ght, 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