The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(volumes_1-7,_in_order_of_publication)

handsome and looked both bold and kind, though there was something about his face that
didn't seem quite right. He was dressed in black and altogether looked a little bit like
Hamlet.
"Welcome, Overworlders," he cried. "But stay a moment! I cry you mercy! I have seen
you two fair children, and this, your strange governor, before. Was it not you three that
met me by the bridge on the borders of Ettinsmoor when I rode there by my Lady's side?"
"Oh . . . you were the black knight who never spoke?" exclaimed Jill.
"And was that lady the Queen of Underland?" asked Puddleglum, in no very friendly
voice. And Scrubb, who was thinking the same, burst out, "Because if it was, I think she
was jolly mean to send us off to a castle of giants who intended to eat us. What harm had
we ever done her, I should like to know?"
"How?" said the Black Knight with a frown. "If you were not so young a warrior, Boy,
you and I must have fought to the death on this quarrel. I can hear no words against my
Lady's honour. But of this you may be assured, that whatever she said to you, she said of
a good intent. You do not know her. She is a nosegay of all virtues, as truth, mercy,
constancy, gentleness, courage, and the rest. I say what I know. Her kindness to me
alone, who can in no way reward her, would make an admirable history. But you shall
know and love her hereafter. Meanwhile, what is your errand in the Deep Lands?"
And before Puddleglum could stop her, Jill blurted out, "Please we are trying to find
Prince Rilian of Narnia." And then she realized what a frightful risk she had taken; these
people might be enemies. But the Knight showed no interest.
"Rilian? Narnia?" he said carelessly. "Narnia? What land is that? I have never heard the
name. It must be a thousand leagues from those parts of the Overworld that I know. But it
was a strange fantasy that brought you seeking this - how do you call him? - Billian?
Trillian? in my Lady's realm. Indeed, to my certain knowledge, there is no such man
here." He laughed very loudly at this, and Jill thought to herself, "I wonder is that what's
wrong with his face? Is he a bit silly?"
"We had been told to look for a message on the stones of the City Ruinous," said Scrubb.
"And we saw the words UNDER ME."
The Knight laughed even more heartily than before. "You were the more deceived," he
said. "Those words meant nothing to your purpose. Had you but asked my Lady, she
could have given you better counsel. For those words are all that is left of a longer script,
which in ancient times, as she well remembers, expressed this verse:
Though under Earth and throneless now I be, Yet, while I lived, all Earth was under me.
From which it is plain that some great king of the ancient giants, who lies buried there,
caused this boast to be cut in the stone over his sepulchre; though the breaking up of