CHAPTER 27

More Vengeance

As soon as they were gone, Curdie brought the creatures back to the
servants' hall, and told them to eat up everything on the table. It was
a sight to see them all standing round it--except such as had to get
upon it--eating and drinking, each after its fashion, without a smile,
or a word, or a glance of fellowship in the act. A very few moments
served to make everything eatable vanish, and then Curdie requested
them to clean house, and the page who stood by to assist them.

Every one set about it except Ballbody: he could do nothing at
cleaning, for the more he rolled, the more he spread the dirt. Curdie
was curious to know what he had been, and how he had come to be such as
he was: but he could only conjecture that he was a gluttonous alderman
whom nature had treated homeopathically. And now there was such a
cleaning and clearing out of neglected places, such a burying and
burning of refuse, such a rinsing of jugs, such a swilling of sinks,
and such a flushing of drains as would have delighted the eyes of all
true housekeepers and lovers of cleanliness generally.

Curdie meantime was with the king, telling him all he had done. They
had heard a little noise, but not much, for he had told the avengers to
repress outcry as much as possible; and they had seen to it that the
more anyone cried out the more he had to cry out upon, while the
patient ones they scarcely hurt at all.

Having promised His Majesty and Her Royal Highness a good breakfast,
Curdie now went to finish the business. The courtiers must be dealt
with. A few who were the worst, and the leaders of the rest, must be
made examples of; the others should be driven to the street.

He found the chiefs of the conspiracy holding a final consultation in
the smaller room off the hall. These were the lord chamberlain, the
attorney-general, the master of the horse, and the king's private
secretary: the lord chancellor and the rest, as foolish as faithless,
were but the tools of these.

The housemaid had shown him a little closet, opening from a passage
behind, where he could overhear all that passed in that room; and now
Curdie heard enough to understand that they had determined, in the dead
of that night, rather in the deepest dark before the morning, to bring
a certain company of soldiers into the palace, make away with the king,
secure the princess, announce the sudden death of His Majesty, read as
his the will they had