PIPER
Truly.
MICHAEL
Bewitched?
PIPER
So are they.
MICHAEL
Sold to the Devil?
PIPER
[Facing softly up and down, with the restless cunning
of a squirrel at watch]
Pfui! But who else? Of course. This same old Devil!
This kind old Devil takes on him all we do!
Who else is such a refuge in this world?
Who could have burned the abbey in this place,
Where holy men did live? Why, 't was the Devil!
And who did guard us one secluded spot
By burying a wizard at this cross-ways?—
So none dare search the haunted, evil place!
The Devil for a landlord!—So say I!
And all we poor, we strollers, for his tenants;
We gypsies and we pipers in the world,
And a few hermits and sword-swallowers,
And all the cast-aways that Holy Church
Must put in cages—cages—to the end!
[To Michael, who is overcome]
Take heart! I swear,—by all the stars that chime!
I'll not have things in Cages!
MICHAEL
Barbara!
So young,—so young and beautiful!
PIPER
And fit
To marry with friend Michael!
MICHAEL
Do not mock.
PIPER
I mock not.—(Baa—Baa—Barbara!)
MICHAEL
Ay, she laughed,
On that first day. But still she gazed.—I saw
Her, all the while! I swallowed—