The power of the night, the press of the storm,The post of the foe;Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,Yet, the strong man must go.
Robert Browning, Prospice"Sooner or later, everything leaks out and animals get to hear what othersthink about them. Some say that it was Hufsa who told King Darzin the truthabout the trick with the lettuces. Others say that Yona the hedgehog wentgossiping in the copses. But, however it was, King Darzin got to know that he hadbeen made a fool when he delivered his lettuces to the marshes of Kelfazin. Hedid not call his soldiers out to fight -- not yet. But he made up his mind that hewould find an opportunity to get his own back on El-ahrairah. El-ahrairah knewthis and he warned all his people to be careful, especially when they went aboutalone.
"Now late one afternoon in February, Rabscuttle led some of the rabbits out toa rubbish heap on the edge of a garden, some way away from the warren. Theevening came on cold and misty, and well before twilight a fog came down thick.
They set off for home, but they got lost; and then they had trouble with an owland became confused over their direction. Anyway, Rabscuttle got separated fromthe others, and after wandering about for some time, he strayed into the guards'
quarters outside King Darzin's city; and they caught him and took him up to theKing.
"King Darzin saw his chance to spite El-ahrairah. He put Rabscuttle into aspecial prison hole and every day he was brought out and made to work,sometimes in the frost, digging and tunneling. But El-ahrairah swore he wouldget him out somehow. And so he did, for he and two of his does spent four daysdigging a tunnel from the wood into the back of the bank where Rabscuttle hadbeen set to work. And in the end this tunnel came near to the hole in the bankdown which Rabscuttle had been sent. He was supposed to be digging to turn thehole into a storeroom and the guards were watching outside while he worked. ButEl-ahrairah reached him, for he could hear him scratching in the dark; and theyall slipped away down the tunnel and escaped through the wood.
"When the news reached King Darzin, he became very angry indeed, and hedetermined that this time he would start a war and finish El-ahrairah once andfor all. His soldiers set out in the night and went to the meadows of Fenlo; butthey couldn't get down the rabbit holes. Some tried, to be sure, but they sooncame out again, because they met El-ahrairah and the other rabbits. They werenot used to fighting in narrow places in the dark and they got bitten andscratched until they were glad to come out tail-first.
"But they didn't go away: they sat outside and waited. Whenever any of therabbits tried to silflay they found their enemies ready to jump on them. KingDarzin and his soldiers couldn't watch all the holes -- there were too many -- butthey were quick enough to dash off wherever they saw a rabbit show his nose.
Very soon El-ahrairah's people found that it was all they could do to snatch amouthful or two of grass -- just enough to keep alive -- before they had to boltunderground again. El-ahrairah tried every trick he could think of, but hecouldn't be rid of King Darzin or get his own people away. The rabbits began tobecome thin and miserable underground and some of them fell ill.
"At last El-ahrairah felt quite desperate and one night, when he had beenrisking his life again and again to bring down a few mouthfuls of grass for a doeand her family whose father had been killed the day before, he called out, 'LordFrith! I would do anything to save my people! I would drive a bargain with a stoator a fox -- yes, or with the Black Rabbit of Inlé!'
"Now, as soon as he had said this, El-ahrairah realized in his heart that if therewas one creature anywhere who might have the will and certainly had the powerto destroy his enemies, it was the Black Rabbit of Inlé. For he was a rabbit, andyet more powerful than King Darzin a thousand times over. But the thought madeEl-ahrairah sweat and shudder, so that he had to crouch down where he was inthe run. After a time he went to his own burrow and began to think of what hehad said and what it meant.
"Now, as you all know, the Black Rabbit of Inlé is fear and everlastingdarkness. He is a rabbit, but he is that cold, bad dream from which we can onlyentreat Lord Frith to save us today and tomorrow. When the snare is set in thegap, the Black Rabbit knows where the peg is driven; and when the weaseldances, the Black Rabbit is not far off. You all know how some rabbits seem justto throw their lives away between two jokes and a theft: but the truth is that theirfoolishness comes from the Black Rabbit, for it is by his will that they do notsmell the dog or see the gun. The Black Rabbit brings sickness, too. Or again, hewill come in the night and call a rabbit by name: and then that rabbit must go outto him, even though he may be young and strong to save himself from any otherdanger. He goes with the Black Rabbit and leaves no trace behind. Some say thatthe Black Rabbit hates us and wants our destruction. But the truth is -- or so theytaught me -- that he, too, serves Lord Frith and does no more than his appointedtask -- to bring about what must be. We come into the world and we have to go:
but we do not go merely to serve the turn of one enemy or another. If that wereso, we would all be destroyed in a day. We go by the will of the Black Rabbit ofInlé and only by his will. And though that will seems hard and bitter to us all, yetin his way he is our protector, for he knows Frith's promise to the rabbits and hewill avenge any rabbit who may chance to be destroyed without the consent ofhimself. Anyone who has seen a gamekeeper's gibbet knows what the BlackRabbit can bring down on elil who think they will do what they will.
"El-ahrairah spent the night alone in his burrow and his thoughts wereterrible. As far as he knew, no rabbit had ever tried to do what he had in mind.
But the more he thought about it -- as well as he could for hunger and fear andthe trance that comes upon rabbits face to face with death -- the more it seemedto him that there was at least a chance of success. He would seek out the BlackRabbit and offer him his own life in return for the safety of his people. But if,when he offered his life, he did not mean the offer to be accepted, it would bebetter not to go near the Black Rabbit at all. The Black Rabbit might not accepthis life: yet still, perhaps, he might get a chance to try something else. Only, therecould be no cheating the Black Rabbit. If his people's safety were to be had, bywhatever means, the price would be his life. So unless he failed, he would notreturn. He would therefore need a companion to bring back whatever it was thatwas going to overthrow King Darzin and save the warren.
"In the morning, El-ahrairah went to find Rabscuttle and they talked far intothe day. Then he called his Owsla together and told them what he meant to do.
"Later that evening, in the last of the twilight, the rabbits came out andattacked King Darzin's soldiers. They fought very bravely and some of them werekilled. The enemy thought they were trying to break out of the warren and dideverything they could to surround them and force them back into their holes. Butthe truth was that all the fighting was simply to distract King Darzin's attentionand keep his soldiers busy. As darkness set in, El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle slippedout from the other end of the warren and made off down the ditch, while theOwsla fell back and King Darzin's soldiers jeered at them down the holes. As forKing Darzin, he sent a message to say that he was ready to talk to El-ahrairahabout terms of surrender.
"El-ahrairah and Rabscuttle set out on their dark journey. What way they wentI don't know and no rabbit knows. But I always remember what old Feverfew --d'you remember him? -- used to say when he told this story. 'They didn't takelong,' he said. 'They took no time at all. No. They limped and stumbled through abad dream to that terrible place they were bound for. Where they were traveling,the sun and moon mean nothing and winter and summer less. But you will neverknow' -- and then he used to look all round at us -- 'you will never know, andneither do I, how far El-ahrairah went on his journey into the dark. You see thetop of a great stone sticking out of the ground. How far is it to the middle? Splitthe stone. Then you'll know.'
"At last they came to a high place where there was no grass. They scrambledupward, over splinters of slate, among gray rocks bigger than sheep. Mist and icyrain swirled about them and there was no sound but the trickling of water andsometimes, from far above, the cry of some great, evil bird on the wing. And thesesounds echoed, for they were between black cliffs of stone, taller than the tallesttrees. The snow lay in patches all about, for the sun never shone to melt it. Themoss was slippery, and whenever they pushed out a pebble, it rattled down anddown behind them in the gullies. But El-ahrairah knew the way and on he went,until the mist grew so thick that they could see nothing. Then they kept close tothe cliff and little by little, as they went, it overhung them until it made a darkroof above their backs. Where the cliff ended was the mouth of a tunnel, like ahuge rabbit hole. In the freezing cold and silence, El-ahrairah stamped andflashed his tail to Rabscuttle. And then, as they were about to go into the tunnel,they realized that what they had thought, in the gloom, to be a part of the rockwas not rock. It was the Black Rabbit of Inlé, close beside them, still as lichen andcold as the stone.""Hazel," said Pipkin, staring into the dusk and trembling, "I don't like thisstory. I know I'm not brave--""It's all right, Hlao-roo," said Fiver, "you're not the only one." In fact hehimself seemed composed and even detached, which was more than could be saidfor any other rabbit in the audience: but Pipkin was hardly to realize this. "Let'sgo out there for a bit and watch the spiders catching moths, shall we?" said Fiver.
"I think I can remember where I left a patch of vetch -- it must be somewhere thisway." Still talking quietly, he led Pipkin out into the overgrown combe. Hazelturned to make sure of the direction they had taken and as he did so Dandelionhesitated, uncertain whether to resume.
"Go on," said Bigwig, "and don't leave anything out.""I think many things are left out, if only the truth could be known," saidDandelion, "for no one can say what happens in that country where El-ahrairahwent of his own accord and we do not. But, as I was told, when they first becameaware of the Black Rabbit, they fled down the tunnel -- as needs they must, forthere was nowhere else to run. And this they did although they had come onpurpose to encounter him and all depended on their doing so. They did nodifferently from all of us; and the end, too, was no different, for when they haddone slipping and tripping and falling along the tunnel, they found themselves ina vast stone burrow. All was of stone: the Black Rabbit had dug it out of themountain with his claws. And there they found, waiting for them, him fromwhom they had fled. There were others in that burrow also -- shadows withoutsound or smell. The Black Rabbit has his Owsla, too, you know. I would not careto meet them.
"The Black Rabbit spoke with the voice of water that falls into pools in echoingplaces in the dark.
"'El-ahrairah, why have you come here?'
"'I have come for my people,' whispered El-ahrairah.
"The Black Rabbit smelled as clean as last year's bones and in the dark El-ahrairah could see his eyes, for they were red with a light that gave no light.
"'You are a stranger here, El-ahrairah,' said the Black Rabbit. 'You are alive.'
"'My lord,' replied El-ahrairah, 'I have come to give you my life. My life for mypeople.'
"The Black Rabbit drew his claws along the floor.
"'Bargains, bargains, El-ahrairah,' he said. 'There is not a day or a night but adoe offers her life for her kittens, or some honest captain of Owsla his life for hisChief Rabbit's. Sometimes it is taken, sometimes it is not. But there is no bargain,for here what is is what must be.'
"El-ahrairah was silent. But he thought, 'Perhaps I can trick him into takingmy life. He would keep a promise, as Prince Rainbow kept his.'
"'You are my guest, El-ahrairah,' said the Black Rabbit. 'Stay in my burrow aslong as you wish. You may sleep here. And you may eat here, and they are fewindeed who can do as much. Let him eat,' he said to the Owsla.
"'We will not eat, my lord,' said El-ahrairah, for he knew that if he ate the foodwhich they gave him in that burrow, his secret thoughts would become plain andthere would be an end of tricks.
"'Then at least we must entertain you,' said the Black Rabbit. 'You must feel athome, El-ahrairah, and make yourself comfortable. Come, let us play bob-stones.'*"'Very well,' said El-ahrairah, 'and if I win, my lord, perhaps you will be sogood as to accept my life in return for my people's safety.'
"'I will,' said the Black Rabbit. 'But if I win, El-ahrairah, you shall give me bothyour tail and your whiskers.'
"The stones were brought and El-ahrairah sat down in the cold and the echoesto play against the Black Rabbit of Inlé. Now, as you may suppose, El-ahrairahknew how to play bob-stones. He could play as well as any rabbit that evercovered a cast. But there -- in that dreadful place, with the Black Rabbit's eyesupon him and the Owsla who made no sound -- try as he would, his wits desertedhim and even before he cast, he felt that the Black Rabbit knew what was down.
The Black Rabbit showed never the least haste. He played as the snow falls,without sound or change, until at last El-ahrairah's spirit failed him and he knewthat he could not win.
"'You can pay your stakes to the Owsla, El-ahrairah,' said the Black Rabbit,'and they will show you a burrow to sleep in. I shall return tomorrow and if youare still here I will see you. But you are free to leave whenever you wish.'
"Then the Owsla took El-ahrairah away and cut off his tail and pulled out hiswhiskers; and when he came to himself, he was alone with Rabscuttle in a hollowstone burrow, with an opening to the mountain outside.
"'Oh, master,' said Rabscuttle, 'wha............