and child who had lost their way; and from that point he went on
dreaming everything that had happened to him since he thus met the

princess" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">princess and Lootie; how he had watched the goblins, how he had
been taken by them, how he had been rescued by the princess" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">princess;

everything, indeed, until he was wounded, captured, 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" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">princess from under their

stupid noses! 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,
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 his 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 smelt 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 their faces - executing, indeed, a sword

dance of the wildest description. Away scattered the goblins in
every direction - into closets, up stairs, 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 horriblegranite 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, in 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" target="_blank" title="n.公主；王妃；亲王夫人">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