Six hasty strides beyond the place,
Then slowly back again;

And down he sat beside the lad,

And talked with him of Cain.

He told how murderers walked the earth
Beneath the curse of Cain,

With crimson clouds before their eyes,
And flames about their brain;
For blood has left upon their souls

Its everlasting stain!

"And well," quoth he, "I know for truth

Their pangs must be extreme – Woe, woe, unutterable woe!

Who spill life's sacred stream.

For why? Methought, last night I wrought A murder, in a dream!

"One that had never done me wrong,

A feeble man and old;

I led him to a lonely field,

The moon shone clear and cold:

Now here, said I, this man shall die,

And I will have his gold!

"Two sudden blows with a ragged stick,
And one with a heavy stone,

One hurried gash with a hasty knife, -
And then the deed was done;
There was nothing lying at my feet
But lifeless flesh and bone!

"And I took the dreary body up,

And cast it in a stream,

The sluggish water black as ink,
The depth was so extreme:
My gentle boy, remember, this

Is nothing but a dream!

"Down went the corse with a hollow plunge, And vanished in the pool;

Anon I cleansed my bloody hands,

And washed my forehead cool, And sat among the urchins young, That evening, in the school.

"O Heaven! to think of their white souls,

And mine so black and grim!

I could not share in childish prayer,
Nor join in evening hymn;
Like a devil of the pit I seemed,
'Mid holy cherubim !

"All night I lay in agony,
From weary chime to chime;
With one besetting horrid hint
That racked me all the time, -
A mighty yearning, like the first
Fierce impulse unto crime,

"One stern tyrannic thought, that made All other thoughts its slave! Stronger and stronger every pulse

Did that temptation crave,

Still urging me to go and see
The dead man in his grave!

Heavily I rose up, as soon
As light was in the sky,

And sought the black, accursed pool
With a wild, misgiving eye;

And I saw the dead in the river-bed,
For the faithless stream was dry.

"With breathless speed, like a soul in chase,

I took him up and ran ;

There was no time to dig a grave

Before the day began ;

In a lonesome wood, with heaps of leaves,

I hid the murdered man!

"And all that day I read in school,
But my thought was otherwhere ;
As soon as the mid-day task was done,
In secret I was there,-

And a mighty wind had swept the leaves,
And still the corse was bare!

"O God! that horrid, horrid dream

Besets me now awake!

Again - again, with dizzy brain,

The human life I take;

And my red right hand grows raging hot, Like Cranmer's at the stake.

"And still no peace for the restless clay

Will wave or mould allow ;

The horrid thing pursues my soul,

It stands before me now!"
The fearful boy looked up, and saw
Huge drops upon his brow.

That very night, while gentle sleep
The urchin's eyelids kissed,

Two stern-faced men set out from Lynn

Through the cold and heavy mist;

And Eugene Aram walked between,

With gyves upon his wrist.