"'T is clear," cried they, "our Mayor's a By means of a secret charm, to draw noddy; And as for our Corporation-shocking To think we buy gowns lined with ermine For dolts that can't or won't determine What 's best to rid us of our vermin! You hope, because you 're old and obese, To find in the furry civic robe ease? Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking To find the remedy we 're lacking, Or, sure as fate, we 'll send you packing!'' At this the Mayor and Corporation Quaked with a mighty consternation. IV An hour they sat in council; At length the Mayor broke silence: "For a guilder1 I'd my ermine gown sell, I wish I were a mile hence! It 's easy to bid one rack one's brain- All creatures living beneath the sun, On creatures that do people harm, 30 (And here they noticed round his neck 40 ," cried the Mayor, "what's that?'' (With the Corporation as he sat, Looking little though wondrous fat; Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister Than a too-long-opened oyster, Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous V 51 60 "Come in!"—the Mayor cried, looking bigger: stone!"' 80 To match with his coat of the self-same check; And at the scarf's end hung a pipe; And his fingers, they noticed, were ever stray ing As if impatient to be playing Upon this pipe, as low it dangled Over his vesture so old-fangled.) "Yet," said he, "poor piper as I am, In Tartary I freed the Cham, Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats; 90 I eased in Asia the Nizam Of a monstrous brood of vampire-bats: Will you give me a thousand guilders?'' And out of the houses the rats came tumbling. Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, 111 Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, Families by tens and dozens, Brothers, sisters, husbands, wivesFollowed the Piper for their lives. From street to street he piped advancing, And step for step they followed dancing. 120 Swam across and lived to carry (As he, the manuscript he cherished1) I heard a sound as of scraping tripe, And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards, Beside, our losses have made us thrifty. A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty!" X The Piper's face fell, and he cried, 140 (Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling; A thousand guilders! The Mayor looked blue; Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clatter So did the Corporation too. For council dinners made rare havoc wink "Our business was done at the river's brink; We saw with our eyes the vermin sink, And what 's dead can't come to life, I think. So, friend, we 're not the folks to shrink ing, From the duty of giving you something for The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood As if they were changed into blocks of wood, To the children merrily skipping by, 1 This happened in Egypt, according to Plutarch, But how the Mayor was on the rack. who tells the story. 2 About the same as "luncheon". And the wretched Council's bosoms beat, 210 As the Piper turned from the High Street They made a decree that lawyers never On the Twenty-second of July, And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed, 220 "And so long after what happened here As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed; And when all were in to the very last, 230 "It's dull in our town since my playmates left! The place of the children's last retreat, To shock with mirth a street so solemn; On which their neighbours lay such stress, I can't forget that I'm bereft My lame foot would be speedily cured, To go now limping as before, And never hear of that country more!'' XIV Alas, alas for Hamelin! 250 There came into many a burgher's pate Wherever it was men's lot to find him, But when they saw 't was a lost endeavour, 260 X7 270 280 290 300 So, Willy, let me and you be wipers If we've promised them aught, let us keep our Not a word to each other; we kept the great So, we were left galloping, Joris and I, pace Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky; Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh, our place; 'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff; 40 I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight, 10 Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white, gasped Joris, "for Aix is in sight!"' Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique And ". Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. "How they'll greet us!"-and all in a moment his roan Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone; And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate, With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim, And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' Then rim. I cast loose my buffcoat, each holster let fall, Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all, 50 Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear, Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer; Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or good, Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood. And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear And all I remember is-friends flocking round bent back For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track; And one eye's black intelligence,-ever that glance O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance! And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground; And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine, As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine, Which (the burgesses voted by common consent) 29 Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent. His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on. THE LOST LEADER* Just for a handful of silver he left us, Just for a riband to stick in his coat 60 Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, They, with the gold to give, doled him out While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough silver, In England-now! So much was theirs who so little allowed: How all our copper had gone1 for his service! Rags were they purple," his heart had been proud! And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows! 10 We that had loved him so, followed him, hon- Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the oured him, Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, 10 Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, Made him our pattern to live and to die! Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us, Burns, Shelley, were with us.-they watch from their graves! He alone breaks from the van and the freemen, -He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves! We shall march prospering,-not through his presence; Songs may inspirit us, not from his lyre; Deeds will be done,-while he boasts his quiescence, Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire: 20 Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more, One task more declined, one more footpath untrod, hedge HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the Northwest died away;4 Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay; Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay; In the dimmest Northeast distance dawned Gibraltar grand and gray; "Here and here did England help me: how can I help England?''-say, Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray, While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa. Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne! Then to his poor trade he turned, |