No! he must not die; so she swam towards him all among the drifting beams and planks, quite forgetting that they might crush her.  She dived deep down under the water, and came up again through the waves, and at last reached the young prince just as he was becoming unable to swim any further in the stormy sea.  His limbs were numbed, his beautiful eyes were closing, and he must have died if the little mermaid had not come to the rescue.  She held his head above the water and let the waves drive them whithersoever they would.

By daybreak all the storm was over, of the ship not a trace was to be seen; the sun rose from the water in radiant brilliance, and his rosy beams seemed to cast a glow of life into the prince’s cheeks, but his eyes remained closed.  The mermaid kissed his fair and lofty brow, and stroked back the dripping hair; it seemed to her that he was like the marble statue in her little garden; she kissed him again and longed that he might live.

At last she saw dry land before her, high blue mountains on whose summits the white snow glistened as if a flock of swans had settled there; down by the shore were beautiful green woods, and in the foreground a church or temple, she did not quite know which, but it was a building of some sort.  Lemon and orange trees grew in the garden, and lofty palms stood by the gate.  At this point the sea formed a little bay where the water was quite calm, but very deep, right up to the cliffs; at their foot was a strip of fine white sand to which she swam with the beautiful prince, and laid him down on it, taking great care that his head should rest high up in the warm sunshine.

The bells now began to ring in the great white building, and a number of young maidens came into the garden.  Then the little mermaid swam further off behind some high rocks and covered her hair and breast with foam, so that no one should see her little face, and then she watched to see who would discover the poor prince.

[Illustration:  His limbs were numbed, his beautiful eyes were closing, and he must have died if the little mermaid had not come to the rescue.]

It was not long before one of the maidens came up to him.  At first she seemed quite frightened, but only for a moment, and then she fetched several others, and the mermaid saw that the prince was coming to life, and that he smiled at all those around him, but he never smiled at her.  You see he did not know that she had saved him.  She felt so sad that when he was led away into the great building she dived sorrowfully into the water and made her way home to her father’s palace.

Always silent and thoughtful, she became more so now than ever.  Her sisters often asked her what she had seen on her first visit to the surface, but she never would tell them anything.