Boxen: Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia. Walter Hooper
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Название: Boxen: Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia
Автор: Walter Hooper
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Сказки
isbn: 9780007386086
isbn:
About 100 yrs later the Indians advocated peace. The tribes agreed, & Hacom, grandson of the former Hacom, who had Indian ancestors on his mother’s side, was elected King. He was the first proper King of ‘Calico’ as the northern part of Animal-land was then called. Long afterwards the southern states remained uncivilized. After this all the Indians returned to their own country.
Hacom used his power well. He called counsel of chiefs corresponding to our modern parliament. Without its consent nobody could be punished, or rewarded, nor could any new law be enacted. This assembled once a year.
Shortly after his 3rd Counsel Hacom crossed the borders of Calico with the idea of conquering Pig-Land. The pigs under their various chiefs (who had now united against Hacom, as a common enemy) advanced to meet him. The 2 armies met at a place called Kuckton (near where Marston now stands). Hacom fought well, and would have won had he not been outwitted by a clever feint on the part of the pigs. The Calician force was beaten, but still, much had been done towards the subjection of the pigs. Hacom was severly wounded by a stray arrow, but might have recovered, had he not been obliged to spend the night in the fields. It was winter, and the wound froze causing instant death. He had been an excellent king.
Chapter II
KING BUBLISH I
The people now chose Bublish, Hacom’s 2nd cousin, to be their king. There was another heir nearer (Hacom’s brother Johannus). But Bublish was very rich & powerful, and had many ‘todies’ and managed to get himself crowned instead. He christened the country ‘Bublish’ after himself, which was meant to be witty, but really only showed his conceit. He took it into his head that the soldiers (quartered in Pip-Castle) and their families were too friendly to Prince Johannus, and he was afraid lest they should rebell in his favour. So he held a fearful massacre of all inhabitants of Pip-Castle, men, women, and children. One person alone did he spare – Dormee, the governer of the Castle because he was sure of a good ransom for him. All through that year such brutal barbarities went on, so that it is often called ‘Misery Year’. He refused to call the ‘Damerfesk’ as the counsel of Hacom was called; he set King Hacom’s good laws (which he had sworn to keep & enforce) at defiance. However he carried his game too far even for himself. He had fancied his power shaken by the adherence of the Pip-Castle people to Johannus, but in reality it had been far more shaken by his own cruel massacre of them. His cruelty and deceitfulness roused all (except some of his own mercenaries) to revolt. And in the next year, a great rebellion headed by Johannus arose. The rebels broke their way into Murry Castle (partly owing to the treachery of Bublish’s own mercenaries) and Johannus himself killed Bublish.
Chapter III
KING BENJAMIN
Johannus expected to be made king on the death of Bublish. But the counsel which he called pointed out in as complimentary a way as it could, that, though an excellent general, Johannus was quite unfit for the kingly office. Wisely he did not insist, and most generously giving way, allowed Benjamin (surnamed ‘The Bunny’) Duke of Rabbit-Land, to be peacably crowned in his stead. The new king begged Johannus not to retire into private life, and made him a ‘Marshell’, an entirely new title which was given to the chief General of the king’s forces. Johannus complyed with the king’s wish, and remained an important person in the state. Benjamin was the grandson of Hacom, and therefore popular.
Johannus had not long been at his new post, as head of the Calician Army, before he had work to do; war broke out with Ojimywania, or Clarendon as it is now called. The cause of the war was this: in Bublish a certain Lord Giles, from Boot-Town (in the uncivilised south of Animal-land) emigrated to Ojimywania and became one of its great noblemen. He told Dracho, King of Ojimywania, many tales of Animal-Land and the Ojimywanians took advantage of the uncivilised condition of the southern states of Animal-Land to, in a kind of way, to appropriate them. At first they merely came and settled. Presently they took Boot-Town by storm, captured it, and drove out the inhabitants (who were mainly rats, and beetles). Johannus was busy putting down the cats, who had risen in rebellion, and did not hear of it. The first to notice the alarming power of the Ojimywanians in the south of Animal-land, was a young Gollywog with a very loyal heart, who made his way, with other Animal-landers from his home near Maine-Hoching, to Murry. On his way he encountered a band of 16 Ojimywanians, whom he put to flight. On his reaching Murry, he was made a Knight, and given a pension of 12 bresents1 per year for life.
Benjamin now decided that the only thing to be done was to send Johannus and the army south. He did so and he himself went with the army. As soon as the Ojimywanians found out that the Calicians had heard of their inroads on the southern states, they made the most of their time, and seized as many towns and fortresses as they could. They even ventured as far north as Horse-Land, which was part of Calico. By the time Johannus and the king reached Horse-Land, they found that the enemies had gained possession of Maine-Hoching, the capital of that state. The inhabitants of the city met the Calician Army with tales of the injustice & cruelty they had suffered from the Ojimywanians, who, according to their custom, had driven out the citizens as soon as they gained the towns. So there were now no people in Maine-Hoching, but Ojimywanians. Johannus and the King laid seige to Maine-Hoching. For almost a year it bravely held out, but it was at length obliged to surrender. What remained of the garrison were treated with leniancy, but most of them had been killed during the seige, and many weaker ones had starved.
The army advanced, then, out of Calico farther south. Under the able leadership of Johannus and the King, nearly the whole of the south was cleared of Ojimywanians. Not content with this, the King organized a naval expedition to Ojimywania. He himself was to head it, & Johannus was to stay behind. Just before he went, the southern states begged that they might be united to Calico and all Animal-Land be one Kingdom. This was just what the Calicians wanted, and the union was effected.
Benjamin then sailed for Ojimywania leaving Lord Mearns, Mayor of Murry, as regent. The King and his division of the army gained no success in the expedition. After some fighting Benjamin was taken prisoner and would have been executed, had not Sir Jasper and his 2 sons bravely rescued him. Of the Jaspers we will hear more. Peace was made. As soon as the King was safely home, he made reforms in the ‘Damerfesk’. In the days of Hacom it had been an assembly of Chiefs, so, later on it included the great nobles alone. So the common people had no say at all. King Benjamin with the help of his Chancellor Lord Big (a frog) passed many reforms giving 2 untitled commoners the right to come to the Damerfesk from each state.
Just now Johannus died of a fever. He was a great loss to the state, and his death was universally, and deservedly lamented.
About this time a mouse named Jas. Hit stole the Crown Jewels and escaping from prison, fled to Ojimywania. This effects Animal-Landish history because so many degenerate Animal-Landers fled to Ojimywania, and the ill-feeling between СКАЧАТЬ