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!
PIPER
Not yet.—They all do live
Under a spell,—deep in a hollow hill.
They sleep, and wake; and lead a charmed life.
But first of all,—one child shall come again.
[He scans the crowd still]
Where is the wife—of Kurt, the Councillor?