leaning against the wall, so that as long as he kept awake he should
rest, but the moment he began to fall asleep he must fall awake
instead. He quite expected some of the servants would visit the cellar
again that night, but whether it was that they were afraid of each
other, or believed more of the butler's story than they had chosen to
allow, not one of them appeared.

When at length he thought he might venture, he shouldered his mattock
and crept up the stair. The lamp was out in the passage, but he could
not miss his way to the servants' hall. Trusting to Lina's quickness
in concealing herself, he took her with him.

When they reached the hall they found it quiet and nearly dark. The
last of the great fire was glowing red, but giving little light.
Curdie stood and warmed himself for a few moments: miner as he was, he
had found the cellar cold to sit in doing nothing; and standing thus he
thought of looking if there were any bits of candle about. There were
many candlesticks on the supper table, but to his disappointment and
indignation their candles seemed to have been all left to burn out, and
some of them, indeed, he found still hot in the neck.

Presently, one after another, he came upon seven men fast asleep, most
of them upon tables, one in a chair, and one on the floor. They seemed,
from their shape and colour, to have eaten and drunk so much that they
might be burned alive without wakening. He grasped the hand of each in
succession, and found two ox hoofs, three pig hoofs, one concerning
which he could not be sure whether it was the hoof of a donkey or a
pony, and one dog's paw. 'A nice set of people to be about a king!'
thought Curdie to himself, and turned again to his candle hunt. He did
at last find two or three little pieces, and stowed them away in his
pockets. They now left the hall by another door, and entered a short
passage, which led them to the huge kitchen, vaulted and black with
smoke. There, too, the fire was still burning, so that he was able to
see a little of the state of things in this quarter also.

The place was dirty and disorderly. In a recess, on a heap of
brushwood, lay a kitchen-maid, with a table cover around her, and a
skillet in her hand: evidently she too had been drinking. In another
corner lay a page, and Curdie noted how like his dress was to his own.
In the cinders before the hearth were huddled three dogs and five cats,
all fast asleep, while the rats were ru