Next day , which was a Sunday , they all went gaily to church , thinking that after Mass they would at last be able to eat some good thing that the rats had not tasted before them . They never suspected the terrible surprise that awaited them on their return home . No children anywhere , they had all disappeared ! ` Our children ! where are our poor children ? ' was the cry that was soon heard in all the streets . Then through the east door of the town came three little boys , who cried and wept , and this is what they told : While the parents were at church a wonderful music had resounded . Soon all the little boys and all the little girls that had been left at home had gone out , attracted by the magic sounds , and had rushed to the great market-place . There they found the ratcatcher playing his bagpipes at the same spot as the evening before . Then the stranger had begun to walk quickly , and they had followed , running , singing and dancing to the sound of the music , as far as the foot of the mountain which one sees on entering Hamel . At their approach the mountain had opened a little , and the bagpiper had gone in with them , after which it had closed again . Only the three little ones who told the adventure had remained outside , as if by a miracle . One was bandy-legged and could not run fast enough ; the other , who had left the house in haste , one foot shod the other bare , had hurt himself against a big stone and could not 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 XXXXX them .
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