Historic%20Yorkshire

EUGENE ARAM. 157
may well suppose that, however dissipated he may have
been there with his boon companions, this must have all
been altered on his taking the various respectable and
responsible positionshe heldduring his voluntary banishment.
Ifhe was unable entirely to repress those habits of
intemperance,his shortcomings must have beenknown to
himself alone, and when we think of the many chances
he had of leaving the country, and thus placing his subsequent
capture beyond all probability,we are not a little
inclinedat first to believe inhis innocence.
We have said that nothingmore was heard of Clarke;
but, in 1759, a labourer digging for limestone near a
place known as St. Robert's Cave, by Thistle Hill,
near Knaresborough,found a human skeleton which had
apparently been buried bent double, and the disposition
of which led those who saw it to suspect that it came
there by foul play. Numerous were the conjectures
hazarded, and the suspicion arose that the skeleton
might be that of the Daniel Clarke who had been so
suddenly missing some years before, and was never
heard of again; and when the person who remembered
the time spoke of it others recollected that they had heard
a womanin Knaresboroughassert that if she would she
could hang her husband, who had deserted her several
years ago,and not only him but others of the district.
This woman, it was also brought to mind, was Eugene
Aram's wife, and remembering the ancient friendship
between him and some others, the suspicions were so
strong that the authorities apprehended Eugene Aram,
Richard Houseman, and Henry Terry, previously mentioned.
They were charged with the murder of Daniel
Clarke, as being the last seen in his company, and tried
at York, 3rd August, 1759. The case against the three
prisoners was anything but strong, and had it not been
for the pusillanimous demeanour of the prisoner Houseman
while on his trial in the dock, it is probable that
they would all have beenacquitted,but his agitationand
fear lead the counsel for the prosecution to examine him