turning one of your leopards into a statue. And when he reached her he had sense to bring 
his sword smashing down on her wand instead of trying to go for her directly and simply 
getting made a statue himself for his pains. That was the mistake all the rest were 
making. Once her wand was broken we began to have some chance-if we hadn't lost so many 
already. He was terribly wounded. We must go and see him."
    
    They found Edmund in charge of Mrs Beaver a little way back from the fighting line. 
He was covered with blood, his mouth was open, and his face a nasty green colour.
    
    "Quick, Lucy," said Aslan.
    
    And then, almost for the first time, Lucy remembered the precious cordial that had 
been given her for a Christmas present. Her hands trembled so much that she could hardly 
undo the stopper, but she managed it in the end and poured a few drops into her brother's 
mouth.
    
    "There are other people wounded," said Aslan while she was still looking eagerly into 
Edmund's pale face and wondering if the cordial would have any result.
    
    "Yes, I know," said Lucy crossly. "Wait a minute."
    
    "Daughter of Eve," said Aslan in a graver voice, "others also are at the point of 
death. Must more people die for Edmund?"
    
    "I'm sorry, Aslan," said Lucy, getting up and going with him. And for the next 
half-hour they were busy-she attending to the wounded while he restored those who had 
been turned into stone. When at last she was free to come back to Edmund she found him 
standing on his feet and not only healed of his wounds but looking better than she had 
seen him look-oh, for ages; in fact ever since his first term at that horrid school which 
was where he had begun to go wrong. He had become his real old self again and could look 
you in the face. And there on the field of battle Aslan made him a knight.
    
    "Does he know," whispered Lucy to Susan, "what Aslan did for him? Does he know what 
the arrangement with the Witch really was?"
    
    "Hush! No. Of course not," said Susan.
    
    "Oughtn't he to be told?" said Lucy.
    
    "Oh, surely not," said Susan. "It would be too awful for him. Think how you'd feel if 
you were he."
    
    "All the same I think he ought to know," said Lucy. But at that moment they were 
interrupted.
    
    That night they slept where they were. How Aslan provided food for them all I don't 
know; but somehow or other they found themselves all sitting down on the grass to a fine 
high tea at about eight o'clock. Next day they began marching eastward down the side of 
the great river. And the next day after that, at about teatime, they actually reached the 
mouth. The castle of Cair Paravel on its little hill towered up above them; before them 
were the sands, with rocks and little pools of salt water, and seaweed, and the smell of 
the sea and long miles of bluish-green waves breaking for ever and ever on the beach. And 
oh, the cry of the sea-gulls! Have you heard it? Can you remember?
    
    That evening after tea the four children all managed to get down to the beach again 
and get their shoes and stockings off and feel the sand between their toes. But next day 
was more solemn. For then, in the Great Hall of Cair Paravel-that wonderful hall with the 
ivory roof and the west wall hung with peacock's feathers and the eastern door which 
looks towards the sea, in the presence of all their friends and to the sound of trumpets, 
Aslan solemnly crowned them and led them to the four thrones amid deafening shouts of, 
"Long Live King Peter! Long Live Queen Susan! Long Live King Edmund! Long Live Queen 
Lucy!"
    
    "Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen. Bear it well, Sons of Adam! 
Bear it well, Daughters of Eve!" said Aslan.
    
    And through the eastern door, which was wide open, came the voices of the mermen and 
the mermaids swimming close to the shore and singing in honour of their new Kings and 
Queens.
    
    So the children sat on their thrones and sceptres were put into their hands and they 
gave rewards and honours to all their friends, to Tumnus the Faun, and to the Beavers, 
and Giant Rumblebuffin, to the leopards, and the good centaurs, and the good dwarfs, and 
to the lion. And that night there was a great feast in Cair Paravel, and revelry and 
dancing, and gold flashed and wine flowed, and answering to the music inside, but 
stranger, sweeter, and more piercing, came the music of the sea people.
    
    But amidst all these rejoicings Aslan himself quietly slipped away. And when the 
Kings and Queens noticed that he wasn't there they said nothing about it. For Mr Beaver 
had warned them, "He'll be coming and going," he had said. "One day you'll see him and 
another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down and of course he has other countries 
to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's 
wild,' you know. Not like a tame lion."
    
    And now, as you see, this story is nearly (but not quite) at an end. These two Kings 
and two Queens governed Narnia well, and long and happy was their reign. At first much of 
their time was spent in seeking out the remnants of the White Witch's army and destroying 
them, and indeed for a long time there would be news of evil things lurking in the wilder 
parts of the forest-a haunting here and a killing there, a glimpse of a werewolf one 
month and a rumour of a hag the next. But in the end all that foul brood was stamped out. 
And they made good laws and kept the peace and saved good trees from being unnecessarily 
cut down, and liberated young dwarfs and young satyrs from being sent to school, and 
generally stopped busybodies and interferers and encouraged ordinary people who wanted to 
live and let live. And they drove back the fierce giants (quite a different sort from 
Giant Rumblebuffin) on the north of Narnia when these ventured across the frontier. And 
they entered into friendship and alliance with countries beyond the sea and paid them 
visits of state and received visits of state from them. And they themselves grew and 
changed as the years passed over them. And Peter became a tall and deep-chested man and a 
great warrior, and he was called King Peter the Magnificent. And Susan grew into a tall 
and gracious woman with black hair that fell almost to her feet and the kings of the