Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/261

 THE DYING VISION OF BENEDICT ARNOLD 25 I

And when, the foremost in the fight,

I bade n.11 bravely stand, Each officer looked black as night ;

All shrank from my command, And would have served, I well could see. Under a dog: more soon than me.

��The ungrateful knaves for whom I bled

Scowled at me when I passed ; They grudged that swords my blood should shed.

Still longing to the last To see me by the halter strung. And to the hounds like carrion flung.

I hate them all ; I hate mankind.

Hate every living thing ; Yet, though to infamy consigned.

Still to my pride I cling. O soul ! be stubborn, nor deplore The loss of honor, thine no more.

The thirst of gold hath been my bane ;

Yet 'twas not wealth I prized, But rank and power I sought to gain —

Vain things, long since despised. There's not a man so poor, so mean. That would as Arnold's guest be seen.

No ! should I meet the very groom

Did once my stables tend, He, too, would give me elbow room,

But scorn to be my friend. Would that in earth I might but rot, AHke by God and man forgot !

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