Shasta is mistaken for Corin in Tashbaan

Shasta is mistaken for Corin in Tashbaan when a crowd crushes him into the path of a Narnian royal party. The error turns his attempt to evade notice into an involuntary role as a prince: the Narnians seize him, believing they have found their missing young companion, while the real Corin remains elsewhere in the city. Their striking resemblance makes the confusion possible, and their eventual meeting turns it into a means of escape.

The Crowd and the Royal Procession

The encounter grows out of Tashbaan’s rigid traffic custom. Shasta and Bree make slow progress through the packed streets, repeatedly halted as crowds are forced against walls to clear a path for people of higher rank. In a splendid street near the top of the city, a crier announces the White Barbarian King, the Tisroc’s guest, and the Narnian lords. The crowd presses Shasta forward; when he loses his hold on Bree, he finds himself trapped at the front of the procession.

The Narnians stand apart from the Calormene pageantry Shasta has seen. They walk rather than ride on a litter, wear bright tunics and steel or silver caps instead of turbans, and carry long, straight swords rather than curved scimitars. Their easy movement, laughter, and conversation make an immediate impression on Shasta. The contrast also gives the mistaken recognition its force: he sees the procession as a glimpse of another world just before its leader identifies him as a runaway.

Shasta Is Claimed as Corin

The leader points at Shasta, calls him their runaway, and takes him by the shoulder. His sharp smack is a reprimand rather than a beating, and he scolds the supposed prince for keeping Queen Susan anxious through a night’s absence. Shasta cannot safely explain that he is Arsheesh’s fisherman’s son, not the person they think he is. Any account of his identity would invite questions about Bree and Aravis, and could expose the escape he is trying to protect.

The Narnian king orders Peridan to take one of the boy’s hands while he takes the other, then marches Shasta toward the Narnians’ lodging. By the way the others address their leader, Shasta realizes that he is a king. The king continues to question him about where he has been, how he got out, and what happened to his clothes, treating his silence as a prince’s failure to answer for his mischief. Shasta says nothing because he cannot see how to speak without endangering himself.

At this point the mistaken identity has overturned the escape party’s plans. Shasta is carried off among strangers without even being able to say goodbye to the others, and he does not know what will happen next. The narrative later shows the cost of his self-absorption during the interruption: after enjoying dinner and hearing Tumnus’s stories, he hopes the real Corin will not appear until he has been taken to Narnia by ship. He gives little thought to what might happen to Corin, though he does worry about Bree and Aravis waiting at the Tombs. The comfortable prospect of a sea journey competes with the harder overland escape he had been making.

The Real Prince Returns

Several hours later, a crash wakes Shasta. A costly porcelain vase has fallen from the windowsill and broken into about thirty pieces; outside, hands grip the sill, and a boy climbs into the room. The newcomer is Corin, bruised, missing a tooth, and dressed in torn, dirty clothes, with blood and mud on his face. Shasta has never seen his own face in a mirror, but the boys’ close resemblance is plain enough to make sense of the mistake.

Shasta tells Corin that King Edmund caught him in the street and took him for the prince. He explains that he has been pretending to be Corin and insists they must change places before Tumnus returns. His urgency comes not simply from the risk of being discovered: Corin is due to leave secretly that night, so the two boys’ positions cannot remain confused. Their meeting supplies the missing fact that the street encounter concealed—the supposed runaway was an escaped stranger, while the real prince had been absent and trying to find his way back.

Corin recounts how he got away. After fighting a boy who had made a joke about Queen Susan, then the boy’s older brother, he fought the Watch, who knocked him down and took him away. He persuaded the guards to stop at a wine shop and drink; once they had fallen asleep, he slipped out. He later knocked down the first boy again, climbed a drainpipe onto a roof, lay low until morning, and spent the day making his way back. The tale explains both his battered appearance and why the Narnians had mistaken Shasta for him.

A Way Out and an Unexpected Friendship

Corin gives Shasta a practical escape route through the window: drop lightly onto the verandah roof, go left to the wall, climb to its corner, and descend onto a rubbish heap outside. The directions transform the resemblance from a danger into an opportunity. Shasta can leave without giving an account that might expose his origins, his companions, or their crossing of the desert.

As Shasta sits on the sill, the two boys look into one another’s faces and suddenly find themselves friends. Corin says goodbye and wishes him safe passage. The episode thus ends not with the mistaken identity being prolonged but with the boys openly exchanging places and parting on friendly terms. For Shasta, the chance meeting restores a route out of the Narnian lodging and back to his escape, while the discovery of Corin resolves the uncertainty at the heart of the confusion.