The Hour and the Man Part 56

"It is so; and we have much to do," replied the secretary, rousing himself.

"Fear not," resumed Toussaint, "but that your bride will bloom in the air of the mountains. We may have to entrench ourselves in the mornes-- or, at least, to place there our ladies, and the civil officers of the government; but we ought to thank G.o.d for providing those natural homes, so full of health and beauty, for the free in spirit. I have still three brigades, and the great body of the cultivators, in reserve; but we shall all act with stronger hearts if our heart's treasure is safe in the mornes."

"Are we to lose Dessalines?" asked Monsieur Pascal.

"I believe not. He is severely wounded, and, at this moment, exasperated. He vows the death of Monsieur Papalier; and I vow his safety while he is my guest."

"Papalier and Madame Dessalines cannot exist in one house."

"And therefore must this deputation be dismissed early in the morning, if there were no other reasons. Notice must be carried to them with their coffee, that I am awaiting them with my replies. Those delivered, negotiation is at an end, and we must act. My foes have struck the blow which unties my hands."

"What has Monsieur Papalier to do with the deputation?"

"Nothing, but that he uses its protection to attempt to resume his estates. They are in commission; and he may have them; though not, as he thinks, with men and women as part of his chattels. No more of him."

"Of whom next, then? Except Christophe, who is there worthy to be named by you?" asked Monsieur Pascal, with emotion.

"Every one who has deserted us, except, perhaps, La Plume. He is sordid; and I dismiss him. As for Clerveaux and his thousands, they have been weak, but not, perhaps, wicked. They may be recovered. I take the blame of their weakness upon myself. Would that I alone could bear the consequences!"

"You take the blame of their weakness? Is not their former slavery the cause of it? Is there anything in their act but the servility in which they were reared?"

"There is much of that. But I have deepened the taint, in striving to avoid the opposite corruption of revenge. I have the taint myself. The stain of slavery exists in the First of the Blacks himself. Let all others, then, be forgiven. They may thus be recovered. I gave them the lesson of loving and trusting the whites. They have done so, to the point of being treacherous to me. I must now give them another lesson, and time to learn it; and they may possibly be redeemed."

"You will hold out in the mornes--conduct your resistance on a pinnacle, where the eyes of the blacks may be raised to you--fixed upon you."

"Just so;--and where they may flock to me, when time shall have taught them my principle and my policy, and revealed the temper and purpose of our invaders. Now, then, to prepare!"

Before dawn, the despatches for the French, on the coast and at home, were prepared; and messengers were dismissed, in every direction, with orders by which the troops which remained faithful would be concentrated, the cultivators raised and collected, stores provided in the fastnesses, and the new acquisitions of the enemy rendered useless to them. Never had the heads of these two able men, working in perfect concert, achieved such a ma.s.s of work in a single night.

A little after sunrise, the French party appeared in the salon, where already almost every member of the household was collected; all being under the impression that a crisis had arrived, and that memorable words were about to be spoken.

Toussaint acknowledged the apparent discourtesy of appointing the hour for the departure of his guests; but declared that he had no apology to offer:--that the time for courteous observance was past, when his guests were discovered to be sent merely to amuse and disarm him for the hour, while blows were struck at a distance against the liberties of his race.

In delivering his despatches, he said, he was delivering his farewell.

Within an hour, the deputation and himself must be travelling in different directions.

Monsieur Coa.s.son, on receiving the packets, said that he had no other desire than to be on his way. There could be no satisfaction, and little safety, in remaining in a house where, under a hypocritical pretence of magnanimity and good-will, there lurked a spirit of hideous malice, of diabolical revenge, towards a race to whom nature, and the universal consent of men, had given a superiority which they could never lose.

In unaffected surprise, Toussaint looked in the face of the envoy, observing that, for himself, he disclaimed all such pa.s.sion and such dissimulation as his household was charged with.

"Of course you do," replied Coa.s.son: "but I require not your testimony.

The men of a family may, where there is occasion, conceal its ruling pa.s.sion: but, where there is occasion, it will be revealed by the women."

Toussaint's eyes, like every one's else, turned to the ladies of his family. It was not Madame L'Ouverture that was intended, for her countenance asked of her husband what this could mean. It could not be Aimee, who now stood drowned in tears, where she could best conceal her grief. Genifrede explained. She told calmly, and without the slightest confusion, that Monsieur Coa.s.son had sought a conversation with her, for the purpose of winning over her feelings, and her influence with her father, to the side of the French. He had endeavoured to make her acknowledge that the whole family, with the exception of its head, were in favour of peace, admirers of Bonaparte, and aware that they were likely to be victims to the ambition of their father. Her reply, in which she declared that she gloried, was that the deepest pa.s.sion of her soul was hatred of the whites; and that she prayed for their annihilation.

"And did you also declare, my daughter," said Toussaint, "that in this you differ from us all? Did you avow that your parents look upon this pa.s.sion in you as a disease, for which you have their daily and nightly prayers?"

"I did declare, my father, that I alone of the Ouvertures know how to feel for the wrongs of my race. But Monsieur Coa.s.son did not believe me, and vowed that we should all suffer for the opinions held by me alone."

"It is true, I did not believe, nor do I now believe," said Coa.s.son, "that the devil would single out one of a family, to corrupt her heart with such atrocious hatred as that whose avowal chilled the marrow of my bones. It was her countenance of wretchedness that attracted me. I saw that she was less capable of dissimulation than the rest of you; and so I have found."

"A wise man truly has the Captain-General chosen for an envoy!" observed Toussaint: "a wise and an honourable man! He sees woe in the face of a woman, and makes it his instrument for discovering the secret souls of her family. Blindly bent upon this object, and having laid open, as he thinks, one heart, he reads the rest by it. But he may, with all his wisdom, and all this honour, be no less ignorant than before he saw us.

So far from reading all our souls, he has not even read the suffering one that he has tempted. You have opened the sluices of the waters of bitterness in my child's soul, Monsieur Coa.s.son, but you have not found the source."

"Time will show that," observed the envoy.

"It will," replied Toussaint; "and also the worth of your threat of revenge for the words of my suffering child. I have no more to say to you.--My sons!"

Placide sprang to his side, and Isaac followed.

"I no longer call you boys; for the choice of this hour makes you men.

The Captain-General insists that you go from me. He has no right to do so. Neither have I a right to bid you stay. Hear, and decide for yourselves.--The cause of the blacks is not so promising as it appeared last night. News has arrived, from various quarters, of defeat and defection. Our struggle for our liberties will be fierce and long. It will never be relinquished; and my own conviction is, that the cause of the blacks will finally prevail; that Saint Domingo will never more belong to France. The ruler of France has been a guardian to you--an indulgent guardian. I do not ask you to tight against him."

The faces of both the young men showed strong and joyful emotion; but it was not the same emotion in them both.

"Decide according to your reason and your hearts, my children, whether to go or stay; remembering the importance of your choice." Putting a hand on the shoulder of each, he said impressively, "Go to the Captain-General, or remain with me. Whichever you do, I shall always equally love and cherish you."

Margot looked upon her sons, as if awaiting from them life or death.

Aimee's face was still hidden in her handkerchief. She had nothing to learn of her brother's inclinations.

Isaac spoke before Placide could open his lips.

"We knew, father," he said, "that your love and your rare liberality-- that liberality which gave us our French education--would not fail now.

And this it is that persuades me that this quarrel cannot proceed to extremities--that it will not be necessary for your sons to take any part, as you propose. When Placide and I think of you--your love of peace, your loyalty, and your admiration of Bonaparte; and then, when we think of Bonaparte--his astonishment at what you have done in the colony, and the terms in which he always spoke of you to us--when we consider how you two are fitted to appreciate each other, we cannot believe but that the Captain-General and you will soon be acting in harmony, for the good of both races. But for this a.s.surance, we could hardly have courage to return."

"Speak for yourself alone, Isaac," said his brother.

"Well, then: I say for myself, that, but for this certainly, it would almost break my heart to leave you so soon again, though to go at present no further off than Tortuga. But I am quite confident that there will soon be perfect freedom of intercourse among all who are on the island."

"You return with me?" asked Monsieur Coa.s.son.

"Certainly, as my father gives me my choice. I feel myself bound, in honour and grat.i.tude, to return, instead of appearing to escape, at the very first opportunity, from those with whom I can never quarrel.

Returning to Leclerc, under his conditional orders, can never be considered a declaration against my father: while remaining here, against Leclerc's orders, is an undeniable declaration against Bonaparte and France--a declaration which I never will make."

"I stay with my father," said Placide.

"Your reasons?" asked Monsieur Coa.s.son; "that I may report them to the Captain-General."

"I have no reasons," replied Placide; "or, if I have, I cannot recollect them now. I shall stay with my father."

"Welcome home, my boy!" said Toussaint; "and Isaac, my son, may G.o.d bless you, wherever you go."

And he opened his arms to them both.

"I am not afraid," said Madame L'Ouverture, timidly, as if scarcely venturing to say so much--"I am not afraid but that, happen what may, we can always make a comfortable home for Placide."

"Never mind comfort, mother: and least of all for me. We have something better than comfort to try for now."

"Give me your blessing, too, father," said Aimee, faintly, as Isaac led her forward, and Vincent closely followed. "You said you would bless those that went, and those that stayed; and I am going with Isaac."