"He never can cross that mighty top! He's forced to let the piping drop,

And we shall see our children stop!

225

When, lo, as they reached the mountain-side,

A wondrous portal opened wide,

As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;

And the Piper advanced and the children followed, And when all were in to the very last,

230

The door in the mountain-side shut fast.

Did I say, all? No! One was lame,

And could not dance the whole of the way;

And in after years, if you would blame

His sadness, he was used to say,

235

"It's dull in our town since my playmates left!

Which the Piper also promised me.

For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,

240

Joining the town and just at hand,

Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew

And flowers put forth a fairer hue,

And everything was strange and new;

The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here, 245 And their dogs outran our fallow deer,

And honey-bees had lost their stings,

And horses were born with eagles' wings:

And just as I became assured

My lame foot would be speedily cured,
The music stopped and I stood still,
And found myself outside the hill,
Left alone against my will,

To go now limping as before,

250

And never hear of that country more!"

255

XIV

Alas, alas! for Hamelin!

There came into many a burgher's pate
A text which says that heaven's gate
Opes to the rich at as easy rate
As the needle's eye° takes a camel in!

The Mayor sent East, West, North, and South,
To offer the Piper, by word of mouth,

Wherever it was men's lot to find him,
Silver and gold to his heart's content,
If he'd only return the way he went,

And bring the children behind him.
But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor,
And Piper and dancers were gone forever,
They made a decree that lawyers never

Should think their records dated duly
If, after the day of the month and year,
These words did not as well appear,
"And so long after what happened here
On the Twenty-second of July,
Thirteen hundred and seventy-six: "
And the better in memory to fix
The place of the children's last retreat,
They called it the Pied Piper's Street-
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
Was sure for the future to lose his labor.
Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern

To shock with mirth a street so solemn;
But opposite the place of the cavern
They wrote the story on a column,
And on the great. church-window painted
The same, to make the world acquainted

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265

270

275

280

285

How their children were stolen away,
And there it stands to this very day.
And I must not omit to say

That in Transylvania there's a tribe
Of alien people who ascribe

The outlandish ways and dress

On which their neighbors lay such stress,
To their fathers and mothers having risen
Out of some subterraneous prison
Into which they were trepanned
Long time ago in a mighty band

Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,
But how or why, they don't understand.

XV

So, Willy, let me and you be wipers

Of scores out with all men especially pipers!

290

295

300

And, whether they pipe us free fróm rats or fróm mice, If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise!

HERVÉ RIEL

I

On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninetytwo,

Did the English fight the French, woe to France! And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the blue,

Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks

pursue,

Came crowding ship on ship to Saint Malo on the 5 Rance,°

With the English fleet in view.

II

'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full chase;

First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Damfreville.

Close on him fled, great and small,

Twenty-two good ships in all;

And they signalled to the place

66

Help the winners of a race!

Get us guidance, give us harbor, take us quick or, quicker still,

Here's the English can and will!"

10

III

Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leapt on board;

15

"Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to pass?" laughed they:

"Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred and scored,

Shall the 'Formidable' here with her twelve and eighty

guns

Think to make the river-mouth by the single narrow

way,

Trust to enter where 'tis ticklish for a craft of twenty

tons,

And with flow at full beside? Now, 'tis slackest ebb of tide. Reach the mooring? Rather say, While rock stands or water runs, Not a ship will leave the bay!"

IV

Then was called a council straight,

Brief and bitter the debate:

"Here's the English at our heels; would you have them take in tow

All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern

and bow.

For a prize to Plymouth Sound°?
Better run the ships aground!"
(Ended Damfreville his speech.)
"Not a minute more to wait!
Let the Captains all and each

30

Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on

Was ever spoke or heard;

For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid

for the fleet,

A poor coasting-pilot he, Hervé Riel the Croisickese.°

VI

And "What mockery or malice have we here?" cries

Hervé Riel:

45