Here I should like to remark, for the sake of princes and princesses in
general, that it is a low and contemptible thing to refuse to confess a
fault, or even an error. If a true princess has done wrong, she is
always uneasy until she has had an opportunity of throwing the
wrongness
away from her by saying, "I did it; and I wish I had not; and I am sorry
for having done it." So you see there is some ground for supposing that
Curdie was not a miner only, but a prince as well. Many such instances
have been known in the world's history.
At length, however, he began to see signs of a change in the
proceedings
of the goblin excavators: they were going no deeper, but had
commenced
running on a level; and he watched them, therefore, more closely than
ever. All at once, one night, coming to a slope of very hard rock, they
began to ascend along the inclined plane of its surface. Having reached
its top, they went again on a level for a night or two, after which they
began to ascend once more, and kept on at a pretty steep angle. At
length Curdie judged it time to transfer his observation to another
quarter, and the next night, he did not go to the mine at all; but,
Madhuri Noah
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