"'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 resolutions.
"'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.
"'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 none was flowing through the hole."