The Hour and the Man Part 25

said Genifrede. "Wors.h.i.+p Isaac still; for that is a harmless idolatry; but give up your new religion, Aimee; for it is not sound."

"Why not sound? How do you know that it is not sound?"

"When have the blacks ever trusted the whites without finding themselves bound victims in the end?"

"I have," said Vincent. "I have lived among them a life of charms, and I am free," he continued, stretching his arms to the air--"free to embrace the knees of both Bonaparte and L'Ouverture--free to embrace the world."

"The end has not come yet," said Moyse.

"What end?" asked Aimee.

"Nay, G.o.d knows what end, if we trust the French."

"You speak from prejudice," said Aimee. "Monsieur Vincent and my brothers judge from facts."

"We speak from facts," said Genifrede; "from, let us see--from seven-- no, eight, very ugly facts."

"The eight Commissaries that the colony has been blessed with," said Moyse. "If they had taken that monkey which is looking down at your drawing, Aimee, and seven of its brethren, and installed them at Cap, they would have done us all the good the Commissaries have done, and far less mischief. The monkeys would have broken the mirrors, and made a hubbub within the walls of Government-house. These Commissaries, one after another, from Mirbeck to Hedouville, have insulted the colony, and sown quarrels in it, from end to end."

"Mirbeck! Here is Mirbeck," said Denis, who had come up to listen. And the boy rolled himself about like a drunken man--like Mirbeck, as he had seen him in the streets of Cap.

"Then they sent Saint Leger, the Irishman," continued Moyse, "who kept his hand in every man's pocket, whether black or white."

Denis forthwith had his hands, one in Vincent's pocket, the other in Azua's. Azua, however, was drawing so fast that he did not find it out.

"Then there was Roume."

"Roume. My father speaks well of Roume," said Aimee.

"He was amiable enough, but so weak that he soon had to go home, where he was presently joined by his successor, Santhonax, whom, you know, L'Ouverture had to get rid of, for the safety of the colony. Then came Polverel. What the tranquillity of Saint Domingo was in his day we all remember."

Denis took off Polverel, spying from his s.h.i.+p at the island, on which he dared not land.

"For shame, Denis?" said Aimee. "You are ridiculing him who first called my father L'Ouverture."

"And do you suppose he knew the use that would be made of the word?"

asked Genifrede. "If he had foreseen its being a tide, he would have contented himself with the obsequious bows I remember so well, and never have spoken the word."

Denis was forthwith bowing, with might and main.

"Now, Denis, be quiet! Raymond, dear Raymond, came next;" and she looked up at Vincent as she praised his friend.

"Raymond is excellent as a man, whatever he may be as governor of Cap,"

said Moyse. "But we have been speaking of whites, not of mulattoes-- which is another long chapter."

"Raymond was sent to us by France, however," said Aimee.

"So was our friend Vincent there; but that is nothing to the purpose."

"Well; who next?" cried Denis.

"Do not encourage him," said Aimee. "My father would be vexed with you for training him to ridicule the French--particularly the authorities."

"Now we are blessed with Hedouville," pursued Moyse. "There you have him, Denis--only scarcely sly, scarcely smooth enough. Yet, that is Hedouville, who has his eye and his smiles at play in one place, while his heart and hands are busy in another."

"Busy," said Genifrede, "in undermining L'Ouverture's influence, and counteracting his plans; but no one mentioned Ailbaud. Ailbaud--"

"Stay a moment," said Azua, whose voice had not been heard till then.

All looked at him in surprise, n.o.body supposing that, while so engrossed with his pencil, he could have cared for their conversation. Aimee saw at a glance that his paper was covered with caricatures of the commissaries who had been enumerated.

"You must have known them," was Aimee's involuntary testimony, as the paper went from hand to hand, amidst shouts of laughter, while Azua sat, with folded arms, perfectly grave.

"I have seen some of the gentlemen," said he, "and Monsieur Denis helped me to the rest."

The laughter went on till Aimee was somewhat nettled. When the paper came back to her, she looked up into the tree under which she sat. The staring monkey was still there. She made a vigorous spring to hand up the caricature, which the creature caught. As it sat demurely on a branch, holding the paper as if reading it, while one of its companions as gravely looked over its shoulder, there was more laughter than ever.

"I beg your pardon, Monsieur Azua," said Aimee; "but this is the only worthy fate of a piece of mockery of people wiser than ourselves, and no less kind. The negroes have hitherto been thought, at least, grateful.

It seems that this is a mistake. For my part, however, I leave it to the monkeys to ridicule the French."

Vincent seized her hand, and covered it with kisses. She was abashed, and turned away, when she saw her father behind her, in the shade of the wood. Monsieur Pascal, his secretary, was with him.

"My father!"

"L'Ouverture!" exclaimed one after another of the party; for they all supposed he had been far away. Even Denis at once gave over pelting the monkeys, and left them to their study of the arts in peace.

"Your drawings, my daughters!" said L'Ouverture, with a smile, as if he had been perfectly at leisure. And he examined the Naiad, and then Genifrede's drawing, with the attention of an artist. Genifrede had made great progress, under the eye of Moyse. Not so Aimee; her pencil had been busy all the while, but there was no Naiad on her page.

"They are for Isaac," she said, timidly. "Among all the pictures he sees, there are no--"

"No sketches of Denis and his little companions," said her father; "no cocoa-nut clumps--no broken fountains among the aloes--no groups that will remind him of home. Isaac shall presently have these, Aimee. I am on my way to Cap, and will send them."

"On your way to Cap!" cried every one--some in a tone of fear.

"To Cap," said he, "where Father Laxabon will follow me immediately, with Monsieur Pascal. By them, Aimee, you will send your packet for Isaac. My own horse is waiting."

"Do not go alone--do not go without good escort," said Moyse. "I can give you reason."

"I know your thoughts, Moyse. I go for the very reason that there are, or will be, troubles at Cap.--The French authorities may sometimes decree and do that which we feel to be unwise--unsuitable to the blacks," he continued, with an emphasis which gave some idea of his having overheard more or less of the late conversation; "but we islanders maybe more ignorant still of the thoughts and ways of their practised race."

"But you are personally unsafe," persisted Moyse. "If you knew what is said by the officers of Hedouville's staff--"

"They say," proceeded Toussaint, smiling, "that they only want three or four brigands to seize the ape with the Madras head dress; and then all would go well. These gentlemen are mistaken; and I am going to prove this to them. An armed escort proves nothing. I carry something stronger still in my mind and on my tongue. General Vincent, a word with you."

While he and Vincent spoke apart, Aimee exclaimed, "Oh, Moyse! Go with my father!"

"Do not--Oh, do not!" cried Genifrede. "You will never return!" she muttered to him, in a voice of terror. "Aimee, you would send him away: and my mother--all of us, are far from home. Who knows but that Rigaud--"

"Leave Rigaud to me," cried Vincent, gaily, as he rejoined the party.