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 "Open, or we force our entrance!" shouted Walter again; and Aram, speaking for the first time, replied in a clear and sonorous voice, so that an angel, had one spoken, could not have more deeply impressed the heart of Rowland Lester, with a conviction of the Student's innocence;

"Who knocks so rudely?—what means this violence? I open my doors to my friends. Is it a friend who asks it?"

"I ask it," said Rowland Lester, in a trembling and agitated voice; "there seems some dreadful mistake; come forth, Eugene, and rectify it by a word."

"Is it you, Rowland Lester? it is enough. I was but with my books, and had secured myself from intrusion,—Enter!"

The bar was withdrawn, the door was burst open, and even Walter Lester—even the officers of justice with him—drew back for a moment, as they beheld the lofty brow, the majestic presence, the features so unutterably calm, of Eugene Aram.

"What want you. Sirs?" said he, unmoved,