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 the boat she never could tell; but when she did, she fainted away.  Coming to herself, she seized the oars, kept herself steady as best she could, and rowed and rowed, though she had never rowed before.  Round rocks, and over shallows, and through mud she rowed, till she got to the landing-stairs of the palace.  By this time her people were on the shore, for they had heard her shriek.  She made them carry the prince to her own room, and lay him in her bed, and light a fire, and send for the doctors.

“But the lake, your highness!” said the chamberlain, who, roused by the noise, came in, in his nightcap.

“Go and drown yourself in it!” she said.

This was the last rudeness of which the princess was ever guilty; and one must allow that she had good cause to feel provoked with the lord chamberlain.

Had it been the king himself, he would have fared no better.  But both he and the queen were fast asleep.  And the chamberlain went back to his bed.  Somehow, the doctors never came.  So the princess and her old nurse were left with the prince.  But the old nurse was a wise woman, and knew what to do.

They tried everything for a long time without success.  The princess was nearly distracted between hope and fear, but she tried on and on, one thing after another, and everything over and over again.

At last, when they had all but given it up, just as the sun rose, the prince opened his eyes.

XV

Look at the Rain!

The princess burst into a passion of tears and fell on the floor.  There she lay for an hour, and her tears never ceased.  All the pent-up crying of her life was spent now.  And a rain came on, such as had never been seen in that country.  The sun shone all the time, and the great drops, which fell straight to the earth, shone likewise.  The palace was in the heart of a rainbow.  It was a rain of rubies, and sapphires, and emeralds, and topazes.  The torrents poured from the mountains like molten gold; and if it had not been for its subterraneous outlet, the lake would have overflowed and inundated the country.  It was full from shore to shore.

But the princess did not heed the lake.  She lay on the floor and wept.  And this rain within doors was far more wonderful than the rain out of doors.  For when it abated a little, and she proceeded to rise, she found, to her astonishment, that she could not.  At length, after many efforts, she succeeded in getting upon her feet.  But she tumbled down again directly.  Hearing her fall, her old nurse uttered a yell of delight, and ran to her, screaming: 

“My darling child! she’s found her gravity!”

“Oh, that’s it! is it?” said the princess, rubbing her shoulder and her knee alternately.  “I consider it very unpleasant.  I feel as if I should be crushed to pieces.”