《狮子女巫与魔衣橱》第14章:妖婆的胜利
发布网友
发布时间：2023-05-31 01:12
共1个回答
热心网友
时间：22小时前
"We must move from this place at once
it will be wanted for other purposes. We shall encamp tonight at the Fords of Beruna.
Of course everyone was dying to ask him how he had arranged matters with the witch; but his face was stern and everyone's ears were still ringing with the sound of his roar and so nobody dared.
After a meal
which was taken in the open air on the hill-top (for the sun had got strong by now and dried the grass)
they were busy for a while taking the pavilion down and packing things up. Before o o'clock they were on the march and set off in a northeasterly direction
walking at an easy pace for they had not far to go.
During the first part of the journey Aslan explained to Peter his plan of campaign. "As soon as she has finished her business in these parts
" he said
"the Witch and her crew will almost certainly fall back to her House and prepare for a siege. You may or may not be able to cut her off and prevent her from reaching it." He then went on to outline o plans of battle - one for fighting the Witch and her people in the wood and another for assaulting her castle. And all the time he was advising Peter how to conct the operations
saying things like
"You must put your Centaurs in such and such a place" or "You must post scouts to see that she doesn't do so-and-so
" till at last Peter said
"But you will be there yourself
Aslan."
"I can give you no promise of that
" answered the Lion. And he continued giving Peter his instructions.
For the last part of the journey it was Susan and Lucy who saw most of him. He did not talk very much and seemed to them to be sad.
It was still afternoon when they came down to a place where the river valley had widened out and the river was broad and shallow. This was the Fords of Beruna and Aslan gave orders to halt on this side of the water. But Peter said
"Wouldn't it be better to camp on the far side - for fear she should try a night attack or anything?"
Aslan
who seemed to have been thinking about something else
roused himself with a shake of his magnificent mane and said
"Eh? What's that?" Peter said it all over again.
"No
" said Aslan in a ll voice
as if it didn't matter. "No. She will not make an attack to-night." And then he sighed deeply. But presently he added
"All the same it was well thought of. That is how a soldier ought to think. But it doesn't really matter." So they proceeded to pitch their camp.
Aslan's mood affected everyone that evening. Peter was feeling unfortable too at the idea of fighting the battle on his own; the news that Aslan might not be there had e as a great shock to him. Supper that evening was a quiet meal. Everyone felt how different it had been last night or even that morning. It was as if the good times
having just begun
were already drawing to their end.
This feeling affected Susan so much that she couldn't get to sleep when she went to bed. And after she had lain counting sheep and turning over and over she heard Lucy give a long sigh and turn over just beside her in the darkness.
"Can't you get to sleep either?" said Susan.
"No
" said Lucy. "I thought you were asleep. I say
Susan!"
"What?"
"I've a most Horrible feeling - as if something were hanging over us."
"Have you? Because
as a matter of fact
so have I."
"Something about Aslan
" said Lucy. "Either some dreadful thing is going to happen to him
or something dreadful that he's going to do."
"There's been something wrong with him all afternoon
" said Susan. "Lucy! What was that he said about not being with us at the battle? You don't think he could be stealing away and leaving us tonight
do you?"
"Where is he now?" said Lucy. "Is he here in the pavilion?"
"I don't think so."
"Susan! let's go outside and have a look round. We might see him."
"All right. Let's
" said Susan; "we might just as well be doing that as lying awake here."
Very quietly the o girls groped their way among the other sleepers and crept out of the tent. The moonlight was bright and everything was quite still except for the noise of the river chattering over the stones. Then Susan suddenly caught Lucy's arm and said
"Look!" On the far side of the camping ground
just where the trees began
they saw the Lion slowly walking away from them into the wood. Without a word they both followed him.
He led them up the steep slope out of the river valley and then slightly to the right - apparently by the very same route which they had used that afternoon in ing from the Hill of the Stone Table. On and on he led them
into dark shadows and out into pale moonlight
getting their feet wet with the heavy dew. He looked somehow different from the Aslan they knew. His tail and his head hung low and he walked slowly as if he were very
very tired. Then
when they were crossing a wide open place where there where no shadows for them to hide in
he stopped and looked round. It was no good trying to run away so they came towards him. When they were closer he said
"Oh
children
children
why are you following me?"
"We couldn't sleep
" said Lucy - and then felt sure that she need say no more and that Aslan knew all they had been thinking.
"Please
may we e with you - wherever you're going?" asked Susan.
"Well -" said Aslan
and seemed to be thinking. Then he said
"I should be glad of pany tonight. Yes
you may e
if you will promise to stop when I tell you
and after that leave me to go on alone."
"Oh
thank you
thank you. And we will
" said the o girls.
Forward they went again and one of the girls walked on each side of the Lion. But how slowly he walked! And his great
royal head drooped so that his nose nearly touched the grass. Presently he stumbled and gave a low moan.
"Aslan! Dear Aslan!" said Lucy
"what is wrong? Can't you tell us?"
"Are you ill
dear Aslan?" asked Susan.
"No
" said Aslan. "I am sad and lonely. Lay your hands on my mane so that I can feel you are there and let us walk like that."
And so the girls did what they would never have dared to do without his permission
but what they had longed to do ever since they first saw him buried their cold hands in the beautiful sea of fur and stroked it and
so doing
walked with him. And presently they saw that they were going with him up the slope of the hill on which the Stone Table stood. They went up at the side where the trees came furthest up
and when they got to the last tree (it was one that had some bushes about it) Aslan stopped and said
"Oh
children
children. Here you must stop. And whatever happens
do not let yourselves be seen. Farewell."
And both the girls cried bitterly (though they hardly knew why) and clung to the Lion and kissed his mane and his nose and his paws and his great
sad eyes. Then he turned from them and walked out on to the top of the hill. And Lucy and Susan
crouching in the bushes
looked after him
and this is what they saw.
A great crowd of people were standing all round the Stone Table and though the moon was shining many of them carried torches which burned with evil-looking red flames and black *** oke. But such people! Ogres with monstrous teeth
and wolves
and bull-headed men; spirits of evil trees and poisonous plants; and other creatures whom I won't describe because if I did the grownups would probably not let you read this book - Cruels and Hags and Incubuses
Wraiths
Horrors
Efreets
Sprites
Orknies
Wooses
and Ettins. In fact here were all those who were on the Witch's side and whom the Wolf had summoned at her mand. And right in the middle
standing by the Table
was the Witch herself.
A howl and a gibber of di *** ay went up from the creatures when they first saw the great Lion pacing towards them
and for a moment even the Witch seemed to be struck with fear. Then she recovered herself and gave a wild fierce laugh.
"The fool!" she cried. "The fool has e. Bind him fast."
Lucy and Susan held their breaths waiting for Aslan's roar and his spring upon his enemies. But it never came. Four Hags
grinning and leering
yet also (at first) hanging back and half afraid of what they had to do
had approached him. "Bind him
I say!" repeated the White Witch. The Hags made a dart at him and shrieked with triumph when they found that he made no resistance at all. Then others - evil dwarfs and apes - rushed in to help them
and beeen them they rolled the huge Lion over on his back and tied all his four paws together
shouting and cheering as if they had done something brave
though
had the Lion chosen
one of those paws could have been the death of them all. But he made no noise
even when the enemies
straining and tugging
pulled the cords so tight that they cut into his flesh. Then they began to drag him towards the Stone Table.
"Stop!" said the Witch. "Let him first be shaved."
Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an ogre with a pair of shears came forward and squatted down by Aslan's head. Snip-snip-snip went the shears and masses of curling gold began to fall to the ground. Then the ogre stood back and the children
watching from their hiding-place
could see the face of Aslan looking all *** all and different without its mane. The enemies also saw the difference.
"Why
he's only a great cat after all!" cried one.
"Is that what we were afraid of?" said another.
And they surged round Aslan
jeering at him
saying things like "Puss
Puss! Poor Pussy
" and "How many mice have you caught today
Cat?" and "Would you like a saucer of milk
Pussums?"
"Oh
how can they?" said Lucy
tears streaming down her cheeks. "The brutes
the brutes!" for now that the first shock was over the shorn face of Aslan looked to her braver
and more beautiful
and more patient than ever.
"Muzzle him!" said the Witch. And even now
as they worked about his face putting on the muzzle
one bite from his jaws would have cost o or three of them their hands. But he never moved. And this seemed to enrage all that rabble. Everyone was at him now. Those who had been afraid to e near him even after he was bound began to find their courage
and for a few minutes the o girls could not even see him - so thickly was he surrounded by the whole crowd of creatures kicking him
hitting him
spitting on him
jeering at him.
At last the rabble had had enough of this. They began to drag the bound and muzzled Lion to the Stone Table
some pulling and some pushing. He was so huge that even when they got him there it took all their efforts to hoist him on to the surface of it. Then there was more tying and tightening of cords.
"The cowards! The cowards!" sobbed Susan. "Are they still afraid of him
even now?"
When once Aslan had been tied (and tied so that he was really a mass of cords) on the flat stone
a hush fell on the crowd. Four Hags
holding four torches
stood at the corners of the Table. The Witch bared her arms as she had bared them the previous night when it had been Edmund instead of Aslan. Then she began to whet her knife. It looked to the children
when the gleam of the torchlight fell on it
as if the knife were made of stone
not of steel
and it was of a strange and evil shape.
As last she drew near. She stood by Aslan's head. Her face was working and itching with passion
but his looked up at the sky
still quiet
neither angry nor afraid
but a little sad. Then
just before she gave the blow
she stooped down and said in a quivering voice
"And now
who has won? Fool
did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our pact was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out of my hand then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever
you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge
despair and die."
The children did not see the actual moment of the killing. They couldn't bear to look and had covered their eyes.
