that foul brood was stamped out. And they made good laws ahe pead saved good trees from being unnecessarily cut down, and liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from beio school, and generally stopped busybodies and interferers and enced ordinary people who wao live a live. And they drove back the fierce giants (quite a different sort from Giant Rumblebuffin) on the north of Narnia when these ventured across the frontier. And they entered into friendship and alliah tries beyond the sea and paid them visits of state and received visits of state from them. And they themselves grew and ged as the years passed over them. Aer became a tall and deep-chested man and a great warrior, and he was called Kier the Magnifit. And Susan grew into a tall and gracious woman with black hair that fell almost to her feet a<dfn>..</dfn>nd the kings of the tries beyond the sea began to send ambassadors asking for her hand in marriage.
And she was called Susan the Gentle. Edmund was a graver and quieter man thaer, and great in cil and judgement. He was called King Edmund the Just. But as for Lucy, she was always gay and golden-haired, and all princes in those parts desired her to be their Queen, and her own people called her Queen Lucy the Valiant.
So they lived i joy and if ever they remembered their life in this world it was only as one remembers a dream. And one year it fell out that Tumnus (who was a middle-aged Faun by now and beginning to be stout) came down river and brought them hat the White Stag had once more appeared in his parts - the White Stag who would give you wishes if you caught him. So these two Kings and two Queens with the principal members of their court, rode a-hunting with horns and hounds in the Western Woods to follow the White Stag. And they had not hunted long before they had a sight of him. And he led them a great pace over rough and smooth and through thid thin, till the horses of all the courtiers were tired out and these four were still following. And they saw the stag enter into a thicket where their horses could not follow. Then said Kier (for they talked in quite a different style now, having been Kings and Queens for so long), "Fair sorts, let us now alight from our horses and follow this beast into the thicket; for in all my days I never hunted a nobler quarry.”
"Sir," said the others, "even so let us do.”
So they alighted and tied their horses to trees a on into the thick wood on foot.
And as soon as they had e Queen Susan said, "Fair friends, here is a great marvel, for I seem to see a tree of iron.”
"Madam," said,King Edmund, "if you look well upon it you shall see it is a pillar of iron with a lanter oop thereof.”
"By the Lions Mane, a strange device," said Kier, "to set a lantern here where th９９ｌｉｂ?rees cluster so thick about it and so high above it that if it were lit it should give light to no man!”
"Sir," said Queen Lucy. "By likelihood <u></u>when this post and this lamp were set here there were smaller trees in the place, or fewer, or none. For this is a young wood and the iron post is old." And they stood looking upon it. Then said King Edmund, "I know not how it is, but this lamp on the post worketh uporangely. It runs in my mind that I have seen the like before; as it were in a dream, or in the dream of a dream.”
"Sir," answered they all, "it is even so with us also.”
"And more," said Queen Lucy, "for it will not go out of my mind that if we pass this post and lanterher we shall find strange adventures or else some great ge of our fortunes.”
"Madam," said King Edmund, "the like foreb>?9９lｉｂ.</a>oding stirreth in my heart also.”
"And in mine, fair brother," said Kier.
"And in mioo," said Queen Susan. "Wherefore by my sel we shall lightly return to our horses and follow this White Stag no further.”
"Madam," said Kier, "therein I pray thee to have me excused. For never since we four were Kings and Queens in Narnia have we set our hands to any high matter, as battles, quests, feats of arms, acts of justice, and the like, and then given over; but always what we have taken in hand, the same we have achieved.”
"Sister," said Queen Lucy, "my royal brother speaks rightly. And it seems to me we should be shamed if for any fearing or forebodiurned back from following so noble a beast as now we have in chase.”
"And so say I," said King Edmund. "And I have such desire to find the signification of this thing that I would not by my good will turn back for the richest jewel in all Narnia and all the islands.”
"Then in the name of Aslan," said Queen Susan, "if ye will all have it so, let us go on and take the advehat shall fall to us.”
So these Kings and Queeered the thicket, and before they had gone a score of paces they all remembered that the thing they had seen was called a lamppost, and before they had gowenty more they noticed that they were. making their way not through branches but through coats. A moment they all came tumbling out of a wardrobe door into the empty room, and They were no longer Kings and Queens in their hunting array but just Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lu their old clothes. It was the same day and the same hour of the day on which they had all goo the wardrobe to hide. Mrs Macready and the visitors were still talking in the passage; but luckily they never came into the empty room and so the childre caught.
And that would have been the very end of the story if it hadhat they felt they really must explain to the Professor why four of the coats out of his wardrobe were missing. And the Professor, who was a very remarkable man, didhem not to be silly or not to tell lies, but believed the whole story. "No," he said, "I dont think it will be any go to go back through the wardrobe door to get the coats. You wo into Narnia again by that route. Nor would the coats be much use by now if you did!
Eh? Whats that? Yes, of course youll get back to Narnia again some day. Once a King in Narnia, always a King in Narnia. But dont g to use the same route twice.
Indeed, dont try to get there at all. Itll happen when youre not looking for it. And dont talk too much about it even among yourselves. And doion it to anyone else unless you find that theyve had adventures of the same sort themselves. Whats that? How will you kno<cite>?９9ｌiｂ.</cite>w? Oh, youll know all right. Odd things they say - even their looks - will let the secret out. Keep your
eyes open. Bless me, what do they teach them at these schools?
And that is the very end of the adventure of the wardrobe.
But if the Professor was right it was only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia.
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