"Drink, Sire, and then you'll find you are able to eat," said the topmost Mouse, and Tirian found that a little wooden cup was being held to his lips. It was only the size of an egg cup so that he had hardly tasted the wine in it before it was empty. But then the Mouse passed it down and the others re-filled it and it was passed up again and Tirian emptied it a second time. In this way they went on till he had quite a good drink, which was all the better for coming in little doses, for that is more thirst-quenching than one long draught.
"Here is cheese, Sire," said the first Mouse, "but not very much, for fear it would make you too thirsty." And after the cheese they fed him with oat-cakes and fresh butter, and then with some more wine.
"Now hand up the water," said the first Mouse, "and I'll wash the King's face. There is blood on it."
Then Tirian felt something like a tiny sponge dabbing his face, and it was most refreshing.
"Little friends," said Tirian, "how can I thank you for all this?"
"You needn't, you needn't," said the little voices. "What else could we do? We don't want any other King. We're your people. If it was only the Ape and the Calormenes who were against you we would have fought till we were cut into pieces before we'd let them tie you up. We would, we would indeed. But we can't go against Aslan."
"Do you think it really is Aslan?" asked the King.
"Oh yes, yes," said the Rabbit. "He came out of the stable last night. We all saw him."
"What was he like?" said the King.
"Like a terrible, great Lion, to be sure," said one of the Mice.
"And you think it is really Aslan who is killing the Wood-Nymphs and making you all slaves to the King of Calormen?"
"Ah, that's bad, isn't it?" said the second Mouse. "It would have been better if we'd died before all this began. But there's no doubt about it. Everyone says it is Aslan's orders. And we've seen him. We didn't think Aslan would be like that. Why, we - we wanted him to come back to Narnia."
"He seems to have come back very angry this time," said the first Mouse. "We must all have done something dreadfully wrong without knowing it. He must be punishing us for something. But I do think we might be told what it was!"
"I suppose what we're doing now may be wrong," said the Rabbit.
"I don't care if it is," said one of the Moles. "I'd do it again."
But the others said, "Oh hush," and "Do be careful," and then they all said, "We're sorry, dear King, but we must go back now. It would never do for us to be caught here."
"Leave me at once, dear Beasts," said Tirian. "I would not for all Narnia bring any of you into danger."
"Goodnight, goodnight," said the Beasts, rubbing their noses against his knees. "We will come back - if we can." Then they all pattered away and the wood seemed darker and colder and lonelier than it had been before they came.
The stars came out and time went slowly on - imagine how slowly - while that last King of Narnia stood stiff and sore and upright against the tree in his bonds. But at last something happened.