"I shall never forget lying, sometimes half the night, against the burrow wall in Efrafa, conscious of nothing but Flyairth's rage pouring over me and wondering how it could be that others could not feel it. It was by far the strongest and most powerful flood of knowledge we had yet received.
"Flyairth's position as Chief Rabbit was very much weakened by the whole business of Milmown's young, especially because she had refused to give way.
"It was just at this time that she bore her third litter. She was obliged to relinquish her position as Chief Rabbit to look after them, and of course this restricted her and diminished her influence in the warren.
"There were rabbits who said that since she still refused to give way over Milmown's young, she had better cease to be Chief Rabbit.
"And it was just at this point that we lost the chance of gaining any more knowledge of Thinial or of Flyairth and her desperation. But it wasn't anything to do with the secret river. It was because Bigwig was brought into Efrafa and made an officer in the Near Hind Mark--our Mark. When did you first talk to Hyzenthlay about the escape, Bigwig?"
"It was the night of the same day that I joined the Mark," replied Bigwig. "In my burrow, Hyzenthlay. Do you remember? The plan was that you'd pick the does for the escape. Then you'd tell them that same day and we'd break out that evening. The less time they had to think about it, the better."
"But we couldn't do it that evening, because Woundwort kept you talking."
"So we had to make it the next evening--the evening of the thunderstorm. The evening they arrested Nelthilta."
"How many nights did you actually spend in Efrafa, then?" asked Vilthuril.
"Three."
"I remember," said Hyzenthlay. "I was terrified at the idea of all those does knowing about the escape for a whole night and a day. I thought we were bound to be discovered. I was right too. If Nelthilta had been arrested a little earlier, that would have been that."
"My last night in Efrafa," said Vilthuril, "was the night we all spent knowing about the plan and having to wait. And that was the last night, too, that I went into the secret river. I was the only one of the three of us."
"I had no heart for it that night," said Hyzenthlay. "Thethuthinnang and I were both worried to death that the plan would be discovered."
"That night," said Vilthuril, "I learned nothing--nothing more than I already knew about the growing op
position to Flyairth. I wonder how it all turned out."
"The strangest thing of all, to me," said Hyzenthlay, "is that we haven't the least idea where Thinial is or where those rabbits are. They might be many days' journey away, or they might be quite near us."
"It's the strangest story I've ever heard," said Hazel.
It was not the underground "river" which seemed incredible to Hazel and the other rabbits who had listened to Vilthuril's story. When meeting with phenomena, none of them ever thought in terms of a division between what was credible and what was not. The idea of the inexplicable meant nothing to them; they did not need it. So much that was inexplicable--for example, the phases of the moon--lay around them that they simply accepted it as part of their lives. True, the "river" lay outside their own experience, but so did much else. What struck them as extraordinary was that Vilthuril should have received this story--this information--never mind how, about rabbits distant from themselves, rabbits not one of whom they had ever seen. As she told it, these far-off rabbits had not communicated to her the knowledge she had received: it had simply come to her, almost as though she had been in Thinial herself. If it had not reached her by way of an underground river--and no doubt there were plenty of them in the world--then it would have come in some other way. Why? Well, said some, it must have been drifting about, to be almost accidentally picked up by rabbits like Fiver and Vilthuril; and that was strange. Not altogether, said others. It was common knowledge that Fiver and Vilthuril possessed unusual sensibilities.
There was no general agreement, and it was left to Blackberry to reach a conclusion which anyone could comfortably accept. "I doubt whether we've heard the last of it."
13
The New Warren
A Cold Coming they had of it:... just, the worst time
of the year, to take a journey ... the weather sharp,
the days short, the sun farthest off.
BISHOP LANCELOT ANDREWES, Sermon 15:
"Of the Nativity"
Kehaar, the black-headed gull, was flying westward above the land between Caesar's Belt and the Down. He flew low and in irregular curves from north to south and back, alighting every now and then at his leisure to feed for a while across any piece of likely-looking ground which attracted him.
He was not in the best of tempers. Naturally aggressive and quick to annoyance, like most gulls who live in competition with a myriad of others, he did not always like being asked to carry out tasks by the Watership Down rabbits. Showing pugnacity and attacking their enemies was one thing. Searching was another. Five months before, he had enjoyed taking part in their conflict with Efrafa, in diving on the formidable General Woundwort, in covering the retreat of Bigwig and the fugitive does in their flight from Efrafa and helping them to escape down the river. What he liked was onslaught. Nevertheless, after the rabbits had saved his life while he was lying injured and helpless on the Down, he had willingly performed for them the reconnaissance which had so unluckily ended in nothing better than his discovery of Efrafa.
Now, to have been asked to carry out another, similar flight had annoyed him, though not to the extent of refusing to do it. It had been tactfully requested. Hazel, who knew very well that of all his rabbits Bigwig was Kehaar's particular admirer and friend, had shrewdly left to him the business of explaining to the gull their purpose and what they wanted him to look for.
"We're going to start a new warren, Kehaar," Bigwig had said, dodging here and there between the gull's orange-colored legs as he strutted over the thinning November grass. "before this one gets crowded out. Half the rabbits will come from here and half from Efrafa. We want you to find us the right place and then go to Efrafa and ask Captain Campion to come and meet us there and have a look at it."