<Dd> He beat him in again; </Dd> <Dd> He beat him three times over, </Dd> <Dd> His power to maintain . </Dd> <P> This rhyme was played upon by Lewis Carroll, who incorporated the lion and the unicorn as characters in Through the Looking - Glass . Here, the crown they are fighting for belongs to the White King which, given that they are on the White side as well, makes their rivalry all the more absurd . Carroll subverts the traditional view of a lion being alert and calculating by making this particular one slow and rather stupid, although clearly the better fighter . The role of the Unicorn is likewise reversed by the fact that he sees Alice as a "monster", though he promises to start believing in her if she will believe in him . Sir John Tenniel's illustrations for the section caricature Benjamin Disraeli as the Unicorn, and William Ewart Gladstone as the Lion, alluding to the pair's frequent parliamentary battles, although there is no evidence that this was Carroll's intention . </P>

The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown song