[Horror in the crowd. They bring out lanterns and candles.
VERONIKA holds up the forgotten crutch'
VERONIKA
Jan--my Jan!
KURT
[to her]
Thy boy! But mine, my three, all fair and straight.--
AXEL'S WIFE
[furiously to him]
'T was thy false bargain, thine; who would not pay
The Piper.--But we pay!
PETER the Sacristan
Bewitched, bewitched!
The boys ran out--and I ran after them,
And something red did trip me--'t was the Devil.
The Devil!
OLD URSULA
Ah, ring on, and crack the bell:
Ye'll never have them back.--I told ye so!
[The bell clangs incessantly]
Curtain
ACT II
SCENE I: Inside 'the Hollow Hill.'
A great, dim-lighted, cavernous place, which shows signs of masonry.
It is part cavern and part cellarage of a ruined, burned-down and
forgotten old monastery in the hills.--The only entrance (at the
centre rear), a ramshackle wooden door, closes against a flight
of rocky steps.--Light comes from an opening in the roof, and from
the right, where a faggot-fire glows under an iron pot.--The scene
reaches (right and left) into dim corners, where sleeping children
lie curled up together like kittens.
By the fire sits the PIPER, on a tree-stump seat, stitching at a bit
of red leather. At his feet is a row of bright-colored small shoes,
set two and two. He looks up now and then, to recount the children,
and goes back to work, with quizzical despair.
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