"But she upon her foot, sir,
Has a granite shoe:
The strongest leather boot, sir,
Six would soon be through."
The queen gave a howl of rage and dismay; and before she recovered
her
presence of mind, Curdie, having begun with the group nearest him,
had
eleven of the knights on their legs again.
"Stamp on their feet!" he cried, as each man rose, and in a few minutes
the hall was nearly empty, the goblins running from it as fast as they
could, howling and shrieking and limping, and cowering every now
and
then as they ran to cuddle their wounded feet in their hard hands, or to
protect them from the frightful stamp-stamp of the armed men.
And now Curdie approached the group which, trusting in the queen
and her
shoe, kept their guard over the prostrate captain. The king sat on the
captain's head, but the queen stood in front, like an infuriated cat,
with her perpendicular eyes gleaming green, and her hair standing half
Madhuri Noah
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