Eugene Aram — Volume 05Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
Eugene Aram — Volume 05
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
Aram, Eugene, 1704-1759 -- Fiction
Houseman was called upon. No one could regard his face without a certain
mistrust and inward shudder. In men prone to cruelty, it has generally
been remarked, that there is an animal expression strongly prevalent in
the countenance. The murderer and the lustful man are often alike in the
physical structure. The bull-throat--the thick lips--the receding
forehead--the fierce restless eye--which some one or other says reminds
you of the buffalo in the instant before he becomes dangerous, are the
outward tokens of the natural animal unsoftened--unenlightened--
unredeemed--consulting only the immediate desires of his nature,
whatever be the passion (lust or revenge) to which they prompt. And this
animal expression, the witness of his character, was especially wrought,
if we may use the word, in House-man's rugged and harsh features;
rendered, if possible, still more remarkable at that time by a mixture of
sullenness and timidity. The conviction that his own life was saved,
could not prevent remorse at his treachery in accusing his comrade--a
sort of confused principle of which villains are the most susceptible,
when every other honest sentiment has deserted them.
With a low, choked, and sometimes a faltering tone, Houseman deposed,
that, in the night between the 7th and 8th of January 1744-5, sometime
before 11 o'clock, he went to Aram's house--that they conversed on
different matters--that he stayed there about an hour--that some three
hours afterwards he passed, in company with Clarke, by Aram's house, and
Aram was outside the door, as if he were about to return home--that Aram
invited them both to come in--that they did so--that Clarke, who intended
to leave the town before day-break, in order, it was acknowledged, to
make secretly away with certain property in his possession, was about to
quit the house, when Aram proposed to accompany him out of the town--that
he (Aram) and Houseman then went forth with Clarke--that when they came
into the field where St. Robert's Cave is, Aram and Clarke went into it,
over the hedge, and when they came within six or eight yards off the
Cave, he saw them quarrelling--that he saw Aram strike Clarke several
times, upon which Clarke fell, and he never saw him rise again--that he
saw no instrument Aram had, and knew not that he had any--that upon this,
without any interposition or alarm, he left them and returned home--that
the next morning he went to Aram's house, and asked what business he had
with Clarke last night, and what he had done with him? Aram replied not
to this question; but threatened him, if he spoke of his being in
Clarke's company that night; vowing revenge either by himself or some
other person if he mentioned any thing relating to the affair. This was
the sum of Houseman's evidence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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