ectacle. When
the people of Hamel heard of the bargain, they too exclaimed: 'A gros a
head! but this will cost us a deal of money!'

'Leave it to the Town Counsellor,' said the town council with a
malicious air. And the good people of Hamel repeated with their
counsellors, 'Leave it to the Town Counsellor.'

Towards nine at night the bagpiper re-appeared on the market place. He
turned, as at first, his back to the church, and the moment the moon
rose on the horizon, 'Trarira, trari!' the bagpipes resounded.

It was first a slow, caressing sound, then more and more lively and
urgent, and so sonorous and piercing that it penetrated as far as the
farthest alleys and retreats of the town.

Soon from the bottom of the cellars, the top of the garrets, from under
all the furniture, from all the nooks and corners of the houses, out
come the rats, search for the door, fling themselves into the street,
and trip, trip, trip, begin to run in file towards the front of the town
hall, so squeezed together that they covered the pavement like the waves
of flooded torrent.

When the square was quite full the bagpiper faced about, and, still
playing briskly, turned towards the river that runs at the foot of the
walls of Hamel.

Arrived there he turned round; the rats were following.

'Hop! hop!' he cried, pointing with his finger to the middle of the
stream, where the water whirled and was drawn down as if through a
funnel. And hop! hop! without hesitating, the rats took the leap, swam
straight to the funnel, plunged in head foremost and disappeared.

The plunging continued thus without ceasing till midnight.

At last, dragging himself with difficulty, came a big rat, white with
age, and stopped on the bank.

It was the king of the band.

'Are they all there, friend Blanchet?' asked the bagpiper.

'They are all there,' replied friend Blanchet.

'And how many were they?'

'Nine hundred and ninety thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine.'

'Well reckoned?'

'Well reckoned.'

'Then go and join them, old sire, and au revoir.'

Then the old white rat sprang in his turn into the river, swam to the
whirlpool and disappeared.

When the bagpiper had thus concluded his business he went to bed at
his inn. And for the first time during three months the people of Hamel
slept quietly through the night.

The next morning, at nine o'clock, the bagpiper repaired to the town
hall, where the town council awaited him.

'All your ra