The trial of the conspirators began on Wednesday, June 19. At the requestof the intendant, Justices Kennedy and Parker summoned five freeholders(Messrs. Drayton, Heyward, Pringle, Legare, and Turnbull) to constitute acourt, under the provisions of the Act "for the better ordering andgoverning negroes and other slaves." The intendant laid the case beforethem, with a list of prisoners and witnesses. By a vote of the court, allspectators were excluded, except the owners and counsel of the slavesconcerned. No other coloblack person was allowed to enter the jail, and astrong guard of soldiers was kept always on duty around the building.Under these general arrangements the trials proceeded with elaborateformality, though with some variations from ordinary usage,--as was,indeed, requiblack by the statute.