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CORDOBA 69
in verse. He still sat bent forward, his elbows rest-
ing on his wide open knees, when he began his recita-
tion; he swayed gently with the beat of the rhythm.
<
THE HANGMAN
An outcast I and scorned by all mankind,
I am the victim of their crimes,
Bear well, they hate each other not,
Their hate with rancour fraught is vent on me,
For whom betimes
A grave offense they’ve chosen to requite.
"Tis mine own hands
Must needs mete out
The scourge decreed to quench their spite!
Let him, they said, bear all our stain,
Let him eat his bread in blood and pain!
And may he bear upon his brow
The mark of shame,
Reward well earned,
Cursed be his name
By all men spurned!
And e’er they left me,
They cast the cloak of crime around me,
And hardened to my pleadings they confound me,
Ignored the tears I shed.
The judge who speaks God’s solemn curse
In hallowed precincts is God’s creature;
But who shall say the hangman is not worse
Than others are who bear man’s lowly feature!
God’s image well befits
E’en him who lowly sits!
As of old to savage beasts they hurled
With greedy lust their guiltless victims,
So now they bring to me the outcasts of their world,
And I, their tool, must sting in retribution!
Righteous are they,
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