returned to Hughson's again.
The testimony of Mary Burton went to show that a Negro by the name of
Caesar Varick, but called Quin, on the night in which the burglary was
committed, entered Peggy's room through the window. The next morning
Mary Burton saw "speckled linen" in Peggy's room, and that the man
Varick gave the deponent two pieces of silver. She further testified
that Varick drank two mugs of punch, and bought of Hughson a pair of
stockings, giving him a lump of silver; and that Hughson and his wife
received and hid away the linen.[245] Mr. John Varick (it was spelled
Vaarck then), a baker, the owner of Caesar, occupied a house near the
new Battery, the kitchen of which adjoined the yard of John Romme's
house. He found some of Robert Hogg's property under his kitchen
floor, and delivered it to the mayor. Upon this revelation Romme fled
to New Jersey, but was subsequently captured at Brunswick. He had
followed shoemaking and tavern-keeping, and was, withal, a very
suspicious character.

Up to this time nothing had been said about a Negro plot. It was
simply a case of burglary. Hughson had admitted receiving certain
articles, and restored them; Mr. Varick had found others, and
delivered them to the mayor.

The reader will remember that the burglary took place on the 28th of
February; that the justices arraigned the Hughsons, Mary Burton, and
Peggy Carey on the 4th of March; that the first fire broke out on the
18th, the second on the 25th, of March, the third on the 1st of April,
and the fourth and fifth on the 4th of April; that on the 5th of April
coals were found disposed so as to burn a haystack, and that the day
following two houses were discovered to be on fire.

On the 11th of April the Common Council met. The following gentlemen
were present: John Cruger, Esq., mayor; the recorder, Daniel
Horsemanden; aldermen, Gerardus Stuyvesant, William Romaine, Simon
Johnson, John Moore, Christopher Banker, John Pintard, John Marshall;
assistants, Henry Bogert, Isaac Stoutenburgh, Philip Minthorne, George
Brinckerhoff, Robert Benson, and Samuel Lawrence. Recorder Horsemanden
suggested to the council that the governor be requested to offer
rewards for the apprehension of the incendiaries and all persons
implicated, and that the city pay the cost, etc. It was accordingly
resolved that the lieutenant-governor be requested to offer a reward
of one hundred pounds current money of the Province to any white
person, and p