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 "Before God, I can swear it!" replied Houseman, at length finding voice.

"!" broke from Walter's lips, as he sank upon his knees; and that exclamation completed the awe and horror which prevailed in the breasts of all present. Stung by the sense of the danger he had drawn upon himself, and despair and excitement restoring in some measure not only his natural hardihood but his natural astuteness; Houseman, here, mastering his emotions and making that effort which he was afterwards enabled to follow up with an advantage to himself, of which he could not then have dreamed;—Houseman, I say, cried aloud:

"But I did not do the deed; I am not the murderer."

"Speak out,—whom do you accuse?" said the Curate.

Drawing his breath hard, and setting his teeth, as with some steeled determination, Houseman replied:

"The murderer is Eugene Aram!"