said.

BARBARA
[proudly]
Michael.

JACOBUS
Who is he, pray?

BARBARA
My own true love.

PETER the Cobbler
Now, is that all his name?

BARBARA
It is enough.

JACOBUS
--She's mad. Shall these things be?

ALL
( The Children! The Children!
( Where are the Children?
( Piper! Pi-per! Piper!

PIPER
[sternly]
Quiet you. And hear me.
I came to bring good tidings. In good faith,
Of mine own will, I came.--And like a thief
You haled me hither.--
[They hang upon his words]
. . . Your children--live.

ALL
( Thank God! I knew, I knew!
( We could not think them lost.
( Bewitched! Oh, but they live!--
( Piper!--O Piper!

PETER the Cobbler
They're spell-bound,--mark me!

PIPER
Ay, they are,--spell-bound:
Fast bound by all the hardness of your hearts;
_Caged,--in the iron of your money-lust_--

ALL
( No, no, not all! Not I! Not mine, not mine!
( No, no,--it is not true.

PIPER
Your blasphemies,--your cunning and your Fear.

ALL
( No, no!--What can we do?
( News, Piper, news!
( Where are your ridings, Piper?

PIPER
Now hear me. You did make Jacobus swear
To give his child.--What recks it, how he lose her?--
Either to Holy Church--_against her will_!--
Or to this man,--so that he give her up!
He swore to you. And she hath pledged her faith.
She is fast wed.--Jacobus shall not have her.
He breaks all bargains; and for such as he,
You suffer.--Will you bear it?

ALL
No, no, no!

PIPER
Then she who was "Proud Barbara" doth wed
Michael-the-Sword-Eater.--The pledge shall stand.
Shall it?

ALL
( It stands.
( Ay, ay!

PIPER
Your word!

ALL
( We swear. We answer for him.
( So much for Jacobus!

AXEL the Smith
An' if yon fellow like an honest trade,
I'll take him!--I'll make swords!
[Cheers. Michael is happy.]

ALL
Quick, quick!--Our children.--Piper!--Tell us all!

PIPER
'T is well begun.--Now have I come to say:
There is one child I may bring back to you,--
The first.

ALL
[in an uproar]
( Mine--mine! Let it be mine!
( Ours'--All of them! Now!
( _Mine--mine--mine!--mine_!

PIPER
[unmoved]
--Oh, Hamelin to the end!
Which of you longed the most, and dared the most?
Which of you--

[He searches the crowd anxiously with his eyes.]

ALL
( I! I! I!
( We searched the hills!
( We prayed four days!
( We fasted twenty hours--
( Mine! Mine!
( Mine--mine--mine--mine