At my door the Pale Horse stands To carry me to unknown lands. - John Hay

Dealing with a government [Tsarist Russia] with whom mendacity is a science is an extremely difficult and delicate matter.

He never funked and he never lied
I reckon he never knowed how.

He weren't no saint—but at jedgment I'd run my chance with Jim.
'Longside of some pious gentlemen That wouldn't shook hands with him.
He seen his duty, a dead-sure thing— And went for it thar and then;
And Christ ain't a-going to be too hard On a man that died for men.