When Houseman had given his evidence respecting this extraordinary affair, and all such collateral testimony had been taken as could be adduced on such an occasion, Aram was called on for his defence; but, having foreseen that the perturbation of his spirits would incapacitate him to make such a defence without previous preparation, he had written the following, which, by permission, he read in court:—
“My Lord:—I know not whether it is of right, or through some indulgence of your lordship, that I am allowed the liberty at this bar to attempt a defence, incapable and uninstructed as I am, to speak. Since, while I see so many eyes upon me, so numerous and awful a concourse, fixed with attention, and filled with—I know not what expectancy, I labor not with guilt, my lord, but with perplexity. For having never seen a court but this—being wholly unacquainted with law—the customs of the bar, and all judiciary proceedings, I fear I shall be so little capable of speaking with propriety in this place, that it exceeds my hope if I shall be able to speak at all.
“I have heard, my lord, the indictment read, wherein I find myself charged with the highest crime—with an enormity which I am altogether incapable of—to the commission of which, there goes far more insensibility of heart, more profligacy of morals, than ever fell to my lot. And nothing possibly could have admitted a presumption of this nature, but a depravity not inferior to that imputed to me. However, as I stand indicted at your lordship’s bar, and have heard what is called evidence adduced in support of such a charge, I very humbly solicit your lordship’s patience, and beg the hearing of this respectable audience, while I, single and unskilful—destitute of friends, and unassisted by counsel, say something perhaps like argument in my defence. I shall consume but little of your lordship’s time. What I have to say, will be short, and this brevity, probably, will be the best part of it; however, it is offered with all possible regard, and the greatest submission to your lordship’s consideration, and that of this honorable court.
“First, my lord, the whole tenor of my conduct in life contradicts every particular of this indictment. Yet, I had never said this, did not my present circumstances extort it from me, and seem to make it necessary. Permit me here, my lord, to call upon malignity itself, so long and cruelly busied in this prosecution, to charge upon me any immorality of which prejudice was not the author. No, my lord, I concerted no scheme of fraud; projected no violence, injured no man’s person or private property; my days were honestly laborious, my nights intensely studious. And I humbly conceive my notice of this, especially at this time, will not be thought impertinent or unseasonable, but at least deserving some attention; because, my Lord, that any person, after a temperate use of life, a series of thinking and acting regularly, without one single deviation from sobriety, should plunge into the very depth of profligacy, precipitately, and at once, is altogether improbable and unprecedented, and absolutely inconsistent with the course of things. Mankind is never corrupted at once; villany is always progressive, and declines from right, step after step, till every regard of probity is lost, and every sense of all moral obligation totally perishes.
“Again, my lord, a suspicion of this kind, which nothing but malevolence could entertain and ignorance propagate, is violently opposed by my very situation at that time, with respect to health; for, but a little space before, I was confined to my bed, and suffered under a very long and severe disorder, and was not able, for half a year together, so much as to walk. The distemper left me, indeed, yet slowly and in part; but so macerated, so enfeebled, that I was reduced to crutches; and so far from being well about the time I am charged with the fact, that I never, to this day, have perfectly recovered. Could then a person in this condition, take anything into his head so extravagant? I, past the vigor of my age, feeble and valetudinary, with no inducement to engage, with no ability to accomplish, no weapon wherewith to perpetrate such a feat; without interest, without power, without motive, without means.
“Besides, it must need occur to every one, that an action of this atrocious nature is never heard of, but, when its springs are laid open, it appears that it was to support some indolence, or supply some luxury; to satisfy some avarice, or oblige some malice; to prevent some real or some imaginary want: yet I lay not under the influence of any of these. Surely, my lord, I may, consistently with both truth and modesty, affirm this much; and none who have any veracity, and know me, will ever question it.
“In the second place, the disappearance of Clarke is suggested as an argument of his being dead; but the uncertainty of such an inference from that, and the fallibility of all conclusions of such a sort, from such a circumstance, are too obvious and too notorious, to require instances; yet, superseding many, permit me to procure a very recent one, and that afforded by this castle.
“In June, 1757, William Thompson, for all the vigilance of this place, in open day-light, and double-ironed, made his escape; and, notwithstanding an immediate inquiry set on foot, the strictest search and all advertisement, was never seen or heard of since. If, then, Thompson got off unseen through all these difficulties, how very easy was it for Clarke, when none of them opposed him? But what would be thought of a prosecution commenced against any one seen last with Thompson?
“Permit me next, my lord, to observe a little upon the bones which have been discovered. It is said, which perhaps is saying very far, that these are the skeleton of a man. It is possible, indeed, they may; but is there any certain criterion, which incontestably distinguishes the sex in human bones? Let it be considered, my lord, whether the ascertaining this point ought not to precede any attempt to identify them.
“The place of their depositum, too, claims much more attention than is commonly bestowed upon it; for of all places in the world none could have mentioned any one, wherein there was greater certainty of finding human bones than a hermitage, except he should point out a church-yard; hermitages, in times past, being not only places of religious retirement, but of burial too. And it has scarce or never been heard of, but that every cell now known, contains or contained these relics of humanity, some mutilated and some entire. I do not inform, but give me leave to remind your lordship, that here sat solitary sanctity, and here the hermit or the anchoress, who hoped for that repose to their bones, when dead, which they here enjoyed when living.