abandoned character, being a prostitute to the negroes, and at this time
kept as a mistress by a bold, desperate negro named Caesar. This
revelation of Mary's fell on the Grand Jury like a bombshell. The long-
sought secret they now felt was out. They immediately informed the
magistrates. Of course the greatest excitement followed. Peggy was next
examined, but she denied Mary Burton's story _in toto_--swore that
she knew nothing of any conspiracy or of the burning of the stores; that
if she should accuse any one it would be a lie, and blacken her own soul.

It is rather a severe reflection on the courts of justice of that period,
or we might rather say, perhaps, a striking illustration of the madness
that had seized on all, that although the law strictly forbade any slave
to testify in a court of justice against a white person, yet this girl
Mary Burton was not only allowed to appear as evidence against Peggy, but
her oath was permitted to outweigh hers, and cause her to be sentenced to
death. The latter, though an abandoned, desperate character, was seized
with terror at the near approach of death, and begged to be allowed
another examination, which was granted, and she professed to make a full
confession. It is a little singular that while she corroborated Mary
Burton's statement as to the existence of a conspiracy, she located the
seat of it not in Hughson's tavern, but in a miserable shanty near the
Battery, kept by John Romme, who, she said, had promised to carry them all
to a new country, and give them their liberty, if they would murder the
whites and bring him the plunder. Like Mary Burton's confession, if
truthful at all, it evidently had a large mixture of falsehood in it.

On Saturday, May 9th, Peggy was again brought in, and underwent a
searching examination. Some of her statements seemed improbable, and they
therefore tested them in every possible way. It lasted for several hours,
and resulted in a long _detailed_ confession, in which she asserted,