‘Are they all there, friend Blanchet?’ asked the bagpiper.
‘They are all there,’ replied friend Blanchet.
‘And how many were they?’
‘Nine hundred and ninety thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine.’
‘Well reckoned?’
‘Well reckoned.’
‘Then go and join them, old sire, and au revoir.’
Then the old white rat sprang in his turn into the river, swam to the whirlpool and disappeared.
When the bagpiper had thus concluded his business he went to bed at his inn. And for the first time during three months the people of Hamel slept quietly through the night.
The next morning, at nine o’clock, the bagpiper repaired to the town hall, where the town council awaited him.