Page:The Princess of Cozytown.pdf/64

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lawyer, a merchant, an artist, a very King—for he is the maker of them all!" "Nonsense!" blustered the King.

"Treason, murder and anarchy!" screamed the Court Accusationer pale with fury. "Reason, justice and honesty!" cried Jerry defiantly. And what with the Courtiers crying this and that and the populace below cheering and stamping there was almost a riot. So at a word from his Highness, Jerry and the three other tailors who had stood shivering by were seized by the guards and dragged away to prison. At first the crowds were for interfering, but a wink from Jerry settled that; so instead they fell in behind. A trumpeter and drummer, special friends of Jerry's, forthwith set up such a tooting and banging that 'twas more like a triumphal procession than a hanging (which the guards hinted darkly 'twould come to yet).

But as his Majesty remarked shrewdly to his advisors, "'twould be a waste to hang so great a rogue and so good a tailor." "A taste of prison will show him what's what," declared the King, taking a pinch of snuff. But in prison Jerry sang as gaily as a bird in a cage and was so agreeable that the turnkey and keeper of the jail could not bring themselves to be rough with him. He said the fare was excellent and the service quite satisfactory, and was so bubbling over with songs and jokes that the whole place took on a festive air. Even Crooks, Stitchem and Rowley bore up under their trials. The trumpeter and drummer marched every day to the prison and gave a concert beneath Jerry's window, and the good wives of his friends fairly showered him with delicacies, which, as he divided them with the jailors, they were in no hurry to mention to the officials.

And just about this time the Princess took to visiting a one-legged robber in the cell next to Jerry's. What delicate attentions she lavished upon the old rogue. Books and flowers and fruit appeared and the Princess read to him for hours at a time, paying of course no attention to "that wretched tailor" in the next cell. And about this time Jerry