declare it's the same young rascal of a miner that was rude to me
and the princess on the mountain. He actually wanted to kiss the
princess. I took good care of that--the wretch! And he was prowling
about, was he? Just like his impudence!' The princess being fast
asleep, she could misrepresent at her pleasure.

When he heard this, the captain, although he had considerable doubt of
its truth, resolved to keep Curdie a prisoner until they could search
into the affair. So, after they had brought him round a little, and
attended to his wound, which was rather a bad one, they laid him, still
exhausted from the loss of blood, upon a mattress in a disused
room--one of those already so often mentioned--and locked the door, and
left him. He passed a troubled night, and in the morning they found
him talking wildly. In the evening he came to himself, but felt very
weak, and his leg was exceedingly painful. Wondering where he was, and
seeing one of the men-at-arms in the room, he began to question him and
soon recalled the events of the preceding night. As he was himself
unable to watch any more, he told the soldier all he knew about the
goblins, and begged him to tell his companions, and stir them up to
watch with tenfold vigilance; but whether it was that he did not talk
quite coherently, or that the whole thing appeared incredible,
certainly the man concluded that Curdie was only raving still, and
tried to coax him into holding his tongue. This, of course, annoyed
Curdie dreadfully, who now felt in his turn what it was not to be
believed, and the consequence was that his fever returned, and by the
time when, at his persistent entreaties, the captain was called, there
could be no doubt that he was raving. They did for him what they
could, and promised everything he wanted, but with no intention of
fulfilment. At last he went to sleep, and when at length his sleep
grew profound and peaceful, they left him, locked the door again, and
withdrew, intending to revisit him early in the morning.

CHAPTER 26

The Goblin-Miners

That same night several of the servants were having a chat together
before going to bed.

'What can that noise be?' said one of the housemaids, who had been
listening for a moment or two.

'I've heard it the last two nights,' said the cook. 'If there were any
about the place, I should have taken it for rats, but my Tom keeps them
far enough.'

'I've heard, though,' said the scullery-maid,