Explore "Disavowal" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Two bodies are lying in Phoenix Park, / Grim and bloody and stiff and stark, / And a Land League man with averted eye / Crosses himself as he hurries by.
And he says to his conscience under his breath: / "I have had no hand in this deed of death!"
A Fenian, making a circuit wide / And passing them by on the other side, / Shudders and crosses himself and cries: / "Who says that I did it, he lies, he lies!"
Gingerly stepping across the gore, / Pat Satan comes after the two before, / Makes, in a solemnly comical way, / The sign of the cross and is heard to say: / "O dear, what a terrible sight to see, / For babes like them and a saint like me!"
1882.