up in the noose of the cord, and the nun could not but stand and watch the event.
The bough was stuck between two of the bars of the jalousie, and the girl withdrew to the end of the balcony. The humming-bird appeared, hovered round, and at last inserted its long beak in a blossom, sustaining itself the while on its quivering wings. Before proceeding to another blossom it flew away. Euphrosyne cast a smile down to the nun, and placed herself against the jalousie, holding the branch upon her head. As she had hoped, two humming-birds returned. After some hesitation, they came for more of their sweet food, and Euphrosyne felt that her hair was blown about on her forehead by the motion of their busy wings. She desired, above everything, to keep still; but this strong desire, and the sight of sister Christine's grave face turned so eagerly upwards, made her laugh so as to shake the twigs very fearfully.
Keeping her hand with the branch steady, she withdrew her head from beneath, and then stole slowly and cautiously backward within the window--the birds following. She now heard her grandfather's voice, calling feebly and fretfully. She half turned to make a signal for silence, which the old man so far observed as to sink his complaints to a mutter. The girl put the branch into a water-jar near the window, and then stepped lightly to the bed.
"What is all this nonsense?" said Monsieur Revel. "Why did not you come the moment I called?"
"Here I am, grandpapa--and do look--look at my humming-birds!"
"Humming-birds--nonsense! I called you twice."
Yet the old gentleman rubbed his eyes, which did not seem yet quite awake. He rubbed his eyes and looked through the shaded room, as if to see Euphrosyne's new plaything. She brought him his spectacles from the toilette, helped to raise him up, threw a shawl over his shoulders, and placed his pillows at his back. Perceiving that he still could not see very distinctly, she opened another blind, so as to let one level ray of sunshine fall upon the water-jar, and the little radiant creatures that were hovering about it.
"There! there!" cried Monsieur Revel, in a pleased tone.
"Now I will go and bring you your coffee," said Euphrosyne.
"Stop, stop, child! Why are you in such a hurry? I want to know what is the matter. Such a night as I have had!"
"A bad night, grandpapa? I am sorry."
"Bad enough! How came my light to go out? And what is all this commotion in the streets?"
Euphrosyne went to the night-lamp, and found that a very large flying beetle had disabled itself by breaking the glass, and putting out the light. There it lay dead--a proof at least that there were no ants in the room.
"Silly thing!" said Euphrosyne. "I do wish these beetles would learn to fly properly. He must have startled you, grandpapa. Did not you think it was a thief, when you were left in the dark?"
"It is very odd that nobody about me can find me a lamp that will serve me. And then, what is all this bustle in the town? Tell me at once what is the matter."
"I know of nothing the matter. The trompettes have been by this morning; and they say that the Commander-in-chief is here: so there will be nothing the matter. There was some talk last night, Pierre said-- some fright about to-day. But L'Ouverture is come; and it will be all right now, you know."
"You know nothing about it, child--teazing one with your buzzing, worrying humming-birds! Go and get my coffee, and send Pierre to me."
"The birds will come with me, I dare say, if I go by the balcony. I will take them away."
"No, no. Don't lose time with them. Let them be. Go and send Pierre."
When Euphrosyne returned with the coffee, she found, as Pierre had found before her, Monsieur Revel so engrossed in looking through his spectacles at the water-jar, as to have forgotten what he had to ask and to say.
"You will find the bath ready whenever you want it, grandpapa," said Euphrosyne, as she placed the little tray before him: "and it is a sweet airy morning."
"Ay; I must make haste up, and see what is to be done. It is not safe to lie and rest in one's bed, in this part of the world." And he made haste to stir his coffee with his trembling hands.
"Oh, you have often said that--almost ever since I can remember--and here we are, quite safe still."
"Tell the truth, child. How dare you say that we have been safe ever since you remember?"
"I said `almost,' grandpapa. I do not forget about our being in the woods--about--but we will not talk of that now. That was all over a long time ago; and we have been very safe since. The great thing of all is, that there was no L'Ouverture then, to take care of us. Now, you know, the Commander-in-chief is always thinking how he can take the best care of us."
"`No L'Ouverture then!' One would think you did not know what and where Toussaint was then. Why, child, your poor father was master over a hundred such as he."
"Do you think they were like him? Surely, if they had been like him, they would not have treated us as they did. Afra says she does not believe, anybody like him ever lived."
"Afra is a pestilent little fool."
"Oh, grandpapa!"
"Well, well! She is a very good girl in her way; but she talks about what she does not understand. She pretends to judge of governors of the colony, when her own father cannot govern this town, and she never knew Blanchelande! Ah! if she had known Blanchelande, she would have seen a man who understood his business, and had spirit to keep up the dignity and honour of the colony. If that sort of rule had gone on till now, we should not have had the best houses in the island full of these black upstarts; nor a mulatto governor in this very town."
"And then I should not have had Afra for a friend, grandpapa."
"You would have been better without, child. I do not like to see you for ever with a girl of her complexion, though she is the governor's daughter. There must be an end of it--there shall be an end of it. It is a good time now. There is a reason for it to-day. It is time you made friends of your own complexion, child; and into the convent you go--this very day."
"Oh, grandpapa, you don't mean that those nuns are of my complexion!
Poor pale creatures! I would not for the world look like them: and I certainly shall, if you put me there. I had much rather look like Afra than like sister Benoite, or sister Cecile. Grandpapa! you would not like me to look like sister Benoite?"
"How do I know, child? I don't know one from another of them."
"No, indeed! and you would not know me by the time I had been there three months. How sorry you would be, grandpapa, when you asked for me next winter, to see all those yellow-faced women pass before you, and when the yellowest of all came, to have to say, `Can this be my poor Euphrosyne!'"
Monsieur Revel could not help laughing as he looked up at the girl through his spectacles. He pinched her cheek, and said that there was certainly more colour there than was common in the West Indies; but that it must fade, in or out of the convent, by the time she was twenty; and she had better be in a place where she was safe. The convent was the only safe place.
"You have often said that before," replied she, "and the time has never come yet. And no more it will now. I shall go with Afra to the cacao-gathering at Le Zephyr, as I did last year. Oh, that sweet cool place in the Mornes du Chaos! How different from this great ugly square white convent, with nothing that looks cheerful, and nothing to be heard but teaching, teaching, and religion, religion, for ever."
"I advise you to make friends among the sisters, however, Euphrosyne; for there you will spend the next few years."
"I will not make friends with anything but the poor mocking-bird. I have promised Afra not to love anybody instead of her; but she will not be jealous of the poor bird. It and I will spend the whole day in the thicket, mocking and pining--pining and mocking. The sisters shall not get a word out of me--not one of them. I may speak to old Raphael now and then, that I may not forget how to use my tongue; but I vow that poor bird shall be my only friend."
"We shall see that. We shall see how long a giddy child like you can keep her mocking-bird tone in the uproar that is coming upon us! What will you do, child, without me, when the people of this colony are cutting one another's throats over my grave? What will become of you when I am gone?"
"Dear grandpapa, before that comes the question, What will you do without me? What will become of you when I am gone into that dull place? You know very well, grandpapa, that you cannot spare me."
The old man's frame was shaken with sobs. He put his thin hands before his face, and the tears trickled between his fingers. Euphrosyne caressed him, saying, "There! I knew how it would be. I knew I should never leave you. I never will leave you. I will bring up your coffee every morning, and light your lamp every night, as long as you live."
As she happened to be looking towards the door, she saw it opening a little upon its noiseless hinges, and a hand which she knew to be Pierre's beckoning to her. Her grandfather did not see it. She withdrew herself from him with a sportive kiss, ordered him to rest for a while, and think of nothing but her humming-birds, and carried the tray out of the room.
Pierre was there, waiting impatiently with a note from Afra.
"I did not bring it in, Mademoiselle," said he, "because I am sure there is something amiss. A soldier brought the note; and he says he has orders to stay for my master's commands."
Afra's note told what this meant. It was as follows:-- "Dearest Euphrosyne, "Do not be frightened. There is time, if you come directly. There is no danger, if you come to us. The cultivators are marching hither over the plain. It is with the whites that they are angry; so you had better make yourselves secure with us. The soldier who brings this will escort Monsieur Revel and you this little way through the streets: but you must lose no time. We are sorry to hurry your grandfather; but it cannot be helped. Come, my dearest, to your "Afra Raymond."
Pierre saw his young lady's face turn as pale as any nun's, as she glanced over this note.
"The carriage, Pierre! Have it to the door instantly."
"With your leave. Mademoiselle, the soldier says no French carriages will be safe in the streets this morning."
"Oh, mercy! A chair, then. Send for a chair this moment. The soldier will go for it--ask him as a favour. They will not dare to refuse one to a governor's guard. Then come, and dress your master, and do not look so grave, Pierre, before him."
Pierre went, and was met at the door by a servant with another note. It was-- "Do not come by the street, dearest Euphrosyne. The nuns will let you through their garden, into our garden alley, if you can only get your grandfather over the balcony. My two messengers will help you; but they are much wanted:--so make haste.
"A.E."
"Make the soldiers sling an arm-chair from the balcony, Pierre; and send one of them round into the convent garden, to be ready to receive us there. The abbess will have the gate open to the Government-house alley. Then come, and dress your master; and leave it to me to tell him everything."
"Likely enough," muttered Pierre; "for I know nothing of what is in those notes myself."
"And I do not understand what it is all about," said Euphrosyne, as she returned to her grandfather.
He had fallen into a light doze, lulled by the motion and sound of the humming-birds. Euphrosyne kissed his forehead, to rouse him, and then told him gaily that it was terribly late--he had no idea how late it was--he must get up directly. The bath! no; there must be no bath to-day. There was not time for it; or, at least, he must go a little ride first. A new sort of carriage was getting ready-- She now looked graver, as Pierre entered. She said, that while Pierre dressed him, she would put up some clothes for a short visit to Government-house.
Monsieur Revel, being now alarmed, Euphrosyne admitted that some confusion in the streets was expected, and that the Governor and Afra thought that their friends would be most quiet at the back of Government-house.
To her consternation, Monsieur Revel suddenly refused to stir a step from his own dwelling. He would not be deceived into putting himself and his child into the hands of any mulattoes upon earth, governors or other. Not one of his old friends, in Blanchelande's time, would have countenanced such an act; and he would not so betray his colour and his child. He had rather die on his own threshold.
"You must do as you please about that, sir," said Pierre; "but, for Mademoiselle Euphrosyne, I must say, that I think it is full early for her to die--and when she might be safe too!"
"Oh, grandpapa! I cannot let you talk of our dying," cried Euphrosyne, her cheeks bathed in tears. "Indeed I will not die--nor shall you either. Besides, if that were all--" The old man knew what was in her mind--that she was thinking of the woods. He sank down on his knees by the bedside, and prayed that the earth might gape and swallow them up--that the sea might rush in, and overflow the hollow where the city had been, before he and his should fall into the hands of the cursed blacks.
"Grandpapa," said Euphrosyne, gravely, "if you pray such a prayer as that, do not pray aloud. I cannot hear such a prayer as that."
Struggling with her tears, she continued: "I know you are very much frightened--and I do not wonder that you are: but I do wish you would remember that we have very kind friends who will protect us, if we will only make haste and go to them. And as for their being of a different colour--I do wonder that you can ask God to cause the earth to swallow us up, when you know (at least, you have taught me so) we must meet people of all races before the throne of God. He has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, you know."
Monsieur Revel shook his head impatiently, as if to show that she did not understand his feelings. She went on, however:-- "If we so hate and distrust them at this moment, here, how can we pray for death, so as to meet them at the next moment there? Oh, grandpapa!
let us know them a little better first. Let us go to them now."
"Don't waste time so, child; you hinder my dressing."
He allowed himself to be dressed, and made no further opposition till he found himself at the balcony of the next room.
"Here is your new coach," said Euphrosyne, "and plenty of servants:" showing him how one of the soldiers and old Raphael stood below to receive the chair, and the abbess herself was in waiting in a distant walk, beside the wicket they were to pass through.
Of course, the old gentleman said he could never get down that way; and he said something about dying on his own threshold--this time, however, in a very low voice. But, in the midst of his opposition, Euphrosyne seated herself in the chair, and was let down. When she could no longer hear his complaints, but was standing beckoning to him from the grass-plat below, he gave up all resistance, was let down with perfect ease, and carried in the chair, followed by all the white members of his household, through the gardens, and up the alley where Afra was awaiting them. There was a grey sister peeping from behind every blind as they crossed the garden, and trembling with the revived fears of that terrible night of ninety-one, when they had fled to the ships. It was some comfort to them to see old Raphael busy with rake and knife, repairing the damage done to the bed under the balcony--all trampled as it was. Each nun said to herself that Raphael seemed to have no fears but that the garden would go on as usual, whatever disturbance was abroad.
"Have you seen him?" asked Euphrosyne eagerly of her friend, the moment they met.
"Oh yes. You shall see him too, from my window, if they will but talk on till we get there. He and the Commissary, and some of the Commissary's officers, are in the rose-garden under my window. Make haste, or they may be gone."
"We must see grandpapa settled first."
"Oh yes; but I am so afraid they may be gone! They have been pacing the alley between the rose-trees this hour nearly--talking and arguing all the time. I am sure they were arguing; for they stopped every now and then, and the Commissary made such gestures! He looked so impatient and so vexed!"
"And did _he_ look vexed, too?"
"Not in the least angry, but severe. So quiet, so majestic he looked, as he listened to all they said! and when he answered them--Oh, I would not, for all the island, have his eyes so set upon me!"
"Oh dear, let us make haste, or they will be gone!" cried Euphrosyne.
While Euphrosyne was endeavouring to make her grandfather feel himself at home and comfortable in the apartment appointed for him by the Governor, Afra ran to her window, to see if the potentates of the island were still at their conference. The rose-garden was empty; and she came back sorrowfully to say so. As she entered the apartment of her guests, she heard Monsieur Revel sending a message of compliments to the Commissary, with a request of an audience of a few minutes. The servants gave as much intimation as they dared of the Commissary being so particularly engaged, that they had rather be excused carrying this message. The girls looked at one another, nodded agreement, and Euphrosyne spoke.
"Suppose, grandpapa, you ask to see the Commander-in-chief. He never refuses anything that is asked of him: and he can do everything he wishes. I dare say he will come at once, if you desire it, and if we do not detain him too long. If he had been in this room once with us, how safe we should feel!"
"Oh, if we could see him once in this room!" cried Afra.
"Do you suppose I will beg a favour of that ambitious black?" cried Monsieur Revel. "Do you think I will crave an audience of a fellow who, for aught I know, may have driven his master's carriage to my door in the old days?--no, if I cannot see Hedouville, I will take my chance.
Go, fellow! and carry my message," he cried to Pierre.
Pierre returned with the answer which might have been anticipated. The Commissary was so engaged, there was so much bustle and confusion throughout his establishment, that no one of his people would deliver the message.
"That would not have been the answer if--" whispered Euphrosyne to her friend.
"Shall I venture?--yes, I will--shall I? At least, I will keep upon the watch," said Afra, as she withdrew.
She presently sent in, with the tray of fruit, a basket of flowers, which Euphrosyne occupied herself in dressing, exactly as she did at home, humming the while the airs her grandfather heard her sing every day. Her devices answered very well. He presently occupied himself in pointing out, exactly as he always did, that there was too much green in this bouquet, and not enough in that.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
SPOILING SPORT.
Nothing could exceed the astonishment of the Commissary on seeing Toussaint this morning. Hedouville was amusing himself, before the sun was high, alternately with three or four of his officers, in duetting with a parrot, which had shown its gaudy plumage among the dark foliage of a tamarind-tree in the garden. At every pause in the bird's chatter, one of the gentlemen chattered in reply; and thus kept up the discord, to the great amusement of the party. Hedouville was just declaring that he had obtained the best answer--the loudest and most hideous--when he heard the swing of a gate, and, turning round, saw Toussaint entering from the barrack-yard.
"The ape!" exclaimed one of the officers, in a whisper.
"Who--who is it?" eagerly asked a naval captain, lately arrived.
"Who should it be but the black chief? No other of his race is fond enough of us to be for ever thrusting himself upon us. He is confoundedly fond of the whites."
"We only ask him," said Delon, another officer, "to like us no better than we like him, and leave us to manage our business our own way."
"Say the word, Commissary," whispered the first, "and he shall not go hence so easily as he came."
"I should beg pardon, Commissary," said Toussaint, as he approached, "for presenting myself thus--for entering by a back-way--if it were not necessary. The crisis requires that we should agree upon our plan of operations, before we are seen in the streets. It is most important that we should appear to act in concert. It is the last chance for the public safety."
"Crisis!--public safety!--seen in the streets!" exclaimed Hedouville.
"I assure you, General, I have no thoughts of going abroad till evening.
It will be a scorching day. Is the crisis you speak of that of the heats?"
"No trifling, Commissary! Gentlemen," said he, turning to the officers, who happened to be laughing, "no levity! The occasion is too serious for mirth or for loss of time. Shall we speak alone, Commissary?"
"By no means," said Hedouville. "These gentlemen would not for the world miss hearing your news. Has a fresh insurrection been contrived already? or has any Frenchman forgotten himself, and kissed Psyche, or cuffed Agamemnon?"
"A new insurrection has been contrived; and by you. The cultivators are marching over the plain; and in four hours the town will be sacked, if you, Monsieur Hedouville, who have given the provocation, do not withdraw it. You must sign this proclamation. It is the opposite of your own now waiting for jubilation. But you must sign and issue it-- and that within this hour. I hear what you say, gentlemen. You say that I have raised the cultivators. I have not. There is not a negro in the plain who does not at this moment believe that I am in the south.
I come to put them down; but I will not go out with the sword in one hand, if I do not carry justice in the other."
"What do you mean about justice, General? What injustice has been done?"
"Here is the draft of your proclamation--" "How came you by that paper--by the particulars of my intention?" asked Hedouville. "My proclamation is yet locked up in my own desk."
"Its contents are nevertheless known throughout the colony. When a Commissary, lightly and incidentally (and therefore the more offensively) settles, without understanding them, the most important points of difference between two unreconciled races, the very winds stoop in their flight, to snatch up the tidings, and drop them as they fly. See here! See how you pronounce on the terms of field-service-- and here, on the partition of unclaimed estates--and here, on the claims of the emigrants! The blacks must be indeed as stupid as you hold them to be, if they did not spread the alarm that you are about to enslave them again."
"I protest I never dreamed of such a thing."
"I believe you. And that you did not so dream, shows that you are blind to the effects of your own measures--that the cultivators of the plain understand your proceedings better than you do yourself. Here is the proclamation which must be issued."
And he offered a paper, which Hedouville took, but tore in pieces, trampling them under foot, and saying, that he had never before been so insulted in his function.
"That is a childish act," observed Toussaint, as he looked down upon the fragments of the document. "And a useless one," he continued; "for my secretary is getting it printed off by this time."
"Are you going to dare to put my name to a proclamation I have not seen?"
"Certainly not. My name will suffice, if you compel me to dispense with yours. This proclamation grants--" Hedouville here gave whispered directions to Delon, who hastened towards the house; and to another, who made for the barrack-yard.
"From every quarter," said Toussaint, "you will have confirmation of the news I brought. I will speak presently of what must be done. This proclamation," pointing to the torn paper, "grants an amnesty to all engaged in former conflicts of race, and declares that there are no `returned emigrants' in the island--that they are all considered native proprietors--that all now absent shall be welcome again, and shall be protected--that the blacks are free citizens, and will so remain; but that they shall continue for five years to till the estates on which they live, for one-fourth of the produce."
"I do not see the grounds of your disgust with my proclamation," said Hedouville. "I think your anger absurd."
"I have no doubt you do. This proves, with a multitude of other circumstances, that you must go."
"Admirable! And leave the colony to your government!"
"Just so. If you ask the whites of the island, they will tell you, almost to a man, that I can govern the whites; while events daily show that you cannot rule the blacks. While you have held the title of Commissary, you know that you have ruled only by my permission-- sometimes strengthened by my approbation--oftener spared by my forbearance. I am aware that these gentlemen are not of that opinion," he continued, his voice assuming the mildness which always distinguished it when he spoke of his personal injuries. "They believe that if two or three brigands could be got to seize in his camp the ape with the Madras on his head, all would be well. But they are mistaken. They may play the brigand, and seize me now; but then the town will be burning before night."
"You should not believe all the saucy things that are told you--you should not care for the impertinence of young soldiers," said Hedouville, who suspected that his affairs were reality in a critical state, and had now resumed his usual smoothness of manner. He led the way up the alley between the rose-trees, that the torn proclamation might be no longer in sight.
"No doubt," observed an officer, gravely, "the Commissary will report to the First Consul (if you really persist in sending the Commissary away)--he will doubtless report to the First Consul the prodigious power you hold here, and how great a rival Bonaparte has on this side the water."
"And how willing a servant," added Toussaint--"how willing to bear the burden of government for the good of France."
"Burden!" exclaimed all.
"Yes," replied Toussaint: "where is there a heavier burden? Do you suppose that men choose their own office in life? If so, should I have chosen such a one as mine? Was the pleasure of Heaven ever more clearly revealed than in my case? Ask the First Consul whether it was possible for me to be other than I am. The revolution of Saint Domingo proceeded without any interference from me--a negro slave. I saw that the dominion of the whites could not last, divided as they were among themselves, and lost in the numbers of their foes. I was glad that I was a black. The time came when I was compelled to act. I associated myself with the Spaniards, who were the allies of my king, and who had extended protection to the loyal troops of my colour. But this protection served no end. The republic proclaimed the general liberty of the blacks. An unerring voice told me that my allegiance was thenceforward due to the republic. The blacks in their new condition wanted a leader. They chose me to lead them--to be the chief predicted by Raynal, as General Laveaux declared. Inspired by this call, I entered into the service of France. The services that I have rendered prove that it was indeed the voice of God that called me. Why do I tell you this?--Because I owe an account of my life to you? No, indeed!--I tell you all this that you may render my account to the First Consul, whom, it appears, I cannot reach by letter. I charge you, by your fidelity to the mother-country, to repeat to Bonaparte what I have said."
"You could do it more accurately and forcibly yourself," observed Hedouville. "Let me advise that you go instead of me."
"You know," replied Toussaint, "who it was that said that I am the Bonaparte of Saint Domingo, and that the colony could not exist without me. It was your brother functionaries who said it; and never did they say anything more true."
The naval captain, Meronet, observed that his ship, now in the roads, happened to be that which had conveyed the Commissary; and that it would greatly flatter him, after having brought out Commissary Hedouville, to carry back General Toussaint L'Ouverture.
"Your ship, sir," replied Toussaint, "will not contain a man like me--a man laden with the destinies of a race."
"But you speak of the burden of your office," observed one of the aides.
"It must be great; and all men need occasional repose. Suppose you retire to France for an interval of repose?"
"Perhaps I may," replied Toussaint, "when this shrub," pointing to the sucker of a logwood tree, "shall be large enough to make a ship to take me there."
"You could devolve your cares upon your friend Raymond, General, if you do not wish fully to trust the whites. Be persuaded to visit your brother in destiny and glory, as you call Bonaparte."
"Raymond is my friend, as you say, and a good man; but he is not called to be arbiter of the fate of the colony. See! Here are your messengers, Commissary."
The officers entered from the barracks, with news that the plain was really in a state of commotion, and that no adequate defences appeared to be provided by the authorities of the town.
"I charge myself with the defence of the town," said Toussaint. "Your part, Commissary, is to sign the new proclamation instantly; and to prepare to sail for France, with as many persons as desire to accompany you. On your promise to do this, I will guarantee the public peace. In this case, you incur no further dishonour than that of not understanding the temper and the affairs of the blacks. If you refuse to go, I shall arrest you here, and denounce you to the government of France, as the cause of the insurrection which will undoubtedly ensue. You will not choose to incur this infamy. Therefore," he continued, turning to Captain Meronet, "you will have the goodness to return to your ship, and prepare it for the reception of the Commissary. He will probably join you in the course of this day."
Again addressing the astonished functionary, he continued, "You shall be protected to the latest possible moment, for the convenience of making your arrangements. When I can protect you no longer, I will cause the alarm gun on the height behind the barracks to be fired. At that signal, you will hasten to the boats, and be gone. Assure yourself of my justice, and render me an equal measure at the court of France.
Farewell!"
As he entered Government-house, the officers looked at each other in consternation.
"What is to be done?" asked more than one.
"It is true enough," said Hedouville, "that neither I nor any one else understand these people. The danger is really pressing Delon."
"Most pressing, there is no doubt."
"Then I have done with this mongrel colony; and I am not sorry. At home I shall find means to vindicate my honour."
"You mean to depart, then, Commissary?"
"When we hear the alarm gun. Not sooner. It is possible that it may be a mere threat."
"If so, it will be the first mere threat in which this black has been detected."
"That is true. He usually acts first, and speaks afterwards.
Gentlemen, we shall have to go. I must first see about this proclamation, and discover whether anything else can be done. If not, Captain, au revoir!"
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
GO OR STAY?
The Commander-in-chief was not long closeted with Governor Raymond: for this was a day when minutes were precious. It was observed that there was a sudden activity among the messengers of the Governor, among the soldiers, and among the citizens; and every one felt that the voice of Toussaint was giving orders in every corner of the town, before he had yet come forth. The report spread that Moyse L'Ouverture was come; and he was soon seen, superintending the placing of cannon in the streets, and the mustering of soldiers in the squares. The presence of the young man inspired an enthusiasm inferior only to that which waited on the steps of his uncle. Its influence on Moyse was seen in the fire of his eye, the quickness of his movements, and the hilarity of his air. He appeared to notice every one who cheered, or waved hat or handkerchief to him, and to overhear all that was said as he passed along. In one instance he stopped to reply.
"I little thought," he heard an old negro merchant say to a neighbour--"I little thought ever to see an Ouverture planting cannon against his own colour."
"Nor do you see it now, friend," said Moyse. "The insurgents in the plain are of all colours--almost as many whites as blacks are discontented with the Commissary, and--" "Turn your guns upon the Commissary, then, young soldier!"
"There is no need, friend. We shall be rid of the Commissary by an easier method; and these guns will be wheeled home, as harmless as they came. My belief is that not a drop of negro blood will be shed; and to that end do we plant our cannon. If we tranquillise the whites of the town, and empty Government-house of the French, the negroes of the plain will find none but friends when they arrive."
"Oh, ay! That is your policy, is it?"
"That is L'Ouverture's policy. Tell it everywhere. He is the best friend of the blacks who best makes it known."
The explanation passed from mouth to mouth; and the new proclamation, signed by Toussaint and Hedouville, from hand to hand. The proclamation was posted in the corners of the streets; it was read aloud in the squares; it was sent, by messengers of every colour, among the insurgents in the plain. The effect of this, connected with the report, which every moment gained strength, that the Commissary was about to quit the colony was so evident, that Toussaint's wishes seemed likely to be accomplished. The insurgents did not, indeed, disband: they had been too often deceived by the Commissary's bland promises to do that before they had gained their point: but there was every reason to believe that they would march upon the town, only to secure the departure of Hedouville and his adherents, and the fidelity of the government to the terms of the proclamation.
When Toussaint came forth from his conference with Raymond, Afra and Euphrosyne were awaiting him in the corridor. He would have passed them with a smile; but he saw that Afra was urging Euphrosyne to speak, and that the blushing Euphrosyne dared not do so. He therefore stopped to tell Afra that his daughters had sent their love to her; that she was going to Pongaudin in a day or two; and that her friends there would be very glad to see her.
"Am I really going? Does my father say that I may?"
"He is going too: he will be there before you."
"My poor Euphrosyne, what will you do?" exclaimed Afra. "This is Euphrosyne Revel," she continued to Toussaint; "and--" "Revel!" he said. "Have not you an aged relative in this town, my dear?"
"In that room," hastily answered Afra. "He is very old, and much alarmed to-day; and he cannot believe that he and Euphrosyne are safe, even here. If you will only assure Euphrosyne that there is no danger-- if she could tell him that you say so--" "I will tell him myself," said Toussaint. "He is in that apartment, you say?"
"Oh! but please your Excellency," exclaimed Afra, "he may not like--he may not wish--Euphrosyne is as much devoted to you as we are, but--"