LLEWELLEN POWELLVillain, when the word is spoken,And your chains at last are brokenWhen the gibbet's chilling shadeCeases darkly to enfold you,And the angel who enrolled youAs a master of the tradeOf assassination sadlyBlots the record he has made,And your name and title paintsIn the calendar of saints;When the devils, dancing madlyIn the midmost Hell, are veryMultitudinously merry—Then beware, beware, beware!—-Nemesis is everywhere!You shall hear her at your back,And, your hunted visage turning,Fancy that her eyes are burningLike a tiger's on your track!You shall hear her in the breezeWhispering to summer trees.You shall hear her calling, callingTo your spirit through the stormWhen the giant billows formAnd the splintered lightning, fallingDown the heights of Heaven, appalling,Splendors all the tossing seas!On your bed at night reclining,Stars into your chamber shiningAs they roll around the Pole,None their purposes divining,Shall appear to search your soul,And to gild the mark of CainThat burns into your tortured brain!And the dead man's eyes shall everMeet your own wherever you,Desperate, shall turn you to,And you shall escape them never!By your heritage of guilt;By the blood that you have spilt;By the Law that you have broken;By the terrible red tokenThat you bear upon your brow;By the awful sentence spokenAnd irrevocable vowWhich consigns you to a livingDeath and to the unforgivingFuries who avenge your crimeThrough the periods of time;By that dread eternal doomHinted in your future's gloom,As the flames infernal tellOf their power and perfectionIn their wavering reflectionOn the battlements of Hell;By the mercy you denied,I condemn your guilty soulIn your body to abide,Like a serpent in a hole!
Villain, when the word is spoken,And your chains at last are brokenWhen the gibbet's chilling shadeCeases darkly to enfold you,And the angel who enrolled youAs a master of the tradeOf assassination sadlyBlots the record he has made,And your name and title paintsIn the calendar of saints;When the devils, dancing madlyIn the midmost Hell, are veryMultitudinously merry—Then beware, beware, beware!—-Nemesis is everywhere!You shall hear her at your back,And, your hunted visage turning,Fancy that her eyes are burningLike a tiger's on your track!You shall hear her in the breezeWhispering to summer trees.You shall hear her calling, callingTo your spirit through the stormWhen the giant billows formAnd the splintered lightning, fallingDown the heights of Heaven, appalling,Splendors all the tossing seas!On your bed at night reclining,Stars into your chamber shiningAs they roll around the Pole,None their purposes divining,Shall appear to search your soul,And to gild the mark of CainThat burns into your tortured brain!And the dead man's eyes shall everMeet your own wherever you,Desperate, shall turn you to,And you shall escape them never!By your heritage of guilt;By the blood that you have spilt;By the Law that you have broken;By the terrible red tokenThat you bear upon your brow;By the awful sentence spokenAnd irrevocable vowWhich consigns you to a livingDeath and to the unforgivingFuries who avenge your crimeThrough the periods of time;By that dread eternal doomHinted in your future's gloom,As the flames infernal tellOf their power and perfectionIn their wavering reflectionOn the battlements of Hell;By the mercy you denied,I condemn your guilty soulIn your body to abide,Like a serpent in a hole!