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Show 10 "What can I tell you?" I stammered. "Hamelin is just a town like any other one, with a town council, a market place, and two churches. There is building going on inside Munster Church just now, so for the time being everyone is attending Market Church." "Who is the priest at Market Church?" "Father Johann von Lude." "What is he like?" "Well, Father Johann is not an old man, but he acts old. No, it's not that he acts old, exactly, but he.... You see, the way I've heard it told - long ago, in the year 1260, the Bishop of Wedekind bought our town. There was some argument over the sale - I don't know why - so the men of Hamelin went to fight the Bishop's men at Sedemuende. Father Johann was young and strong then, and he rode a horse to lead the Hamelin men into battle. When his horse ran under a tree, Father Johann got a terrible knock on the head, and after that he was never the same. He can still say the mass, and he prays to all the right saints when there's trouble in town, but except for religious matters he can't ever make up his mind about anything. Sometimes he acts as confused as a little child." "There, you see, Geist, I told you that you know much more than you think you do. That's very good. Now tell me about the town council. I searched my brain for all that I could tell him, because I wanted to earn his praise again. "There are fifteen members of the town council, and most of them are merchants. I know all of them because they come into the shop to talk to Master Hermann. They're mostly just like him - full of their own importance, huffing and puffing and pretending to be greater than they are. I've heard them |