Explore "A False Prophecy" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Dom Pedro, Emperor of far Brazil / (Whence coffee comes and the three-cornered nut), / They say that you're imperially ill, / And threatened with paralysis. Tut-tut! / Though Emperors are mortal, nothing but / A nimble thunderbolt could catch and kill / A man predestined to depart this life / By the assassin's bullet, bomb or knife.
Sir, once there was a President who freed / Ten million slaves; and once there was a Czar / Who freed five times as many serfs. Sins breed / The means of punishment, and tyrants are / Hurled headlong out of the triumphal car / If faster than the law allows they speed.
Lincoln and Alexander struck a rut; / "You" freed slaves too. Paralysis -- tut-tut!
1885.