ifting clouds, and Houseman said he could see the movement of
Aram's hand but not the weapon that it held. He was about twelve yards
from the spot of the murder. He testified that the body of Clarke was
buried in the cave. The presiding justice charged against the prisoner
and Eugene Aram was convicted and condemned. He subsequently, it is
said, confessed the crime, alleging to the clergyman by whom he was
attended that his wife had been led into an intrigue by Clarke, and that
this was the cause of the murder. Here, doubtless, is the indication of
the true nature of this tragedy. Aram, prior to his execution, was
confined in York Castle, where he wrote a poem of considerable length
and some merit, and also several shorter pieces of verse. On the morning
of his execution it was found that he had opened a vein in his arm, with
the intent to bleed to death, but the wound was staunched, and he was
taken to Knaresborough and there hanged, and afterward his body was hung
in chains in Knaresborough Forest. His death occurred on August 13,
1759, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. On the night before his
execution he wrote a rhythmical apostrophe to death:--

"Come, pleasing rest! eternal slumber fall!
Seal mine, that once must seal the eyes of all!
Calm and composed my soul her journey takes;
No guilt that troubles and no heart that aches."

Such is the story of Eugene Aram--a story that has furnished the basis
of various fictions, notably of Bulwer's famous novel, and which
inspired one of the best of the beautiful poems of Thomas Hood. Wills
gathered hints from it, here and there, in the making of his play; but
he boldly departed from its more hideous and repulsive incidents and
from the theory of the main character that might perhaps be justified by
its drift. In the construction of the piece Henry Irving made many
material suggestions. The treatment of the character of Aram was devised
by him, and the management of the close of the second act denotes his
felicity of invention.

The play opens in the rose-garden of a rural rectory in the sweet, green
valley of the shining Nidd. The time is twilight; the season summer; and
here, in a haven of peace and love, the repentant murderer has found a
refuge. Many years have passed since the commission of his crime, and
all those years he has lived a good life, devoted to study, instruction,
and works of benevolence. He has been a teacher of the young, a helper
of