“Ah, he knows not that it was I who saved his life,” thought the little
mermaid. “I carried him over the sea to the wood where the temple stands: I
sat beneath the foam, and watched till the human beings came to help him. I
saw the pretty maiden that he loves better than he loves me;” and the
mermaid sighed deeply, but she could not shed tears. “He says the maiden
belongs to the holy temple, therefore she will never return to the world.
They will meet no more: while I am by his side, and see him every day. I
will take care 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 the beautiful
daughter of a neighboring king would be his wife, for a fine ship was being
fitted out. Although the prince gave out that he merely intended to pay a
visit to the king, it was generally supposed that he really went to see his
daughter. A great company were to go with him. The little mermaid smiled,
and shook her head. She knew the prince’s thoughts better than any of the
others.
“I must travel,” he had said to her; “I must see this beautiful princess; my
parents desire it; but they will not oblige me to bring her home as my bride.
I cannot love her; she is not like the beautiful maiden in the temple, whom
you resemble. If I were forced to choose a bride, I would rather choose you,
my dumb foundling, with those expressive eyes.” And then he kissed her
rosy mouth, played with her long waving hair, and laid his head on her
heart, while she dreamed of human happiness and an immortal soul. “You
are not afraid of the sea, my dumb child,” said he, as they stood on the deck
of the noble ship 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 the
deep beneath them, and of what the divers had seen there; and she smiled at
his descriptions, for she knew better than any one what wonders were at the
bottom of the sea.
In the moonlight, when all on board were asleep, excepting the man at the
helm, who was steering, she sat on the deck, gazing down through the clear
water. She thought she could distinguish her father’s castle, and upon it her
aged grandmother, with the silver crown on her head, looking through the
