Now sir, young Fortinbras,Of unimproved mettle hot and full,Hath in the skirts of Norway here and thereSharked up a list of lawless resolutesFor food and diet to some enterpriseThat hath a stomach in't.
Shakespeare, HamletFu Inlé means "after moonrise." Rabbits, of course, have no idea of precisetime or of punctuality. In this respect they are much the same as primitive people,who often take several days over assembling for some purpose and then severalmore to get started. Before such people can act together, a kind of telepathicfeeling has to flow through them and ripen to the point when they all know thatthey are ready to begin. Anyone who has seen the martins and swallows inSeptember, assembling on the telephone wires, twittering, making short flightssingly and in groups over the open, stubbly fields, returning to form longer andeven longer lines above the yellowing verges of the lanes -- the hundreds ofindividual birds merging and blending, in a mounting excitement, into swarms,and these swarms coming loosely and untidily together to create a great,unorganized flock, thick at the center and ragged at the edges, which breaks andre-forms continually like clouds or waves -- until that moment when the greaterpart (but not all) of them know that the time has come: they are off, and havebegun once more that great southward flight which many will not survive; anyoneseeing this has seen at work the current that flows (among creatures who think ofthemselves primarily as part of a group and only secondarily, if at all, asindividuals) to fuse them together and impel them into action without consciousthought or will: has seen at work the angel which drove the First Crusade intoAntioch and drives the lemmings into the sea.
It was actually about an hour after moonrise and a good while before midnightwhen Hazel and Fiver once more came out of their burrow behind the bramblesand slipped quietly along the bottom of the ditch. With them was a third rabbit,Hlao -- Pipkin -- a friend of Fiver. (Hlao means any small concavity in the grasswhere moisture may collect -- e.g., the dimple formed by a dandelion or thistlecup.) He too was small, and inclined to be timid, and Hazel and Fiver had spentthe greater part of their last evening in the warren in persuading him to jointhem. Pipkin had agreed rather hesitantly. He still felt extremely nervous aboutwhat might happen once they left the warren, and had decided that the best wayto avoid trouble would be to keep close to Hazel and do exactly what he said.
The three were still in the ditch when Hazel heard a movement above. Helooked up quickly.
"Who's there?" he said. "Dandelion?""No, I'm Hawkbit," said the rabbit who was peering over the edge. He jumpeddown among them, landing rather heavily. "Do you remember me, Hazel? Wewere in the same burrow during the snow last winter. Dandelion told me youwere going to leave the warren tonight. If you are, I'll come with you."Hazel could recall Hawkbit -- a rather slow, stupid rabbit whose company forfive snowbound days underground had been distinctly tedious. Still, he thought,this was no time to pick and choose. Although Bigwig might succeed in talkingover one or two, most of the rabbits they could expect to join them would notcome from the Owsla. They would be outskirters who were getting a thin timeand wondering what to do about it. He was running over some of these in hismind when Dandelion appeared.
"The sooner we're off the better, I reckon," said Dandelion. "I don't much likethe look of things. After I'd persuaded Hawkbit here to join us, I was just startingto talk to a few more, when I found that Toadflax fellow had followed me downthe run. 'I want to know what you're up to,' he said, and I don't think he believedme when I told him I was only trying to find out whether there were any rabbitswho wanted to leave the Warren. He asked me if I was sure I wasn't working upsome kind of plot against the Threarah and he got awfully angry and suspicious.
It put the wind up me, to tell you the truth, so I've just brought Hawkbit alongand left it at that.""I don't blame you," said Hazel. "Knowing Toadflax, I'm surprised he didn'tknock you over first and ask questions afterward. All the same, let's wait a littlelonger. Blackberry ought to be here soon."Time passed. They crouched in silence while the moon shadows movednorthward in the grass. At last, just as Hazel was about to run down the slope toBlackberry's burrow, he saw him come out of his hole, followed by no less thanthree rabbits. One of these, Buckthorn, Hazel knew well. He was glad to see him,for he knew him for a tough, sturdy fellow who was considered certain to get intothe Owsla as soon as he reached full weight.
"But I dare say he's impatient," thought Hazel, "or he may have come off worstin some scuffle over a doe and taken it hard. Well, with him and Bigwig, at leastwe shan't be too badly off if we run into any fighting."He did not recognize the other two rabbits and when Blackberry told him theirnames -- Speedwell and Acorn -- he was none the wiser. But this was notsurprising, for they were typical outskirters -- thin-looking six-monthers, with thestrained, wary look of those who are only too well used to the thin end of thestick. They looked curiously at Fiver. From what Blackberry had told them, theyhad been almost expecting to find Fiver foretelling doom in a poetic torrent.
Instead, he seemed more calm and normal than the rest. The certainty of goinghad lifted a weight from Fiver.
More time went slowly by. Blackberry scrambled up into the fern and thenreturned to the top of the bank, fidgeting nervously and half inclined to bolt atnothing. Hazel and Fiver remained in the ditch, nibbling halfheartedly at the darkgrass. At last Hazel heard what he was listening for; a rabbit -- or was it two? --approaching from the wood.
A few moments later Bigwig was in the ditch. Behind him came a hefty, brisk-looking rabbit something over twelve months old. He was well known by sight toall the warren, for his fur was entirely gray, with patches of near-white that nowcaught the moonlight as he sat scratching himself without speaking. This wasSilver, a nephew of the Threarah, who was serving his first month in the Owsla.
Hazel could not help feeling relieved that Bigwig had brought only Silver -- aquiet, straightforward fellow who had not yet really found his feet among theveterans. When Bigwig had spoken earlier of sounding out the Owsla, Hazel hadbeen in two minds. It was only too likely that they would encounter dangersbeyond the warren and that they would stand in need of some good fighters.
Again, if Fiver was right and the whole warren was in imminent peril, then ofcourse they ought to welcome any rabbit who was ready to join them. On theother hand, there seemed no point in taking particular pains to get hold of rabbitswho were going to behave like Toadflax.
"Wherever we settle down in the end," thought Hazel, "I'm determined to seethat Pipkin and Fiver aren't sat on and cuffed around until they're ready to runany risk just to get away. But is Bigwig going to see it like that?""You know Silver, don't you?" asked Bigwig, breaking in on his thoughts.
"Apparently some of the younger fellows in the Owsla have been giving him a thintime -- teasing him about his fur, you know, and saying he only got his placebecause of the Threarah. I thought I was going to get some more, but I supposenearly all the Owsla feel they're very well off as they are."He looked about him. "I say, there aren't many here, are there? Do you thinkit's really worth going on with this idea?"Silver seemed about to speak when suddenly there was a pattering in theundergrowth above and three more rabbits came over the bank from the wood.
Their movement was direct and purposeful, quite unlike the earlier, haphazardapproach of those who were now gathered in the ditch. The largest of the threenewcomers was in front and the other two followed him, as though under orders.
Hazel, sensing at once that they had nothing in common with himself and hiscompanions, started and sat up tensely. Fiver muttered in his ear, "Oh, Hazel,they've come to--" but broke off short. Bigwig turned toward them and stared, hisnose working rapidly. The three came straight up to him.
"Thlayli?" said the leader.
"You know me perfectly well," replied Bigwig, "and I know you, Holly. What doyou want?""You're under arrest.""Under arrest? What do you mean? What for?""Spreading dissension and inciting to mutiny. Silver, you're under arrest too,for failing to report to Toadflax this evening and causing your duty to devolve ona comrade. You're both to come with me."Immediately Bigwig fell upon him, scratching and kicking. Holly fought back.
His followers closed in, looking for an opening to join the fight and pin Bigwigdown. Suddenly, from the top of the bank, Buckthorn flung himself headlong intothe scuffle, knocked one of the guards flying with a kick from his back legs andthen closed with the other. He was followed a moment later by Dandelion, wholanded full on the rabbit whom Buckthorn had kicked. Both guards broke clear,looked round for a moment and then leaped up the bank into the wood. Hollystruggled free of Bigwig and crouched on his haunches, scuffling his front pawsand growling, as rabbits will when angry. He was about to speak when Hazelfaced him.
"Go," said Hazel, firmly and quietly, "or we'll kill you.""Do you know what this means?" replied Holly. "I am Captain of Owsla. Youknow that, don't you?""Go," repeated Hazel, "or you will be killed.""It is you who will be killed," replied Holly. Without another word he, too,went back up the bank and vanished into the wood.
Dandelion was bleeding from the shoulder. He licked the wound for a fewmoments and then turned to Hazel.
"They won't be long coming back, you know, Hazel," he said. "They've gone toturn out the Owsla, and then we'll be for it right enough.""We ought to go at once," said Fiver.
"Yes, the time's come now, all right," replied Hazel. "Come on, down to thestream. Then we'll follow the bank -- that'll help us to keep together.""If you'll take my advice--" began Bigwig.
"If we stay here any longer I shan't be able to," answered Hazel.
With Fiver beside him, he led the way out of the ditch and down the slope. Inless than a minute the little band of rabbits had disappeared into the dim,moonlit night.