Epigraph

Why does your sword so drip with blood,

Edward, Edward?

Why does your sword so drip with blood,

And why so sad go ye, O?

—FROM AN ANONYMOUS SCOTTISH BALLAD OF THE MIDDLE AGES

I stood upon a high place,

And saw, below, many devils

Running, leaping,

And carousing in sin.

One looked up, grinning,

And said, “Comrade! Brother!”

—STEPHEN CRANE

The essential American character is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer.

—D. H. LAWRENCE

Lo que no tiene remedio se tiene que aguantar.

—AN OLD MEXICAN DICHO