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CHAPTER FOUR
THE DWARF TELLS OF PRINCE CASPIAN
PRINCE CASPIAN lived in a great castle in the centre of Narnia with his uncle, Miraz, the King of Narnia, and his aunt, who had red hair and was called Queen Prunaprismia His father and mother were dead and the person who a prince) he had wonderful toys which would do al but talk, he liked best the last hour of the day when the toys had all been put back in their cupboards and Nurse would tell him stories
He did not care much for his uncle and aunt, but about twice a week his uncle would send for hiether for half an hour on the terrace at the south side of the castle One day, while they were doing this, the King said to him,
"Well, boy, we must soon teach you to ride and use a sword You know that your aunt and I have no children, so it looks as if you one How shall you like that, eh?"
"I don&039;t know, Uncle," said Caspian
"Don&039;t know, eh?" said Miraz "Why, I should like to knohat more anyone could wish for!"
"All the same, I do wish," said Caspian
"What do you wish?" asked the King
"I wish - I wish - I wish I could have lived in the Old Days," said Caspian (He was only a very little boy at the ti in the tiresorown-ups have, which makes it quite clear that they are not really interested in what you are saying, but now he suddenly gave Caspian a very sharp look
"Eh? What&039;s that?" he said "What old days do you mean?"
"Oh, don&039;t you know, Uncle?" said Caspian "When everything was quite different When all the animals could talk, and there were nice people who lived in the streams and the trees Naiads and Dryads they were called And there were Dwarfs And there were lovely little Fauns in all the woods They had feet like goats And - "
"That&039;s all nonsense, for babies," said the King sternly "Only fit for babies, do you hear? You&039;re getting too old for that sort of stuff At your age you ought to be thinking of battles and adventures, not fairy tales"
"Oh, but there were battles and adventures in those days," said Caspian "Wonderful adventures Once there was a White Witch and she made herself Queen of the whole country And she made it so that it was alinter And then two boys and two girls came from sos and Queens of Narnia, and their naned for ever so long and everyone had a lovely time, and it was all because of Aslan - "
"Who&039;s he?" said Miraz And if Caspian had been a very little older, the tone of his uncle&039;s voice would have warned him that it would be wiser to shut up But he babbled on,
"Oh, don&039;t you know?" he said "Aslan is the great Lion who co you all this nonsense?" said the King in a voice of thunder Caspian was frightened and said nothing
"Your Royal Highness," said King Miraz, letting go of Caspian&039;s hand, which he had been holding till now, "I insist upon being answered Lookyou this pack of lies?"
"N - Nurse," faltered Caspian, and burst into tears
"Stop that noise," said his uncle, taking Caspian by the shoulders and giving ha - or thinking either - about all those silly stories again There never were those Kings and Queens How could there be two Kings at the same time? And there&039;s no such person as Aslan And there are no such things as lions And there never was a time when animals could talk Do you hear?"
"Yes, Uncle," sobbed Caspian
"Then let&039;s have no entle at the far end of the terrace and said in a cold voice, "Conduct His Royal Highness to his aparthness&039;s nurse to me AT ONCE"
Next day Caspian found what a terrible thing he had done, for Nurse had been sent aithout even being allowed to say good-bye to him, and he was told he was to have a Tutor
Caspian missed his nurse very much and shed ht about the old stories of Narnia far ht and tried very hard to s only wagged their tails and the cats only purred
Caspian felt sure that he would hate the new Tutor, buy when the new Tutor arrived about a week later he turns out to be the sort of person it is almost impossible not to like He was the smallest, and also the fattest, , silvery, pointed beard which came down to his waist, and his face, which was brown and covered rinkles, looked very wise, very ugly, and very kind His voice was grave and his eyes were ot to know hi and when he was serious His name was Doctor Cornelius
Of all his lessons with Doctor Cornelius the one that Caspian liked best was History Up till now, except for Nurse&039;s stories, he had known nothing about the History of Narnia, and he was very surprised to learn that the royal family were newcohness&039;s ancestor, Caspian the First," said Doctor Cornelius, "who first conquered Narnia and ht all your nation into the country You are not native Narnians at all You are all Telmarines - that is, you all came from the Land of Telmar, far beyond the Western Mountains That is why Caspian the First is called Caspian the Conqueror"
"Please, Doctor," asked Caspian one day, "who lived in Narnia before we all came here out of Telmar?"
"No men - or very few - lived in Narnia before the Telmarines took it," said Doctor Cornelius
"Then who did randcesters conquer?"
"Whohness," said Doctor Cornelius "Perhaps it is time to turn from History to Grammar"
"Oh please, not yet!" said Caspian
"I mean, wasn&039;t there a battle? Why is he called Caspian the Conqueror if there was nobody to fight with him?"
"I said there were very fewat the little boy very strangely through his great spectacles
For a ave a leap "Do you s? Do you mean it was like in the stories? Were there-?"
"Hush!" said Doctor Cornelius, laying his head very close to Caspian&039;s "Not a wordyou about Old Narnia? The King doesn&039;t like it If he foundyou secrets, you&039;d be whipped and I should have my head cut off"
"But why?" asked Caspian
"1t is high time we turned to Grammar now," said Doctor Cornelius in a loud voice "Will your Royal Highness be pleased to open Pulverulentus Siccus at the fourth page of his Graarden or the Arbour of Accidence pleasantlie open&039;d to Tender Wits?"
After that it was all nouns and verbs till lunchtime, but I don&039;t think Caspian learned much He was too excited He felt sure that Doctor Cornelius would not have said so much unless he meant to tell him more sooner or later
In this he was not disappointed A few days later his Tutor said, "Tonight I aht two noble planets, Tarva and Alaree of each other Such a conjunction has not occurred for two hundred years, and your Highness will not live to see it again It will be best if you go to bed a little earlier than usual When the time of the conjunction draws near I will come and wake you"