PART II

"Oh!" said he at last, putting up his sword with difficulty, it was so long; "I am obliged to you, you young fool! Take a glass of wine?"

"No, thank you," replied the prince.

"Very well," said the king. "Would you like to run and see your parents before you make your experiment?"

"No, thank you," said the prince.

"Then we will go and look for the hole at once," said his Majesty, and proceeded to call some attendants.

"Stop, please your Majesty; I have a condition to make," interposed the prince.

"What!" exclaimed the king, "a condition! and with me! How dare you?"

"As you please," returned the prince, coolly. "I wish your Majesty a good morning."

"You wretch! I will have you put in a sack, and stuck in the hole."

"Very well, your Majesty," replied the prince, becoming a little more respectful, lest the wrath of the king should deprive him of the pleasure of dying for the princess. "But what good will that do your Majesty? Please to remember that the oracle says the victim must offer himself."

"Well, you have offered yourself," retorted the king.

"Yes, upon one condition."

"Condition again!" roared the king, once more drawing his sword. "Begone! Somebody else will be glad enough to take the honour off your shoulders."

"Your Majesty knows it will not be easy to get another to take my place."

"Well, what is your condition?" growled the king, feeling that the prince was right.

"Only this," replied the prince: "that, as I must on no account die before I am fairly drowned, and the waiting will be rather wearisome, the princess, your daughter, shall go with me, feed me with her own hands, and look at me now and then to comfort me; for you must confess it IS rather hard. As soon as the water is up to my eyes, she may go and be happy, and forget her poor shoeblack."

Here the prince's voice faltered, and he very nearly grew sentimental, in spite of his resolution.

"Why didn't you tell me before what your condition was? Such a fuss about nothing!" exclaimed the king.

"Do you grant it?" persisted the prince.

"Of course I do," replied the king.

"Very well. I am ready."

"Go and have some dinner, then, while I set my people to find the place."

The king ordered out his guards, and gave directions to the officers to find the hole in the lake at once. So the bed of the lake was marked out in divisions and thoroughly examined, and in an hour or so the hole was discovered. It was in the middle of a stone, near the centre of the lake, in the very pool where the golden plate had been found. It was a three-cornered hole of no great size. There was water all round the stone, but very little was flowing through the hole.

第2节

“哦！”国王终于说话了，他不太利索地把宝剑插回剑鞘，因为那是一把很长的宝剑，“我很感谢你，你这个年纪轻轻的傻瓜！要来杯葡萄酒吗？”

“不，谢谢。”王子答道。

“很好！”国王说道，“你要在这之前先回去一趟，看看你的父母吗？”

“不，谢谢。”王子说道。

“那么我们立刻就去找到那个洞眼。”国王陛下说着，就要召来随从。

“别急，尊敬的陛下，我有一个条件。”

“什么！”国王大声说道，“一个条件！和我谈条件！你怎么敢这样说话？”

“随便您，”王子说完，很沉着地转身走了，“祝您有一个愉快的早晨。”

“你这个无耻的人！我要把你塞进麻袋，然后用你堵住那个洞。”

“很好，国王陛下。”王子答道，语气稍微恭敬了一些，以免过于激怒国王，反而让自己失去了为公主去死的荣幸，“不过那对您有什么好处呢？请别忘记那段预言中可是说了，必须要牺牲者自愿献出他自己。”

“好啊，你就把自己献上吧。”国王回答道。

“是的，不过有个条件。”

“还要谈条件！”国王勃然大怒，又一次拔出他的宝剑，“滚！自然有别人乐意顶替你获得这份荣耀。”

“国王陛下，您知道要再找到一个人来取代我并不是一件容易的事。”

“好吧，说说你的条件。”国王吼道，因为他觉得王子的话也有道理。

“是这样的，”王子答道，“到时候，在我完全沉入水中之前，我是绝对不能先死的，这份等待将是相当乏味的，公主，您的女儿，这时候要陪着我，亲手喂东西给我吃，不时地看着我，好给我一点安慰。因为您必须承认那份等待是相当艰辛的。等到湖水漫过我的双眼，公主就可以离开我，过幸福的生活了，再也不用去想她可怜的擦鞋匠了。”

王子的声音有些颤抖，尽管他已经下定决心，但心中还是饱含伤感。

“你怎么不早告诉我，就是这么一个条件？这简直不值一提。”国王大声说道。

“您这是同意了？”王子将信将疑地说道。

“我当然同意了。”国王答道。

“很好。随时为您效劳。”

“走，先去吃饭，然后我就派人去找到那个地方。”

国王立刻下令派地方官员去湖里找那个洞。于是整个湖床被划成几个区域，彻彻底底地被搜查了一遍，花了约莫一个钟头就找到了那个洞眼。这个洞在一块石头中央，在湖中心附近，就在找到金盘子的那个水洼里。这是一个三角形的不太大的洞眼。石头四周都是水，但是从洞眼里流出来的水却非常少。

第13章02 Here I Am / 我来了