The Triumph of
the Witch
A
s soon as the Witch had gone Aslan said, “We must move
from this place at once, it will be wanted for other purposes.
We shall encamp tonight at the Fords of Beruna.
Of course everyone was dying to ask him how he had
arranged matters with the witch; but his face was stern and everyone’s
ears were still ringing with the sound of his roar and so nobody dared.
After a meal, which was taken in the open air on the hill-top (for the
sun had got strong by now and dried the grass), they were busy for a
while taking the pavilion down and packing things up. Before two
o’clock they were on the march and set off in a northeasterly direc-
tion, walking at an easy pace for they had not far to go.
During the first part of the journey Aslan explained to Peter his plan
of campaign. “As soon as she has finished her business in these
parts,” he said, “the Witch and her crew will almost certainly fall back
to her House and prepare for a siege. You may or may not be able to
cut her off and prevent her from reaching it.” He then went on to
outline two plans of battle — one for fighting the Witch and her people
in the wood and another for assaulting her castle. And all the time he
was advising Peter how to conduct the operations, saying things like,
“You must put your Centaurs in such and such a place” or “You must
post scouts to see that she doesn’t do so-and-so,” till at last Peter said,
“But you will be there yourself, Aslan.”
Clive Staples Lewis78
“I can give you no promise of that,” answered the Lion. And he
continued giving Peter his instructions.
For the last part of the journey it was Susan and Lucy who saw most
of him. He did not talk very much and seemed to them to be sad.
It was still afternoon when they came down to a place where the
river valley had widened out and the river was broad and shallow. This
was the Fords of Beruna and Aslan gave orders to halt on this side of
the water. But Peter said,
“Wouldn’t it be better to camp on the far side — for fear she should
try a night attack or anything?”
Aslan, who seemed to have been thinking about something else,
roused himself with a shake of his magnificent mane and said, “Eh?
What’s that?” Peter said it all over again.
“No,” said Aslan in a dull voice, as if it didn’t matter. “No. She will
not make an attack to-night.” And then he sighed deeply. But pres-
ently he added, “All the same it was well thought of. That is how a
soldier ought to think. But it doesn’t really matter.” So they proceeded
to pitch their camp.
Aslan’s mood affected everyone that evening. Peter was feeling
uncomfortable too at the idea of fighting the battle on his own; the
news that Aslan might not be there had come as a great shock to him.
Supper that evening was a quiet meal. Everyone felt how different it
had been last night or even that morning. It was as if the good times,
having just begun, were already drawing to their end.
This feeling affected Susan so much that she couldn’t get to sleep
when she went to bed. And after she had lain counting sheep and
turning over and over she heard Lucy give a long sigh and turn over
just beside her in the darkness.
“Can’t you get to sleep either?” said Susan.
“No,” said Lucy. “I thought you were asleep. I say, Susan!”
“What?”
“I’ve a most Horrible feeling — as if something were hanging over
us.”
“Have you? Because, as a matter of fact, so have I.”
“Something about Aslan,” said Lucy. “Either some dreadful thing is
going to happen to him, or something dreadful that he’s going to do.”
“There’s been something wrong with him all afternoon,” said Susan.
79The Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe
“Lucy! What was that he said about not being with us at the battle?
You don’t think he could be stealing away and leaving us tonight, do
you?”
“Where is he now?” said Lucy. “Is he here in the pavilion?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Susan! let’s go outside and have a look round. We might see him.”
“All right. Let’s,” said Susan; “we might just as well be doing that as
lying awake here.”
Very quietly the two girls groped their way among the other sleepers
and crept out of the tent. The moonlight was bright and everything
was quite still except for the noise of the river chattering over the
stones. Then Susan suddenly caught Lucy’s arm and said, “Look!” On
the far side of the camping ground, just where the trees began, they
saw the Lion slowly walking away from them into the wood. Without
a word they both followed him.
He led them up the steep slope out of the river valley and then
slightly to the right — apparently by the very same route which they
had used that afternoon in coming from the Hill of the Stone Table. On
and on he led them, into dark shadows and out into pale moonlight,
getting their feet wet with the heavy dew. He looked somehow different
from the Aslan they knew. His tail and his head hung low and he
walked slowly as if he were very, very tired. Then, when they were
crossing a wide open place where there where no shadows for them
to hide in, he stopped and looked round. It was no good trying to run
away so they came towards him. When they were closer he said,
“Oh, children, children, why are you following me?”
“We couldn’t sleep,” said Lucy — and then felt sure that she need
say no more and that Aslan knew all they had been thinking.
“Please, may we come with you — wherever you’re going?” asked
Susan.
“Well -” said Aslan, and seemed to be thinking. Then he said, “I
should be glad of company tonight. Yes, you may come, if you will
promise to stop when I tell you, and after that leave me to go on
alone.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you. And we will,” said the two girls.
Forward they went again and one of the girls walked on each side
of the Lion. But how slowly he walked! And his great, royal head
drooped so that his nose nearly touched the grass. Presently he stum-
Clive Staples Lewis80
bled and gave a low moan.
“Aslan! Dear Aslan!” said Lucy, “what is wrong? Can’t you tell us?”
“Are you ill, dear Aslan?” asked Susan.
“No,” said Aslan. “I am sad and lonely. Lay your hands on my mane
so that I can feel you are there and let us walk like that.”
And so the girls did what they would never have dared to do without
his permission, but what they had longed to do ever since they first
saw him buried their cold hands in the beautiful sea of fur and stroked
it and, so doing, walked with him. And presently they saw that they
were going with him up the slope of the hill on which the Stone Table
stood. They went up at the side where the trees came furthest up, and
when they got to the last tree (it was one that had some bushes about
it) Aslan stopped and said,
“Oh, children, children. Here you must stop. And whatever happens,
do not let yourselves be seen. Farewell.”
And both the girls cried bitterly (though they hardly knew why) and
clung to the Lion and kissed his mane and his nose and his paws and
his great, sad eyes. Then he turned from them and walked out on to
the top of the hill. And Lucy and Susan, crouching in the bushes,
looked after him, and this is what they saw.
A great crowd of people were standing all round the Stone Table and
though the moon was shining many of them carried torches which
burned with evil-looking red flames and black smoke. But such
people! Ogres with monstrous teeth, and wolves, and bull-headed
men; spirits of evil trees and poisonous plants; and other creatures
whom I won’t describe because if I did the grown-ups would probably
not let you read this book — Cruels and Hags and Incubuses, Wraiths,
Horrors, Efreets, Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins. In fact here
were all those who were on the Witch’s side and whom the Wolf had
summoned at her command. And right in the middle, standing by the
Table, was the Witch herself.
A howl and a gibber of dismay went up from the creatures when
they first saw the great Lion pacing towards them, and for a moment
even the Witch seemed to be struck with fear. Then she recovered
herself and gave a wild fierce laugh.
“The fool!” she cried. “The fool has come. Bind him fast.”
Lucy and Susan held their breaths waiting for Aslan’s roar and his
spring upon his enemies. But it never came. Four Hags, grinning and
81The Lion, the Witch and the wardrobe
leering, yet also (at first) hanging back and half afraid of what they
had to do, had approached him. “Bind him, I say!” repeated the White
Witch. The Hags made a dart at him and shrieked with triumph when
they found that he made no resistance at all. Then others — evil
dwarfs and apes — rushed in to help them, and between them they
rolled the huge Lion over on his back and tied all his four paws
together, shouting and cheering as if they had done something brave,
though, had the Lion chosen, one of those paws could have been the
death of them all. But he made no noise, even when the enemies,
straining and tugging, pulled the cords so tight that they cut into his
flesh. Then they began to drag him towards the Stone Table.
“Stop!” said the Witch. “Let him first be shaved.”
Another roar of mean laughter went up from her followers as an
ogre with a pair of shears came forward and squatted down by
Aslan’s head. Snip-snip-snip went the shears and masses of curling
gold began to fall to the ground. Then the ogre stood back and the
children, watching from their hiding-place, could see the face of
Aslan looking all small and different without its mane. The enemies
also saw the difference.
“Why, he’s only a great cat after all!” cried one.
“Is
that what we were afraid of?” said another.
And they surged round Aslan, jeering at him, saying things like
“Puss, Puss! Poor Pussy,” and “How many mice have you caught
today, Cat?” and “Would you like a saucer of milk, Pussums?”
“Oh, how can they?” said Lucy, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“The brutes, the brutes!” for now that the first shock was over the
shorn face of Aslan looked to her braver, and more beautiful, and
more patient than ever.
“Muzzle him!” said the Witch. And even now, as they worked about
his face putting on the muzzle, one bite from his jaws would have cost
two or three of them their hands. But he never moved. And this
seemed to enrage all that rabble. Everyone was at him now. Those
who had been afraid to come near him even after he was bound began
to find their courage, and for a few minutes the two girls could not
even see him — so thickly was he surrounded by the whole crowd of
creatures kicking him, hitting him, spitting on him, jeering at him.
At last the rabble had had enough of this. They began to drag the
bound and muzzled Lion to the Stone Table, some pulling and some
Clive Staples Lewis82
pushing. He was so huge that even when they got him there it took all
their efforts to hoist him on to the surface of it. Then there was more
tying and tightening of cords.
“The cowards! The cowards!” sobbed Susan. “Are they
still afraid of
him, even now?”
When once Aslan had been tied (and tied so that he was really a
mass of cords) on the flat stone, a hush fell on the crowd. Four Hags,
holding four torches, stood at the corners of the Table. The Witch
bared her arms as she had bared them the previous night when it had
been Edmund instead of Aslan. Then she began to whet her knife. It
looked to the children, when the gleam of the torchlight fell on it, as if
the knife were made of stone, not of steel, and it was of a strange and
evil shape.
As last she drew near. She stood by Aslan’s head. Her face was
working and twitching with passion, but his looked up at the sky, still
quiet, neither angry nor afraid, but a little sad. Then, just before she
gave the blow, she stooped down and said in a quivering voice,
“And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you
would save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our
pact was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are
dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take
him out of my hand
then? Understand that you have given me Narnia
forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that
knowledge, despair and die.”
The children did not see the actual moment of the killing. They
couldn’t bear to look and had covered their eyes.
