among other things, that it was the same plot that failed in 1712, when
the negroes designed to kill all the whites, in fact, exterminate them
from the island. She implicated a great many negroes in the conspiracy;
and every one that she accused, as they were brought before her, she
identified as being present at the meetings of the conspirators in Romme's
house. The court seemed anxious to avoid any collusion between the
prisoners, and therefore kept them apart, so that each story should rest
on its own basis. By this course they thought they would be able to
distinguish what was true and what was false.

Either from conscious guilt, or from having got some inkling of the charge
to be brought against him, Romme fled before he could be arrested. His
wife, however, and the negroes whose names Peggy gave, were sent to jail.

On the 11th of May, or twenty days after the court convened, the
executions commenced. On this day, Caesar and Prince, two of the three
negroes Mary Burton testified against, were hung, though not for the
conspiracy, but for theft. They were abandoned men, and died recklessly.
Peggy and Hughson and his wife were next condemned. The former, finding
that her confession did not, as had been promised, secure her pardon,
retracted all she had said, and exculpated entirely the parties whose
arrest she had caused.

An atmosphere of gloom now rested over the city; every face showed signs
of dread. In this state of feeling the Lieutenant-governor issued a
proclamation, appointing a day of fasting and humiliation, not only in
view of this calamity, but on account also of the want and loss caused by
the past severe winter, and the declaration of war by England against
Spain. When the day arrived, every shop was closed and business of all
kinds suspended, and the silence and repose of the Sabbath rested on the