Children's stories; Fairy tales; Fantasy literature
His majesty slept very quietly. The dawn had grown almost day, and still
Curdie lingered, unwilling to disturb the princess.
At last, however, he called her, and she was in the room in a moment.
She had slept, she said, and felt quite fresh. Delighted to find her
father still asleep, and so peacefully, she pushed her chair close to
the bed, and sat down with her hands in her lap.
Curdie got his mattock from where he had hidden it behind a great
mirror, and went to the cellar, followed by Lina. They took some
breakfast with them as they passed through the hall, and as soon as they
had eaten it went out the back way.
At the mouth of the passage Curdie seized the rope, drew himself up,
pushed away the shutter, and entered the dungeon. Then he swung the end
of the rope to Lina, and she caught it in her teeth. When her master
said, "Now, Lina!" she gave a great spring, and he ran away with the end
of the rope as fast as ever he could. And such a spring had she made,
that by the time he had to bear her weight she was within a few feet of
the hole. The instant she got a paw through, she was all through.
Apparently their enemies were waiting till hunger should have cowed
them, for there was no sign of any attempt having been made to open the
door. A blow or two of Curdie's mattock drove the shattered lock clean
from it, and telling Lina to wait there till he came back, and let no
one in, he walked out into the silent street, and drew the door to
behind him. He could hardly believe it was not yet a whole day since he
had been thrown in there with his hands tied at his back.
Down the town he went, walking in the middle of the street, that, if any
one saw him, he might see he was not afraid, and hesitate to rouse an
attack on him. As to the dogs, ever since the death of their two
companions, a shadow that looked like a mattock was enough to make them
scamper. As soon as he reached the archway of the city gate he turned to
reconnoitre the baker's shop, and perceiving no sign of movement, waited
there watching for the first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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