, pipe in hand. The Children whirl about after their
tails.--CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, and JAN on his tree-stump, open-mouthed with
happiness, watch the Rainbow.

Curtain

SCENE II: The Cross-ways: on the Long Road to Rudersheim.

A wooded country: high hills at back. The place is wild and overgrown,
like the haunted spot it is reputed to be. In the foreground, right,
a ruined stone well appears, in a mass of weeds and vines. Opposite,
left, tall trees and dense thickets. Where the roads cross (to left of
centre), stands a large, neglected shrine, with a weather-worn figure
of Christ,--again the 'Lonely Man'--facing towards Hamelin.--The stage
is empty, at rise of the curtain; but the sound of chanting from burghers
just gone by fades slowly, on the road to Rudersheim.

From the hillside at the rear comes the PIPER, wrapped in a long green
cloak, his pipe in his hand. He looks after the procession, and back
to Hamelin.--Enter, springing from the bushes to the right, MICHAEL,
who seizes him.

Their speech goes breathlessly.

MICHAEL

QUICK!--tell me--

PIPER
Patience.

MICHAEL
Patience?--Death and hell!
Oh, save her--save her! Give the children back.

PIPER
Never. Have you betrayed us?

MICHAEL
I!--betrayed?

PIPER
So, so, lad.

MICHAEL
But to save her--

PIPER
There's a way,--
Trust me! I save her, or we swing together
Merrily, in a row.--How did you see her?

MICHAEL
By stealth: two days ago, at evening,
Hard by the vine-hid wall of her own garden,
I made a warbling like a nightingale;
And she came out to hear.

PIPER
A serenade!
Under the halter!

MICHAEL
Hush.--A death-black night,
Until she came.--Oh, how to tell thee, lad!
She came,--she came, not for the nightingale,
But even dreaming that it would be I!

PIPER
She knew you?--We are trapped, then.

MICHAEL
No, not so!
She smiled on me.--Dost thou remember how
She smiled on me that day? Alas, poor maid,
She took me for some noble in disguise!
And all these days,--she told me,--she had dreamed
That I would come to save her!

PIPER
Said she this?

MICHAEL
All this--all this, and more! . . .
What could lies do?--I lied to her of thee;
I swore I knew not of thy vanishment,
Nor the lost children. But I told her true,
I was a stroller and an outcast man
That hid there, like a famished castaway,
For one more word, without a hope,--a hope;
Helpless to save her.

PIPER
And she told thee