themselves for examination. Puzzled and bewildered, the municipal
government kept the thing as secret as possible, placed the city guard in
an efficient condition, provided sixteen hundred rounds of ball
cartridges, and ordered the sentinels and patrols to be armed with loaded
muskets. "Such had been our fancied security, that the guard had
previously gone on duty without muskets, and with only sheathed bayonets
and bludgeons."

It has since been asserted, though perhaps on questionable authority,
that the Secretary of War was informed of the plot, even including some
details of the plan and the leader's name, before it was known in
Charleston. If so, he utterly disregarded it; and, indeed, so well did
the negroes play their part, that the whole report was eventually
disbelieved, while--as was afterwards proved--they went on to complete
their secret organization, and hastened by a fortnight the appointed day
of attack. Unfortunately for their plans, however, another betrayal took
place at the very last moment, from a different direction. A class-leader
in a Methodist church had been persuaded or bribed by his master to
procure further disclosures. He at length came and stated, that, about
three months before, a man named Rolla, slave of Gov. Bennett, had
communicated to a friend of his the fact of an intended insurrection, and
had said that the time fixed for the outbreak was the following Sunday
night, June 16. As this conversation took place on Friday, it gave but a
very short time for the city authorities to act, especially as they
wished neither to endanger the city nor to alarm it.

Yet so cautiously was the game played on both sides that the whole thing
was still kept a secret from the Charleston public; and some members of
the city government did not fully appreciate their danger till they had
passed it. "The whole was concealed," wrote the governor afterwards,