Then the Princess threw her arms round the neck of the gardener’s son and vowed that she loved him too, and that nothing would induce her to marry such a hateful person as the Prince. All the banquet broke up in confusion, and everyone rushed out of the hall except the cat, who waited to conceal a carving-knife upon his person with which he intended to murder the Prince. But the Prince, who was a coward, had gone off to his room and locked himself in when he saw the way in which some of the guests looked at him. Next day the gardener’s son was put in prison; the Princess cried and Sootface tore his hair, but he had to go. What was his astonishment, on arriving at the prison door, to find that a cherry-tree was growing beside it. He was taken up a winding stair and locked into a cell with a tiny window protected by iron bars. When he looked out he could see into the boughs of the tree, and, above them, a new moon beginning to shine in the sky as it drew towards evening. When it was night the cat, who had hidden the witch’s book of magic as soon as the gardener’s son had gone to prison, took it under his arm, climbed into the boughs of the cherry-tree, and began to try and console his friend, who was looking out of the barred window. He opened it, reciting his song: “Flames and salt And queens and kings, And monkeys’ tails And golden rings.” And, by the faint light of the new moon, he saw the letters jumping about till they made this verse: “When the moon is young and new, Take the cherry-stick with you; Toss it up into the sky, Where it falls there let it lie; Dig beneath it, you will see In the ground an iron key. Master-key of master-keys Every lock it turns with ease.” The cat ran as fast as he could to the house where the gardener’s son had lived and got the cherry-stick; he then took it to a quiet place and flung it up into the air. When it came down he began scraping and digging underneath it till he came upon a heavy key made of iron. As soon as the people in the palace were safely asleep he unlocked the stable door with the master-key, saddled three swift horses and tied them up in a thicket a little way off. Having done this and also ascertained that the jailers were sleeping, in the belief that it was impossible for their prisoner to escape, he climbed the cherry-tree again. He crept along a bough which almost touched the barred window and handed the key through the bars to the gardener’s son; then he got into the palace and, stealing into the Princess’s room, told her what he had done.