Explore "Justice" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Jack Doe met Dick Roe, whose wife he loved, / And said: "I will get the best of him." / So pulling a knife from his boot, he shoved / It up to the hilt in the breast of him.
Then he moved that weapon forth and back, / Enlarging the hole he had made with it, / Till the smoking liver fell out, and Jack / Merrily, merrily played with it.
Then he reached within and he seized the slack / Of the lesser bowel, and, traveling / Hither and thither, looked idly back / On that small intestine, raveling.
The wretched Richard, with many a grin / Laid on with exceeding suavity, / Curled up and died, and they ran John in / And charged him with sins of gravity.
The case was tried and a verdict found: / The jury, with great humanity, / Acquitted the prisoner on the ground / Of extemporary insanity.