entire community. Without regard to sect, all repaired to the places of
worship, where the services were performed amid the deepest solemnity.

The day of execution appointed for Hughson, his wife, and Peggy was a
solemn one, and almost the entire population turned out to witness it. The
former had declared that some extraordinary appearance would take place at
his execution, and every one gazed on him as he passed in a cart from the
prison to the gallows. He was a tall, powerful man, being six feet high.
He stood erect in the cart all the way, his piercing eye fixed steadily on
the distance, and his right hand raised high as his fetters would permit,
and beckoning as though he saw help coming from afar. His face was usually
pale and colorless, but to-day it was noticed that two bright red spots
burned on either cheek, which added to the mystery with which the
superstitious spectators invested him. When the sad procession arrived at
the place of execution, the prisoners were helped to the ground, and stood
exposed to the gaze of the crowd. Hughson was firm and self-possessed; but
Peggy, pale, and weeping, and terror-struck, begging for life; while the
wife, with the rope round her neck, leaned against a tree, silent and
composed, but colorless as marble. One after another they were launched
into eternity, and the crowd, solemn and thoughtful, turned their steps
homeward.

Hughson was hung in chains; and in a few days a negro was placed beside
him, and here they swung, "blind and blackening," in the April air, in
full view of the tranquil bay, a ghastly spectacle to the fishermen as
they plied their vocation near by. For three weeks they dangled here in
sunshine and storm, a terror to the passers-by. At length a rumor passed
through the town that Hughson had turned into a negro, and the negro into
a white man. This was a new mystery, and day after day crowds would come
and gaze on the strange transformation, some thinking it supernatural, and