A ballad of justice


't was evening. The sun had set.
Weary I prepared my bed,
when on a pale horse across the plain
rode a rider with no name.

He wore no hat, but was cloaked with a hood.
In his pale face I could read no mood,
when he stared at me with eyes of fire.
He nearly scared me, but his one desire
was to stay this night at my little camp.
The morning came, the air grew damp
and as I went on, I asked his way,
if he would join me. He answered: ”Nay.
It’s not your time to come with me.”
Then he rode on. Soon I could not see
of the rider even the slightest trace,
but wherever I go, the pale mans face
will follow me within my mind
as cruel as it seemed but also kind.

A few days later I saw the rider again.
I saw him right behind the man,
who the one I loved had killed.
I hunted him six weeks, was willed,
to kill myself him in return.
In hell this evil man should burn
and I set out, to send him down.
I faced him and started to frown,
on the thought, I had a life to take.
However, this stand I had to make
and one of us would six feet deep
beneath the earth would fin'lly sleep.
The sun was burning in the noon.
The killer grinned as if knowing, soon
he would have ended up my life.
His eyes cut my heart like a knife,
when finally he drew his gun,
laughing like the devil's son,
to put me in my early grave.
The peoples screams went like a wave
of wild oceans through the little town.
A shot rang out, his gun fell down,
his blood dripped slowly to the sand.
His arm he gripped with his unharmed hand
and wondered, why he was living still.
”You shot my wife. But it's not my will”,
I told the man with burning hate,
”to be like You. You have to wait”,
to the nameless rider I murmured then,
”until in Tuscon they’ll hang this man.”
The rider nodded and smiled at me.
”I didn't know, that You can see
my true nature, who I am.
So in Tuscon I will take that man.”
On his pale horse he vanished into the air.
Until now I'm sure, it was not there
up to the moment, he sat at the beast.
I didn't care, for Justice at least
now my one true love would find,
when I’d leave the hanging killer behind.

The evil man was put into chain.
We went off with the morning train
and got to Tuscon within a day,
to the courthouse there led our way.
It was not long, when a trial was set.
Eager I’ve been, justice to get,
but as I wanted, things didn’t go.
I looked for his death, the jury said ”No.”
”Not guilty!”, the sentence had been.
”I’m sorry”, the judge said, ”I’m always keen,
to give a man justice. But the proofs of his deed
were not, what I to judgement would need.
You should have killed him, when You had the chance.”
The killer grinned and gave me a glance,
that promised, he’d make me meet my wife.
”I’m not a killer, I take no live”,
I said to the judge, ”I have not to take.
But You should repent for Your poor souls sake”,
I turned to the killer, ”’cause Your end is not far.”
”If You want me”, he smiled, ”I’m in the bar,
to have an drink an maybe a girl.”
And with those words I saw him swirl
around and run off the room.
I didn’t follow, for I sensed his doom.
Just moments later I heared his cries.
I saw the pale rider with burning eyes
and smiling he told me: ”Now it is done.”
I walked the way, the killer had gone
and saw, that the stagecoach had driven him down.
The horses had trampled him into the ground,
the cart crushed his body. No chance he has had,
on the dusty road now the killer lay dead.

It’s said: Eye for an eye, life for life.
Punished now was, who killed my wife.
A life had taken that wicked man.
Justice now took his own again.

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