Page:The writings in prose and verse of Rudyard Kipling (IA cu31924057346631).pdf/29

 Slip the bandages, turn and rise,
 * Speak, refuting the blot on her!

There is no sign. Does he hear them say
 * She has it all, and "We know how

She wiled it from him, but let us stay
 * To hear the reading&mdash;it's coming now"?

Slowly, slowly, the red seals break.
 * Watch them, marking his ev'ry word&mdash;

How in life he had willed to make
 * This one wretched, and that preferred.

"I will and I choose that such an one
 * Should have my all!" O woe, O woe!

Human potency, what has it done
 * To help men's souls in the shades below?

Does he remember his power past,
 * How that he made men smile or weep,&mdash;

Helpless to hold his riches fast,
 * Fighting with blows men strike in sleep?