you would command, you would awe me to sacrifice my
will and wishes, in order to soothe your anxieties, and strengthen your
own safety. Mark me! Eugene Aram, I have been treated as a tool, and I
will not be governed as a friend. I will not stir from the vicinity of
your home, till my designs be fulfilled,--I enjoy, I hug myself in your
torments. I exult in the terror with which you will hear of each new
enterprise, each new daring, each new triumph of myself and my gallant
comrades. And now I am avenged for the affront you put upon me."

Though Aram trembled, with suppressed passions, from limb to limb, his
voice was still calm, and his lip even wore a smile as he answered,--"I
was prepared for this, Houseman, you utter nothing that surprises or
appalls me. You hate me; it is natural; men united as we are, rarely
look on each other with a friendly or a pitying eye. But Houseman; I
know you!--you are a man of vehement passions, but interest with you is
yet stronger than passion. If not, our conference is over. Go--and do
your worst."

"You are right, most learned scholar; I can fetter the tiger within, in
his deadliest rage, by a golden chain."

"Well, then, Houseman, it is not your interest to betray me--my
destruction is your own."

"I grant it; but if I am apprehended, and to be hung for robbery?"

"It will be no longer an object to you, to care for my safety.
Assuredly, I comprehend this. But my interest induces me to wish
that you be removed from the peril of apprehension, and your interest
replies, that if you can obtain equal advantages in security, you would
forego advantages accompanied by peril. Say what we will, wander as we
will, it is to this point that we must return at last."

"Nothing can be clearer; and were you a rich man, Eugene Aram, or could
you obtain your bride's dowry (no doubt a respectable sum) in advance,
the arrangement might at once be settled."

Aram gasped for breath, and as usual with him in emotion, made several
strides forward, muttering rapidly, and indistinctly to himself, and
then returned.

"Even were this possible, it would be but a short reprieve; I could not
trust you; the sum would be spent, and I again in the state to which you
have compelled me now; but without the means again to relieve myself.
No, no! if the blow must fall, be it so one day as another."

"As you will," said Houseman; 'but--' Just at that moment, a long
shrill whistle sounded below, as from the wate