PIPER No, never, never!--No, it shall not be!
Hist!--
[Steps heard scrambling down the entrance-way.
[Enter MICHAEL in mad haste. They rush upon him with exultation and relief. He shakes them off, doggedly.
PIPER So!--You had like to have hanged us.
MICHAEL --What of that?
PIPER All for a lily maiden.
MICHAEL Ah,--thy pipe!
How will it save her?--_Save her_! Tune thy pipe To compa.s.s that!--You do not know--
PIPER I know.
Tell me no more.--I say it shall not be!
To heel, lad! No, I follow,--none but I!
Go,--go! [MICHAEL rushes out again.
[To CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, pointing to the Children]
Do you bide here and shepherd these.
CHILDREN Where are you going?--Take us too!--us too!-- Oh, take us with you?--Take us!
PIPER [distracted]
No, no, no!
You shall be kittens all. And chase your tails, Till I come back!--So here!
[Catches HANSEL and affixes to his little jacket a long strip of leather for a tail; then whirls him about.
CHILDREN Me too!--Me too!
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL Let me make tails,--let me!
[Seizing shears and leather.]
PIPER [wildly]
Faith, and you shall.
A master tailor!--Come, here"s food for thought.
Think all,-- [To the Strollers]
And hold your tongues, there!-- If a Cat-- If a Cat have--as all men say--Nine Lives, And if Nine Tailors go to make a Man, How long, then, shall it take one Man turned Tailor To keep a Cat in Tails, until she die?
[CHEAT-THE-DEVIL looks subdued; the children whirl about.
But here"s no game for Jan.--Stay! Something else.-- [He runs to a wooden coffer, rear, and takes out a long crystal on the end of a string, with a glance at the shaft of sunlight from the roof.
The Children watch.
Be quiet, now.--Chase not your tails too far, Till I come home again.
CHILDREN Come home--come home!
PIPER And you shall see my--
CHILDREN Something Beautiful!
Oh, oh, what is it?--Oh, and will it play?
Will it play music?
PIPER Yes.
[He hangs the crystal in the sun. A Rainbow strikes the wall.
--The best of all!
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, JAN, CHILDREN Oh, oh, how beautiful,--how beautiful!
PIPER And hear it pipe and call, and dance, and sing.
Heja!--And hark you all. You have to mind-- The Rainbow!
[He climbs out, pipe in hand. The Children whirl about after their tails.--CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, and JAN on his tree-stump, open-mouthed with happiness, watch the Rainbow.
Curtain
SCENE II: The Cross-ways: on the Long Road to Rudersheim.
A wooded country: high hills at back. The place is wild and overgrown, like the haunted spot it is reputed to be. In the foreground, right, a ruined stone well appears, in a ma.s.s of weeds and vines. Opposite, left, tall trees and dense thickets. Where the roads cross (to left of centre), stands a large, neglected shrine, with a weather-worn figure of Christ,--again the "Lonely Man"--facing towards Hamelin.--The stage is empty, at rise of the curtain; but the sound of chanting from burghers just gone by fades slowly, on the road to Rudersheim.
From the hillside at the rear comes the PIPER, wrapped in a long green cloak, his pipe in his hand. He looks after the procession, and back to Hamelin.--Enter, springing from the bushes to the right, MICHAEL, who seizes him.
Their speech goes breathlessly.
MICHAEL
QUICK!--tell me--
PIPER Patience.
MICHAEL Patience?--Death and h.e.l.l!
Oh, save her--save her! Give the children back.
PIPER Never. Have you betrayed us?
MICHAEL I!--betrayed?
PIPER So, so, lad.
MICHAEL But to save her--
PIPER There"s a way,-- Trust me! I save her, or we swing together Merrily, in a row.--How did you see her?
MICHAEL By stealth: two days ago, at evening, Hard by the vine-hid wall of her own garden, I made a warbling like a nightingale; And she came out to hear.