THE GOBLINS IN THE KING'S HOUSE
WHEN Curdie fell asleep he began at once to dream. He thought he was
ascending the mountain-side from the mouth of the mine, whistling and
singing "_Ring, dod, bang!_" when he came upon a woman and child who
were lost; and from that point he went on dreaming all that had happened
since he met the princess and Lootie; how he had watched the goblins,
and been taken by them, how he had been rescued by the princess;
everything indeed, until he was wounded, and imprisoned by the
men-at-arms. And now he thought he was lying wide awake where they had
laid him, when suddenly he heard a great thundering sound.
"The cobs are coming!" he said. "They didn't believe a word I told them!
The cobs'll be carrying off the princess from under their stupid noses!
But they sha'n't! that they sha'n'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, and
twenty times he failed; for in fact he was not awake, only dreaming that
he was. At length in an agony of despair, fancying he heard the goblins
all over the house, he gave a great cry. Then there came, as he thought,
a hand upon the lock of the door. It opened, and, looking up, 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 and face with
cool, soft hands, took the dressing from his leg, rubbed it with
something that smelled like roses, and then waved her hands over him
three times. At the last wave of her hands everything vanished, he felt
himself sinking into the profoundest slumber, and remembered nothing
more until he awoke in earnest.
The setting moon was throwing a feeble light through the casement, and
the house was full of uproar. There was soft heavy multitudinous
stamping, a clashing and clanging of weapons, the voices of men and the
cries of women, mixed with a hideous bellowing, which sounded
victorious. The cobs were in the house! He sprang from his bed, hurried
on some of his clothes, not forgetting his shoes, which were armed with
nails; then spying an old hunting-knife, or short sword, hanging on the
wall, he caught it, and rushed down the stairs, guided by 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 rushed amongst
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 at
the same time at their faces--executing, indeed, a sword dance of the
wildest description. Away scattered the goblins in every
direction,--into closets, upstairs, into chimneys, up on rafters, and
down 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 great
hall, 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 knight was
busy defending himself as well as he could, by stabs in the thick bodies
of the goblins, for he had soon found their heads all but invulnerable,
the queen had attacked his legs and feet with her horrible granite shoe,
and he was soon down; but the captain had got his back to the wall and
stood out longer. The goblins would have torn them all to pieces, but
the king had given orders to carry them away alive, and over each of
them, in twelve groups, was standing a knot of goblins, while as many as
could find room were sitting upon their prostrate bodies.
Curdie burst in dancing and gyrating and stamping and singing like a
small 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 her
presence of mind, Curdie, having begun with the group nearest him, had
eleven of the knights on their legs again.
"Stamp on their feet!" he cried, as each man rose, and in a few minutes
the hall was nearly empty, the goblins running from it as fast as they
could, howling and shrieking and limping, and cowering every now and
then as they ran to cuddle their wounded feet in their hard hands, or to
protect them from the frightful stamp-stamp of the armed men.
And now Curdie approached the group which, trusting in the queen and her
shoe, kept their guard over the prostrate captain. The king sat on the
captain's head, but the queen stood in front, like an infuriated cat,
with her perpendicular eyes gleaming green, and her hair standing half
up from her horrid head. Her heart was quaking, however, and she kept
moving about her skin-shod foot with nervous apprehension. When Curdie
was within a few paces, she rushed at him, made one tremendous stamp at
his opposing foot, which happily he withdrew in time, and caught him
round the waist, to dash him on the marble floor. But just as she caught
him, he came down with all the weight of his iron-shod shoe 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. Meanwhile the rest rushed on
the king and the bodyguard sent them flying, and lifted the prostrate
captain, who was all but pressed to death. It was some 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 be
found. Neither was one of the servants to be seen. But Curdie, who had
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 to find
where it came from. The noise grew as his sharp ears guided him to a
stair and so to the wine cellar. It was full of goblins, whom the butler
was supplying with wine as fast as he could draw it.
While the queen and her party had encountered the men-at-arms, Harelip
with another company had gone off to search the house. They captured
every one they met, and when they could find no more, they hurried away
to carry them safe to the caverns below. But when the butler, who was
amongst them, found that their path lay through the wine cellar, he
bethought himself of persuading them to taste the wine, and, as he had
hoped, they no sooner tasted than they wanted more. The routed goblins,
on their way below, joined them, and when Curdie entered, they were all,
with outstretched hands, in which were vessels of every description,
from sauce-pan to silver cup, pressing around the butler, who sat at the
tap of a huge cask, filling and filling. Curdie cast one glance around
the place before commencing his attack, and saw in the farthest corner a
terrified group of the domestics unwatched, but cowering without courage
to attempt their escape. Amongst them was the terror-stricken face of
Lootie; but nowhere could he see the princess. Seized with the horrible
conviction that Harelip had already carried her off, he rushed amongst
them, unable for wrath to sing any more, but stamping and cutting with
greater fury than ever.
"Stamp on their feet; stamp on their feet!" he shouted, and in a moment
the goblins were disappearing through the hole in the floor like rats
and mice.
They could not vanish so fast, however, but that many more goblin feet
had to go limping back over the underground ways of the mountain that
morning.
Presently however they were reinforced from above by the king and his
party, with the redoubtable queen at their head. Finding Curdie again
busy amongst her unfortunate subjects, she rushed at him once more with
the 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 the point
of his hunting knife keeping her from clasping her mighty arms about
him, as he watched his opportunity of getting once more a good stamp at
her skin-shod foot. But the queen was more wary as well as more 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 of
women in the corner. As if determined to emulate his father and have a
sun-woman of some sort to share his future throne. Harelip rushed at
them, caught up Lootie and sped with her to the hole. She gave a great
shriek, and Curdie heard her, and saw the plight she was in. Gathering
all his strength, he gave the queen a sudden cut across the face with
his weapon, came down, as she started back, with all his weight on the
proper foot, and sprang to Lootie's rescue. The prince had two
defenceless feet, and on both of them Curdie stamped just as he reached
the hole. He dropped his burden and rolled shrieking into the earth.
Curdie made one stab at him as he disappeared, caught hold of the
senseless Lootie, and having dragged her back to the corner, there
mounted guard over her, preparing once more to encounter the queen. Her
face streaming with blood, and her eyes flashing green lightning through
it, she came on with her mouth open and her teeth grinning like a
tiger's, followed by the king and her bodyguard of the thickest goblins.
But the same moment in rushed the captain and his men, and ran at them
stamping furiously. They dared not encounter such an onset. Away they
scurried, the queen foremost. Of course the right thing would have been
to take the king and queen prisoners, and hold them hostages for the
princess, but they were so anxious to find her that no one thought of
detaining them until it was too late.
Having thus rescued the servants, they set about searching the house
once more. None of them could give the least information concerning the
princess. Lootie was almost silly with terror, and although scarcely
able to walk, would not leave Curdie's side for a single moment. Again
he allowed the others to search the rest of the house--where, except a
dismayed goblin lurking here and there, they found no one--while he
requested Lootie to take him to the princess's room. She was as
submissive and obedient as if he had been the king. He found the
bed-clothes tossed about, and most of them on the floor, while the
princess's garments were scattered all over the room, which was in the
greatest confusion. It was only too evident that the goblins had been
there, and Curdie had no longer any doubt that she had been carried off
at the very first of the inroad. With a pang of despair he saw how wrong
they had been in not securing the king and queen and prince; but he
determined to find and rescue the princess as she had found and rescued
him, or meet the worst fate to which the goblins could doom him.