"Stretch out your little tongue, I will cut it off as payment, and you shall have your powerful...

drink! ‘So be it!’ the little mermaid said, and the witch fetched her cauldron to boil the magic potion.
She could see her father’s palace; the lamps had been put out in the large dance hall; they were surely all asleep inside, but she did not dare to try and find them, now that she could not speak and would be leaving them for ever. It felt as if her heart would break from sorrow. She stole into the garden, took one flower from each of her sisters’ flower beds, sent thousands of finger-kisses towards the palace and rose up through the dark-blue waters.
The sun had not yet appeared when she saw the prince’s palace and went up the magnificent marble staircase. The moon shone wonderfully clearly. The little mermaid downed the fiery, sharp drink and it was as though a two-edged sword went right through her fine body, she fainted and lay as if dead.
When the sun was shining over the sea, she woke up and felt a searing pain, but right in front of her the handsome young prince was standing.