The mysterious voice introduces itself as “the Warden of the Marches of Underland” (101), and a sudden light reveals hundreds of armed Earthmen standing around Puddleglum and the children. The Earthmen are gnomes who all look different but share the same sad expression. The Warden orders the protagonists to be led to the Queen of the Deep Realm, and they start marching through caves and tunnels. They pass a moss-covered cave full of sleeping animals, then another in which an enormous giant, Father Time, is also asleep. In the last cave, they find a dark lake, which they cross on a ship. Eventually, deep under the surface, they come across a city full of Earthmen. They are led to a human whom they recognize as the knight in black. The knight greets them warmly, but when Eustace and Jill accuse his Lady of sending them to be eaten by the giants, the knight becomes defensive. Jill and Eustace also learn that the words they found carved in the giants’ ruined city were merely part of a longer verse:

Though under Earth and throneless now I be,

Yet, while I lived, all Earth was under me (110).