 CHAPTER 31 THE SACRIFICE The kings in the palace were in a strange condition. The king playing with a child and dreaming wise dreams, waited upon by a little princess with the heart of a queen, and a youth from the mines who went nowhere, not even into the king's chamber, without his mattock on his shoulder, and a horrible animal at his heels. In a room nearby, the colonel of his guard, also in bed, without a soldier to obey him. In six other rooms, far apart, six miscreants, each watched by a beast jailer, ministers to them all, an old woman and a page, and in the wine cellar, forty-three animals, creatures more grotesque than ever brain of man invented. None dared to approach its gates, and seldom one issued from them. All the dwellers in the city were united in enmity to the palace. It swarmed with evil spirits, they said, whereas the evil spirits were in the city, unsuspected. One consequence of their presence was that, when the rumour came that a great army was on the march against Winston, instead of rushing to their defences, to make new gates, free port-colourses and drawbridges, and bar the river, each band flew first to their treasures, burying them in the cellars and gardens, and hiding them behind stones in their chimneys. And next to rebellion, signing an invitation to his majesty of Borsigras, to enter at their open gates, destroy their king, and annex their country to his own. The straits of isolation were soon found in the palace. Its invalids were requiring stronger food, and what was to be done? For if the butchers sent meat to the palace, was it not likely enough to be poisoned? Curdie said to Durber he would think of some plan before morning. But that same night, as soon as it was dark, Lena came to a master, and let him understand that she wanted to go out. He unlocked a little private post-enforer, left it so that she could push it open when she returned, and told the crocodile to stretch himself across it inside. Early the next morning the leg serpent crept out of the wine cellar, threw the broken door behind, shot into the river, and soon appeared in the kitchen with a splendid sturgeon. Every night Lena went out hunting, and every morning leg serpent went out fishing, and both invalids and household had plenty to eat. As to news, the page and plain clothes would now and then venture out into the marketplace and gather some. One night he came back with the report that the army of the king of Bossa-gras had crossed the border. Two days after he brought the news that the enemy was now but twenty miles from Winston, the colonel of the guard rose and began fervishing his armour, but gave it over to the page and staggered across to the barracks, which were in the next street. The sentry took him for a ghost or worse, ran into the guard room, bolted the door, and stopped his ears. The poor colonel, who was hardly yet able to stand, crawled back despairingly. For Curdie he had already, as soon as the first rumour reached him, resolved if no other instruments came, and the king continued unable to give orders, to call Lena and the creatures and march to meet the enemy. If he died he died for the right, and there was a right end of it. He had no preparations to make, except a good sleep. He asked the king to let the housemaid take his place by his majesty that night, and went and lay down on the floor of the corridor, no farther off than a whisper would reach from the door of the chamber. There, with an old mantle of the kings thrown over him, he was soon fast asleep. Somewhere, about the middle of the night, he woke suddenly, started to his feet and rubbed his eyes. He could not tell what had waked him. But could he be awake, or was he not dreaming? The curtain of the king's door, a dull red ever before, was glowing a gorgeous, radiant purple, and the crown wrought upon it in silks and gems was flashing as if it burned. What could it mean? Was the king's chamber on fire? He darted to the door and lifted the curtain. Glorious, terrible sight! A long and broad marble table that stood at the end of one room had been drawn into the middle of it. And thereon burned a great fire of a sort that Curdie knew, a fire of glowing, flaming roses, red and white. In the midst of the roses lay the king, moaning, but motionless. Every rose that fell from the table to the floor, some one, whom Curdie could not plainly see for the brightness, lifted and laid burning upon the king's face. Until at length his face too was covered with the live roses, and he lay all within the fire, moaning still, with now and then a shuddering sob, and the shape that Curdie saw and could not see wept over the king as he lay in the fire, and often she hid her face in handfuls of a shadowy hair, and from her hair the water of her weeping dropped like sunset rain in the light of the roses. At last she lifted a great armful of her hair and shook it over the fire, and the drops fell from it in showers, and they did not hiss in the flames, but there arose instead as if it were the sound of running brooks. And the glow of the red fire died away, and the glow of the white fire grew gray, and the light was gone, and on the table all was black, except the face of the king, which shone from under the burnt roses like a diamond in the ashes of a furnace. When Curdie, no longer dazzled, saw and knew the old princess, the room was lighted with the splendour of her face, of her blue eyes, of her sapphire crown. Her golden hair went streaming out from her through the air, till it went off in mist and light. She was large and strong as a tightness. She stooped over the table altar, put her mighty arms under the living sacrifice, lifted the king, as if he were but a little child to her bosom, walked with him up the floor, and laid him in his bed. Then darkness fell. The minor boy turned silent away, and laid himself down again in the corridor. An absolute joy filled his heart, his bosom, his head, his whole body. All was safe, all was well. With the helm of his mattock tight in his grasp, he sank into a dreamless sleep. CHAPTER 32 THE KING'S ARMY He woke like a giant refreshed with wine. When he went into the king's chamber, the housemates sat were here to left her, and everything in the room was as it had been the night before. Saved that a heavenly odour of roses filled the air of it. He went up to the bed. The king opened his eyes, and the soul of perfect health shone out of them. Nor was Curdie amazed in his delight. "'Is it not time to rise, Curdie?' asked the king. "'It is, Your Majesty. Today we must be doing,' answered Curdie. "'What must we be doing today, Curdie?' "'Fighting, Sire.' Then fetch me my armour, that of plated steel, in the chest there. You will find the under-clothing with it.' As he spoke, he reached out his hand for a sword, which hung in the bed before him, drew it, and examined the blade. "'A little rusty,' he said, but the edge is there. We shall polish it ourselves to-day, not on the wheel. Curdie, my son, I wake from a troubled dream. A glorious torture has ended it, and I live. I know now well how things are, but you shall explain them to me as I get on my armour. No, I need no bath. I am clean. Call the Colonel of the guard.' In complete steel the old man stepped into the chamber. He knew it not, but the old princess had passed through his room in the night. "'Why, Sir Bronzebeard,' said the King, you are dressed before me. "'You need no valley, old man, when there is battle in the wind.' "'Battlesire,' returned the Colonel, "'Where, then, are our soldiers?' "'Why, there, and here?' answered the King, pointing to the Colonel first and then to himself. "'Where else, man, the enemy will be upon us here sunset, if we be not upon him here noon. What other thing was in your brave brain when you donned your armour, friend?' "'Your Majesty's orders, Sire,' answered Sir Bronzebeard. The King smiled and turned to Curdie. And what was in you, Curdie, for your first word was of battle?' "'See, Your Majesty,' answered Curdie, I have polished my mattock. If Your Majesty had not taken the command, I would have met the enemy at the head of my beasts, and died in comfort, or done better.' "'Brave boy,' said the King. He who takes his life in his hand is the only soldier. You shall head your beasts today. Sir Bronzebeard, will you die with me, if need be?' "'Seven times, my King,' said the Colonel. "'Then we shall win this battle,' said the King. Curdie, go and bind securely the six, that we not lose their guards. Can you find me a horse, think you, Sir Bronzebeard? Alas, they told me my white charger was dead. I will go and fright the Valetru with my presence, and secure, I trust, a horse with your majesty and one for myself. "'Ah, look, you brother,' said the King, bring one for my minor boy, too, and a sober old charger for the Princess, for she, too, must go to the battle and conquer with us.' "'Harder me, Sire,' said Curdie. A minor can fight best on foot. I might smite my horse dead under me with a missed blow, and beside that I must be near to my beasts.' "'As you will,' said the King. Three horses, then, Sir Bronzebeard. The Colonel departed, doubting sorely in his heart how to accouter and lead from the barracks' stables three horses in the teeth of his revolted regiment. In the hall he met the housemaid. "'Can you lead a horse?' he asked. "'Yes, Sir.' "'Are you willing to die for the King?' "'Yes, Sir. Can you do as you are bid?' "'I can keep on trying, Sir.' "'Come, then, were I not a man, I would be a woman such as you.' When they entered the barrack-yard the soldiers scattered like autumn leaves before a blast of winter. They went into the stable unchallenged, and low, in a stall before the Colonel's eyes, stood the King's white charger, with the royal saddle and bridle hung high beside him. Traitorous thieves! muttered the old man in his beard, and went along the stalls looking for his own black charger. Having found him he returned to saddle first to the King's. But the maid had already the saddle upon him, and so gird that the Colonel could thrust no fingertip between girth and skin. He left her to finish what she had so well begun, and went and made ready his own. He then chose for the Princess a great red horse, twenty years old, which he knew to possess every equine virtue. This and his own he led to the palace, and the maid led the King's. The King and Curdie stood in the court, the King in full armour of silvered steel, with a circlet of rubies and diamonds round his helmet. He almost leaped for joy when he saw his great white charger come in, gentle as a child to the hand of the housemaid. But when the horse saw his master in his armour, he reared and bounded in jubilation, yet did not break from the hand that held him. Then out came the Princess a tired and ready, with a hunting-knife a father had given her by her side. They brought her mother's saddle, splendid with gems and gold, set it on the great red horse, and lifted her to it. But the saddle was so big and the horse so tall, that the child found no comfort in them. "'Please, King Papa,' she said, "'Can I not have my white pony?' "'I did not think of him, little one,' said the King. "'Where is he?' "'In the stable,' answered the maid. I found him half-starved, the only horse within the gates, the day after the servants were driven out. He has been well-fed since. "'Go and fetch him,' said the King. As the maid appeared with the pony, from a side door came Lena and the forty-nine, following Curdie. "'I will go with Curdie and the Uglies,' cried the Princess, and as soon as she was mounted she got into the middle of the pack. So out they set, the strangest force that ever went against an enemy. The King and silver armour sat stately on his white steed, with the stones flashing on his helmet. Beside him the grim old Colonel, armed in steel, rode his black charger. Behind the King, a little to the right, Curdie walked a foot, his mattocks shining in the sun. Lena followed at his heel. Behind her came the wonderful company of Uglies. In the midst of them rode the greatest little Irene, dressed in blue, and mounted on the prettiest of white ponies. Behind the Colonel, a little to the left, warped the page. Armed in a breastplate, headpiece, and trooper's sword, he had found in the palace, all much too big for him, and carrying a huge brass trumpet, which he did his best to blow. And the King smiled and seemed pleased with his music, although it was but the grunt of a brazen unrest. Alongside the beasts walked Durba, carrying Barbara. They refued the mountains, should the cause of the King be lost. As soon as they were over the river they turned aside to ascend the cliff, and there awaited the forging of the day's history. Then first Curdie saw that the housemaid, whom they had all forgotten, was following, mounted on the great red horse and seated in the royal saddle. Many were the eyes unfriendly of women, that had stared at them from door and window as they passed through the city, and low laughter and mockery and evil words from the lips of children had rippled about their ears. But the men had all gone to welcome the enemy. The Butcher's first, the King's guard to the last, and now, on the heel of the King's army, brushed out the women and children also, together flowers and branches, wherewith to welcome their conquerors. About a mile down the river, Curdie, happening to look behind him, saw the maid, whom he had supposed gone with Durba, still following on the great red horse. The same moment the King, a few paces in front of him, caught sight of the enemy's tents. Pitched where, the cliff receding, the bank of the river widened to a little plain. CHAPTER 33 THE BATTLE He commanded the page to blow his trumpet, and, in the strength of the moment, the youth uttered a right warlike defiance. But the Butcher's and the guard, who had gone over armed to the enemy, thinking that the King had come to make his peace also, and that it might thereafter go hard with them, rushed at once to make short work with him, and both secure and commend themselves. The Butcher's came on first, for the guards had slackened their saddle girths, brandishing their knives and talking to their dogs. Curdie and the page, with Lena and her pack, bounded to meet them. Curdie struck down the foremost with his mattock. The page, finding his sword too much for him, threw it away and seized the Butcher's knife, which, as he rose, he plunged into the foremost dog. Lena rushed, raging and gnashing among them. She would not look at a dog so long as there was a Butcher on his legs, and she never stopped to kill a Butcher, only with one grind of her jaws crushed a leg of him. When they were all down, then indeed she flashed among the dogs. Meantime the King and the Colonel had spurred towards the advancing guard. The King clove the Major through skull and collarbone, and the Colonel stabbed the Captain in the throat. Then a fierce combat commenced, two against many. But the Butchers and their dogs quickly disposed of. Up came Curdie and his beasts. The horses of the guard, struck with terror, turned in spite of the spur and fled in confusion. They were upon the forces of Borsagrass, which could see little of the affair, but currently imagined a small determined body in front of them, hastened to the attack. No sooner did their first advancing wave appear through the foam of the retreating one, then the King and the Colonel and the Page, Curdie and the beasts, went charging upon them. Their attack, especially the rush of the ugliest, threw the first line into great confusion, but the second came up quickly. The beasts could not be everywhere. There were thousands to one against them, and the King and his three companions were in the greatest possible danger. A dense cloud came over the sun, and sank rapidly toward the earth. The cloud moved altogether, and yet the thousands of white flakes of which it was made up, each moved for itself in ceaseless and rapid motion. Those flakes were the wings of pigeons. Down swooped the birds upon the invaders. Right in the face of man and horse they flew with swift beating wings, blinding eyes and confounding brain. Horses reared and plunged and wheeled, all at once in confusion. The men made frantic efforts to seize their tormentors, but not one could they touch, and they out-doubled them in numbers. Between every wild clutch came a peck of beak and a bucket of pinion in the face. Generally the bird-wood with sharp-clapping wings dart its whole body, with the swiftness of an arrow against its single mark, yet so as to glance aloft the same instant, and ascend skimming, much the thin stone, shot with horizontal cast of arm, having touched and torn the surface of a lake, ascends to skim, touch, and tear again. So mingled the feathered multitude in the grim game of war. It was a storm in which the wind was birds and the sea men. And ever as each bird arrived at the rear of the enemy, it turned, descended, and sped to the front to charge again. The moment the battle began the princess's pony took fright, and turned and fled. But the maid wheeled her horse across the road and stopped him, and they waited together the result of the battle. And as they waited, it seemed to the princess right strange that the pigeons, every one as it came to the rear, and fetched a compass to gather force for the rear-attack, should make the head of her attendant on the red horse the goal around which it turned, so that about them was an unintermittent flapping and flashing of wings, and a curving, sweeping torrent of the side-poised wheeling bodies of birds. Strange also it seemed that the maid should be constantly waving her arm toward the battle. In the time of the motion of her arm so fitted with the rushes of birds, that it looked as if the birds obeyed her gesture, and she was casting living javelins by the thousand against the enemy. The moment a pigeon had rounded her head, it went off straight as bolt from bow, and with trebled velocity. But of these strange things others beside the princess had taken note. From a rising ground, once they watched the battle in growing dismay, the leaders of the enemy saw the maid in her motions, and, concluding her an enchantress, whose were the airy legions humiliating them, set spurs to their horses, made a circuit, outflanked the king, and came down upon her. But suddenly by her side stood a stalwart old man in the garb of a miner, who, as the general rodata sawed in hand, heaved his swift mattock, and brought it down with such force on the forehead of his charger, that he fell to the ground like a log. His rider shot over his head, and lay stunned. Had not the great red horse reared and wheeled, he would have fallen beneath that of the general. With lefted sabre one of his attendant officers rode at the miner. But a mass of pigeons darted in the faces of him and his horse, and the next moment he lay beside his commander. The rest of them turned and fled, pursued by the birds. "'Ah, friend Peter,' said the maid, "'thou hast come as I told thee. Welcome and thanks.' By this time the battle was over, the rout was general, the enemies staunched back upon their own camp, with the beasts roaring in the midst of them. And the king and his army, now reinforced by one, pursuing. But presently the king drew rain. "'Call off your hounds, Curdie, and let the pigeons do the rest.' He shouted, and turned to see what had become of the princess. In full panic fled to the invaders, sweeping down their tents, stumbling over their baggage, trampling on their dead and wounded, ceaselessly pursued and buffeted by the white-winged army of heaven. Homeward they rushed to the road they had come, straight for the borders, many dropping from pure fatigue and lying where they fell. And still the pigeons were in their necks as they ran. At length to the eyes of the king and his army nothing was visible, save a dust cloud below and a bird cloud above. Before night the bird cloud came back, flying high over Gwintstorm. Sink in swiftly it disappeared among the ancient roofs of the palace. CHAPTER XXXIV Judgment The king and his army returned, bringing with them one prisoner only, the Lord Chancellor. Curdie had dragged him from under a fallen tent, not by the hand of a man, but by the foot of a mule. When they entered the city it was still as the grave. The citizens had fled home. We must submit, they cried, or the king and his demons will destroy us. The king rode through the streets in silence, ill-pleased with his people. But he stopped his horse in the midst of the marketplace, and called in a voice loud and clear as the cry of a silver trumpet. Go and find your own, bury your dead and bring home your wounded. Then he turned him gloomily to the palace. Just as they reached the gates, Peter, who as they went, had been telling his tale to Curdie, ended it with the words, and so there I was in the nick of time to save the two princesses. The two princesses' father, the one on the great red horse, was the housemaid. They said, Curdie, and ran to open the gates for the king. They found Durba returned before them, and already busy preparing them food. The king put up his charger with his own hands, rubbed him down, and fed him. When they had washed, and eaten, and drunk, he called the Colonel, and told Curdie and the page to bring out the traitors and the beasts, and attend him to the marketplace. By this time the people were crowding back into the city, bearing their dead and wounded. And there was lamentation in Gwintstorm, for no one could comfort himself, and no one had any to comfort him. The nation was victorious, but the people were conquered. The king stood in the centre of the marketplace, upon the steps of the ancient cross. He had laid aside his helmet, and put on his crown. But he stood all armed beside, with his sword in his hand. He called the people to him. And for all the terror of the beasts, they dared not disobey him. Those even, who were carrying their wounded, lay them down, and drew near trembling. Then the king said to Curdie and the page, Set the evil men before me. He looked upon them for a moment, and mingled anger and pity. Then turned to the people, and said, Behold your trust, ye slaves, behold your leaders, I would have freed you, but ye would not be free. Now shall ye be ruled with a rod of iron, that ye may learn what freedom is, and love it, and seek it. These wretches I will send, where they shall mislead you no longer. He made a sign to Curdie, who immediately brought up the leg serpent. To the body of the animal they bound the Lord Chamberlain, speechless with horror. The butler began to shriek and pray, but they bound him on the back of Clubhead. One after another upon the largest of the creatures they bound the whole seven, each through the unveiling terror looking the villain he was. Then said the king, I thank you, my good beasts, and I hope to visit you ere long. Take these evil men with you and go to your place. Like a whirlwind they were in the crowd, scattering it like dust, like hounds they rushed from the city, their burdens howling and raving. What became of them I have never heard. Then the king turned once more to the people, and said, Go to your houses. Nor vouchsafed them another word. They crept home like chidden hounds. The king returned to the palace. He made the Colonel a duke, and the pager night. And Peter he appointed general of all his minds. But to Curdie he said, You are my own boy, Curdie. My child cannot choose but love you, and when you are grown up, if you both will, you shall marry each other, and be king and queen when I am gone. Till then be the king's Curdie. Irene held out her arms to Curdie. He raised her to his, and she kissed him. And my Curdie too. She said, There after the people called him Prince Conrad. But the king always called him either just Curdie, or my minor boy. They sat down to supper, and Durba and the night in the housemaid waited, and Barbara sat at the king's left hand. The housemaid poured out the wine, and as she poured for Curdie red wine that foamed in the cup. As if glad to see the light whence it had been banished so long, she looked him in the eyes. And Curdie started and sprang from his seat, and dropped on his knees and burst into tears. And the maid said with a smile, such as none but one could smile. Did I not tell you, Curdie, that it might be you would not know me when next you saw me? Then she went from the room, and in a moment returned in royal purple, with a crown of diamonds and rubies. From under which her hair went flowing to the floor. All about her rubies lipped feet. Her face was radiant with joy. The joy overshadowed by a faint mist as of unfulfillment. The king rose and kneeled on one knee before her. All kneeled in like homage. Then the king would have yielded her his royal chair. But she made them all sit down, and with her own hands placed at the table-seats for Derber and the page. Then in ruby crown and royal purple she served them all. CHAPTER 35 THE END The king sent Curdie out into his dominions to search for men and women that had human hands. And many such he found, honest and true, and brought them to his master. So a new and upright court was formed, and strength returned to the nation. But the exchequer was almost empty, for the evil men had squandered everything, and the king hated taxes unwillingly paid. King came Curdie and said to the king that the city stood upon gold. And the king sent for men wise in the ways of the earth. And they built smelting furnaces, and Peter brought miners. And they mined the gold and smeltered it. And the king coined it into money. And therewith established things well in the land. The same day on which he found his boy, Peter set out to go home. When he told the good news to Joan his wife, Curdie rose from a chair and said, Let us go. And they left the cottage and repaired to Gwent's Storm. And on a mountain above the city they built themselves a warm house for their old age, high in the clear air. As Peter mined one day at the back of the king's wine-cellar, he broke into a cabin crusted with gems, and much wealth flowed therefrom, and the king used it wisely. Queen Irene—that was the right name of the old princess—was thereafter seldom long absent from the palace. Once or twice when she was missing, Barbara, who seemed to know of her sometimes when nobody else had a notion whether she had gone, said she was with the dear old uglies in the wood. Curdie thought that perhaps her business might be with others there as well. All the uppermost rooms in the palace were left to her use, and when anyone was in need of her help, up thither he must go. But even when she was there, he did not always succeed in finding her. She however always knew that such a one had been looking for her. Curdie went to find her one day. As he ascended the last stair, to meet him came the well-known scent of roses, and when he opened the door, lo, there was the same gorgeous room in which his touch had been glorified by her fire, and there burned the fire a huge heap of red and white roses. Before the hearth stood the princess, an old grey-haired woman, with Lena a little behind her, slowly wagging her tail, and looking like a beast of prey that can hardly so long restrain itself from springing as to be sure of its victim. The queen was casting roses, more and more roses upon the fire. At last she turned and said, Now, Lena. And Lena dashed, burrowing into the fire. They went up a black smoke into dust, and Lena was never more seen in the palace. Irene and Curdie were married, the old king died, and they were king and queen. As long as they lived, Gwintstorm was a better city, and good people grew in it. Yet they had no children, and when they died the people chose a king. And the new king went mining and mining in the rock under the city, and grew more and more eager after the gold, and paid less and less heat to his people. Rapidly they sank toward their own wickedness, but still the king went on mining and coining gold by the pail-fill, until the people were worse even than in the old time. And so greedy was the king after gold that, when at last the ore began to fail, he caused the miners to reduce the pillars which Peter, and they that followed him, had left standing to bear the city. And from the girth of an oak for a thousand years, they chipped them down to that of a fir tree of fifty. One day at noon, when life was at his highest, the whole city fell with a roaring crash. The cries of men and the shrieks of women went up with its dust. And then there was a great silence. Where the mighty rock once towered, crowded with homes and crowned with a palace, now rushes and raves, a stone obstructed rapid of the river. All around spread a wilderness of wild deer, and the very name of Gwintstorm had ceased from the lips of men. End of section 19 End of The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald