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小说: 20-the ratcatcher 字数: 每页4000字

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walk without difficulty; the third had arrived in time; but in

harrying to go in with the others had struck so violently against the

wall of the mountain that he fell backwards at the moment it

closed upon his comrades。



At this story the parents redoubled their lamentations。 They

ran with pikes and mattocks to the mountain; and searched till

evening to find the opening by which their children had disappeared;

without being able to find it。 At last; the night falling; they

returned desolate to Hamel。



But the most unhappy of all was the Town Counsellor; for he

lost three little boys and two pretty little girls; and to crown all; the

people of Hamel overwhelmed him with reproaches; forgetting that

the evening before they had all agreed with him。



What had become of all these unfortunate children?



The parents always hoped they were not dead; and that the rat…

catcher; who certainly must have come out of the mountain; would

have taken them with him to his country。 That is why for several

years they sent in search of them to different countries; but no one

ever came on the trace of the poor little ones。



It was not till much later that anything was to be heard of them。



About one hundred and fifty years after the event; when there

was no longer one left of the fathers; mothers; brothers or sisters

of that day; there arrived one evening in Hamel some merchants

of Bremen returning from the East; who asked to speak with the

citizens。 They told that they; in crossing Hungary; had sojourned

in a mountainous country called Transylvania; where the inhabitants

only spoke German; while all around them nothing was spoken but

Hungarian。 These people also declared that they came from

Germany; but they did not know how they chanced to be in this

strange country。 ‘Now;' said the merchants of Bremen; ‘these

Germans cannot be other than the descendants of the lost children

of Hamel。'



The people of Hamel did not doubt it; and since that day they

regard it as certain that the Transylvanians of Hungary are their

country folk; whose ancestors; as children; were brought there by the

ratcatcher。 There are more difficult things to believe than that。'16'



'16' Ch。 Marelles;



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