Who once as stripling on the Sanhedrim
Declared a war: who with his gleaming weapon
Strode up before his judge and dropped the hint
That he himself was Headsman and the Headsman
Upon himself no sentence executes,
He may as man—Ha, I can see him now
As, front to front opposing the High Priest,
He leaned against a column ’mid a ring
Of his hired bravos, who in robber-hunting
Turned robber too—strange metamorphosis!