I have given away my voice forever, to be withhim."
  The slaves next performed some pretty fairy-like dances, to thesound of beautiful music. Then the little mermaid raised her lovelywhite arms, stood on the tips of her toes, and glided over thefloor, and danced as no one yet had been able to dance. At each momenther beauty became more revealed, and her expressive eyes appealed moredirectly to the heart than the songs of the slaves. Every one wasenchanted, especially the prince, who called her his little foundling;and she danced again quite readily, to please him, though each timeher foot touched the floor it seemed as if she trod on sharp knives."
  The prince said she should remain with him always, and shereceived permission to sleep at his door, on a velvet cushion. Hehad a page's dress made for her, that she might accompany him onhorseback. They rode together through the sweet-scented woods, wherethe green boughs touched their shoulders, and the little birds sangamong the fresh leaves. She climbed with the prince to the tops ofhigh mountains; and although her tender feet bled so that even hersteps were marked, she only laughed, and followed him till theycould see the clouds beneath them looking like a flock of birdstravelling to distant lands. While at the prince's palace, and whenall the household were asleep, she would go and sit on the broadmarble steps; for it eased her burning feet to bathe them in thecold sea-water; and then she thought of all those below in the deep.
  Once during the night her sisters came up arm-in-arm, singingsorrowfully, as they floated on the water. She beckoned to them, andthen they recognized her, and told her how she had grieved them. Afterthat, they came to the same place every night; and once she saw in thedistance her old grandmother, who had not been to the surface of thesea for many years, and the old Sea King, her father, with his crownon his head. They stretched out their hands towards her, but theydid not venture so near the land as her sisters did.
  As the days passed, she loved the prince more fondly, and he lovedher as he would love a little child, but it never came into his headto make her his wife; yet, unless he married her, she could notreceive an immortal soul; and, on the morning after his marriagewith another, she would dissolve into the foam of the sea.
  "Do you not love me the best of them all?" the eyes of thelittle mermaid seemed to say, when he took her in his arms, and kissedher fair forehead.
  "Yes, you are dear to me," said the prince; "for you have the bestheart, and you are the most devoted to me; you are like a young maidenwhom I once saw, but whom I shall never meet again. I was in a shipthat was wrecked, and the waves cast me ashore near a holy temple,where several young maidens performed the service. The youngest ofthem found me on the shore, and saved my life. I saw her but twice,and she is the only one in the world whom I could love; but you arelike her, and you have almost driven her image out of my mind. Shebelongs to the holy temple, and my good fortune has sent you to meinstead of her; and we will never part."
  "Ah, he knows not that it was I who saved his life," thought thelittle mermaid. "I carried him over the sea to the wood where thetemple stands: I sat beneath the foam, and watched till the humanbeings came to help him. I saw the pretty maiden that he lovesbetter than he loves me;" and the mermaid sighed deeply, but she couldnot shed tears. "He says the maiden belongs to the holy temple,therefore she will never return to the world. They will meet nomore: while I am by his side, and see him every day. I will takecare of him, and love him, and give up my life for his sake."
  Very soon it was said that the prince must marry, and that thebeautiful daughter of a neighboring king would be his wife, for a fineship was being fitted out. Although the prince gave out that he merelyintended to pay a visit to the king, it was generally supposed that hereally went to see his daughter. A great company were to go withhim. The little mermaid smiled, and shook her head. She knew theprince's thoughts better than any of the others.
  "I must travel," he had said to her; "I must see this beautifulprincess; my parents desire it; but they will not oblige me to bringher home as my bride. I cannot love her; she is not like the beautifulmaiden in the temple, whom you resemble. If I were forced to choosea bride, I would rather choose you, my dumb foundling, with thoseexpressive eyes." And then he kissed her rosy mouth, played with herlong waving hair, and laid his head on her heart, while she dreamed ofhuman happiness and an immortal soul. "You are not afraid of thesea, my dumb child," said he, as they stood on the deck of the nobleship which was to carry them to the country of the neighboring king.And then he told her of storm and of calm, of strange fishes in thedeep beneath them, and of what the divers had seen there; and shesmiled at his descriptions, for she knew better than any one whatwonders were at the bottom of the sea.
  In the moonlight, when all on board were asleep, excepting the manat the helm, who was steering, she sat on the deck, gazing downthrough the clear water. She thought she could distinguish herfather's castle, and upon it her aged grandmother, with the silvercrown on her head, looking through the rushing tide at the keel of thevessel. Then her sisters came up on the waves, and gazed at hermournfully, wringing their white hands. She beckoned to them, andsmiled, and wanted to tell them how happy and well off she was; butthe cabin-boy approached, and when her sisters dived down he thoughtit was only the foam of the sea which he saw.
  The next morning the ship sailed into the harbor of a beautifultown belonging to the king whom the prince was going to visit. Thechurch bells were ringing, and from the high towers sounded a flourishof trumpets; and soldiers, with flying colors and glittering bayonets,lined the rocks through which they passed. Every day was a festival;balls and entertainments followed one another.
  But the princess had not yet appeared. People said that she wasbeing brought up and educated in a religious house, where she waslearning every royal virtue. At last she came. Then the littlemermaid, who was very anxious to see whether she was really beautiful,was obliged to acknowledge that she had never seen a more perfectvision of beauty. Her skin was delicately fair, and beneath her longdark eye-lashes her laughing blue eyes shone with truth and purity.
  "It was you," said the prince, "who saved my life when I laydead on the beach," and he folded his blushing bride in his arms. "Oh,I am too happy," said he to the little mermaid; "my fondest hopesare all fulfilled. You will rejoice at my happiness; for your devotionto me is great and sincere."
  The little mermaid kissed his hand, and felt as if her heartwere already broken. His wedding morning would bring death to her, andshe would change into the foam of the sea. All the church bellsrung, and the heralds rode about the town proclaiming the betrothal.Perfumed oil was burning in costly silver lamps on every altar. Thepriests waved the censers, while the bride and bridegroom joined theirhands and received the blessing of the bishop. The little mermaid,dressed in silk and gold, held up the bride's train; but her earsheard nothing of the festive music, and her eyes saw not the holyceremony; she thought of the night of death which was coming to her,and of all she had lost in the world. On the same evening the brideand bridegroom went on board ship; cannons were roaring, flags waving,and in the centre of the ship a costly tent of purple and gold hadbeen erected. It contained elegant couches, for the reception of thebridal pair during the night. The ship, with swelling sails and afavorable wind, glided away smoothly and lightly over the calm sea.When it grew dark a number of colored lamps were lit, and thesailors danced merrily on the deck. The little mermaid could nothelp thinking of her first rising out of the sea, when she had seensimilar festivities and joys; and she joined in the dance, poisedherself in the air as a swallow when he pursues his prey, and allpresent cheered her with wonder. She had never danced so elegantlybefore. Her tender feet felt as if cut with sharp knives, but shecared not for it; a sharper pang had pierced through her heart. Sheknew this was the last evening she should ever see the prince, forwhom she had forsaken her kindred and her home; she had given up herbeautiful voice, and suffered unheard-of pain daily for him, whilehe knew nothing of it. This was the last evening that she wouldbreathe the same air with him, or gaze on the starry sky and thedeep sea; an eternal night, without a thought or a dream, awaited her:she had no soul and now she could never win one. All was joy andgayety on board ship till long after midnight; she laughed anddanced with the rest, while the thoughts of death were in her heart.The prince kissed his beautiful bride, while she played with his ravenhair, till they went arm-in-arm to rest in the splendid tent. Then allbecame still on board the ship; the helmsman, alone awake, stood atthe helm. The little mermaid leaned her white arms on the edge ofthe vessel, and looked towards the east for the first blush ofmorning, for that first ray of dawn that would bring her death. Shesaw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself;but their long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind, and hadbeen cut off.
  "We have given our hair to the witch," said they, "to obtainhelp for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife:here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plungeit into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon yourfeet they will grow together again, and form into a fish's tail, andyou will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out yourthree hundred years before you die and change into the salt seafoam. Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise. Our oldgrandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling offfrom sorrow, as ours fell under the witch's scissors. Kill theprince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaksin the sky?