The soldier stood in stupid blank amaze, With silence by his discipline enforced, To hear this frontless impudence of fraud. He so much looked the guilt in slant implied By Shimei, that no marvel Julius glanced From one to the other of the two, perplexed, Each the accuser and accused of each. His soldier was a trusty man supposed; The Jew came clouded and suspect as false: But always it was possible repute Accredited a man, or blamed, amiss. "Thou riddlest like an oracle: be plain And outright," so to Shimei Julius spoke. "Thou hast vaguely shadowed some worse shape of crime Thou couldst reveal than that which seems revealed, Accused to thee. What could be worse misdeed Than breach attempted of a soldier's faith To purchase murder?" "Breach accomplished," said Shimei, "were worse; and, in a just assay, Worse to attaint the honor of a man Upright and good and true, and of him make A criminal worthy of death, and doomed As such to die: yea, a far darker crime Than were purveyal of the needed stroke To end a little earlier some base life, Forfeit at any rate by guilt, and fain Itself to court such refuge from despair. Still more were worse the crime whereof I speak, Let the man so attainted in his truth Be one that moment bearing office grave As an accuser and a witness sworn Against such very criminal himself. Then is the crime no longer merely crime Against the single man however just, But crime against justice itself and law, And even against the outraged human race." There was a stumbling incongruity-- Blasphemous, had it been less whimsical, Whimsical, had it been less blasphemous-- Between the man himself and what he said. His words were noble, or had noble been But that the ignoble man who uttered them Gainsaid them with the whole of what he was. The soldier more and more astounded stood, Or cowered, say rather, underneath the frown Beetling and imminent of falsehood such, Mountainous high, and like a mountain set Immovable. (Immovable it seemed, But at its heart with fear was tremulous, And, to the proper breath, would presently Melt, like cloud-mountain massed of misty stone To the wind's touch.) As in a nightmare, he Could no least gesture move to give the lie, Browbeaten half to disbelieve himself.