"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."