"Will you kiss me, princess?" said he, feebly.

The nonchalance was all gone now.

"Yes, I will," answered the princess, and kissed him with a long,
sweet, cold kiss.

"Now," said he, with a sigh of content, "I die happy."

He did not speak again. The princess gave him some wine for the
last time: he was past eating. Then she sat down again, and looked
at him. The water rose and rose. It touched his chin. It touched
his lower lip. It touched between his lips. He shut them hard to
keep it out. The princess began to feel strange. It touched his
upper lip. He breathed through his nostrils. The princess looked
wild. It covered his nostrils. Her eyes looked scared, and shone
strange in the moonlight. His head fell back; the water closed over
it, and the bubbles of his last breath bubbled up through the
water. The princess gave a shriek, and sprang into the lake.

She laid hold first of one leg, and then of the other, and pulled
and tugged, but she could not move either. She stopped to take
breath, and that made her think that HE could not get any breath.
She was frantic. She got hold of him, and held his head above the
water, which was possible now his hands were no longer on the hole.
But it was of no use, for he was past breathing.

Love and water brought back all her strength. She got under the
water, and pulled and pulled with her whole might, till at last she
got one leg out. The other easily followed. How she got him into