REYNARD
[from the Ark]
--Oh, how felicitous!

HANS' WIFE
He's only saying there be no more rats.

JACOBUS
[with oratorical endeavor]
Three days it is; and not one mouse,--one mouse,
One mouse, I say!--No-o-o! Quiet. . . as a mouse.

[Resuming]
And now. . .

CROWD
Long live Jacobus!--

JACOBUS
You have seen
Noah and the Ark, most aptly happening by
With these same play-folk. You have marked the Judgment.
You all have seen the lost souls sent to--Hell--
And, nothing more to do.--

[KURT prompts him]
Yes, yes.--And now. . .

[HANS the Butcher steps out of his group.]

HANS the Butcher
Hath no man seen the Piper?--Please your worships.

OTHERS
Ay, ay, so!
--Ay, where is he?
--Ho, the Piper!

JACOBUS
Piper, my good man?

HANS the Butcher
--He that charmed the rats!

OTHERS
Yes, yes,--that charmed the rats!

JACOBUS
[piously]
Why, no man knows.--
Which proves him such a random instrument
As Heaven doth sometimes send us, to our use;
Or, as I do conceive, no man at all,--
A man of air; or, I would say--delusion.
He'll come no more.

REYNARD
[from the Ark]
Eh?--Oh, indeed, Meaow!

JACOBUS
'Tis clearest providence. 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!

BE