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."