Redwall

Redwall is a novel by Brian Jacques about the titular Abbey, Redwall, and its inhabitants (mice, otters, shrews, hares and badgers) who, in the peaceful Summer of the Late Rose, suddenly get attacked by Cluny the Scourge and his evil band of rats, ferrets, stoats and weasels, with their goal to conquer.

Methuselah

• Hmmm, Lord Abbot Cedric? Oh goodness, you'll be the new Abbot, Saxtus, the one who came after Cedric. Goodness, I've seen so many of them come and go, you see.
• And you doubt the word of your Abbot that Cluny the Scourge exists? Very idiotic mice, you are, to be sure.
• ...Cluny and his rats returned by night, and gnawed the foundations of the mine. This caused the mine to collapse the next day, killing the owners... as Cluny and his army moved south, I gathered intelligence from other sources over the following years... a farmhouse set alight, later that same year, piglets... an entire litter of them eaten alive by the rats... sickness and disease spread through livestock herds by Cluny's army.
• (To Chickenhound, last words) So this is how you repay our kindness! You are far worse than your wicked mother!

Chickenhound

• Right, I've got the message, fat one! Make sure your Abbot brings loads of valuables with him! Goodbye, old grayback!
• I want to see your Abbot!
• Keep that badger away from me, or you'll learn nothing.
• Don't worry, I'll just pop you all into this sack. Don't worry, uncle Chickenhound will take care of you?
• Who do they think they are!?

Matthias

• I think we should mount a guard on the walls.
• If you are truly Cluny the Scourge, we know from your tail, it is a weapon.
• I don't know about that, Sam, your mum and dad might not like you going about armed to the teeth.
• I am that is.
• Don't speak to me about your nonsense, sector eight, paragraph four and all that nonsense.

Cluny the Scourge

• Stupid fools; it serves them right!
• I want meat! Young, tender, red meat!
• No guts, huh? Just as well. I don't want dead ones on my claws before we have a fight.
• See this traitor? Here is a soldier who thinks I don't lead my horde.
• You know what that means... extra loot... a bigger share of the plunder.
• Nobody outsmarts Cluny!

Dialogue

(The Redwallers have just seen Cluny and his rats)

• Redwaller 1: Did you see that?
• Redwaller 2: What in Heaven was it?
• Redwaller 1: What in Hell, more like!
• Redwaller 2: All those rats, and such big ones too!
• Redwaller 1: Aye, and the one in the back - he looked like the Devil himself!

---

• Abbot Mortimer: All work and no play makes Matthias a dull mouse. Cheer up, son.
• Matthias: What...? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I'm trying to solve a problem you see.
• Abbot Mortimer: Yes, Methuselah did tell me of some of the problems.

---

• Cluny: I mean a proper healer, someone who knows the old ways.
• Kilconey: Ar, you're in luck sir, for don't I know the very vixen!?
• Cluny: Foxes!?
• Kilconey: Yes, didn't my old mother used to say, There's nothing like a fox to fix?

---

• Abbot Mortimer: (to Cluny) What do you want, my son?
• Cluny: My son, hah! That's a good one! Well, I'll tell you what I want - I want the lot, everything! Do you hear me?

---

(before the invasion)

• Rat: Our cart has overturned; there's all my comrades trapped beneath it.
• Brother Rufus: (suspicious) ...How many of you were travelling in the cart?
• Rat: Oh, a couple of hundred.
• Brother Rufus: Then why, do you not help each other? Surely not all hundred of you are injured?
• Rat: Mmm, well, I'm badly injured. Can you not at least take me in and give me a bite to eat and see to the wound?
• Brother Rufus: Well, yes, OK, on the condition you surrender your weapon.

(The rat pretends to obey but then aggressively lunges at the mice and is sent sprawling by a kick)

• Rat: (gets to his feet) Ho, ho, just wait - you mice - there's a whole army of us camped down at the church - wait when I tell Cluny how you lot treated me - we'll be back, by the fang we will! (Leaves) Damn all mice!