12. Where Is the Prince?
Never since the night when the princess left him so abruptly had
the prince had a single interview with her. He had seen her once or
twice in the lake; but as far as he could discover, she had not
been in it any more at night. He had sat and sung, and looked in
vain for his Nereid; while she, like a true Nereid, was wasting
away with her lake, sinking as it sank, withering as it dried. When
at length he discovered the change that was taking place in the
level of the water, he was in great alarm and perplexity. He could
not tell whether the lake was dying because the lady had forsaken
it; or whether the lady would not come because the lake had begun
to sink. But he resolved to know so much at least.
He disguised himself, and, going to the palace, requested to see
the lord chamberlain. His appearance at once gained his request;
and the lord chamberlain, being a man of some insight, perceived
that there was more in the prince's solicitation than met the ear.
He felt likewise that no one could tell whence a solution of the
present difficulties might arise. So he granted the prince's prayer
to be made shoeblack to the princess. It was rather cunning in the
prince to request such an easy post, for the princess could not
possibly soil as many shoes as other princesses.
He soon learned all that could be told about the princess. He went
nearly distracted; but after roaming about the lake for days, and
diving in every depth that remained, all that he could do was to
put an extra polish on the dainty pair of boots that was never
called for.
For the princess kept her room, with the curtains drawn to shut out
the dying lake, But she could not shut it out of her mind for a
moment. It haunted her imagination so that she felt as if the lake
were her soul, drying up within her, first to mud, then to madness
and death. She thus brooded over the change, with all its dreadful
accompaniments, till she was nearly distracted. As for the prince,
she had forgotten him. However much she had enjoyed his company in
the water, she did not care for him without it. But she seemed to
have forgotten her father and mother too. The lake went on sinking.
Small slimy spots began to appear, which glittered steadily amidst
the changeful shine of the water. These grew to broad patches of
mud, which widened and spread, with rocks here and there, and
floundering fishes and crawling eels swarming. The people went
everywhere catching these, and looking for anything that might have
dropped from the royal boats.
At length the lake was all but gone, only a few of the deepest
pools remaining unexhausted.
It happened one day that a party of youngsters found themselves on
the brink of one of these pools in the very centre of the lake. it
was a rocky basin of considerable depth. Looking in, they saw at
the bottom something that shone yellow in the sun. A little boy
jumped in and dived for it. It was a plate of gold covered with
writing. They carried it to the king. On one side of it stood these
words:--
"Death alone from death can save.
Love is death, and so is brave--
Love can fill the deepest grave.
Love loves on beneath the wave."
Now this was enigmatical enough to the king and courtiers. But the
reverse of the plate explained it a little. Its writing amounted to
this:--
"If the lake should disappear, they must find the hole through
which the water ran. But it would be useless to try to stop it by
any ordinary means. There was but one effectual mode.--The body of
a living man could alone stanch the flow. The man must give himself
of his own will; and the lake must take his life as it filled.
Otherwise the offering would be of no avail. If the nation could
not provide one hero, it was time it should perish."
