CHAPTER FOUR THE DWARF TELLS OF PRINCE CASPIAN（第3/3页）
“I’m—I’m sorry，Doctor，”said Caspian．“It wasn’t my fault，you know．”
“I am not saying these things in blame of you，dear Prince，”answered the Doctor．“You may well ask why I say them at all．But I have two reasons．Firstly，because my old heart has carried these secret memories so long that it aches with them and would burst if I did not whisper them to you．But secondly，for this: that when you become King you may help us，for I know that you also，Telmarine though you are，love the Old Things．”
“I do，I do，”said Caspian．“But how can I help？”
“You can be kind to the poor remnants of the Dwarf people，like myself．You can gather learned magicians and try to find a way of awaking the trees once more．You can search through all the nooks and wild places of the land to see if any Fauns or Talking Beasts or Dwarfs are perhaps still alive in hiding．”
“Do you think there are any？”asked Caspian eagerly．
“I don’t know-I don’t know，”said the Doctor with a deep sigh．“Sometimes I am afraid there can’t be．I have been looking for traces of them all my life．Sometimes I have thought I heard a Dwarf-drum in the mountains．Sometimes at night，in the woods，I thought I had caught a glimpse of Fauns and Satyrs dancing a long way off; but when I came to the place，there was never anything there．I have often despaired; but something always happens to start me hoping again．I don’t know．But at least you can try to be a King like the High King Peter of old，and not like your uncle．”
“Then it’s true about the Kings and Queens too，and about the White Witch？”said Caspian．
“Certainly it is true，”said Cornelius．“Their reign was the Golden Age in Narnia and the land has never forgotten them．”
“Did they live in this castle，Doctor？”
“Nay，my dear，”said the old man．“This castle is a thing of yesterday．Your great-great-grandfather built it．But when the two sons of Adam and the two daughters of Eve were made Kings and Queens of Narnia by Aslan himself，they lived in the castle of Cair Paravel．No man alive has seen that blessed place and perhaps even the ruins of it have now vanished．But we believe it was far from here，down at the mouth of the Great River，on the very shore of the sea．”
“Ugh！”said Caspian with a shudder．“Do you mean in the Black Woods？ Where all the—the—you know，the ghosts live？”
“Your Highness speaks as you have been taught，”said the Doctor．“But it is all lies．There are no ghosts there．That is a story invented by the Telmarines．Your Kings are in deadly fear of the sea because they can never quite forget that in all stories Aslan comes from over the sea．They don’t want to go near it and they don’t want anyone else to go near it．So they have let great woods grow up to cut their people off from the coast．But because they have quarrelled with the trees they are afraid of the woods．And because they are afraid of the woods they imagine that they are full of ghosts．And the Kings and great men，hating both the sea and the wood，partly believe these stories，and partly encourage them．They feel safer if no one in Narnia dares to go down to the coast and look out to sea—towards Aslan’s land and the morning and the eastern end of the world．”
There was a deep silence between them for a few minutes．Then Doctor Cornelius said，“Come．We have been here long enough．It is time to go down and to bed．”
“Must we？”said Caspian．“I’d like to go on talking about these things for hours and hours and hours．”
“Someone might begin looking for us，if we did that，”said Doctor Cornelius．