Oh, we had the run of the town before the ratcatcher came. Day and night we swarmed through the houses of Hamel, and ate everything we found.

We are great friends of the ratcatcher. You might say he’s one of us! A great, tall, gawky fellow, he’s got two yellow mocking eyes, and he wears a green jacket, red breeches, and a broad-brimmed hat adorned with a scarlet cock’s feather. 

The town council wanted us out of Hamel, and so the ratcatcher made a deal with them to get a gros a head, (which isn’t even as much of as a penny, but there were lots of us!)

And so, when the moon rose, the ratcatcher went out into the marketplace and began to play his bagpipes. Oh, that bewitching sound! We thronged out from every cellar and garret, every nook and cranny, and we followed him down the street and all the way to the river. All the rats went down a whirlpool and were seen no more in Hamel.

Being the king of rats, I was last to go. The ratcatcher asked me for a head count, and I told him that ninety-nine thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-nine rats had gone into the river. Then I proceeded to follow, rounding the number out.

Do you want to know where we went? Well, I can tell you this. We went to the same place as the children went after the Town Councilor tried to trick the ratcatcher out of his fee. We went somewhere else.

King of Rats, The Ratcatcher, Red Fairy Book. Illustration by Abraham Bosse.