Through every room in the house they went, but nowhere was she to
be
found. Neither was one of the servants to be seen. But Curdie, who had
kept to the lower part of the house, which was now quiet enough,
began
to hear a confused sound as of a distant hubbub, and set out to find
where it came from. The noise grew as his sharp ears guided him to a
stair and so to the wine cellar. It was full of goblins, whom the butler
was supplying with wine as fast as he could draw it.
While the queen and her party had encountered the men-at-arms,
Harelip
with another company had gone off to search the house. They captured
every one they met, and when they could find no more, they hurried
away
to carry them safe to the caverns below. But when the butler, who was
amongst them, found that their path lay through the wine cellar, he
bethought himself of persuading them to taste the wine, and, as he had
hoped, they no sooner tasted than they wanted more. The routed
goblins,
on their way below, joined them, and when Curdie entered, they were
all,
with outstretched hands, in which were vessels of every description,
from sauce-pan to silver cup, pressing around the butler, who sat at the
Madhuri Noah
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