The Angry Exile: 'Nothing he can do.'

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Tuesday, 2 November 2010

'Nothing he can do.'

Prisoners in Britain will soon be able to vote, thanks to the European Court, and apparently David Cameramong is exasperated and furious. Good. He bloody should be. Plenty of other people have been exasperated and furious for bloody years that Europe has so much say over British law, and it's more than time the Prime Minister of the day got a taste of it. What's worrying is Cameramong's admission that there's nothing he can do about it.

Nothing the Prime Minister can do about it? Or nothing that David Cameramong can do about it? They don't have to be the same thing, and if it's the latter we've clearly got the wrong man in No. 10. On the other hand if it's the former then that's something that needs to be changed, in which case I think we've still got the wrong man in No. 10.

'kinell!

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@AmbushPredator · 751 weeks ago

"...if it's the latter we've clearly got the wrong man in No. 10."

Even if it isn't the latter, I suspect - like you - we still have the wrong man in No 10!

1 reply · active 751 weeks ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 751 weeks ago

Never really thought he was anything more than the least wrong option of the three likely candidates back in May.

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Captain Peacock · 751 weeks ago

The traitor wont have time to worry about it he,s too busy handing over our armed forces to the French.
The traitor who took us into this EU disaster was a Tory Heath now we are lumbered with this traitor.
I never though I could despise any one more then Brown till Cameron came along.

1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago

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Angry_Exile 90p · 751 weeks ago

I think 'traitor' is too strong a word for Cameron (though not Heath - suits him just fine). Cameron isn't so much a Lord Haw-Haw character as a Chamberlain style appeaser. He hasn't got the stuff to oppose the ... well, actually you can take your pick. The Cobbelition hasn't made the savings the country desperately needs, and I believe it's at least in part because Cameramong doesn't want to have to face down nearly the entire public sector and Labour's benefits legions. Similarly I think he hasn't got the balls to tell the EU to whistle for its money because Britain can't afford it at the moment, and nor did he have the spine to resist the EAW powers being extended, much less move to repair the damage his predecessors (Thatcher included) allowed/encouraged during their premierships. And all the while Cameramong is waving that piece of paper and claiming that there will be peace in our time, even as the spineless prick prepares to concede something else to Europe. Actually my European Union tag isn't quite accurate since all this stems from the European Court of Human Rights which of course is separate from the EU, but the point is still valid. If Cameramong is so exasperated and furious about it why does he not stand up and point out that in Britain no Parliament may be bound by its predecessors and add that he therefore intends to withdraw the UK from the Convention, possibly setting up a similar UK body working on more traditionally British values of what is and isn't a human right, and forever remove the ECHR's power over British interests? Because he doesn't have the balls.

I never though I could despise any one more then Brown till Cameron came along.

If Brown was still in charge I suspect things would be even worse, though that's not a defence of Cameramong in any way.

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Andrew Duffin · 751 weeks ago

"Nothing we can do"

Bollocks.

We can leave.

It's just that Cameron doesn't want to, so yes, you're right, we've got the wrong man in No. 10.

Again.

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Tuesday, 2 November 2010

'Nothing he can do.'

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