JUSTICE
H. W. LONGFELLOW
ONCE in an ancient city, whose name I no longer remember
Raised aloft on a column, a brazen statue of justice
Stood in the public square, upholding the scales in its left hand,
And in its right a sword, as an emblem that Justice presided
Over the laws of the land, and the hearths and homes of the people,
Ever the birds had built their nests in the scales of the balance,
Having no fear of the sword that flashed in the sunshine above them
But in the course of time the laws of the land were corrupted;
Might took the place of right, and the weak were oppressed, and the mighty
Ruled with an iron rod. Then it chanced in a nobleman’s palace
That a necklace of pearls was lost, and ere long a suspicion
Fell on an orphan girl, who lived as a maid in the household,
She, after a form of trial condemned to die on the scaffold,
Patiently met her doom at the foot of the statue of Justice.
As to her Father in heaven her innocent spirit ascended
Lo! O’er the city a tempest rose; and the bolts of the thunder
Smote the statue of bronze, and hurled in wrath from its left hand
Down on to pavement below the clattering scales of the balance,
And in the hollow thereof was found the nest of a magpie,
Into whose clay-built walls the necklace of pearls was in woven.
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