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.''Take me that way,' said Curdie.By many ups and downs and windings and turnings she brought him toa dimly lighted room, where lay an elderly man asleep.His arm wasoutside the coverlid, and Curdie gave his hand a hurried grasp ashe went by.His heart beat for joy, for he had found a good,honest, human hand.'I suppose that is why he is ill,' he said to himself.It was now close upon suppertime, and when the girl stopped at thedoor of the king's chamber, he told her to go and give the servantsone warning more.'Say the messenger sent you,' he said.'I will be with you verysoon.'The king was still asleep.Curdie talked to the princess for a fewminutes, told her not to be frightened whatever noises she heard,only to keep her door locked till he came, and left her.CHAPTER 26The VengeanceBy the time the girl reached the servants' hall they were seated atsupper.A loud, confused exclamation arose when she entered.Noone made room for her; all stared with unfriendly eyes.A page,who entered the next minute by another door, came to her side.'Where do you come from, hussy?' shouted the butler, and knockedhis fist on the table with a loud clang.He had gone to fetch wine, had found the stair door broken open andthe cellar door locked, and had turned and fled.Among hisfellows, however, he had now regained what courage could be calledhis.'From the cellar,' she replied.'The messenger broke open thedoor, and sent me to you again.''The messenger! Pooh! What messenger?''The same who sent me before to tell you to repent.''What! Will you go fooling it still? Haven't you had enough ofit?' cried the butler in a rage, and starting to his feet, drewnear threateningly.'I must do as I am told,' said the girl.'Then why don't you do as I tell you, and hold your tongue?' saidthe butler.'Who wants your preachments? If anybody here hasanything to repent Of, isn't that enough - and more than enough forhim - but you must come bothering about, and stirring up, till nota drop of quiet will settle inside him? You come along with me,young woman; we'll see if we can't find a lock somewhere in thehouse that'll hold you in!''Hands off, Mr Butler!' said the page, and stepped between.'Oh, ho!' cried the butler, and pointed his fat finger at him.'That's you, is it, my fine fellow? So it's you that's up to hertricks, is it?'The youth did not answer, only stood with flashing eyes fixed onhim, until, growing angrier and angrier, but not daring a stepnearer, he burst out with a rude but quavering authority:'Leave the house, both of you! Be off, or I'll have Mr Steward totalk to you.Threaten your masters, indeed! Out of the house withyou, and show us the way you tell us of!'Two or three of the footmen got up and ranged themselves behind thebutler.'Don't say I threaten you, Mr Butler,' expostulated the girl frombehind the page.'The messenger said I was to tell you again, andgive you one chance more.''Did the messenger mention me in particular?' asked the butler,looking the page unsteadily in the face.'No, sir,' answered the girl.'I thought not! I should like to hear him!''Then hear him now,' said Curdie, who that moment entered at theopposite corner of the hall.'I speak of the butler in particularwhen I say that I know more evil of him than of any of the rest.He will not let either his own conscience or my messenger speak tohim: I therefore now speak myself.I proclaim him a villain, anda traitor to His Majesty the king.But what better is any one ofyou who cares only for himself, eats, drinks, takes good money, andgives vile service in return, stealing and wasting the king'sproperty, and making of the palace, which ought to be an example oforder and sobriety, a disgrace to the country?'For a moment all stood astonished into silence by this bold speechfrom a stranger.True, they saw by his mattock over his shoulderthat he was nothing but a miner boy, yet for a moment the truthtold notwithstanding.Then a great roaring laugh burst from thebiggest of the footmen as he came shouldering his way through thecrowd toward Curdie.'Yes, I'm right,' he cried; 'I thought as much! This messenger,forsooth, is nothing but a gallows bird - a fellow the city marshalwas going to hang, but unfortunately put it off till he should bestarved enough to save rope and be throttled with a pack thread.He broke prison, and here he is preaching!' As he spoke, hestretched out his great hand to lay hold of him.Curdie caught itin his left hand, and heaved his mattock with the other.Finding,however, nothing worse than an ox hoof, he restrained himself,stepped back a pace or two, shifted his mattock to his left hand,and struck him a little smart blow on the shoulder.His armdropped by his side, he gave a roar, and drew back.His fellows came crowding upon Curdie.Some called to the dogs;others swore; the women screamed; the footmen and pages got roundhim in a half circle, which he kept from closing by swinging hismattock, and here and there threatening a blow.'Whoever confesses to having done anything wrong in this house,however small, however great, and means to do better, let him cometo this corner of the room,' he cried.None moved but the page, who went toward him skirting the wall.When they caught sight of him, the crowd broke into a hiss ofderision.'There! See! Look at the sinner! He confesses! Actuallyconfesses! Come, what is it you stole? The barefaced hypocrite!There's your sort to set up for reproving other people! Where'sthe other now?'But the maid had left the room, and they let the page pass, for helooked dangerous to stop.Curdie had just put him betwixt him andthe wall, behind the door, when in rushed the butler with the hugekitchen poker, the point of which he had blown red-hot in the fire,followed by the cook with his longest spit.Through the crowd,which scattered right and left before them, they came down uponCurdie.Uttering a shrill whistle, he caught the poker a blow withhis mattock, knocking the point to the ground, while the pagebehind him started forward, and seizing the point of the spit, heldon to it with both hands, the cook kicking him furiously.Ere the butler could raise the poker again, or the cook recover thespit, with a roar to terrify the dead, Lina dashed into the room,her eyes flaming like candles.She went straight at the butler.He was down in a moment, and she on the top of him, wagging hertail over him like a lioness.'Don't kill him, Lina,' said Curdie.'Oh, Mr Miner!' cried the butler.'Put your foot on his mouth, Lina,' said Curdie.'The truth Feartells is not much better than her lies.'The rest of the creatures now came stalking, rolling, leaping,gliding, hobbling into the room, and each as he came took the nextplace along the wall, until, solemn and grotesque, all stoodranged, awaiting orders.And now some of the culprits were stealing to the doors nearestthem.Curdie whispered to the two creatures next him.Off wentBallbody, rolling and bounding through the crowd like a spentcannon shot, and when the foremost reached the door to thecorridor, there he lay at the foot of it grinning; to the otherdoor scuttled a scorpion, as big as a huge crab
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