The chapter opens with a description of the scene in which the White Queen's hatter, a member of the high-topp clan, led the white queen and her family to safety in the woods. The white rabbit, the chessur cat, and the march hare were also present. The wood was dark and the jabber-wocky swooped down on them. The hatter escorted the queen to safety, while the white rabbit helped the rest of the party escape. As soon as the "villainous knave" of hearts descended upon them, he disappeared, leaving the hatter's "burnt crushed hat" in its place. The chapter ends with a soliloquy in which alice tells the reader that he has been told what to do and who he must be. Since the moment he fell down the rabbit hole, he says, he's been shrunk, stretched, scratched, and "stuffed into a teapot" . Now, he tells us, he is to rescue the "hatter" from the "white queen's" castle at Salazen-Grum.