“What‘s wrong?” asked the other two in a whisper. “Didn’t you hear what those giants were saying? ‘That’sa nice tender haunch of venison,‘ said one of them. ’Then that stag was a liar,‘ said another. ’Why?‘ said the first one. ’Oh,‘ said the other. ’They say that when he was caught he said, “Don‘t kill me, I’m tough. You won‘t like me.” ’ “For a moment Jill did not realize the full meaning of this. But she did when Scrubb‘s eyes opened wide with horror and he said, “So we’ve been eating a Talking stag.”
This discovery didn‘t have exactly the same effect on all of them. Jill, who was new to that world, was sorry for the poor stag and thought it rotten of the giants to have killed him. Scrubb, who had been in that world before and had at least one Talking beast as his dear friend, felt horrified; as you might feel about a murder. But Puddleglum, who was Narnian born, was sick and faint, and felt as you would feel if you found you had eaten a baby.
“We’ve brought the anger of Aslan on us,” he said. “That‘shat comes of not attending to the signs. We’re under a urse, I expect. If it was allowed, it would be the best thing e could do, to take these knives and drive them into our wn hearts.”