To Dreyfus Vindicated

SOLDIER of Justice—fighting with her sword

Since thine was broken! Who need now despair

To lead a hope forlorn against the throng?

For what did David dare

Before Goliath worthy this compare—

Thou in the darkness fronting leagued wrong?

What true and fainting cause shall not be heir

Of all thy courage—more than miser’s hoard?

In times remote, when some preposterous ill

Man has not yet imagined, shall be King,

While comfortable Freedom nods—

And Three shall meet to slay the usurping thing,

Thy name recalled shall clinch their potent will,

And as they cry, “He won—what greater odds!”

They shall become as gods.

*****

Ours, too, thy champions! Who shall dare to say

The sordid time doth lack of chivalry.

When men thus all renounce, all cast away,

To walk with martyrs through a flaming sea!

Picquart!—how jealously will Life patrol

The paths of peril whither he is sent.

Zola!—too early gone!

Whose taking even Death might well repent,

Though ’twas to enrich that greater Pantheon

Where dwell the spirits of the brave of soul.

*****
ENVOI

Oh! tremble, all oppressors, where ye be—

Throne, Senate, mansion, mart, or factory;

One against many, many against few!

Ye poor, once crushed, that crush your own anew;

Ye vulgar rich, now risen from the mud,

Despoilers of the flower in the bud:

For justice is the orbit of God’s day,

And He hath promised that He will repay.