Chapter 4 Chapter Four What Happened at Night

The King fell bewildered with beatings, not knowing what was happening, until the Calormenes bound his wrists so that his arms hung straight at his sides, and his back rested on a branch. tree.Then they bound him with ropes around his ankles, knees, waist, and chest, and that left him there.What worries him now is that his lips are bleeding, they have broken his lip, and he can't wipe off the blood dripping from the wound, it's itchy—it's often the little things that hurt the most. The king was tied to the school tree and could still see the small stable on the top of the hill and the ape sitting in front of the stable.Intermittently he could barely hear the continuation of the ape's speech, and the voices of the crowd answering, but he could not make out the specific words of the speech.

"I don't know what they do with the treasure," thought the king. The pack of beasts soon broke up, and began to go off in different directions.Some just walked by Tirian.They looked at him and saw him tied to the tree, and they seemed frightened and sorry, but neither of them spoke.Soon they were all gone, and the woods were silent.Hour after hour passed, and Tirian was at first very thirsty, then very hungry; and by the end of the evening he was cold.His back hurts.The sun had set and dusk had begun. ' When it was almost dark, Tirian heard a slight rustling of footsteps, and saw some small animals coming towards him.The three on the left are mice, the one in the middle is a hare, and the two on the right are moles.Each of these little animals had a little pouch on their backs, which made them look so grotesque in the dark that at first sight they were not recognizable as animals.After a while they all rose on their hind legs, and lay their cold paws on the King's knee, and kissed him wildly, sobbing. (They can reach a king's knee, for the Narnia talking beasts are much taller and larger than our English counterparts.)

"Your Majesty, dear Your Majesty," said their high-pitched voices, "we are sorry for you. We dare not untie you, for perhaps Aslan will be very angry with us. Yet we will give you Supper is here." Immediately the first mouse climbed swiftly up, with its feet on the ropes that bound Tirian's chest, and it was moving its dull nose in Tirian's face.Then the second mouse climbed up and hung under the first mouse.The rest of the little beasts stood on the ground and began to pass the food up. "Drink, Your Majesty, and when you drink, you'll find yourself able to eat," said the Mouse standing on top, and Tirian felt a small wooden cup brought to his mouth.It was only the size of an eggcup, so it was empty before he could taste the wine.But then the mouse passed the glass down, and the other mice refilled it and handed it up again, so Tippen drank it up a second time.They went on and on in this way, until the king had a good drink, and the taste of a small cup was much better than a large bowl of cow's drink, because it quenched his thirst more.

"Here is cheese, my lord," said the first mouse, "but there is not much of it, and I am afraid you will be thirsty if you eat too much." When they were dry, they fed the King oatcakes and fresh butter, and then gave him a drink some wine. "Bring up the water now," said the first mouse, "and I will wash the king's face. There is blood on it." Then Tirian felt something like a sponge dabbing across his face, which was the coolest and most comforting thing. "My little friends," said Tirian, "how can I thank you for all your care?" What? We don't want any other kings. We are your people. If it's nothing but apes and Calormenes who oppose you, we'll fight and fight till we're cut to pieces before letting them go Bind you. We will fight, we will fight. Yet we cannot stand against Aslan. "Do you think it is Aslan?" asked the King. "Ah, yes, yes, said Rabbit. "Aslan came out of the stable last night.We all saw him. "

"What was Aslan like?" asked the King. "Like a big scary lion, really," said a little mouse. "Do you think it was indeed Aslan who killed the Wood-elves and made you all slaves to King Calormene?" It would have been better if we had died before this situation began. But there was nothing suspicious about it. Everyone said it was Aslan's order, and we had seen him. We didn't think Aslan would Love it. Well, we—we want Aslan back in Narnia." "Aslan seems very angry to be back this time," said the first mouse. "We must all have committed some terrible mistakes and didn't know it. He must have punished us for some mistakes. But I think, Tell us what mistake we have made!"

"I guess what we're doing may be wrong," Rabbit said. "I don't care if I'm wrong," said one-eyed mouse, "I'll do it again." But the other little beasts said, "Be quiet." "Be careful." And they all said, "We're very happy." Sorry, dear king, we must go back now. It will be difficult if we are caught here." "My dear little beast, leave me at once," said Tirian, "for the good of all Narnia I would not put any of you in danger." "Good night, good night," said the little beasts, wiping their noses on the king's knee, "we'll be back—if we can." The woods seemed darker, colder, and lonelier than before.

The stars came out, and the time passed slowly—just imagine how slowly that time passed—while the last King of Narnia was bound to a tree and stood stiff and aching.But, finally, something happened. A red light appeared in the distance.Then, the red light disappeared for a while and then came back on, with a larger area and more intense light.On this side of the fire he could see dark figures walking up and down, carrying bundles and dropping them one by one on the ground.Now he knew what he was looking at.It turned out to be a newly lit bonfire into which bundles of firewood were being thrown.Presently the fire was burning so loudly that Tirian could see that it was on the top of the hill.He could see quite distinctly the stables behind the fire, all lit up in the red light; between the fire and himself a great herd of beasts and men; ape.It was talking to the crowd, but he couldn't hear it.Then he went to the stable door and bowed three times to the ground.Then it stood up and opened the stable door.Then a four-legged animal--an animal with a very clumsy walk--out of the stable, stood facing the crowd.

There was a great moaning and wailing, so loud that Tirian could hear some words in it. "Aslan! Aslan! Aslan!" cried the Beasts, "speak to us. Comfort us! Stop being angry with us." From where Tirian stood he could not quite see what it was, but he could see that it was yellow and hairy.He had never seen the great Lion King.He had never seen an ordinary lion either.He was not sure that what he saw was not Aslan.He hadn't expected Aslan to look like the frozen animal that stood silent.But how could one be sure? For a moment a horrible thought came to his mind: then he remembered the rumor that Tash and Aslan were the same god, and felt that the whole thing must be a hoax.

The Ape put his head close to that of the yellow brute, as if he were listening to something whispered to him.Then it turned to address the crowd, and the crowd wailed again.Then the yellow beast turned awkwardly, and strode back—almost staggered—into the stable, with the Ape closing the door behind him.After this, the fire must have been extinguished, for the light suddenly disappeared; and Tirian was again alone in the cold and dark. He thought of the other kings who had lived and died in Narnia in olden days, and it seemed to him that no king had ever been as unlucky as he had been.He thought of his great-grandfather's great-great-grandfather, King Rilian, who had been stolen by a witch when he was but a young prince, and hidden for years in a black hole under the land of the Giants of the North.But in the end, two children from beyond the end of the world suddenly appeared, rescued him, and he returned to his home in Narnia, where he ruled for a long time and prosperously. "It's very different from mine," said Tirian to himself.Then he traced back to Rilian's father, Caspian the Navigator, whose wicked uncle Miraz had tried to murder him, and Caspian had fled into the forest to live among the Dwarfs.But the story also had a happy ending; for Caspian was helped by children too—only there were four of them—who came from the outside world and fought a great battle to lift him up to his father's the throne. "But it was a long, long time ago," said Tirian to himself, "and such things don't happen now." Then he remembered (for he knew history well from his boyhood) The four children who helped Caspian stayed in Narnia more than a thousand years ago, when they defeated the White Witch and ended centuries of winter, and they were in Kelpara after that For many years Vail reigned (the four ruled together) until at last they were no longer children but High Kings and lovely Queens, and the years of their reign became the Golden Age of Narnia.In that story, Xiang Slan appeared many times.Aslan was present in all the other stories, so far as Tirian could now remember. "Aslan—and the children from the other world," thought Tirian, "they are always there when things are at their worst and most sinister. Ah, if they could be here now." what."

So he called out, "Aslan! Aslan! Aslan! Come and help us now!" Yet the darkness, coldness, and silence remained the same, unchanged. "Let me be killed," cried the King, "I plead nothing for myself. But I beg you to come and save all Narnia." In the night or in the woods nothing changed, But a change began to take place in Tirian, and he did not know why, and he began to feel a vague hope.He felt stronger anyway. "Ah, Aslan, Aslan," he whispered, "if you will not come yourself, at least send me some assistants from other worlds. Oh, let me call them. Let my voice reach to the outside world." Then, not knowing what he was doing, he suddenly cried out:

"Children! Children! Friends of Narnia! Quickly, come to me. I call you from the ends of the earth, and I am Tirian, King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, of the Inaccessible Isles." Emperor!" And immediately he entered a dream (if it was a dream) more vivid than any dream he had ever had in his life. He seemed to be standing in a brightly lit room where seven people were sitting around a table.It looked like they had just finished their meal.Two of them were very old, one a bearded old man and the other an old woman with bright, merry twinkling eyes.The man on the old man's right was not yet of age, certainly younger than Tirian himself, but already he had the look of a king and a warrior in his face.Almost the same thing could be said of the boy sitting to the right of the old woman.Across the table, facing Tirian, sat a fair-haired girl younger than the two above, and a man and a woman on either side of her were even younger.They were all dressed in what Tirian thought was the most outlandish clothes.But he didn't have time to think about these details, for the youngest boy and the two little girls immediately jumped up from their seats, and one of them let out a slight cry.The old woman was taken aback and took a sharp breath.The old man must have made a sudden movement, too, for the glass on his right hand knocked off the table, and Tirian could hear it shatter on the floor.Then Tirian realized that these people could see him, that they were staring at him as if they had seen a ghost.But he also saw it: the king-like figure sitting next to the old man never moved (although his face turned pale), but only squeezed his hand tightly.Then he said: "Speak up, if you are not a phantom or a dream. You have the air of a Narnian, and we are the Seven Friends of Narnia." Tirian wanted to talk, and he tried to shout that he was Tirian of Narnia, and he was in desperate need of help.But he found (as we often do in dreams) that no sound came from his voice.The man who had spoken to him rose to his feet. "Shadow or ghost, whoever you are," he said, looking straight at Tirian, "if you come from Narnia, I command you in the name of Aslan, speak to me Speak up. I am Great King Peter." The room began to shake before Tirian's eyes.He heard the voices of all seven speaking in unison at once, all fading away second by second, saying things like "Look, it's fading." "It's melting." "It's disappearing." A moment later he was fully awake, still bound to the tree, colder and stiffer than ever.The woods were filled with the pale, sullen light before sunrise, and he was drenched with dew, and morning was drawing near. When he woke up from this dream, it was the most embarrassing moment he had ever experienced in his life.