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ah, the brute he was!

Black, unbroken, - thought grows busy,Still, for size and beauty, cunning, courage thrids each pathway of old years, Notes this forthright, that meander, till the long-past life appears

Like an outspread map of country plodded through, each mile and rood, Once, and well remembered still, I'm startled in my solitude

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Ever and anon by what's the sudden mocking light that breaks

On me as I slap the table till no rummerglass but shakes

While I ask-aloud, I do believe, God help me!" Was it thus ? Can it be that so I faltered, stopped when just one step for us (Us, you were not born, I grant, but surely some day born would be)

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- One bold step had gained a province " (figurative talk, you see)

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"Got no end of wealth and honor, - yet I stood stock-still no less? "For I was not Clive," you comment: but it needs no Clive to guess Wealth were handy, honor ticklish, did no writing on the wall

Warn me "Trespasser, 'ware man-traps!" Him who braves that notice

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Why, that Clive, — that youth, that greenhorn, that quill-driving clerk, in fine,

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Ray by ray its noontide brilliance, — friendship might, with steadier eye Drawing near, bear what had burned else, now no blaze - all majesty. Too much bee's-wing floats my figure? Well, suppose a castle 's new: None presume to climb its ramparts, none find foothold sure for shoe "Twixt those squares and squares of granite plating the impervious pile As his scale-mail's warty iron cuirasses a crocodile.

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Reels that castle thunder-smitten, stormdismantled? From without Scrambling up by crack and crevice, every cockney prates about

Towers the heap he kicks now! turrets just the measure of his cane! Will that do? Observe moreover — similitude again) —

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Such a castle seldom crumbles by sheer stress of cannonade:

'Tis when foes are foiled and fighting's finished that vile rains invade, Grass o'ergrows, o'ergrows till night-birds congregating find no holes Fit to build in like the topmost sockets made for banner-poles.

So Clive crumbled slow in London, crashed at last.

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Lets in light and teaches manner to what brain it finds! Choose quick Have your life snuffed out or, kneeling, pray me trim yon candle-wick !'

"Well, you cheated!'

Then outbroke a howl from all the friends around.

To his feet sprang each in fury, fists were clenched and teeth were ground. 'End it no time like the present! Captain, yours were our disgrace! No delay, begin and finish! Stand back, leave the pair a space!

Let civilians be instructed: henceforth simply ply the pen,

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Fly the sword! This clerk's no swordsman? Suit him with a pistol, then! Even odds! A dozen paces 'twixt the most and least expert

Make a dwarf a giant's equal: nay, the dwarf, if he's alert,

Likelier hits the broader target !'

"Up we stood accordingly.

As they handed me the weapon, such was my soul's thirst to try

Then and there conclusions with this bully,

tread on and stamp out

Every spark of his existence, that, close to, curled about

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crept

By that toying tempting teasing fool-forefinger's middle joint,

Don't you guess? — the trigger yielded. Gone my chance! and at the point

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"And down he threw the pistol, out rushed by the door

Possibly, but, as for knowledge if by chimney, roof or floor,

He effected disappearance - I'll engage no glance was sent

That way by a single starer, such a blank astonishment

Swallowed up their senses: as for speaking -mute they stood as mice.

"Mute not long, though! Such reaction, such a hubbub in a trice! 'Rogue and rascal! Who'd have thought it? What's to be expected next, When His Majesty's Commission serves a sharper as pretext

For... But where's the need of wasting time now? Naught requires delay:

Punishment the Service cries for: let disgrace be wiped away

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Publicly, in good broad daylight! Resignation? No, indeed!

Drum and fife must play the Rogue'sMarch, rank and file be free to speed

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For if he be dead or living I can tell no more than you.

All I know is-Cocky had one chance more; how he used it, grew Out of such unlucky habits, or relapsed, and back again

Brought the late-ejected devil with a score more in his train,

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That's for you to judge. Reprieval I procured, at any rate.

Ugh the memory of that minute's fear makes gooseflesh rise! Why prate Longer? You've my story, there's your instance: fear I did, you see!"

"Well” — I hardly kept from laughing – "if I see it, thanks must be

Wholly to your Lordship's candor. Not that in a common case

When a bully caught at cheating thrusts a pistol in one's face,

I should under-rate, believe me, such a trial to the nerve!

'Tis no joke, at one-and-twenty, for a youth to stand nor swerve.

Fear I naturally look for- unless, of all men alive,

I

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am forced to make exception when I come to Robert Clive. Since at Arcot, Plassy, elsewhere, he and death the whole world knowsCame to somewhat closer quarters."

Quarters? Had we come to blows, Clive and I, you had not wondered - up he sprang so, out he rapped

Such a round of oaths- no matter! I'll endeavor to adapt

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Which permits me to forgive you!' What if, with such words as these,

He had cast away his weapon?

How should I have borne me, please? Nay, I'll spare you pains and tell you. This, and only this, remainedPick his weapon up and use it on myself. If so had gained

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Sleep the earlier, leaving England probably to pay on still

Rent and taxes for half India, tenant at the Frenchman's will."

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EPILOGUE

In regard to the third verse of this poem the Pall Mall Gazette of February 1, 1890, related this incident: "One evening, just before his death-illness, the poet was reading this from a proof to his daughter-in-law and sister. He said: It almost looks like bragging to say this, and as if I ought to cancel it; but it's the simple truth; and as it's true, it shall stand.'"

AT the midnight in the silence of the sleeptime,

When you set your fancies free, Will they pass to where - by death, fools think, imprisoned

Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved - Pity me?

So,

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