the disappearance of jill
the patch of light did not show up anything down in the darkness where they were standing. the others could only hear, not see, jill's efforts to get on to the marsh-wiggle's back. that is, they heard him saying, "you needn't put your finger in my eye," and, "nor your foot in my mouth either," and, "that's more like it," and, "now, i'll hold on to your legs. that'll leave your arms free to steady yourself against the earth."
then they looked up and soon they saw the black shape of jill's head against the patch of light.
"well?" they all shouted up anxiously.
"it's a hole," called jill's voice. "i could get through it if i was a little bit higher."
"what do you see through it?" asked eustace.
"nothing much yet," said jill. "i say, puddleglum, let go my legs so that i can stand on your shoulders instead of sitting on them. i can steady myself all right against the edge."
they could hear her moving and then much more of her came into sight against the greyness of the opening; in fact all of her down to the waist.
"i say -" began jill, but suddenly broke off with a cry: not a sharp cry. it sounded more as if her mouth had been muffled up or had something pushed into it. after that she found her voice and seemed to be shouting out as loud as she could, but they couldn't hear the words. two things then happened at the same moment. the patch of light was completely blocked up for a second or so; and they heard both a scuffling, struggling sound and the voice of the marsh-wiggle gasping: "quick! help! hold on to her legs.
someone's pulling her. there! no, here. too late!"
the opening, and the cold light which filled it, were now perfectly clear again. jill had vanished.
"jill! jill!" they shouted frantically, but there was no answer.
"why the dickens couldn't you have held her feet?" said eustace.
"i don't know, scrubb," groaned puddleglum. "born to be a misfit, i shouldn't wonder. fated. fated to be pole's death, just as i was fated to eat talking stag at harfang. not that it isn't my own fault as well, of course."
"this is the greatest shame and sorrow that could have fallen on us," said the prince. "we have sent a brave lady into the hands of enemies and stayed behind in safety."
"don't paint it too black, sir," said puddleglum. "we're not very safe except for death by starvation in this hole."
"i wonder am i small enough to get through where jill did?" said eustace.
what had really happened to jill was this. as soon as she got her head out of the hole she found that she was looking down as if from an upstairs window, not up as if through a trap-door. she had been so long in the dark that her eyes couldn't at first take in what they were seeing: except that she was not looking at the daylit, sunny world which she so wanted to see. the air seemed to be deadly cold, and the light was pale and blue. there was also a good deal of noise going on and a lot of white objects flying about in the air. it was at that moment that she had shouted down to puddleglum to let her stand up on his shoulders.
when she had done this, she could see and hear a good deal better. the noises she had been hearing turned out to be of two kinds: the rhythmical thump of several feet, and the music of four fiddles, three flutes, and a drum. she also got her own position clear. she was looking out of a hole in a steep bank which sloped down and reached the level about fourteen feet below her. everything was very white. a lot of people were moving about. then she gasped! the people were trim little fauns, and dryads with leafcrowned hair floating behind them. for a second they looked as if they were moving anyhow; then she saw that they were really doing a dance - a dance with so many complicated steps and figures that it took you some time to understand it. then it came over her like a thunderclap that the pale, blue light was really moonlight, and the white stuff on the ground was really snow. and of course! there were the stars staring in a black frosty sky overhead. and the tall black things behind the dancers were trees. they had not only got out into the upper world at last, but had come out in the heart of narnia. jill felt she could have fainted with delight; and the music - the wild music, intensely sweet and yet just the least bit eerie too, and full of good magic as the witch's thrumming had been full of bad magic - made her feel it all the more.
all this takes a long time to tell, but of course it took a very short time to see. jill turned almost at once to shout down to the others, "i say! it's all right. we're out, and we're home." but the reason she never got further than "i say" was this. circling round and round the dancers was a ring of dwarfs, all dressed in their finest clothes; mostly scarlet with fur-lined hoods and golden tassels and big furry top-boots. as they circled round they were all diligently throwing snowballs. (those were the white things that jill had seen flying through the air.) they weren't throwing them at the dancers as silly boys might have been doing in england. they were throwing them through the dance in such perfect time with the music and with such perfect aim that if all the dancers were in exactly the right places at exactly the right moments, no one would be hit. this is called the great snow dance and it is done every year in narnia on the first moonlit night when there is snow on the ground. of course it is a kind of game as well as a dance, because every now and then some dancer will be the least little bit wrong and get a snowball in the face, and then everyone laughs. but a good team of dancers, dwarfs, and musicians will keep it up for hours without a single hit. on fine nights when the cold and the drum-taps, and the hooting of the owls, and the moonlight, have got into their wild, woodland blood and made it even wilder, they will dance till daybreak. i wish you could see it for yourselves.
what had stopped jill when she got as far as the say of "i say" was of course simply a fine big snowball that came sailing through the dance from a dwarf on the far side and got her fair and square in the mouth. she didn't in the least mind; twenty snowballs would not have damped her spirits at that moment. but however happy you are feeling, you can't talk with your mouth full of snow. and when, after considerable spluttering, she could speak again, she quite forgot in her excitement that the others, down in the dark, behind her, still didn't know the good news. she simply leaned as far out of the hole as she could, and yelled to the dancers.
"help! help! we're buried in the hill. come and dig us out."
the narnians, who had not even noticed the little hole in the hillside, were of course very surprised, and looked about in several wrong directions before they found out where the voice was coming from. but when they caught sight of jill they all came running towards her, and as many as could scrambled up the bank, and a dozen or more hands were stretched up to help her. and jill caught hold of them and thus got out of the hole and came slithering down the bank head first, and then picked herself up and said:
"oh, do go and dig the others out. there are three others, besides the horses. and one of them is prince rilian."
she was already in the middle of a crowd when she said this, for besides the dancers all sorts of people who had been watching the dance, and whom she had not seen at first, came running up. squirrels came out of the trees in showers, and so did owls. hedgehogs came waddling as fast as their short legs would carry them. bears and badgers followed at a slower pace. a great panther, twitching its tail in excitement, was the last to join the party.
but as soon as they understood what jill was saying, they all became active. "pick and shovel, boys, pick and shovel. off for our tools!" said the dwarfs, and dashed away into the woods at top speed. "wake up some moles, they're the chaps for digging. they're quite as good as dwarfs," said a voice. "what was that she said about prince rilian?" said another. "hush!" said the panther. "the poor child's crazed, and no wonder after being lost inside the hill. she doesn't know what she's saying." "that's right," said an old bear. "why, she said prince rilian was a horse!" "no, she didn't," said a squirrel, very pert. "yes, she did," said another squirrel, even perter.
"it's quite t-t-t-true. d-d-don't be so silly," said jill. she spoke like that because her teeth were now chattering with the cold.
immediately one of the dryads flung round her a furry cloak which some dwarf had dropped when he rushed to fetch his mining tools, and an obliging faun trotted off among the trees to a place where jill could see firelight in the mouth of a cave, to get her a hot drink. but before it came, all the dwarfs reappeared with spades and pick-axes and charged at the hillside. then jill heard cries of "hi! what are you doing? put that sword down," and "now, young 'un: none of that," and, "he's a vicious one, now, isn't he?" jill hurried to the spot and didn't know whether to laugh or cry when she saw eustace's face, very pale and dirty, projecting from the blackness of the hole, and eustace's right hand brandishing a sword with which he made lunges at anyone who came near him.
for of course eustace had been having a very different time from jill during the last few minutes. he had heard jill cry out and seen her disappear into the unknown. like the prince and puddleglum, he thought that some enemies had caught her. and from down below he didn't see that the pale, blueish light was moonlight. he thought the hole would lead only into some other cave, lit by some ghostly phosphorescence and filled with goodness-knows-what evil creatures of the underworld. so that when he had persuaded puddleglum to give him a back, and drawn his sword, and poked out his head, he had really been doing a very brave thing. the others would have done it first if they could, but the hole was too small for them to climb through. eustace was a little bigger, and a lot clumsier, than jill, so that when he looked out he bumped his head against the top of the hole and brought a small avalanche of snow down on his face. and so, when he could see again, and saw dozens of figures coming at him as hard as they could run, it is not surprising that he tried to ward them off.
"stop, eustace, stop," cried jill. "they're all friends. can't you see? we've come up in narnia. everything's all right."
then eustace did see, and apologized to the dwarfs (and the dwarfs said not to mention it), and dozens of thick, hairy, dwarfish hands helped him out just as they had helped jill out a few minutes before. then jill scrambled up the bank and put her head in at the dark opening and shouted the good news in to the prisoners. as she turned away she heard puddleglum mutter. "ah, poor pole. it's been too much for her, this last bit. turned her head, i shouldn't wonder. she's beginning to see things."
jill rejoined eustace and they shook one another by both hands and took in great deep breaths of the free midnight air. and a warm cloak was brought for eustace and hot drinks, for both. while they were sipping it, the dwarfs had already got all the snow and all the sods off a large strip of the hillside round the original hole, and the pickaxes and spades were now going as merrily as the feet of fauns and dryads had been going in the dance ten minutes before. only ten minutes! yet already it felt to jill and eustace as if all their dangers in the dark and heat and general smotheriness of the earth must have been only a dream. out here, in the cold, with the moon and the huge stars overhead (narnian stars are nearer than stars in our world) and with kind, merry faces all round them, one couldn't quite believe in underland.
before they had finished their hot drinks, a dozen or so moles, newly waked and still very sleepy, and not well pleased, had arrived. but as soon as they understood what it was all about, they joined in with a will. even the fauns made themselves useful by carting away the earth in little barrows, and the squirrels danced and leaped to and fro in great excitement, though jill never found out exactly what they thought they were doing. the bears and owls contented themselves with giving advice, and kept on asking the children if they wouldn't like to come into the cave (that was where jill had seen the firelight) and get warm and have supper. but the children couldn't bear to go without seeing their friends set free.
no one in our world can work at a job of that sort as dwarfs and talking moles work in narnia; but then, of course, moles and dwarfs don't look on it as work. they like digging. it was therefore not really long before they had opened a great black chasm in the hillside. and out from the blackness into the moonlight - this would have been rather dreadful if one hadn't known who they were came, first, the long, leggy, steeple-hatted figure of the marsh-wiggle, and then, leading two great horses, rilian the prince himself.
as puddleglum appeared shouts broke out on every side: "why, it's a wiggle - why, it's old puddleglum - old puddleglum from the eastern marshes - what ever have you been doing, puddleglum? - there've been search-parties out for you - the lord trumpkin has been putting up notices there's a reward offered!" but all this died away, all in one moment, into dead silence, as quickly as the noise dies away in a rowdy dormitory if the headmaster opens the door. for now they saw the prince.
no one doubted for a moment who he was. there were plenty of beasts and dryads and dwarfs and fauns who remembered him from the days before his enchanting. there were some old ones who could just remember how his father, king caspian, had looked when he was a young man, and saw the likeness. but i think they would have known him anyway. pale though he was from long imprisonment in the deep lands, dressed in black, dusty, dishevelled, and weary, there was something in his face and air which no one could mistake. that look is in the face of all true kings of narnia, who rule by the will of aslan and sit at cair paravel on the throne of peter the high king.
instantly every head was bared and every knee was bent; a moment later such cheering and shouting, such jumps and reels of joy, such hand-shakings and kissings and embracings of everybody by everybody else broke out that the tears came into jill's eyes. their quest had been worth all the pains it cost.
"please it your highness," said the oldest of the dwarfs, "there is some attempt at a supper in the cave yonder, prepared against the ending of the snow-dance -"
"with a good will, father," said the prince. "for never had any prince, knight, gentleman, or bear so good a stomach to his victuals as we four wanderers have tonight."
the whole crowd began to move away through the trees towards the cave. jill heard puddleglum saying to those who pressed round him. "no, no, my story can wait.
nothing worth talking about has happened to me. i want to hear the news. don't try breaking it to me gently, for i'd rather have it all at once. has the king been shipwrecked? any forest fires? no wars on the calormen border? or a few dragons, i shouldn't wonder?" and all the creatures laughed aloud and said, "isn't that just like a marshwiggle?"
the two children were nearly dropping with tiredness and hunger, but the warmth of the cave, and the very sight of it, with the firelight dancing on the walls and dressers and cups and saucers and plates and on the smooth stone floor, just as it does in a farmhouse kitchen, revived them a little. all the same they went fast asleep while supper was being got ready. and while they slept prince rilian was talking over the whole adventure with the older and wiser beasts and dwarfs. and now they all saw what it meant; how a wicked witch (doubtless the same kind as that white witch who had brought the great winter on narnia long ago) had contrived the whole thing, first killing rilian's mother and enchanting rilian himself. and they saw how she had dug right under narnia and was going to break out and rule it through rilian: and how he had never dreamed that the country of which she would make him king (king in name, but really her slave) was his own country. and from the children's part of the story they saw how she was in league and friendship with the dangerous giants of harfang. "and the lesson of it all is, your highness," said the oldest dwarf, "that those northern witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it."
15、吉尔不见了
那片光并没照亮他们站着的那片黑暗中的任何东西。其他人只听得见吉尔竭力爬到沼泽怪的背上，可是看不见。就是说，他们听见它一会儿说，“你不必把手指塞到我眼睛里。”一会儿说，“也别把脚塞到我嘴里。”一会儿说，“这样才像话。”一会儿说，“行了，我要抓住你的腿。那样你两条胳臂就可以腾出来撑着泥地，稳住身子。”
接着，他们往上看，马上就看见吉尔脑袋在那片光里的黑色轮廓。"
“怎么样?”他们都急切地嚷道。
“原来是个洞，”吉尔的声音叫道，“要是我再高一点，我就能爬出去。”
“你从洞口看见什么了?”尤斯塔斯问。
“还没看见什么呢，”吉尔说，“嗨，普德格伦，放开我的腿，那样我就能站在你肩膀上而不是坐着。我自己会靠着洞边稳住身子的。”
他们听得见她在动，随后就看见吉尔的大部分身子在洞口灰暗的亮光下，事实上她上半身都在外面了。
“嗨……”吉尔开口说，但突然叫了一声，声音并不尖厉，就中断了。听上去像是她的嘴被人蒙住了，要不就是塞进了什么东西。过后她的声音又恢复了，似乎在拼命地大声喊叫，但他们听不出她在叫什么。于是同时出了两件事。一是有一会儿那片光完全被堵上了；二是他们都听见一阵扭打、挣扎的声音，还听见沼泽怪喘着气说：“快，帮帮忙，抓住她腿，有人在拉她。那儿!不对，这儿。太晚了!”
那个洞和洞口那片冷光又完全露了出来。吉尔却已经不见了。
“吉尔，吉尔。”他们发疯似的大喊大叫，可是没人回答。
“你究竟为什么不抓住她脚呢?”尤斯塔斯说。
“我不知道，斯克罗布，”普德格伦哼哼着说，“生来就时运不济，这我不奇怪。命里注定的。命里注定了波尔的死。就像我命中注定了在哈方吃了会说话的鹿。当然不是说我就没错了。”
“这是我们遇到的奇耻大辱和最大的痛苦，”王子说，“我们把一位勇敢的小姐送到敌人手里，自己却安全地待在后面。”
“别尽往坏里说了，殿下，”普德格伦说，“我们也不是很安全的，只有饿死在这个洞里。”
“我不知道自己的身体是否小得能钻过吉尔出去的那个洞?”尤斯塔斯说。
吉尔真正遇到的事是这样的。她刚把脑袋伸出洞外，就发现自己是在往下看，正像从楼上一扇窗户往下看似的，而不是像从活板门里往上看。她在黑暗中待了很久，开头眼睛一下子看不出眼前的东西，只知道她眼睛不是望着她想要看见的大白天有阳光的世界。空气似乎冷得要命，光线灰暗发青。还有不少声音，许多白晃晃的东西在空中飞来飞去。
她就是在这一瞬间对下面的普德格伦叫喊，叫它让她站在它肩膀上。
她站起来以后，看也看得更清楚，听也听得更清楚。她听见的声音原来有两种，一是有节奏的顿脚，二是四把小提琴、三支笛子和一只鼓演奏的乐声。她也把自己的境地弄清楚了。她正从一片陡峭的山坡上的一个洞往外看，山坡向下倾斜，她离下面平地大约十四英尺。一切景物都是白茫茫一片。好多人在那里不停走动。她看得气也透不过来了。那些人原来是些穿得整整齐齐的小羊怪，以及戴着花冠的头发在身后飘拂的树精。有一会儿它们看上去好像是在走来走去，随后她看出它们实际上是在跳舞——一种有很多复杂的步子和身段的舞蹈，你得看上一会儿才能看懂。再一看突然发现那灰暗发青的光是真正的月光，地上那些白的东西是真正的雪，顿时大吃一惊。当然!头顶上还有星星在黑沉沉的寒夜中凝视着。而那些跳舞的人后面又高又黑的东西原来是树木。他们不仅是终于回到了上面世界，而且是来到了纳尼亚的中心。吉尔觉得她乐得要昏过去了。还有音乐——粗犷的音乐，欢快热烈，然而也带一点怪诞，充满了正道的魔法，正如女巫弹奏的噔噔声充满了邪恶的魔法一样——使她感到更乐了。
这一切说起来要花很长时间，但看上去当然只花了一小会儿工夫。吉尔几乎立刻转身打算往下对其他人叫道，“嗨，好啦。我们出来啦，我们到家啦。”但她只说出“嗨”，就没再说下去，原因是这样的。在那群跳舞的人外面有一圈小矮人在打转，全都穿着节日盛装，多数是猩红的，镶皮风帽，金色流苏和镶皮高统靴。他们转圈子时还一个劲地扔雪球(这就是吉尔刚才看到在空中飞来飞去的白晃晃的东西)。他们并不像英国有些傻小子那样对准跳舞的人扔。他们扔雪球是在整个舞蹈中，跟音乐合节合拍，分毫不差，对准目标，分毫不差扔过去，要是所有的舞蹈者都恰好在算准的时刻站在算准的位子上，那么谁也不会被打中。这就叫做大雪舞，在纳尼亚每年地上积雪以后第一个有月光的夜晚都跳这种舞。当然这既是一种舞蹈也是一种游戏，因为不时会有哪个跳舞的出点小差错，脸上就挨上一个雪球，大家就都大笑一场。不过一队舞蹈者、小矮人和乐师配合得当能保持几个小时挨不到雪球。碰到天气好的晚上，寒气阵阵，鼓声咚咚，猫头鹰唬唬啼叫，还有月光，这些都跟它们那种林地人的狂野气质一拍即合，使它们变得更加狂热，它们会一直跳到天亮。但愿你们能亲眼看到这种场面。
吉尔刚刚说出“嗨”，就住了口，其原因当然只是小矮人扔的一只大雪球从另一边穿过舞蹈者，正好打在她的嘴里。她可一点也不在乎。那时就是扔来二十个雪球也扫不了她的兴。但无论你感到多么高兴，满口都是雪你也说不了话。等她吐掉几口雪，又能说话了，却激动得忘记了其余的人还待在她身后下面的暗处，还不知道这个好消息呢。她干脆从洞里尽量探出身子，向跳舞的人大声叫喊。“救命!救命!我们被埋在这小山里，快把我们挖出来。”
那些纳尼亚人连山坡上有个小洞都没有注意到，当然十分惊讶，东张张，西望望，才发现声音是从哪儿来的。但等他们看见吉尔，就全都朝她跑来；凡是爬得上山坡的都跑上去了，大约有十几双手伸出来帮助她。吉尔抓住他们的手，到了洞外，倒头从坡上滑下去，随后爬起来说：
“哦，去把别人挖出来吧。除了马，还有三个。其中之一就是瑞廉王子。”
她说这些话的时候已经给一大群人围在当中了，因为除了跳舞的，还有各种各样的动物在场观看跳舞，她开头没看到，现在它们也跑了上来。小松鼠像阵雨似的纷纷从树上下来，猫头鹰也纷纷飞来。刺猬摇摇摆摆，撒开短腿赶快跑来。熊和獾跟在后面，步子比较慢。最后赶来的是一只大豹，兴奋得直摇尾巴。
但等它们听明白吉尔说的话，大家全都变得积极了。“铁镐和铁锹，孩子们，铁镐和铁锹。去拿工具来!”小矮人说着飞快冲进树林。“把鼹鼠叫醒，它们才是挖洞的能手，跟小矮人一样能干，”一个声音说，“她说瑞廉王子怎么了?”
另一个问。“嘘，”豹说，“可怜的孩子疯了，在山里迷了路，难怪她都不知道自己在说些什么了。”“是啊，”老熊说，“咦，她还说瑞廉王子是一匹马呢!”“不，她没说。”一只松鼠冒冒失失地说。“是的，她说了。”另一只松鼠说话更冒失。
“这完全是真——真——真的，别——别——别犯傻了。”吉尔说。她说话这个调儿是因为这会儿她正冷得牙齿直打架。
一个树精立刻替她披上一件皮斗篷，那是一个小矮人奔去取他的挖掘工具时掉下的，一只热心助人的羊怪匆匆跑到树林中的一个地方去给她弄点热的喝，吉尔看得见那儿一个山洞口有火光。不过它还没回来，所有的小矮人都带着铲子和铁镐回来了，大家往山上冲去。接着吉尔听见七嘴八舌的喊声，有的喊道，“嗨，你要干什么?把剑放下。”有的喊道，“好了，小伙子，别那样。”还有的喊道，“好啊，他是个恶毒的家伙吧?”吉尔急忙赶过去，正好看见尤斯塔斯的脸色又苍白又肮脏，从黑洞中冒出来，右手还挥舞着一把剑，要猛刺任何敢于接近他的人，一时真是哭笑不得。
尤斯塔斯在刚才这片刻间的经历和吉尔当然大不相同。他听见吉尔喊叫，看见她就此不知钻到什么地方不见了。他跟王子和普德格伦一样，也以为是什么敌人把她抓去了。从下面往上看，他又看不清那灰暗发青的光是月光。他还以为这个洞只通向另一个洞，那洞里亮着鬼火磷光，而且挤满了天知道是哪一种地下世界的妖魔鬼怪。因此当他说服普德格伦让他爬到它背上，并抽出剑，再伸出头来，在他已经干了一件非常勇敢的事了。其余两个要是能先上去的话早就去了，但那个洞太小，他们爬不出去。尤斯塔斯个子比吉尔大一点点，但却比她笨拙得多，他往外张望时，脑袋撞在洞口顶上，撞得积雪崩落下来，掉在他脸上。因此当他又能看时，只见好多人影拼命向他奔来，怪不得他拼命想抵挡了。
“住手，尤斯塔斯，住手，”吉尔叫道，“他们都是朋友。难道你看不出来吗?我们已经来到纳尼亚，太平无事了。”
这一说，尤斯塔斯才真的看清楚了，就向小矮人道歉(小矮人说没关系)，十几双小矮人的粗壮多毛的手帮他出了洞，就像他们刚才帮助吉尔那样。接着吉尔趴在山坡上，脑袋凑到那个黑洞口，大声把好消息报告给陷在里面的人。
她转身时听见普德格伦喃喃地说，“啊呀，可怜的波尔，刚才这一会儿实在难为她了。她昏了头，这我不奇怪。她在活见鬼了。”
吉尔重新跟尤斯塔斯在一起了，两人都双手拉着对方，大口呼吸半夜里的空气。他们给尤斯塔斯带来一件暖和的斗篷，还给他俩端来了热的饮料。他们慢慢喝着饮料时，小矮人已经把山坡上原来那个洞周围的雪和草皮铲掉了一大片。他们欢快地挥舞铲子和铁镐，就像十分钟以前羊怪和树精的脚欢快地跳舞一样。只有十分钟哪!然而对吉尔和尤斯塔斯来说，他们已经觉得刚才在黑暗中的种种危险、炙热，和地底下那种窒息环境一定只是一个梦罢了。在这儿外面，天气寒冷，月亮和大星星当头照着(纳尼亚的星星比我们的世界的星星离得近些)，周围全是和蔼愉快的脸，就不大相信有地下世界了。
他们还没喝完热饮料，就来了十多只鼹鼠，刚刚被叫醒，仍然睡眼惺忪，而且不大高兴。但等它们了解到这是怎么回事，它们就起劲地一起干了。就连羊怪也用小车子推走挖出来的土，松鼠兴奋得来回跳啊蹦的，而吉尔想来想去想不出它们认为在干什么。熊和猫头鹰出出主意就算了，还不断问两个孩子要不要进山洞(就是吉尔看见有火光的那个山洞)去取暖和吃晚饭。不过两个孩子没看到他们的朋友获得自由不忍心走。"
在我们的世界里干那种活的，没一个赶得上纳尼亚的小矮人和会说话的鼹鼠，不过，鼹鼠和小矮人当然也没把这看做干活。他们就喜欢挖洞。所以没过多久他们就在山坡上打开一个黑洞洞的大缺口。他们从黑暗中走到月光下——要是人家不知道这两个是谁，那可怪吓人的——第一个出来的是细长腿、戴尖帽子的沼泽怪的身影，随后拉着两匹大马的是瑞廉王子本人。
普德格伦出来时，四面八方都叫起来了。“咦，是个怪——咦，原来是老普德格伦呀——东部沼泽地的老普德格伦——你一直在干什么呀，普德格伦——有好几批搜寻队去找你了——杜鲁普金爵爷出过告示——还出了赏金呢!”不过这些吵闹声一下子都消失了，变成一片沉默。一个吵吵闹闹的宿舍里，要是校长推开了门，那些吵闹声就是这么一下子消失的。因为他们这会儿看见王子了。
谁也没有怀疑他是谁，好多动物、树精、小矮人和羊怪都记得他中魔法以前那些日子的模样。有一些上了年纪的还记得凯斯宾国王年轻时的面容，看出了相像的地方。但我认为他们不管怎样都会认识他的。尽管他由于长期被监禁在幽深王国而脸色苍白，又穿着黑衣服，灰头土脸，衣冠不整，精神萎靡，但他脸上有种神情和仪态是错不了的。那神情是所有纳尼亚真正的国王都有的，凡是按照阿斯兰意愿统治这个国家，坐在凯尔帕拉维尔至尊王彼得的宝座上的国王都有这种神情。+
大家顿时都脱下帽子跪下，过了一会儿就响起了欢呼声和喊叫声，大家互相握手、亲吻、拥抱，如此热烈的场面使吉尔不由流下了热泪。他们的追求是值得付出千辛万苦代价的。
“请用餐，殿下，”最老的那个小矮人说，“那边山洞正开始在做饭，准备大雪舞结束后吃的……”
“我很乐意，老爹，”王子说，“因为任何王子、骑士、绅士或熊都比不上我们四个迷路人今晚吃起东西来的胃口好。”
大伙儿开始退场，穿过树林，走向山洞。吉尔听见普德格伦对那些挤在它周围的动物说：“不，不，我的事可以等等再说。关于我的遭遇不值一谈。我想要听听消息。可别一点一点儿透露给我，我情愿一口气都听完。国王的船有没有失事?有没有森林火灾?卡乐门边境没打过仗吗?有没有来过三两条龙?这我不奇怪。”所有的动物都哈哈大笑着说：
“这不活脱是个沼泽怪吗?”
两个孩子又累又饿，差点快倒下了，但山洞里暖洋洋，加上看见火光在墙上、食具柜上、杯子上、碟子上、盘子上和光滑的石头地板上跳跃，正如农家厨房里的情景一样，心里倒也振奋了一会儿。但等晚饭准备好的时候他们还是睡着了。他们睡觉的时候瑞廉王子就跟那些老一些、聪明一些的动物和小矮人谈论全部冒险经历。如今他们全明白这是怎么一回事了。一个恶毒的女巫(无疑跟很久以前给纳尼亚带来漫长的冬天的那个白女巫是一路货色)策划了这整个事件，先是杀了瑞廉的母亲，再让瑞廉本人中了魔法。他们还明白她在纳尼亚下面挖洞，准备破土而出，借瑞廉的名义来统治这个国家。而他万万也想不到她要让他做国王(名义上的国王，实际上是她的奴隶)的那个国家竟然就是他自己的国家。而从两个孩子说的经历中他们明白女巫和哈方那些危险的巨人是相互勾结支持的。“殿下，这件事得出的教训是，”最老的那个小矮人说，“那些北部的女巫始终存着一个心眼儿，不过每个不同的时期，他们都有不同的计划来达到目的。”
