p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Next moment Alvina wondered why everyone at the table had risen and was standing perfectly still. Of course she did the same himself. And then she saw the reason. Aslan was among them though no-one had seen him coming. Rabadash started as the immense shape of the Lion paced softly in between him and his accusers./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Rabadash," Aslan said. "Take heed. Your doom is very near, but you may still avoid it. Forget your pride, what have you to be proud of, and your anger, who has done you wrong, and accept the mercy of these good kings."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Then Rabadash rolled his eyes and spread out his mouth into a horrible, long mirthless grin like a shark, and wagged his ears up and down. He had always found this very effective in Calormen. The bravest had trembled when he made these faces, and ordinary people had fallen to the floor, and sensitive people had often fainted. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"But what Rabadash hadn't realised is that it is very easy to frighten people who know you can have them boiled alive the moment you give the word. The grimaces didn't look at all alarming in Archenland; indeed Lucy only thought Rabadash was going to be sick./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Demon! Demon! Demon!" the Prince shrieked. "I know you. You are the foul fiend of Narnia. You are the enemy of the gods. Learn who emI/em am, horrible phantasm. I am descended from Tash, the inexorable, the irresistible. The curse of Tash is upon you. Lightning in the shape of scorpions shall be rained on you. The mountains of Narnia shall be ground into dust. The—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Have a care, Rabadash," Aslan quietly said. "The doom is nearer now: it is at the door: it has lifted the latch."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Let the skies fall," Rabadash shrieked. "Let the earth gape! Let blood and fire obliterate the world! But be sure I will never desist till I have dragged to my palace by her hair the barbarian queen, the daughter of dogs, the—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""The hour has struck," Aslan said: and Rabadash saw, to his supreme horror, that everyone had begun to laugh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"They couldn't help it. Rabadash had been wagging his ears all the time and as soon as Aslan said, "The hour has struck!" the ears began to change. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"They grew longer and more pointed and soon were covered with grey hair. And while everyone was wondering where they had seen ears like that before, Rabadash's face began to change too. It grew longer, and thicker at the top and larger eyed, and the nose sank back into the face and there was hair all over it. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"His arms grew longer and came down in front of him till his hands were resting on the ground: only they weren't hands, now, they were hoofs. And he was standing on all fours, and his clothes disappeared, and everyone laughed louder and louder for now what had been Rabadash was simply and unmistakably, a donkey. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"The terrible thing was that his human speech lasted just a moment longer than his human shape, so that when he realised the change that was coming over him, he screamed out:/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Oh, not a Donkey! Mercy! If it were even a horse—even a horse—e'en—a—hor—eeh—auh, eeh-auh." And so the words died away into a donkey's bray./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Now hear me, Rabadash," Aslan said. "Justice shall be mixed with mercy. You shall not always be an Ass."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"At this of course the Donkey twitched its ears forward—and that also was so funny that everybody laughed all the more. They tried not to, but they tried in vain./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""You have appealed to Tash," Aslan said. "And in the temple of Tash you shall be healed. You must stand before the altar of Tash in Tashbaan at the great Autumn Feast this year and there, in the sight of all Tashbaan, your ass's shape will fall from you and all men will know you for Prince Rabadash. But as long as you live, if ever you go more than ten miles away from the great temple in Tashbaan you shall instantly become again as you now are. And from that second change there will be no return."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"There was a short silence and then they all stirred and looked at one another as if they were waking from sleep. Aslan was gone. But there was a brightness in the air and on the grass, and a joy in their hearts, which assured them that he had been no dream: and anyway, there was the donkey in front of them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"King Lune was the kindest-hearted of men and on seeing his enemy in this regrettable condition he forgot all his anger./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Your royal Highness," he said, "I am most truly sorry that things have come to this extremity. Your Highness will bear witness that it was none of our doing. And of course we shall be delighted to provide your Highness with shipping back to Tashbaan for the—er—treatment which Aslan has prescribed. You shall have every comfort which your Highness's situation allows: the best of the cattle-boats—the freshest carrots and thistles—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"But a deafening bray from the Donkey and a well-aimed kick at one of the guards made it clear that these kindly offers were ungratefully received./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Rabadash was duly sent back by boat to Tashbaan and brought into the temple of Tash at the great Autumn Festival, and then he became a man again. But of course four or five thousand people had seen the transformation and the affair could not possibly be hushed up. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"After the old Tisroc's death when Rabadash became Tisroc in his place he turned out the most peaceable Tisroc Calormen had ever known. This was because, not daring to go more than ten miles from Tashbaan, he could never go on a war himself; and he didn't want his Tarkaans to win fame in the wars at his expense, for that is the way Tisrocs get overthrown. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"But though his reasons were selfish, it made things much more comfortable for all the smaller countries round Calormen. His own people never forgot that he had been a donkey. During his reign, and to his face, he was called Rabadash the Peacemaker, but after his death and behind his back he was called Rabadash the Ridiculous. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Meanwhile at Anvard everyone was very glad that he had been disposed of before the real fun began, which was a grand feast held that evening on the lawn before the castle, with dozens of lanterns to help the moonlight. And the wine flowed, and tales were told and jokes were cracked, and then silence was made and the King's poet with two fiddlers stepped out into the middle of the circle. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Aravis and Cor prepared themselves to be bored, for the only poetry they knew was the Calormene kind. But at the very first scrape of the fiddles a rocket seemed to go up inside their heads, and the poet sang the great old lay of Fair Olvin and how he fought the Giant Pire and turned him into stone and won the Lady Liln for his bride; and when it was over they wished it was going to begin again. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"And though Bree couldn't sing he told the story of the fight at Zalindreh. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"And Lucy told again the tale of the Wardrobe and how she and King Edmund and Queen Susan and Peter the High King had first come into Narnia./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"And presently, as was certain to happen sooner or later, King Lune said it was time for young people to be in bed. "And to-morrow, Cor," he added, "shalt come over all the castle with me and see the estres and mark all its strength and weakness: for it will be thine to guard when I'm gone."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""But Corin will be the King then, Father," Cor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Nay, lad," King Lune said, "thou art my heir. The crown comes to thee."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""But I don't want it," Cor said. "I'd far rather—" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""'Tis no question what thou wantest, Cor, nor I either. 'Tis in course of law."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""But if we're twins we must be the same age."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Nay," the King said with a laugh. "One must come first. Art Corin's elder by full twenty minutes. And his better too, let's hope, though that's no great mastery." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"And he looked at Corin with a twinkle in his eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""But, Father, couldn't you make whichever you like to be the next King?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""No. The King's under the law, for it's the law makes him a king. Hast no more power to start away from thy crown than any sentry from his post."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Oh dear," Cor said. "I don't want to at all. And Corin—I am most dreadfully sorry. I never dreamed my turning up was going to chisel you out of your kingdom."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Hurrah! Hurrah!" Corin said. "I shan't have to be King. I shan't have to be King. I'll always be a prince. Its princes have all the fun."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""And that's truer than thy brother knows, Cor," King Lune said. "For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there's hunger in the land, as must be now and then in bad years, to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"When the two boys were going upstairs to bed Cor again asked Corin if nothing could be done about it. And Corin said:/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""If you say another word about it, I'll—I'll knock you down."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"It would be nice to end the story by saying that after that the two brothers never disagreed about anything again, but it would not be true. In reality they quarrelled and fought just about as often as any other two boys would, and all their fights ended, if they didn't begin, with Cor getting knocked down. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"For though, when they had both grown up and become swordsmen, Cor was the more dangerous man in battle, neither he nor anyone else in the North Countries could ever equal Corin as a boxer. That was how he got his name of Corin Thunder-Fist; and how he performed his great exploit against the Lapsed Bear of Stormness, which was really a Talking Bear but had gone back to Wild Bear habits. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Corin climbed up to its lair on the Narnian side of Stormness one winter day when the snow was on the hills and boxed it without a timekeeper for thirty-three rounds. And at the end it couldn't see out of its eyes and became a reformed character./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Alvina was happy in the castle. Over the years her and Corin grew closer. She had grown to always stay by his side throughout any quarrels. She was also the only one who was never threatened to be knocked down. After many years her and Corin got married as he knew that he needed her support in every quarrel that he got into to./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Aravis also had many quarrels with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"After King Lune's death they made a good King and Queen of Archenland and Ram the Great, the most famous of all the kings of Archenland, was their son. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Bree and Hwin lived happily to a great age in Narnia and both got married but not to one another. And there weren't many months in which one or both of them didn't come trotting over the pass to visit their friends at Anvard./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Alvina soon forgot about the fact that she hadn't always been there. She knew that this was her life and she was happy. Her fear of all the people around her eventually faded as she knew she would always have Corin by her side to help her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Rabadash," Aslan said. "Take heed. Your doom is very near, but you may still avoid it. Forget your pride, what have you to be proud of, and your anger, who has done you wrong, and accept the mercy of these good kings."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Then Rabadash rolled his eyes and spread out his mouth into a horrible, long mirthless grin like a shark, and wagged his ears up and down. He had always found this very effective in Calormen. The bravest had trembled when he made these faces, and ordinary people had fallen to the floor, and sensitive people had often fainted. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"But what Rabadash hadn't realised is that it is very easy to frighten people who know you can have them boiled alive the moment you give the word. The grimaces didn't look at all alarming in Archenland; indeed Lucy only thought Rabadash was going to be sick./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Demon! Demon! Demon!" the Prince shrieked. "I know you. You are the foul fiend of Narnia. You are the enemy of the gods. Learn who emI/em am, horrible phantasm. I am descended from Tash, the inexorable, the irresistible. The curse of Tash is upon you. Lightning in the shape of scorpions shall be rained on you. The mountains of Narnia shall be ground into dust. The—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Have a care, Rabadash," Aslan quietly said. "The doom is nearer now: it is at the door: it has lifted the latch."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Let the skies fall," Rabadash shrieked. "Let the earth gape! Let blood and fire obliterate the world! But be sure I will never desist till I have dragged to my palace by her hair the barbarian queen, the daughter of dogs, the—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""The hour has struck," Aslan said: and Rabadash saw, to his supreme horror, that everyone had begun to laugh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"They couldn't help it. Rabadash had been wagging his ears all the time and as soon as Aslan said, "The hour has struck!" the ears began to change. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"They grew longer and more pointed and soon were covered with grey hair. And while everyone was wondering where they had seen ears like that before, Rabadash's face began to change too. It grew longer, and thicker at the top and larger eyed, and the nose sank back into the face and there was hair all over it. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"His arms grew longer and came down in front of him till his hands were resting on the ground: only they weren't hands, now, they were hoofs. And he was standing on all fours, and his clothes disappeared, and everyone laughed louder and louder for now what had been Rabadash was simply and unmistakably, a donkey. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"The terrible thing was that his human speech lasted just a moment longer than his human shape, so that when he realised the change that was coming over him, he screamed out:/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Oh, not a Donkey! Mercy! If it were even a horse—even a horse—e'en—a—hor—eeh—auh, eeh-auh." And so the words died away into a donkey's bray./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Now hear me, Rabadash," Aslan said. "Justice shall be mixed with mercy. You shall not always be an Ass."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"At this of course the Donkey twitched its ears forward—and that also was so funny that everybody laughed all the more. They tried not to, but they tried in vain./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""You have appealed to Tash," Aslan said. "And in the temple of Tash you shall be healed. You must stand before the altar of Tash in Tashbaan at the great Autumn Feast this year and there, in the sight of all Tashbaan, your ass's shape will fall from you and all men will know you for Prince Rabadash. But as long as you live, if ever you go more than ten miles away from the great temple in Tashbaan you shall instantly become again as you now are. And from that second change there will be no return."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"There was a short silence and then they all stirred and looked at one another as if they were waking from sleep. Aslan was gone. But there was a brightness in the air and on the grass, and a joy in their hearts, which assured them that he had been no dream: and anyway, there was the donkey in front of them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"King Lune was the kindest-hearted of men and on seeing his enemy in this regrettable condition he forgot all his anger./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Your royal Highness," he said, "I am most truly sorry that things have come to this extremity. Your Highness will bear witness that it was none of our doing. And of course we shall be delighted to provide your Highness with shipping back to Tashbaan for the—er—treatment which Aslan has prescribed. You shall have every comfort which your Highness's situation allows: the best of the cattle-boats—the freshest carrots and thistles—"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"But a deafening bray from the Donkey and a well-aimed kick at one of the guards made it clear that these kindly offers were ungratefully received./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Rabadash was duly sent back by boat to Tashbaan and brought into the temple of Tash at the great Autumn Festival, and then he became a man again. But of course four or five thousand people had seen the transformation and the affair could not possibly be hushed up. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"After the old Tisroc's death when Rabadash became Tisroc in his place he turned out the most peaceable Tisroc Calormen had ever known. This was because, not daring to go more than ten miles from Tashbaan, he could never go on a war himself; and he didn't want his Tarkaans to win fame in the wars at his expense, for that is the way Tisrocs get overthrown. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"But though his reasons were selfish, it made things much more comfortable for all the smaller countries round Calormen. His own people never forgot that he had been a donkey. During his reign, and to his face, he was called Rabadash the Peacemaker, but after his death and behind his back he was called Rabadash the Ridiculous. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Meanwhile at Anvard everyone was very glad that he had been disposed of before the real fun began, which was a grand feast held that evening on the lawn before the castle, with dozens of lanterns to help the moonlight. And the wine flowed, and tales were told and jokes were cracked, and then silence was made and the King's poet with two fiddlers stepped out into the middle of the circle. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Aravis and Cor prepared themselves to be bored, for the only poetry they knew was the Calormene kind. But at the very first scrape of the fiddles a rocket seemed to go up inside their heads, and the poet sang the great old lay of Fair Olvin and how he fought the Giant Pire and turned him into stone and won the Lady Liln for his bride; and when it was over they wished it was going to begin again. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"And though Bree couldn't sing he told the story of the fight at Zalindreh. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"And Lucy told again the tale of the Wardrobe and how she and King Edmund and Queen Susan and Peter the High King had first come into Narnia./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"And presently, as was certain to happen sooner or later, King Lune said it was time for young people to be in bed. "And to-morrow, Cor," he added, "shalt come over all the castle with me and see the estres and mark all its strength and weakness: for it will be thine to guard when I'm gone."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""But Corin will be the King then, Father," Cor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Nay, lad," King Lune said, "thou art my heir. The crown comes to thee."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""But I don't want it," Cor said. "I'd far rather—" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""'Tis no question what thou wantest, Cor, nor I either. 'Tis in course of law."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""But if we're twins we must be the same age."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Nay," the King said with a laugh. "One must come first. Art Corin's elder by full twenty minutes. And his better too, let's hope, though that's no great mastery." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"And he looked at Corin with a twinkle in his eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""But, Father, couldn't you make whichever you like to be the next King?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""No. The King's under the law, for it's the law makes him a king. Hast no more power to start away from thy crown than any sentry from his post."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Oh dear," Cor said. "I don't want to at all. And Corin—I am most dreadfully sorry. I never dreamed my turning up was going to chisel you out of your kingdom."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""Hurrah! Hurrah!" Corin said. "I shan't have to be King. I shan't have to be King. I'll always be a prince. Its princes have all the fun."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""And that's truer than thy brother knows, Cor," King Lune said. "For this is what it means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate retreat, and when there's hunger in the land, as must be now and then in bad years, to wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"When the two boys were going upstairs to bed Cor again asked Corin if nothing could be done about it. And Corin said:/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;""If you say another word about it, I'll—I'll knock you down."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"It would be nice to end the story by saying that after that the two brothers never disagreed about anything again, but it would not be true. In reality they quarrelled and fought just about as often as any other two boys would, and all their fights ended, if they didn't begin, with Cor getting knocked down. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"For though, when they had both grown up and become swordsmen, Cor was the more dangerous man in battle, neither he nor anyone else in the North Countries could ever equal Corin as a boxer. That was how he got his name of Corin Thunder-Fist; and how he performed his great exploit against the Lapsed Bear of Stormness, which was really a Talking Bear but had gone back to Wild Bear habits. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Corin climbed up to its lair on the Narnian side of Stormness one winter day when the snow was on the hills and boxed it without a timekeeper for thirty-three rounds. And at the end it couldn't see out of its eyes and became a reformed character./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Alvina was happy in the castle. Over the years her and Corin grew closer. She had grown to always stay by his side throughout any quarrels. She was also the only one who was never threatened to be knocked down. After many years her and Corin got married as he knew that he needed her support in every quarrel that he got into to./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Aravis also had many quarrels with Cor, but they always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more conveniently. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"After King Lune's death they made a good King and Queen of Archenland and Ram the Great, the most famous of all the kings of Archenland, was their son. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Bree and Hwin lived happily to a great age in Narnia and both got married but not to one another. And there weren't many months in which one or both of them didn't come trotting over the pass to visit their friends at Anvard./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; color: black; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;"Alvina soon forgot about the fact that she hadn't always been there. She knew that this was her life and she was happy. Her fear of all the people around her eventually faded as she knew she would always have Corin by her side to help her./span/p