The Princess and the Goblin
by
George MacDonald
Part 4 out of 4
Before he had reached the gate, the noise had grown to a great
thundering roar, and the ground trembled beneath their feet, and
before the last of them had crossed the court, out after them from
the great hall door came a huge rush of turbid water, and almost
swept them away. But they got safe out of the gate and up the
mountain, while the torrent went roaring down the road into the
valley beneath.
Curdie had left the king and the princess to look after his mother,
whom he and his father, one on each side, caught up when the stream
overtook them and carried safe and dry.
When the king had got out of the way of the water, a little up the
mountain, he stood with the princess in his arms, looking back with
amazement on the issuing torrent, which glimmered fierce and foamy
through the night. There Curdie rejoined them.
'Now, Curdie,' said the king, 'what does it mean? Is this what you
expected?'
'It is, Your Majesty,' said Curdie; and proceeded to tell him about
the second scheme of the goblins, who, fancying the miners of more
importance to the upper world than they were, had resolved, if they
should fail in carrying off the king's daughter, to flood the mine
and drown the miners. Then he explained what the miners had done
to prevent it. The goblins had, in pursuance of their design, let
loose all the underground reservoirs and streams, expecting the
water to run down into the mine, which was lower than their part of
the mountain, for they had, as they supposed, not knowing of the
solid wall close behind, broken a passage through into it. But the
readiest outlet the water could find had turned out to be the
tunnel they had made to the king's house, the possibility of which
catastrophe had not occurred to the young miner until he had laid
his ear to the floor of the hall.
What was then to be done? The house appeared in danger of falling,
and every moment the torrent was increasing.
'We must set out at once,' said the king. 'But how to get at the
horses!'
'Shall I see if we can manage that?' said Curdie.
'Do,' said the king.
Curdie gathered the men-at-arms, and took them over the garden
wall, and so to the stables. They found their horses in terror;
the water was rising fast around them, and it was quite time they
were got out. But there was no way to get them out, except by
riding them through the stream, which was now pouring from the
lower windows as well as the door. As one horse was quite enough
for any man to manage through such a torrent, Curdie got on the
king's white charger and, leading the way, brought them all in
safety to the rising ground.
'Look, look, Curdie!' cried Irene, the moment that, having
dismounted, he led the horse up to the king.
Curdie did look, and saw, high in the air, somewhere about the top
of the king's house, a great globe of light shining like the purest
silver.
'Oh!' he cried in some consternation, 'that is your grandmother's
lamp! We must get her out. I will go an find her. The house may
fall, you know.'
'My grandmother is in no danger,' said Irene, smiling.
'Here, Curdie, take the princess while I get on my horse,' said the
king.
Curdie took the princess again, and both turned their eyes to the
globe of light. The same moment there shot from it a white bird,
which, descending with outstretched wings, made one circle round
the king an Curdie and the princess, and then glided up again. The
light and the pigeon vanished together.
'Now, Curdie!' said the princess, as he lifted her to her father's
arms, 'you see my grandmother knows all about it, and isn't
frightened. I believe she could walk through that water and it
wouldn't wet her a bit.'
'But, my child,' said the king, 'you will be cold if you haven't
Something more on. Run, Curdie, my boy, and fetch anything you can
lay your hands on, to keep the princess warm. We have a long ride
before us.'
Curdie was gone in a moment, and soon returned with a great rich
fur, and the news that dead goblins were tossing about in the
current through the house. They had been caught in their own
snare; instead of the mine they had flooded their own country,
whence they were now swept up drowned. Irene shuddered, but the
king held her close to his bosom. Then he turned to Sir Walter,
and said:
'Bring Curdie's father and mother here.'
'I wish,' said the king, when they stood before him, 'to take your
son with me. He shall enter my bodyguard at once, and wait further
promotion.'
Peter and his wife, overcome, only murmured almost inaudible
thanks. But Curdie spoke aloud.
'Please, Your Majesty,' he said, 'I cannot leave my father and
mother.'
'That's right, Curdie!' cried the princess. 'I wouldn't if I was
you.'
The king looked at the princess and then at Curdie with a glow of
satisfaction on his countenance.
'I too think you are right, Curdie,' he said, 'and I will not ask
you again. But I shall have a chance of doing something for you
some time.'
'Your Majesty has already allowed me to serve you,' said Curdie.
'But, Curdie,' said his mother, 'why shouldn't you go with the
king? We can get on very well without you.'
'But I can't get on very well without you,' said Curdie. 'The king
is very kind, but I could not be half the use to him that I am to
you. Please, Your Majesty, if you wouldn't mind giving my mother
a red petticoat! I should have got her one long ago, but for the
goblins.'
'As soon as we get home,' said the king, 'Irene and I will search
out the warmest one to be found, and send it by one of the
gentlemen.'
'Yes, that we will, Curdie!' said the princess. 'And next summer
we'll come back and see you wear it, Curdie's mother,' she added.
'Shan't we, king-papa?'
'Yes, my love; I hope so,' said the king.
Then turning to the miners, he said:
'Will you do the best you can for my servants tonight? I hope they
will be able to return to the house tomorrow.'
The miners with one voice promised their hospitality.
Then the king commanded his servants to mind whatever Curdie should
say to them, and after shaking hands with him and his father and
mother, the king and the princess and all their company rode away
down the side of the new stream, which had already devoured half
the road, into the starry night.
CHAPTER 32
The Last Chapter
All the rest went up the mountain, and separated in groups to the
homes of the miners. Curdie and his father and mother took Lootie
with them. And the whole way a light, of which all but Lootie
understood the origin, shone upon their path. But when they looked
round they could see nothing of the silvery globe.
For days and days the water continued to rush from the doors and
windows of the king's house, and a few goblin bodies were swept out
into the road.
Curdie saw that something must be done. He spoke to his father and
the rest of the miners, and they at once proceeded to make another
outlet for the waters. By setting all hands to the work,
tunnelling here and building there, they soon succeeded; and having
also made a little tunnel to drain the water away from under the
king's house, they were soon able to get into the wine cellar,
where they found a multitude of dead goblins - among the rest the
queen, with the skin-shoe gone, and the stone one fast to her ankle
- for the water had swept away the barricade, which prevented the
men-at-arms from following the goblins, and had greatly widened the
passage. They built it securely up, and then went back to their
labours in the mine.
A good many of the goblins with their creatures escaped from the
inundation out upon the mountain. But most of them soon left that
part of the country, and most of those who remained grew milder in
character, and indeed became very much like the Scotch brownies.
Their skulls became softer as well as their hearts, and their feet
grew harder, and by degrees they became friendly with the
inhabitants of the mountain and even with the miners. But the
latter were merciless to any of the cobs' creatures that came in
their way, until at length they all but disappeared.
The rest of the history of The Princess and Curdie must be kept for
another volume.
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