Chapter 8
Croquet with the Queen of Hearts
English edition
-
1 At last the whole sunlit garden that Alice longed for lies spread out below, neat and fresh.
In the text → -
2 Alice has just walked into the Queen's garden and stops, curious, beside a big white rose-tree.
In the text → -
3 Card-gardeners Five and Seven quarrel over a half-painted rose, jabbing dripping brushes
In the text → -
4 A white rose half covered in wet red paint, the brush stopped mid-stroke
In the text → -
5 Seven has just flung down his brush in the middle of the quarrel when he sees Alice watching.
In the text → -
6 Two quietly tells Alice the gardeners planted a white rose-tree instead of a red one
In the text → -
7 At the cry "The Queen!
In the text → -
8 The court of cards winds through the garden, the King and Queen of Hearts coming last
In the text → -
9 The gardeners lie face-down on the grass, but Alice stays standing by the rose-tree
In the text → -
10 The Queen of Hearts turns from the bowing Knave and stares at Alice
In the text → -
11 Alice tells the Queen her name and realizes the court is only a pack of cards
In the text → -
12 The Queen of Hearts points at the three face-down gardeners and demands who they are
In the text → -
13 The Queen of Hearts, crimson with fury, screams a death sentence at Alice
In the text → -
14 Alice shouts 'Nonsense!' and the Queen of Hearts stops mid-sentence
In the text → -
15 The Queen of Hearts turns from the King and points at the gardeners.
In the text → -
16 The three card-gardeners scramble up and bow every way at once, bumping into each other
In the text → -
17 A close-up of the Queen of Hearts' hand holding one rose from the bush.
In the text → -
18 As the Queen shouts 'Off with their heads!', the gardeners run to Alice for protection
In the text → -
19 Alice lowers Two into a big flower-pot where Five and Seven already peep over the rim
In the text → -
20 Soldiers report the sentence carried out while the gardeners hide in the flower-pot
In the text → -
21 Alice shouts her daring "Yes!" across the Queen's garden beside the half-painted rose-tree.
In the text → -
22 At the Queen's roar, Alice steps onto the garden path and joins the court of cards
In the text → -
23 Alice walks in the Queen of Hearts' procession of playing cards along a sunny garden path.
In the text → -
24 In the procession, the White Rabbit whispers to Alice that the Duchess faces execution
In the text → -
25 On the path to the croquet-ground, the anxious White Rabbit leans in to listen
In the text → -
26 Alice laughs out loud at the thought of the Duchess boxing the Queen's ears.
In the text → -
27 Alice looks down from a grassy ridge over the Queen's ridged and furrowed croquet-ground.
In the text → -
28 Alice laughs as her croquet flamingo twists its neck round and stares up at her
In the text → -
29 Close to the grass, a croquet-ball hedgehog uncurls and crawls calmly over a ridge.
In the text → -
30 The croquet game has fallen into chaos: everyone plays at once and fights over the hedgehogs.
In the text → -
31 Alice stands at the edge of the croquet-ground with her flamingo under her arm
In the text → -
32 As the croquet game turns into a quarrel, a strange grin appears in the air
In the text → -
33 Alice sets down her flamingo and starts telling the Cheshire Cat about the game
In the text → -
34 Alice pours out her grievances about the chaotic croquet game to the Cheshire Cat's floating head.
In the text → -
35 Alice sees the Queen behind her and switches to 'likely to win' mid-sentence
In the text → -
36 Taking Alice's words as a compliment, the Queen of Hearts sweeps past with a smug smile
In the text → -
37 The timid King of Hearts holds out his hand for the Cheshire Cat's floating head to kiss
In the text → -
38 The King of Hearts crouches behind Alice and scolds the Cheshire Cat's grinning head
In the text → -
39 The Cheshire Cat's floating head stares calmly at the King hiding behind Alice
In the text → -
40 The King turns and asks his wife to have the grinning Cheshire Cat removed.
In the text → -
41 The King of Hearts trots off across the ridged lawn to fetch the executioner.
In the text → -
42 Alice's hedgehog is fighting another hedgehog in a furrow of the ridged croquet-ground.
In the text → -
43 Alice has caught her runaway flamingo, but both hedgehogs have gone.
In the text → -
44 Alice comes back to find a large, silent ring of cards round the Cheshire Cat's floating head.
In the text → -
45 The executioner's axe lies on the croquet lawn under the Cheshire Cat's grinning head
In the text → -
46 The King of Hearts wags a finger at Alice: anything with a head can be beheaded
In the text → -
47 The Queen of Hearts threatens to execute everybody while card people stand silent
In the text → -
48 With a flamingo peering at her, Alice tells the quarrellers to ask the Duchess
In the text → -
49 The executioner races out of the silent ring of cards to fetch the Duchess.
In the text → -
50 The Cheshire Cat's head is fading away above the croquet-ground.
In the text → -
51 The King of Hearts and the executioner search the empty sky for the Cheshire Cat's head
In the text → -
52 The Cheshire Cat's head has faded completely, and the croquet-ground is quiet in the sun.
In the text →
