AR
--Saint Willibald!

OTHER ANIMALS
[looking out]
( Saint Willibald!
( Saint! Oh!

CROWD
Saint Willibald!--And what had he to do
With ridding us o' rats?

HANS the Butcher
'T was the Piping Man
Who came and stood here in the market-place,
And swore to do it for one thousand guilders!

PETER the Cobbler
Ay, and he did it, too!--Saint Willibald!

[Renewed uproar round the tent.]

KURT
[to Jacobus]
Drive out those mountebanks! 'T is ever so.
Admit them to the town and you must pay
Their single show with riotings a week.--
Look yonder at your daughter.

[BARBARA lingers by the Ark-Tent, gazing with girlish
interest at MICHAEL, who gazes at her, his bear-head
in his band for the moment.]

JACOBUS
Barbara!

[She turns back, with an angry glance at KURT.]

AXEL the Smith
[doggedly to them]
By your leave. Masters! I would like to know,
How did Saint Willibald prevail with the rats?--
That would I like to know. I, who ha' made
Of strong wrought traps, two hundred, thirty-nine,
Two hundred, thirty-nine.

REYNARD
[calling]
And so would I!

HANS the Butcher
So please your worships, may it please the Crier,
Now we be here,--to cry the Piping Man--

PETER the Cobbler
A stranger-man, gay-clad,--in divers colors!
Because he, with said piping--

HANS the Butcher
--Drave away
The horde of rats!

PETER the Cobbler
[sagely]
To our great benefit;
And we be all just men.

OTHERS
Ay, ay!--Amen!

WOMEN
Amen, Our Lady and the blessed Saints!

JACOBUS
Why, faith, good souls, if ye will have him cried,
So be it.--But the ways of Heaven are strange!
Mark how our angel of deliverance came,--
Or it may be. Saint Willibald himself,--
Most piedly clothed, even as the vilest player!--
And straight ascended from us, to the clouds!
But cry him, if you will.--Peace to your lungs!--
He will not come.

[KURT wrathfully consults with JACOBUS, then signals to Crier.

CRIER
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!
Whereas, now three days gone, our Plague of Rats
Was wholly driven hence, our City cleansed,
Our peace restored after sore threat of famine,
By a Strange Man who came not back again,
Now, therefore, if this Man have ears to hear,
Let him stand forth.--Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

[Trumpet.--PEOPLE gaze up and down the little streets.--REYNARD
steps out of the Ark and comes down slowly, with a modest
air.--KURT points him out, threateningly, and the CROWD bursts
into derisive laughter.--He doffs his