Prince Caspian 贾思潘王子 Chapter 5　Caspian's Adventure in the Mountains -6

He took off Destrier's bridle and let him graze, ate some cold chicken and drank a little wine, and presently fell asleep.

It was late afternoon when he awoke. He ate a morsel and continued his journey, still southward, by many unfrequented lanes.

He was now in a land of hills, going up and down, but always more up than down.

From every ridge he could see the mountains growing bigger and blacker ahead.

As the evening closed in, he was riding their lower slopes. The wind rose. Soon rain fell in torrents.

Destrier became uneasy; there was thunder in the air. And now they entered a dark and seemingly endless pine forest, and all the stories Caspian had ever heard of trees being unfriendly to Man crowded into his mind.

He remembered that he was, after all, a Telmarine, one of the race who cut down trees wherever they could and were at war with all wild things; and though he himself might be unlike other Telmarines, the trees could not be expected to know this.

Nor did they. The wind became a tempest, the woods roared and creaked all round them. There came a crash. A tree fell right across the road just behind him. "Quiet, Destrier, quiet!" said Caspian, patting his horse's neck;

but he was trembling himself and knew that he had escaped death by an inch. Lightning flashed and a great crack of thunder seemed to break the sky in two just overhead.

Destrier bolted in good earnest. Caspian was a good rider, but he had not the strength to hold him back.

He kept his seat, but he knew that his life hung by a thread during the wild career that followed.

Tree after tree rose up before them in the dusk and was only just avoided.

Then, almost too suddenly to hurt (and yet it did hurt him too) something struck Caspian on the forehead and he knew no more.

When he came to himself he was lying in a firelit place with bruised limbs and a bad headache. Low voices were speaking close at hand.

"And now," said one, "before it wakes up we must decide what to do with it."