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IN THE DARK CASTLE:
WHEN the meal (which was pigeon pie, cold ham, salad, and cakes) had been
brought, and all had drawn their chairs up to the table and begun, the
Knight continued:
"You must understand, 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 enchantment and brought me hither of her
exceeding bounty. (Honest Frogfoot, your cup is empty. Suffer me to refill
it.) And this seems to me the likelier because even now I am bound by a
spell, from which my Lady alone can free me. Every night there comes an
hour when my mind is most horribly changed, and, after my mind, my body.
For first I become 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 entreat 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 forgetful 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 Queen's majesty
knows by her art that I shall be freed from this enchantment when once she
has made me king of a land in the Overworld and set its crown 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 beneath it, and have now
gone so far and so high that they tunnel not a score of feet beneath the
very grass on which the Updwellers of that country walk. It will be very
soon now that those Uplanders' fate will come upon them. She herself is at
the diggings tonight, and I expect a message to go to her. Then the thin
roof of earth which still keeps me from my kingdom will be broken through,
and with her to guide me and a thousand Earthmen 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 crowned king within four
and twenty hours."
"It's a bit rough luck on them, isn't it?" said Scrubb.
"Thou art a lad of a wondrous, quick-working wit!" exclaimed the Knight.
"For, on my honour, I had never thought 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 comical and ridiculous
thing in the world to think of them all going about their business and
never dreaming that under their peaceful fields and floors, only a fathom
down, there is a great army ready to break out upon them like a fountain!
And they never to have suspected! Why, they themselves, when once the first
smart of their defeat is over, can hardly choose but laugh at the thought!"
"I don't think it's funny at all," said Jill. "I think you'll 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 politician? But never fear,
sweetheart. In ruling that land, I shall do all by the counsel 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 conquered."
"Where I come from," said Jill, who was disliking him more every minute,
"they don't think much of men 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 content 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 Queen's 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 accustom my 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 enchantment I lie under. Is not that a lady
worthy of a man's whole worship?"
"Sounds a very nice lady indeed," said Puddleglum in a voice which meant
exactly the opposite.
They were thoroughly tired of the Knight's 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, "He's a great baby,
really: tied to that woman's apron strings; he's a sap." And Jill was
thinking, "He's the silliest, most conceited, selfish pig I've met for a
long time." But when the meal was over, the Knight's mood had changed.
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 being left alone. They will come in presently 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, "I'm awfully sorry about your enchantment of course,
but what will those fellows do to us when they come to bind you? They
talked of putting us in prison. And we don't like all those dark places
very much. We'd much rather stay here till you're . . . better . . . if we
may."
"It is well thought of," said the Knight. "By custom none but 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
gnomes that you should be left with me. And I think I hear their soft feet
even now upon the stairs. Go through yonder door: it leads into my other
apartments. And there, either await my coming when they have unbound me;
or, if you will, return and sit with me in my ravings."
They followed his directions 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, selfcentred pig."
"Are we going back to watch the enchantment, or shall we stay here?" said
Scrubb.
"Stay here, I vote," said Jill. "I'd much rather not see it." But she felt
a little inquisitive all the same.
"No, go back," said Puddleglum. "We may pick up some information, and we
need all we can get. I am sure that Queen is a witch and an enemy. And
those Earthmen would knock us on the head as soon as look at us. There's a
stronger smell of danger and lies and magic and treason about this land
than I've ever smelled before. We need to keep our eyes and ears open."
They went back down the corridor and gently pushed the door open. "It's all
right," said Scrubb, meaning that there were no Earthmen about. Then they
all came back into the room where they had supped.
The main door was now shut, concealing the curtain between which they had
first entered. The 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.
"Come in, friends," he said, glancing 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 can feel it coming. Quick! Listen while I am master of myself.
When the fit is upon me, it well may be that I shall beg and implore you,
with entreaties 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
come my fury, and after that" - he shuddered - "the change into a loathsome
serpent."
"There's no fear of our loosing you," said Puddleglum. "We've no wish to
meet wild men; or serpents either."
"I should think not," said Scrubb and Jill together.
"All the same," added Puddleglum in a whisper. "Don't let's be too sure.
Let's be on our guard. We've muffed everything else, you know. He'll be
cunning, I shouldn't wonder, once he gets started. Can we trust one
another? Do we all promise that whatever he says we don't touch those
cords? Whatever he says, mind you?"
"Rather!" said Scrubb.
"There's nothing in the world he can say or do that'll make me change my
mind," said Jill.
"Hush! Something's happening," said Puddleglum.
The Knight was moaning. His face was as pale as putty, and he writhed in
his bonds. 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. "Enchantments, enchantments . . . the heavy, tangled,
cold, clammy web of evil magic. Buried alive. Dragged down under the earth,
down into the sooty blackness . . . how many years is it? . . . Have I
lived ten years, or a thousand years, in the pit? Maggotmen all around me.
Oh, have mercy. Let me out, let me go back. Let me feel the wind and see
the sky . . . There used to be a little pool. When you looked down into it
you could see all the trees growing upside-down in the water, all green,
and below them, deep, very deep, the blue sky."
He had been speaking in a low voice; now 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 enchanted chair, it would last. I should be a man again. But every
night they bind me, and so every night my chance 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, forcing himself to speak
calmly. "Have they told you that if I am released from this chair I shall
kill you and become 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 enchanted. You are not Earthmen 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 can bear. What wrong
have I ever done you, that you should side with my enemies to keep me in
such miseries? And the minutes are slipping past. Now you can 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
planned the woe of men. And this night, of all nights, when she is away!
You take from me a chance that may never come again."
"This is dreadful. I do wish we'd stayed away till it was over," said Jill.
"Steady!" said Puddleglum.
The prisoner's 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 on Earthmen
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. "He'd have twice his natural strength if he got
free now. And I'm not clever with my sword. He'd get us both, I shouldn't
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. I'm your mortal enemy else."
"Cunning, isn't he?" said Puddleglum.
"Once and 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. "It's 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 another
that they would not on any account set the Knight free, if they were now to
do so the first time he happened to call upon a name they really cared
about? On the other hand, what had been the use of learning the signs if
they weren't 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
accident? 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 daren't muff the fourth.
"Oh, if only we knew!" said Jill.
"I think we do know," said Puddleglum.
"Do you mean you think everything will come right if we do untie him?" said
Scrubb.
"I don't know about that," said Puddleglum. "You see, Aslan didn't tell
Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be
the death of us once he's up, I shouldn't wonder. But that doesn't let us
off following the sign."
They all stood looking at one another with bright eyes. It was a sickening
moment. "All right!" said Jill suddenly. "Let's get it over. Good-bye,
everyone ...!" They all shook hands. The Knight was screaming by now; there
was foam on his cheeks.
"Come on, Scrubb," said Puddleglum. He and Scrubb drew their swords and
went over to the captive.
"In the name of Aslan," they said and began methodically 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 on the table),
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." Then he turned 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, honest, Narnian Marsh-wiggle?"
"Oh, so you have heard of Narnia after all?" said Jill.
"Had I forgotten it when I was under the 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 come hither for no other end than to seek
you."
"And who are you, my other deliverers?" said the Prince to Scrubb and Jill.
"We were sent by Aslan himself from beyond the world's 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 can ever pay," said Prince
Rilian. "But my father? Is he yet alive?"
"He sailed east again before we left Narnia, my lord," said Puddleglum.
"But your Highness must consider 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 your Highness 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 can remember
that enchanted life, though while I was enchanted I could not remember my
true self. And now, fair friends - but wait! I hear their feet (does it not
sicken a man, that padding woolly tread! faugh!) on the stairs. 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.
