Caesar was accordingly hung in
chains."[248]

On the 13th of May, 1741, a solemn fast was observed; "because many
houses and dwellings had been fired about our ears, without any
discovery of the cause or occasion of them, which had put us into the
utmost consternation." Excitement ran high. Instead of getting any
light on the affair, the plot thickened.

On the 6th of May, Hughson, his wife, and Peggy Carey had been tried
and found guilty, as has already been stated. Sarah Hughson, daughter
of the Hughsons, was in jail. Mary Burton was the heroine of the hour.
Her word was law. Whoever she named was produced in court. The
sneak-thief, Arthur Price, was employed by the judges to perform a
mission that was at once congenial to his tastes and in harmony with
his criminal education. He was sent among the incarcerated Negroes to
administer punch, in the desperate hope of getting more "confessions!"
Next, he was sent to Sarah Hughson to persuade her to accuse her
father and mother of complicity in the conspiracy. He related a
conversation he had with Sarah, but she denied it to his teeth with
great indignation. This vile and criminal method of securing testimony
of a conspiracy never brought the blush to the cheek of a single
officer of the law. "None of these things moved" them. They were
themselves so completely lost in the general din and excitement, were
so thoroughly convinced that a plot existed, and that it was their
duty to prove it in some manner or other,--that they believed every
thing that went to establish the guilt of any one.

Even a feeble-minded boy was arrested, and taken before the grand
jury. He swore that he knew nothing of the plot to burn the town, but
the kind magistrates told him that if he would tell the truth he
should not be hanged. Ignorant as these helpless slaves were, they now
understood "telling the truth" to mean to criminate some one in the
plot, and thus gratify the inordinate hunger of the judges and jury
for testimony relating to a "conspiracy." This Negro imbecile began
his task of telling "what he knew," which was to be rewarded by
allowing him to leave without being hung! He deposed that Quack
desired him to burn the fort; that Cuffee said he would fire one
house, Curacoa Dick another, and so on _ad infinitum_. He was asked by
one of the learned gentlemen, "what the Negroes intended by all this
mischief?" He answered, "To kill all the gentlemen and take their
wives; that one