t the watchfulness of the guard might defeat the attempt,
Peter remarked that he "would advance a little distance ahead, and if he
could only get a _grip at his throat he was a gone man_, for his sword
was very sharp; he had sharpened it, and made it so sharp it had cut his
finger." And as if to cast the last lingering doubt out of his disciple
in regard to his (Peter's) ability to fix the sentinel, he showed him
the bloody cut on his finger.

Other leaders, at the head of their respective bands, were at the same
time, and from six different quarters, to attack the city, surprising and
seizing all of its strategical points, and the buildings, where were
deposited its arms and ammunition. A body of insurgent horse was,
meanwhile, to keep the streets clear, cutting down without mercy all
white persons, and suspected blacks, whom they might encounter, in order
to prevent the whites from concentrating or spreading the alarm through
the doomed town. Such was Denmark Vesey's masterly and merciless plan of
campaign in bare outline for the capture of Charleston, a plan, which,
with such a sagacious head as was Vesey, was entirely feasible, and
which would have, undoubtedly, succeeded but for the happening of the
unexpected at a critical stage of its execution. Against such an
occurrence as was this one, no man in Vesey's situation, however supreme
might have been his ability as a leader, could have completely provided.
The element of treachery could not by any device have been wholly
eliminated from his chapter of accidents and chances. To do what he set
out to do, with the means at his disposition, Vesey had of necessity to
take the tremendous risk of betrayal at the hand of some black traitor.
It was, in reality, sad to relate his greatest risk, and became the one
insurmountable barrier in the way of his final success.

Sunday at midnight of July 14, 1822, was fixed upon originally as the
time for beginning his attack upon the city. But about the last of May,
owing to indications that the plot had been discovered, he shortened the
period of its preparation, and appointed instead midnight of Sunday,
June 16th, of the same year. His reason for selecting the original date
illustrates his careful and astute attention to details in making his
plans. He had noted that the white population of Charleston was subject,
to a certain extent, to regular tidal movements; that at one season of
the year this movement was at high tide, and th