PIPER
[thunderstruck]
So!
BARBARA
He piped;--and all ye danced and fled away!
He piped;--and brought me back my wandering wits,
And gave me safe unto my Love again,--
My Love I had forgotten. . . .
PIPER
So!
MICHAEL
[with conviction]
Truly said.
BARBARA
[proudly]
Michael.
JACOBUS
Who is he, pray?
BARBARA
My own true love.
PETER the Cobbler
Now, is that all his name?
BARBARA
It is enough.
JACOBUS
--She's mad. Shall these things be?
ALL
( The Children! The Children!
( Where are the Children?
( Piper! Pi-per! Piper!
PIPER
[sternly]
Quiet you. And hear me.
I came to bring good tidings. In good faith,
Of mine own will, I came.--And like a thief
You haled me hither.--
[They hang upon his words]
. . . Your children--live.
ALL
( Thank God! I knew, I knew!
( We could not think them lost.
( Bewitched! Oh, but they live!--
( Piper!--O Piper!
PETER the Cobbler
They're spell-bound,--mark me!
PIPER
Ay, they are,--spell-bound:
Fast bound by all the hardness of your hearts;
_Caged,--in the iron of your money-lust_--
ALL
( No, no, not all! Not I! Not mine, not mine!
( No, no,--it is not true.
PIPER
Your blasphemies,--your cunning and your Fear.
ALL
( No, no!--What can we do?
( News, Piper, news!
( Where are your ridings, Piper?
PIPER
Now hear me.
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