This filled the jailer with great dismay, for he did not wish to lose his good situation. When he saw the Prince and his party approaching, the thought struck him that perhaps he might make prisoners of them, and so not be found idle when the Potentate returned. He came out to meet the hunters, and when they asked if they could here find refreshment, he gave them a most cordial welcome. His men took their horses, and, inviting them to enter, he showed each member of the party into a small bedroom, of which there seemed to be a great many. "Here are water and towels," he said to each one, "and when you have washed your face and hands, your refreshments will be ready." Then, going out, he locked the door on the outside. The party numbered seventeen: the Prince, three courtiers, five boys, five girls, the course-marker, the map-maker, and the Jolly-cum-pop. The heart of the jailer was joyful; seventeen inmates was something to be proud of. He ordered his myrmidons to give the prisoners a meal of bread and water through the holes in their cell-doors, and then he sat down to make out his report to the Potentate. "They must all be guilty of crimes," he said to himself, "which are punished by long imprisonment. I don't want any of them executed." So he numbered his prisoners from one to seventeen, according to the cell each happened to be in, and he wrote a crime opposite each number. The first was highway robbery, the next forgery, and after that followed treason, smuggling, barn-burning, bribery, poaching, usury, piracy, witchcraft, assault and battery, using false weights and measures, burglary, counterfeiting, robbing hen-roosts, conspiracy, and poisoning his grandmother by proxy. This report was scarcely finished when the Potentate returned. He was very much surprised to find that seventeen prisoners had come in since his previous visit, and he read the report with interest. "Here is one who ought to be executed," he said, referring to Number Seventeen. "And how did he poison his grandmother by proxy? Did he get another woman to be poisoned in her stead? Or did he employ some one to act in his place as the poisoner?" "I have not yet been fully informed, my lord," said the jailer, fearful that he should lose a prisoner; "but this is his first offence, and his grandmother, who did not die, has testified to his general good character." "Very well," said the Potentate; "but if he ever does it again, let him be executed; and, by the way, I should like to see the prisoners." Thereupon the jailer conducted the Potentate along the corridors, and let him look through the holes in the doors at the prisoners within. "What is this little girl in for?" he asked. The jailer looked at the number over the door, and then at his report. "Piracy," he answered. "A strange offence for such a child," said the Potentate. "They often begin that sort of thing very early in life," said the jailer.