CHAPTER 27
The Goblins in the King's House
When Curdie fell asleep he began at once to dream. He thought he wasascending the Mountainside from the mouth of the mine, whistling andsinging 'Ring, dod, bang!' when he came upon a woman and child who hadlost their way; and from that point he went on dreaming everything thathad happened to him since he thus met the princess and Lootie; how hehad watched the goblins, how he had been taken by them, how he had beenrescued by the princess; everything, indeed, until he was wounded,captured, and imprisoned by the men-at-arms. And now he thought he waslying wide awake where they had laid him, when suddenly he heard agreat thundering sound.
'The cobs are coming!' he said. 'They didn't believe a word I toldthem! The cobs'll be carrying off the princess from under their stupidnoses! But they shan't! that they shan't!'
He jumped up, as he thought, and began to dress, but, to his dismay,found that he was still lying in bed.
'Now then, I will!' he said. 'Here goes! I am up now!'
But yet again he found himself snug in bed. Twenty times he tried, andtwenty times he failed; for in fact he was not awake, only dreamingthat he was. At length in an agony of despair, fancying he heard thegoblins all over the house, he gave a great cry. Then there came, ashe thought, a hand upon the lock of his door. It opened, and, lookingup, he saw a lady with white hair, carrying a silver box in her hand,enter the room. She came to his bed, he thought, stroked his head andface with cool, soft hands, took the dressing from his leg, rubbed itwith something that smelt like roses, and then waved her hands over himthree times. At the last wave of her hands everything vanished, hefelt himself sinking into the profoundest slumber, and rememberednothing more until he awoke in earnest.
The setting moon was throwing a feeble light through the casement, andthe house was full of uproar. There was soft heavy multitudinousstamping, a clashing and clanging of weapons, the voices of men and thecries of women, mixed with a hideous bellowing, which soundedvictorious. The cobs were in the house! He sprang from his bed,hurried on some of his clothes, not forgetting his shoes, which werearmed with nails; then spying an old hunting-knife, or short sword,hanging on the wall, he caught it, and rushed down the stairs, guidedby the sounds of strife, which grew louder and louder.
When he reached the ground floor he found the whole place swarming.
All the goblins of the mountain seemed gathered there. He rushedamongst them, shouting:
'One, two, Hit and hew! Three, four, Blast and bore!'
and with every rhyme he came down a great stamp upon a foot, cutting atthe same time their faces--executing, indeed, a sword dance of thewildest description. Away scattered the goblins in everydirection--into closets, up stairs, into chimneys, up on rafters, anddown to the cellars. Curdie went on stamping and slashing and singing,but saw nothing of the people of the house until he came to the greathall, in which, the moment he entered it, arose a great goblin shout.The last of the men-at-arms, the captain himself, was on the floor,buried beneath a wallowing crowd of goblins. For, while each knightwas busy defending himself as well as he could, by stabs in the thickbodies of the goblins, for he had soon found their heads all butinvulnerable, the queen had attacked his legs and feet with herhorrible granite shoe, and he was soon down; but the captain had gothis back to the wall and stood out longer. The goblins would have tornthem all to pieces, but the king had given orders to carry them awayalive, and over each of them, in twelve groups, was standing a knot ofgoblins, while as many as could find room were sitting upon theirprostrate bodies.
Curdie burst in dancing and gyrating and stamping and singing like asmall incarnate whirlwind.
'Where 'tis all a hole, sir, Never can be holes: Why should their shoes have soles, sir, When they've got no souls?
'But she upon her foot, sir, Has a granite shoe: The strongest leather boot, sir, Six would soon be through.'
The queen gave a howl of rage and dismay; and before she recovered herpresence of mind, Curdie, having begun with the group nearest him, hadeleven of the knights on their legs again.
'Stamp on their feet!' he cried as each man rose, and in a few minutesthe hall was nearly empty, the goblins running from it as fast as theycould, howling and shrieking and limping, and cowering every now andthen as they ran to cuddle their wounded feet in their hard hands, orto protect them from the frightful stamp-stamp of the armed men.
And now Curdie approached the group which, in trusting in the queen andher shoe, kept their guard over the prostrate captain. The king sat onthe captain's head, but the queen stood in front, like an infuriatedcat, with her perpendicular eyes gleaming green, and her hair standinghalf up from her horrid head. Her heart was quaking, however, and shekept moving about her skin-shod foot with nervous apprehension. WhenCurdie was within a few paces, she rushed at him, made one tremendousstamp at his opposing foot, which happily he withdrew in time, andcaught him round the waist, to dash him on the marble floor. But justas she caught him, he came down with all the weight of his iron-shodshoe upon her skin-shod foot, and with a hideous howl she dropped him,squatted on the floor, and took her foot in both her hands. Meanwhilethe rest rushed on the king and the bodyguard, sent them flying, andlifted the prostrate captain, who was all but pressed to death. It wassome moments before he recovered breath and consciousness.
'Where's the princess?' cried Curdie, again and again.
No one knew, and off they all rushed in search of her.
Through every room in the house they went, but nowhere was she to befound. Neither was one of the servants to be seen. But Curdie, whohad kept to the lower part of the house, which was now quiet enough,began to hear a confused sound as of a distant hubbub, and set out tofind where it came from. The noise grew as his sharp ears guided himto a stair and so to the wine cellar. It was full of goblins, whom thebutler was supplying with wine as fast as he could draw it.
While the queen and her party had encountered the men-at-arms, Harelipwith another company had gone off to search the house. They capturedevery one they met, and when they could find no more, they hurried awayto carry them safe to the caverns below. But when the butler, who wasamongst them, found that their path lay through the wine cellar, hebethought himself of persuading them to taste the wine, and, as he hadhoped, they no sooner tasted than they wanted more. The routedgoblins, on their way below, joined them, and when Curdie entered theywere all, with outstretched hands, in which were vessels of everydescription from sauce pan to silver cup, pressing around the butler,who sat at the tap of a huge cask, filling and filling. Curdie castone glance around the place before commencing his attack, and saw inthe farthest corner a terrified group of the domestics unwatched, butcowering without courage to attempt their escape. Amongst them was theterror-stricken face of Lootie; but nowhere could he see the princess.Seized with the horrible conviction that Harelip had already carriedher off, he rushed amongst them, unable for wrath to sing any more, butstamping and cutting with greater fury than ever.
'Stamp on their feet; stamp on their feet!' he shouted, and in a momentthe goblins were disappearing through the hole in the floor like ratsand mice.
They could not vanish so fast, however, but that many more goblin feethad to go limping back over the underground ways of the mountain thatmorning.
Presently, however, they were reinforced from above by the king and hisparty, with the redoubtable queen at their head. Finding Curdie againbusy amongst her unfortunate subjects, she rushed at him once more withthe rage of despair, and this time gave him a bad bruise on the foot.Then a regular stamping fight got up between them, Curdie, with thepoint of his hunting-knife, keeping her from clasping her mighty armsabout him, as he watched his opportunity of getting once more a goodstamp at her skin-shod foot. But the queen was more wary as well asmore agile than hitherto.
The rest meantime, finding their adversary thus matched for the moment,paused in their headlong hurry, and turned to the shivering group ofwom
en in the corner. As if determined to emulate his father and have asun-woman of some sort to share his future throne, Harelip rushed atthem, caught up Lootie, and sped with her to the hole. She gave agreat shriek, and Curdie heard her, and saw the plight she was in.Gathering all his strength, he gave the queen a sudden cut across theface with his weapon, came down, as she started back, with all hisweight on the proper foot, and sprung to Lootie's rescue. The princehad two defenceless feet, and on both of them Curdie stamped just as hereached the hole. He dropped his burden and rolled shrieking into theearth. Curdie made one stab at him as he disappeared, caught hold ofthe senseless Lootie, and having dragged her back to the corner, theremounted guard over her, preparing once more to encounter the queen.
Her face streaming with blood, and her eyes flashing green lightningthrough it, she came on with her mouth open and her teeth grinning likea tiger's, followed by the king and her bodyguard of the thickestgoblins. But the same moment in rushed the captain and his men, andran at them stamping furiously. They dared not encounter such anonset. Away they scurried, the queen foremost. Of course, the rightthing would have been to take the king and queen prisoners, and holdthem hostages for the princess, but they were so anxious to find herthat no one thought of detaining them until it was too late.
Having thus rescued the servants, they set about searching the houseonce more. None of them could give the least information concerningthe princess. Lootie was almost silly with terror, and, althoughscarcely able to walk would not leave Curdie's side for a singlemoment. Again he allowed the others to search the rest of thehouse--where, except a dismayed goblin lurking here and there, theyfound no one--while he requested Lootie to take him to the princess'sroom. She was as submissive and obedient as if he had been the king.
He found the bedclothes tossed about, and most of them on the floor,while the princess's garments were scattered all over the room, whichwas in the greatest confusion. It was only too evident that thegoblins had been there, and Curdie had no longer any doubt that she hadbeen carried off at the very first of the inroad. With a pang ofdespair he saw how wrong they had been in not securing the king andqueen and prince; but he determined to find and rescue the princess asshe had found and rescued him, or meet the worst fate to which thegoblins could doom him.