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= ROOT|In_Russian|C._S._Lewis|The_Horse_And_His_Boy.txt =

page 45 of 45



    Meanwhile at Anvard everyone was very glad that he had been disposed of before the 
real fun began, which was a grand feast held that evening on the lawn before the castle, 
with dozens of lanterns to help the moonlight. And the wine flowed and tales were told 
and jokes were cracked, and then silence was made and the King's poet with two fiddlers 
stepped out into the middle of the circle. Aravis and Cor prepared themselves to be 
bored, for the only poetry they knew was the Calormene kind, and you know now what that 
was like. But at the very first scrape of the fiddles a rocket seemed to go up inside 
their heads, and the poet sang the great old lay of Fair Olvin and how he fought the 
Giant Pire and turned him into stone (and that is the origin of Mount Pire-it was a 
two-headed Giant) and won the Lady Liln for his bride; and when it was over they wished 
it was going to begin again. And though Bree couldn't sing he told the story of the fight 
at Zalindreh. And Lucy told again (they had all, except Aravis and Cor, heard it many 
times but they all wanted it again) the tale of the Wardrobe and how she and King Edmund 
and Queen Susan and Peter the High King had first come into Narnia.
    
    And presently, as was certain to happen sooner or later, King Lune said if was time 
for young people to be in bed. "And tomorrow, Cor," he added, "shalt come over all the 
castle with me and see the estres and mark all its strength and weakness: for it will be 
thine to guard when I'm gone."
    
    "But Corin will be the King then, Father," said Cor.
    
    "Nay, lad," said King Lune, "thou art my heir. The crown comes to thee."
    
    "But I don't want it," said Cor. "I'd far rather-"
    
    "'Tis no question what thou wantest, Cor, nor I either. 'Tis in the course of law."
    
    "But if we're twins we must be the same age."
    
    "Nay," said the King with a laugh. "One must come first. Art Corin's elder by full 
twenty minutes. And his better too, let's hope, though that's no great mastery." And he 
looked at Corin with a twinkle in his eyes.
    
    "But, Father, couldn't you make whichever you like to be the next King?"
    
    "No. The king's under the law, for it's the law makes him a king. Hast no more power 
to start away from thy crown than any sentry from his post."
    
    "Oh dear," said Cor. "I don't want to at all. And Corin-I am most dreadfully sorry. I 
never dreamed my turning up was going to chisel you out of your kingdom."
    
    "Hurrah! Hurrah!" said Corin. "I shan't have to be King. I shan't have to be King. 
I'll always be a prince. It's princes have all the fun."
    
    "And that's truer than thy brother knows, Cor," said King Lune. "For this is what it 
means to be a king: to be first in every desperate attack and last in every desperate 
retreat, and when there's hunger in the land (as must be now and then in bad years) to 
wear finer clothes and laugh louder over a scantier meal than any man in your land."
    
    When the two boys were going upstairs to bed Cor again asked Corin if nothing could 
be done about it. And Corin said:
    
    "If you say another word about it, I'll-I'll knock you down."
    
    It would be nice to end the story by saying that after that the two brothers never 
disagreed about anything again, but I am afraid it would not be true. In reality they 
quarrelled and fought just about as often as any other two boys would, and all their 
fights ended (if they didn't begin) with Cor getting knocked down. For though, when they 
had both grown up and become swordsmen, Cor was the more dangerous man in battle, neither 
he nor anyone else in the North Countries could ever equal Corin as a boxer. That was how 
he got his name of Corin Thunder-Fist; and how he performed his great exploit against the 
Lapsed Bear of Stormness, which was really a Talking Bear but had gone back to Wild Bear 
habits. Corm climbed up to its lair on the Narnian side of Stormness one winter day when 
the snow was on the hills and boxed it without a time-keeper for thirty-three rounds. And 
at the end it couldn't see out of its eyes and became a reformed character.
    
    Aravis also had many quarrels (and, I'm afraid, even fights) with Cor, but they 
always made it up again: so that years later, when they were grown up, they were so used 
to quarrelling and making it up again that they got married so as to go on doing it more 
conveniently. And after King Lune's death they made a good King and Queen of Archenland 
and Ram the Great, the most famous of all the kings of Archenland, was their son. Bree 
and Hwin lived happily to a great age in Narnia and both got married but not to one 
another. And there weren't many months in which one or both of them didn't come trotting 
over the pass to visit their friends at Anvard.
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