The Princess Bride

Chapter Twenty-Three: R.O.U.S.'s

Any discussion of the R.O.U.S.-Rodent Of Unusual Size-must begin with the South America Capybara, which has been known to reach a weight of 150 pounds. They are nothing but water hogs, however and present very little danger. The largest pure rat is probably the Tasmanian, which has actually been weighed at one hundred pounds. But they have little agility, tending to sloth when they reach full growth, and most Tasmanian herdsmen have learned with ease to avoid them. The Fire Swamp R.O.U.S.s were a pure rat strain, weighed usually eighty pounds, and had the speed of wolfhounds. they were also carnivorous, and capable of frenzy. 

the rats struggled with each other to reach Jack's wound. Their enormous front teeth tore at the unprotected flesh of his left shoulder, and he had no idea if Elsa was already half devoured; he only knew if he didn't do something desperate right then and right there she soon would be.

So he intentionally rolled his body into a spurt of flame. 

His clothes began to burn-that he expected-but, more important, the rats shield away from the heat and the flames for just instant, but that was enough for him to reach and throw his long knife into the heart of the nearest beast.

The other two turned instantly on their own kind and began eating it while it was still screaming.

Jack had his sword by then, and with two quick thrusts, the trio of rats was disposed of. "Hurry!" he shouted to Elsa, who had been battling one of the two of the dead R.O.U.S.s with a rather large stick. "Bandages, bandages," Jack cried. "Make me some bandages or we die," and with that, he rolled onto the ground, tore off his burning clothes and sat to work caking mud onto the deep wound in his shoulder. "They're like sharks, blood creatures; it's blood they thrive on." He smeared more and more mud into his wound. "We must stop my bleeding and we must cover the wound so they do not smell it. If they don't smell blood, we'll survive. if they do, we're for it, so help me, please." Elsa ripped her clothes into patches and ties, and they worked on the wound, caking the blood with mud from the floor of the Fire Swamp, then bandaging and re-bandaging over it.

"We'll know soon enough," Jack said, because two more rats were watching them. Jack stood, sword in hand. "If they charge, they smell it," he whispered.

The giant rats stood watching.

"Come," Jack whispered.

Two more giant rats joined the first pair. 

Without warning, Jack's sword flashed, and the nearest rat was bleeding. The other three contented themselves with that for a while.

Jack took Elsa's hand and again they started to move. 

"How bad are you?" She said.

"I am in something close to agony but we can talk about that later. Hurry now." They hurried, They had been in the Fire Swamp for one hour, and it turned out to be the easiest one they had of the six it took to cross it. But they crossed it. Alive and Together. Hand very much in hand.

It was nearly dusk when they at last saw the great ship 'Revenge' far out in the deepest part of the bay. Jack, still within the confines of the Fire Swamp, sank, beaten, to his knees. 

For between him and his ship were more than a few inconveniences. From the north sailed in half the great Armada. From the south now, the other half. A hundred mounted horsemen, armoured and armed. In front of them the Count. And out alone in front of all, the four whites with the Prince astride leader. Jack stood. "We took to long in crossing. The fault is mine."

"I accept your surrender," the Prince said.

Jack held Elsa's hand. "No one is surrendering," he said.

"You're acting silly now," the Prince replied. "I credit you with bravery. Don't make yourself a fool."

"What is so foolish about winning?" Jack wanted to know. "It's my opinion that in order to capture us, you will have to come into the Fire Swamp. We have spent many hour here now: we know where the Snow Sand waits. I doubt that you or your men will be any too anxious to follow us in here. And by morning we will have slipped away."

"I doubt that somehow," said the Prince,and he gestured out to sea. Half the Armada had begun to give chase to the great ship 'Revenge'. and the 'Revenge', alone, was sailing, as it had to o, away. "surrender," the Prince said.

"It will not happen."

"SURRENDER!" the Prince shouted.

"DEATH FIRST!" Jack roared.

"...will you promise not to hurt him...?" Elsa whispered.

"What was that?" the Pince said. 

"What was that?"  Jack said.

Elsa took a step forward and said, "If we surrender, freely and without struggle, if life returns to what it was on dusk ago, will you swear not to hurt this man?"

Prince Hans raised his right hand: "I swear on the grave of my soon-to-be-dead father and the soul of my already-dead mother that I shall not hurt this man, and if I do, may I never hunt again though I live a thousand years."

Elsa turned to Jack. "There," she said. "You can't ask for more then that, and that is the truth."

"The truth," said Jack, "is that you would rather live with your Prince than die with your love."  

"I would rather die then see you die before me." Elsa said. 

And with that she left Jack alone. 

Prince Hans watched her as she began to long cross to him. "When we are out of sight," he said to Count Black,"take that man in black and put him in the fifth level of the Zoo of Death."

The Count nodded. "For a moment, I believed you when you swore." 

"I spoke the truth; I never lie," the Prince replied. "I said I would not hurt him. But I never for a moment said he would not suffer pain. You will do the actual tormenting; I will only spectator." He opened his arm then for his Princess.

"He belongs to the ship 'Revenge'," Elsa said. "He is-" she began, about to tell Jack's story, but that was not for her to repeat-"a simple sailor and i have known him since I was a child. Will you arrange that?"

"Must I swear again?"

"No need," Elsa said, because she knew, as did everyone, that the Prince was more forthright than any Florinese.

"Come along, my Princess." He took her hand. 

Elsa went away with him.

Jack watched it all. He stood silently at the edge of the Fire Swamp. It was darker now, but the flame spurts behind him outlines his face. He was glazed with fatigue. He had been bitten, cut, gone without rest, had assaulted the Cliffs of Insanity, had save and taken lives. He had risked his world, and now it was walking away from him, hand in hand with a ruffian Prince.

Then Elsa was gone, out of sight. 

Jack took a breath. He was aware of he score soldiers starting to surround him, and probably he could have made a few of them perspire for their victory.

But for what point?

Jack sagged.

"Come, sir." Count Black approached. "We must get you safely to your ship."

"We are both men of action," Jack replied. "Lies do not become us."

"Well spoken," said the Count, and with one sudden swing, he clubbed Jack into insensitivity. 

Jack fell like a beaten stone, his last conscious thought being of the Count's right hand; it was six-fingered, and Jack could never quite remember having encountered the deformity before...