Explore "Cain" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Lord, shed thy light upon his desert path, / And gild his branded brow, that no man spill / His forfeit life to balk thy holy will / That spares him for the ripening of wrath.
Already, lo! the red sign is descried, / To trembling jurors visibly revealed: / The prison doors obediently yield, / The baffled hangman flings the cord aside.
Powell, the brother's blood that marks your trail -- / Hark, how it cries against you from the ground, / Like the far baying of the tireless hound.
Faith! to your ear it is no nightingale.
What signifies the date upon a stone? / To-morrow you shall die if not to-day.
What matter when the Avenger choose to slay / Or soon or late the Devil gets his own.
Thenceforth through all eternity you'll hold / No one advantage of the later death.
Though you had granted Ralph another breath / Would "he" to-day less silent lie and cold?
Earth cares not, curst assassin, when you die; / You never will be readier than now.
Wear, in God's name, that mark upon your brow, / And keep the life you purchased with a lie!