The square around the court-house was black with citizens awaiting an opportunity to enter the building. In the midst of this mass could be seen two files of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder in order to keep open a passage for the officers and witnesses, and a short distance away were the governor's troops under arms in case it should please our oppressor to order an attack upon the helpless throng.
CHAPTER XI.
THE TRIAL.
Now the trial was so near at hand—when in a few hours we should know beyond a peradventure to what lengths Tryon would go in his villainy towards the people of the Carolinas we no longer discussed the possibilities of the near future.
If Masters Husband and William Hunter were set free, as indeed could be the only just verdict of the judges, and if Fanning was convicted of having extorted money from the people without even the color of the law to sustain him, then would our colony be peaceful; but I question if one among all those horsemen who awaited the signal to disperse quietly or to ride to their deaths, believed that justice would triumph.
Even two lads like Sidney and myself understood that the governor would deny us our rights, and the thoughts of what might come to those we loved before the sun had disappeared behind the hills, rendered us dumb.
I did not see any of the gentlemen conversing. I threw myself at full length on the grass close by Sidney's side, and would hardly have heard him had he spoken.
My eyes were fixed upon the court-house, surrounded as it was by that vast throng of people, and I noted every movement, however slight.
When the judges and the officers of the court marched through the lane formed by the weapons of the soldiers, I saw them plainly, and could almost imagine that the voice of the sheriff rang in my ears as he uttered the words which opened the sitting.
My father and four other Regulators had gone into town in order to give evidence against Fanning, and to combat the charge of "riotous conduct" which had been preferred against our friends.
All the other gentlemen of our company remained on the hillside, save Master Hamilton, who stood on the highest point in the encampment where he might see any signal which our people should give.