protection of the law: none can hurt them
with impunity; but notwithstanding all the kindness and tenderness
with which they have been treated among us, yet this is the second
attempt of this same kind that this brutish and bloody species of
mankind have made within one age!" Of course the jury knew their duty,
and merely went through the form of going out and coming in
immediately with a verdict of "guilty." The judge sentenced them to be
chained to a stake and burnt to death,--"and the Lord have mercy upon
your poor wretched souls." His Honor told them that "they should be
thankful that their feet were caught in the net; that the mischief had
fallen upon their own pates." He advised them to consider the
tenderness and humanity with which they had been treated; that they
were the most abject wretches, the very outcasts of the nations of the
earth; and, therefore, they should look to their souls, for as to
their bodies, they would be burnt.

These poor fellows were accordingly chained to the stake the next
Sunday; but, before the fuel was lighted, Deputy Sheriff More and Mr.
Rosevelt again questioned Quack and Cuffee, and reduced their
confessions to paper, for they had stoutly protested their innocence
while in court, in hope of being saved they confessed, in substance,
that Hughson contrived to burn the town, and kill the people; that a
company of Negroes voted Quack the proper person to burn the fort,
because his wife lived there; that he did set the chapel on fire with
a lighted stick; that Mary Burton had told the truth, and that she
could implicate many more if she would, etc. All this general lying
was done with the understanding that the confessors were to be
reprieved until the governor could be heard from. But a large crowd
had gathered to witness the burning of these poor Negroes, and they
compelled the sheriff to proceed with the ceremonies. The convicted
slaves were burned.

On the 1st of June the boy Sawney was again put upon the
witness-stand. His testimony led to the arrest of more Negroes. He
charged them with having been sworn to the plot, and with having sharp
penknives with which to kill white men. One Fortune testified that he
never knew of houses where conspirators met, nor did he know Hughson,
but accuses Sawney, and Quack who had been burnt. The next witness was
a Negro girl named Sarah. She was frightened out of her senses. She
foamed at the mouth, uttered the bitterest imprecations, and denie