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CHAPTER 9
The Hall of the Goblin Palace
A sound of many soft feet followed, but soon ceased. Then Curdie
flew at the hole like a tiger, and tore and pulled. The sides gave
way, and it was soon large enough for him to crawl through. He
would not betray himself by rekindling his lamp, but the torches of
the retreating company, which he found departing in a straight line
up a long avenue from the door of their cave, threw back light
enough to afford him a glance round the deserted home of the
goblins. To his surprise, he could discover nothing to distinguish
it from an ordinary natural cave in the rock, upon many of which he
had come with the rest of the miners in the progress of their
excavations. The goblins had talked of coming back for the rest of
their household gear: he saw nothing that would have made him
suspect a family had taken shelter there for a single night. The
floor was rough and stony; the walls full of projecting corners;
the roof in one place twenty feet high, in another endangering his
forehead; while on one side a stream, no thicker than a needle, it
is true, but still sufficient to spread a wide dampness over the
wall, flowed down the face of the rock. But the troop in front of
him was toiling under heavy burdens. He could distinguish Helfer
now and then, in the flickering light and shade, with his heavy
chest on his bending shoulders; while the second brother was almost
buried in what looked like a great feather bed. 'Where do they get
the feathers?' thought Curdie; but in a moment the troop
disappeared at a turn of the way, and it was now both safe and
necessary for Curdie to follow them, lest they should be round the
next turning before he saw them again, for so he might lose them
altogether. He darted after them like a greyhound. When he
reached the corner and looked cautiously round, he saw them again
at some distance down another long passage. None of the galleries
he saw that night bore signs of the work of man - or of goblin
either. Stalactites, far older than the mines, hung from their
roofs; and their floors were rough with boulders and large round
stones, showing that there water must have once run. He waited
again at this corner till they had disappeared round the next, and
so followed them a long way through one passage after another. The
passages grew more and more lofty, and were more and more covered
in the roof with shining stalactites.
It was a strange enough procession which he followed. But the
strangest part of it was the household animals which crowded
amongst the feet of the goblins. It was true they had no wild
animals down there - at least they did not know of any; but they
had a wonderful number of tame ones. I must, however, reserve any
contributions towards the natural history of these for a later
position in my story.
At length, turning a corner too abruptly, he had almost rushed into
the middle of the goblin family; for there they had already set
down all their burdens on the floor of a cave considerably larger
than that which they had left. They were as yet too breathless to
speak, else he would have had warning of their arrest. He started
back, however, before anyone saw him, and retreating a good way,
stood watching till the father should come out to go to the palace.
Before very long, both he and his son Helfer appeared and kept on
in the same direction as before, while Curdie followed them again
with renewed precaution. For a long time he heard no sound except
something like the rush of a river inside the rock; but at length
what seemed the far-off noise of a great shouting reached his ears,
which, however, presently ceased. After advancing a good way
farther, he thought he heard a single voice. It sounded clearer
and clearer as he went on, until at last he could almost
distinguish the words. In a moment or two, keeping after the
goblins round another corner, he once more started back - this time
in amazement.
He was at the entrance of a magnificent cavern, of an oval shape,
once probably a huge natural reservoir of water, now the great
palace hall of the goblins. It rose to a tremendous height, but
the roof was composed of such shining materials, and the multitude
of torches carried by the goblins who crowded the floor lighted up
the place so brilliantly, that Curdie could see to the top quite
well. But he had no idea how immense the place was until his eyes
had got accustomed to it, which was not for a good many minutes.
The rough projections on the walls, and the shadows thrown upwards
from them by the torches, made the sides of the chamber look as if
they were crowded with statues upon brackets and pedestals,
reaching in irregular tiers from floor to roof. The walls
themselves were, in many parts, of gloriously shining substances,
some of them gorgeously coloured besides, which powerfully
contrasted with the shadows. Curdie could not help wondering
whether his rhymes would be of any use against such a multitude of
goblins as filled the floor of the hall, and indeed felt
considerably tempted to begin his shout of 'One, two, three!', but
as there was no reason for routing them and much for endeavouring
to discover their designs, he kept himself perfectly quiet, and
peering round the edge of the doorway, listened with both his sharp
ears.
At the other end of the hall, high above the heads of the
multitude, was a terrace-like ledge of considerable height, caused
by the receding of the upper part of the cavern- wall. Upon this
sat the king and his court: the king on a throne hollowed out of a
huge block of green copper ore, and his court upon lower seats
around it. The king had been making them a speech, and the
applause which followed it was what Curdie had heard. One of the
court was now addressing the multitude. What he heard him say was
to the following effect: 'Hence it appears that two plans have been
for some time together working in the strong head of His Majesty
for the deliverance of his people. Regardless of the fact that we
were the first possessors of the regions they now inhabit;
regardless equally of the fact that we abandoned that region from
the loftiest motives; regardless also of the self-evident fact that
we excel them so far in mental ability as they excel us in stature,
they look upon us as a degraded race and make a mockery of all our
finer feelings. But, the time has almost arrived when - thanks to
His Majesty's inventive genius - it will be in our power to take a
thorough revenge upon them once for all, in respect of their
unfriendly behaviour.'
'May it please Your Majesty -' cried a voice close by the door,
which Curdie recognized as that of the goblin he had followed.
'Who is he that interrupts the Chancellor?' cried another from near
the throne.
'Glump,' answered several voices.
'He is our trusty subject,' said the king himself, in a slow and
stately voice: 'let him come forward and speak.'
A lane was parted through the crowd, and Glump, having ascended the
platform and bowed to the king, spoke as follows:
'Sire, I would have held my peace, had I not known that I only knew
how near was the moment, to which the Chancellor had just referred.
In all probability, before another day is past, the enemy will have
broken through into my house - the partition between being even now
not more than a foot in thickness.'
'Not quite so much,' thought Curdie to himself.
'This very evening I have had to remove my household effects;
therefore the sooner we are ready to carry out the plan, for the
execution of which His Majesty has been making such magnificent
preparations, the better. I may just add, that within the last few
days I have perceived a small outbreak in my dining-room, which,
combined with observations upon the course of the river escaping
where the evil men enter, has convinced me that close to the spot
must be a deep gulf in its channel. This discovery will, I trust,
add considerably to the otherwise immense forces at His Majesty's
disposal.'
He ceased, and the king graciously acknowledged his speech with a
bend of his head; whereupon Glump, after a bow to His Majesty, slid
down amongst the rest of the undistinguished multitude. Then the
Chancellor rose and resumed.
'The information which the worthy Glump has given us,' he said,
'might have been of considerable import at the present moment, but
for that other design already referred to, which naturally takes
precedence. His Majesty, unwilling to proceed to extremities, and
well aware that such measures sooner or later result in violent
reactions, has excogitated a more fundamental and comprehensive
measure, of which I need say no more. Should His Majesty be
successful - as who dares to doubt? - then a peace, all to the
advantage of the goblin kingdom, will be established for a
generation at least, rendered absolutely secure by the pledge which
His Royal Highness the prince will have and hold for the good
behaviour of her relatives. Should His Majesty fail - which who
shall dare even to imagine in his most secret thoughts? - then will
be the time for carrying out with rigour the design to which Glump
referred, and for which our preparations are even now all but
completed. The failure of the former will render the latter
imperative.'
Curdie, perceiving that the assembly was drawing to a close and
that there was little chance of either plan being more fully
discovered, now thought it prudent to make his escape before the
goblins began to disperse, and slipped quietly away.
There was not much danger of meeting any goblins, for all the men
at least were left behind him in the palace; but there was
considerable danger of his taking a wrong turning, for he had now
no light, and had therefore to depend upon his memory and his
hands. After he had left behind him the glow that issued from the
door of Glump's new abode, he was utterly without guide, so far as
his eyes were concerned.
He was most anxious to get back through the hole before the goblins
should return to fetch the remains of their furniture. It was not
that he was in the least afraid of them, but, as it was of the
utmost importance that he should thoroughly discover what the plans
they were cherishing were, he must not occasion the slightest
suspicion that they were watched by a miner.
He hurried on, feeling his way along the walls of rock. Had he not
been very courageous, he must have been very anxious, for he could
not but know that if he lost his way it would be the most difficult
thing in the world to find it again. Morning would bring no light
into these regions; and towards him least of all, who was known as
a special rhymester and persecutor, could goblins be expected to
exercise courtesy. Well might he wish that he had brought his lamp
and tinder-box with him, of which he had not thought when he crept
so eagerly after the goblins! He wished it all the more when,
after a while, he found his way blocked up, and could get no
farther. It was of no use to turn back, for he had not the least
idea where he had begun to go wrong. Mechanically, however, he
kept feeling about the walls that hemmed him in. His hand came
upon a place where a tiny stream of water was running down the face
of the rock. 'What a stupid I am!' he said to himself. 'I am
actually at the end of my journey! And there are the goblins
coming back to fetch their things!' he added, as the red glimmer of
their torches appeared at the end of the long avenue that led up to
the cave. In a moment he had thrown himself on the floor, and
wriggled backwards through the hole. The floor on the other side
was several feet lower, which made it easier to get back. It was
all he could do to lift the largest stone he had taken out of the
hole, but he did manage to shove it in again. He sat down on the
ore-heap and thought.
He was pretty sure that the latter plan of the goblins was to
inundate the mine by breaking outlets for the water accumulated in
the natural reservoirs of the mountain, as well as running through
portions of it. While the part hollowed by the miners remained
shut off from that inhabited by the goblins, they had had no
opportunity of injuring them thus; but now that a passage was
broken through, and the goblins' part proved the higher in the
mountain, it was clear to Curdie that the mine could be destroyed
in an hour. Water was always the chief danger to which the miners
were exposed. They met with a little choke-damp sometimes, but
never with the explosive firedamp so common in coal-mines. Hence
they were careful as soon as they saw any appearance of water.
As the result of his reflections while the goblins were busy in
their old home, it seemed to Curdie that it would be best to build
up the whole of this gang, filling it with stone, and clay or lie,
so that there should be no smallest channel for the water to get
into. There was not, however, any immediate danger, for the
execution of the goblins' plan was contingent upon the failure of
that unknown design which was to take precedence of it; and he was
most anxious to keep the door of communication open, that he might
if possible discover what the former plan was. At the same time
they could not resume their intermitted labours for the inundation
without his finding it out; when by putting all hands to the work,
the one existing outlet might in a single night be rendered
impenetrable to any weight of water; for by filling the gang
entirely up, their embankment would be buttressed by the sides of
the mountain itself.
As soon as he found that the goblins had again retired, he lighted
his lamp, and proceeded to fill the hole he had made with such
stones as he could withdraw when he pleased. He then thought it
better, as he might have occasion to be up a good many nights after
this, to go home and have some sleep.
How pleasant the night air felt upon the outside of the mountain
after what he had gone through in the inside of it! He hurried up
the hill without meeting a single goblin on the way, and called and
tapped at the window until he woke his father, who soon rose and
let him in. He told him the whole story; and, just as he had
expected, his father thought it best to work that lode no farther,
but at the same time to pretend occasionally to be at work there
still in order that the goblins might have no suspicions. Both
father and son then went to bed and slept soundly until the
morning.
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