Certain of his fellow servants, however, had all the time a doubt whether the cellar goblin had not appeared to him, or at least roared at him, to protect the wine.

In any case nobody wanted to find the key for him; nothing could please them better than that the door of the wine cellar should never more be locked.

By degrees the hubbub died away, and they departed, not even pulling to the door, for there was neither handle nor latch to it.
As soon as they were gone, Curdie returned, knowing now that they were in the wine cellar of the palace, as indeed, he had suspected.

Finding a pool of wine in a hollow of the floor, Lina lapped it up eagerly: she had had no breakfast, and was now very thirsty as well as hungry.

Her master was in a similar plight, for he had but just begun to eat when the magistrate arrived with the soldiers.