The rats are gone.
The man is gone. And there is nought to pay,
Save peaceful worship.
[Pointing to the Minster.]

REYNARD [sarcastically] Oh, indeed,—Meaow! [Sudden chorus of derisive animal noises from the Ark, delighting PEOPLE and CHILDREN.]

KURT
Silence,—you strollers there! Or I will have you
Gaoled, one and all.

PEOPLE
  No, Kurt the Syndic, no!

BARBARA
[to Jacobus]
No; no! Ah, father, bid them stay awhile
And play it all again.—Or, if not all,
Do let us see that same good youth again,
Who swallowed swords—between the Ark Preserved
And the Last Judgment!

REYNARD
  Michael-the-Sword-Eater,
Laurels for thee!

[The BEAR disappears: MICHAEL puts out his own head, and gazes fixedly at BARBARA.

CHILDREN
Oh, can't we see the animals in the Ark?
Again? Oh, can't we see it all again?

ILSE
Oh, leave out Noah! And let's have only Bears
And Dromedaries, and the other ones!—

[General confusion.]

KURT
Silence!

JACOBUS
  Good people—you have had your shows;
And it is meet, that having held due feast,
Both with our market and this Miracle,
We bring our holiday to close with prayer
And public thanks unto Saint Willibald,—
Upon whose day the rats departed thence.

REYNARD [loudly] Saint Willibald!

BEAR
  —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 animal-head at leisure, showing a sparkling dark-eyed face.

ALL
The Man! the Man!

KURT AND JACOBUS
  The Devil!—'T is—

ALL —THE PIPER!

[The PIPER regards them all with debonair satisfaction; then reverses his head-piece and holds it out upside-down, with a confident smile.

PIPER
Three days of rest, your worships, you have had.
I see no signs of famine hereabout.
The rats are gone, even to the nethermost tail:
And I've fulfilled my bargain. Is it granted?

[Murmurs, then cheers of "Ay, Ay, PIPER!" from the crowd.

Thank 'ee.—My thousand guilders, an you please.

JACOBUS
One thou—Come, come! This was no sober bargain.—
No man in reason could—

PIPER
  One thousand guilders.

KURT
One thousand rogueries!

JACOBUS [to PIPER] You jest too far.

AXEL
Lucky, if he get aught!—Two hundred traps,
And nine, and thirty! By Saint Willibald,
When was I paid?

AXEL'S WIFE
  Say, now!

PIPER
  . . . One thousand guilders.

PETER the Cobbler
Give him an hundred.

HANS the Butcher
  Double!

HANS' WIFE
  You were fools
To make agreement with him.—Ask old Claus.
He has the guilders; and his house was full
0' rats!

OLD CLAUS
[shaking his stick from the window]
  You Jade! And I that hoard, and save,
And lay by all I have from year to year,
To build my monument when I am gone,
A fine new tomb there, in Saint Boniface!
And I to pay for all your city rats!

OLD URSULA
[leaning out, opposite]
Right, neighbor, right well said!—Piper, hark here.
Piper, how did ye charm the rats away?

PIPER
[coming down]
The rats were led—by Cu-ri-os-ity.
'Tis so with many rats; and all old women;—
Saving your health!

JACOBUS
  No thought for public weal,
In this base grasping on—

PIPER
  One thousand guilders.

KURT [contemptuously] For piping!

PIPER
  Shall I pipe them back again?

WOMEN
                 ( Good Saint Boniface!
Merciful heaven! ( Good Saint Willibald!
                 ( Peter and Paul defend us!

HANS the Butcher
No, no; no fear o' that. The rats be drowned.
We saw them with our eyes.

PIPER
  Now who shall say
There is no resurrection for a mouse?

KURT
—Do you but crop this fellow's ears!—

VERONIKA [from the steps] Ah,