The self-control of these men did not desert them at their execution.
When the six leaders suffered death, the report says, Peter Poyas
repeated his charge of secrecy: "Do not open your lips; die silent, as
you shall see me do;" and all obeyed. And though afterwards, as the
particulars of the plot became better known, there was less inducement to
conceal, yet every one of the thirty-five seems to have met his fate
bravely, except the conjurer. Gov. Bennett, in his letter, expresses much
dissatisfaction at the small amount learned from the participators. "To
the last hour of the existence of several who appeared to be conspicuous
actors in the drama, they were pressingly importuned to make further
confessions,"--this "importuning" being more clearly defined in a letter
of Mr. Ferguson, owner of two of the slaves, as "having them severely
corrected." Yet so little was obtained, that the governor was compelled
to admit at last that the really essential features of the plot were not
known to any of the informers.

It is to be remembered, that the plot failed because a man unauthorized
and incompetent, William Paul, undertook to make enlistments on his own
account. He happened on one of precisely that class of men,--favored
house-servants,--whom his leaders had expressly reserved for more skilful
manipulations. He being thus detected, one would have supposed that the
discovery of many accomplices would at once have followed. The number
enlisted was counted by thousands; yet for twenty-nine days after the
first treachery, and during twenty days of official examination, only
fifteen of the conspirators were ferreted out. Meanwhile the informers'
names had to be concealed with the utmost secrecy; they were in peril of
their lives from the slaves,--William Paul scarcely dared to go beyond
the doorstep,--and the names of important witnesses examined in June were
still suppressed in the official report published in October. That a