be drowned by inches, though. Let me see--that will be seventy
inches of me to drown." (Here he tried to laugh, but could not.)
"The longer the better, however," he resumed: "for can I not
bargain that the princess shall be beside me all the time? So I
shall see her once more, kiss her perhaps,--who knows?--and die
looking in her eyes. It will be no death. At least, I shall not
feel it. And to see the lake filling for the beauty again!--All
right! I am ready."

He kissed the princess's boot, laid it down, and hurried to the
king's apartment. But feeling, as he went, that anything
sentimental would be disagreeable, he resolved to carry off the
whole affair with nonchalance. So he knocked at the door of the
king's counting-house, where it was all but a capital crime to
disturb him.

When the king heard the knock he started up, and opened the door in
a rage. Seeing only the shoeblack, he drew his sword. This, I am
sorry to say, was his usual mode of asserting his regality when he
thought his dignity was in danger. But the prince was not in the
least alarmed.

"Please your Majesty, I'm your butler," said he.

"My butler! you lying rascal! What do you mean?"

"I mean, I will cork your big bottle."

"Is the fellow mad?" bawled the king, raising the point of his
sword.