Villain, when the word is spoken,
  And your chains at last are broken
    When the gibbet's chilling shade
  Ceases darkly to enfold you,
  And the angel who enrolled you
    As a master of the trade
  Of assassination sadly
    Blots the record he has made,
  And your name and title paints
  In the calendar of saints;
  When the devils, dancing madly
  In the midmost Hell, are very
  Multitudinously merry—
  Then beware, beware, beware!—-
  Nemesis is everywhere!
  You shall hear her at your back,
    And, your hunted visage turning,
    Fancy that her eyes are burning
  Like a tiger's on your track!
  You shall hear her in the breeze
  Whispering to summer trees.
  You shall hear her calling, calling
    To your spirit through the storm
    When the giant billows form
  And the splintered lightning, falling
  Down the heights of Heaven, appalling,
  Splendors all the tossing seas!
  On your bed at night reclining,
  Stars into your chamber shining
    As they roll around the Pole,
  None their purposes divining,
    Shall appear to search your soul,
  And to gild the mark of Cain
  That burns into your tortured brain!
  And the dead man's eyes shall ever
    Meet your own wherever you,
    Desperate, shall turn you to,
  And you shall escape them never!

  By your heritage of guilt;
  By the blood that you have spilt;
  By the Law that you have broken;
  By the terrible red token
    That you bear upon your brow;
  By the awful sentence spoken
    And irrevocable vow
  Which consigns you to a living
  Death and to the unforgiving
  Furies who avenge your crime
  Through the periods of time;
  By that dread eternal doom
  Hinted in your future's gloom,
    As the flames infernal tell
  Of their power and perfection
  In their wavering reflection
    On the battlements of Hell;
  By the mercy you denied,
    I condemn your guilty soul
  In your body to abide,
    Like a serpent in a hole!