thought he must feel that. And so he did, no doubt; but he only gave a
horrible cry, and sprung at Curdie's throat. Curdie however drew back
in
time, and just at that critical moment, remembered the vulnerable part
of the goblin-body. He made a sudden rush at the king, and stamped
with
all his might on his Majesty's feet. The king gave a most unkingly howl,
and almost fell into the fire. Curdie then rushed into the crowd,
stamping right and left. The goblins drew back howling on every side
as
he approached, but they were so crowded that few of those he attacked
could escape his tread; and the shrieking and roaring that filled the
cave would have appalled Curdie, but for the good hope it gave him.
They
were tumbling over each other in heaps in their eagerness to rush from
the cave, when a new assailant suddenly faced him:--the queen, with
flaming eyes and expanded nostrils, her hair standing half up from her
head, rushed at him. She trusted in her shoes; they were of
granite--hollowed like French _sabots_. Curdie would have endured
much
rather than hurt a woman, even if she was a goblin; but here was an
affair of life and death: forgetting her shoes, he made a great stamp on
one of her feet. But she instantly returned it with very different
effect, causing him frightful pain and almost disabling him. His only
Madhuri Noah
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