Black Beetles in Amber

Villain, when the word is spoken,

And your chains at last are broken

When the gibbet's chilling shade

Ceases darkly to enfold you,

And the angel who enrolled you

As a master of the trade

Of assassination sadly

Blots the record he has made,

And your name and title paints

In the calendar of saints;

When the devils, dancing madly

In the midmost Hell, are very

Multitudinously 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 burning

Like a tiger's on your track!

You shall hear her in the breeze

Whispering to summer trees.

You shall hear her calling, calling

To your spirit through the storm

When the giant billows form

And the splintered lightning, falling

Down the heights of Heaven, appalling,

Splendors all the tossing seas!

On your bed at night reclining,

Stars into your chamber shining

As they roll around the Pole,

None their purposes divining,

Shall appear to search your soul,

And to gild the mark of Cain

That burns into your tortured brain!

And the dead man's eyes shall ever

Meet 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 token

That you bear upon your brow;

By the awful sentence spoken

And irrevocable vow

Which consigns you to a living

Death and to the unforgiving

Furies who avenge your crime

Through the periods of time;

By that dread eternal doom

Hinted in your future's gloom,

As the flames infernal tell

Of their power and perfection

In their wavering reflection

On the battlements of Hell;

By the mercy you denied,

I condemn your guilty soul

In your body to abide,

Like a serpent in a hole!