cleverness, on our return. At Jougne we supplied ourselves with provisions, and then proceeded through valleys, each narrower than the last, more dismal with pines, and more chequered with snow. The air of desolation, here and there rendered move striking by the dreary settlements of the charcoal-burners, would have been impressive enough, if our minds had not been full of the great negro, and therefore disposed to view everything with his eyes.
The scene was exactly what I have described in my story, except that a good road, made since Toussaint's time, now passes round and up the opposite side of the rock from that by which he mounted. The old road, narrow and steep, remains; and we descended by it.
We reached the courtyard without difficulty, passing the two drawbridges and portcullis described. The Commandant was absent; and his lieutenant declared against our seeing anything more than the great wheel, and a small section of the battlements. But for great perseverance, we should have seen nothing more; but we obtained, at last, all we wanted. We passed through the vault and passages I have described, and thoroughly examined the cell. No words can convey a sense of its dreariness. I have exaggerated nothing--the dim light, the rotten floor, shining like a pond, the drip of water, the falling flakes of ice, were all there.
The stove was removed; but we were shown where it stood.
There were only three persons who pretended to possess any information concerning the negro prisoner. The soldier who was our principal guide appeared never to have heard of him. A very old man in the village, to whom we were referred, could tell us nothing but one fact, which I knew before--that Toussaint was deprived of his servant, some time before his death. A woman in the sutler's department of the fortress pretended to know all about him; but she had never seen him, and had no further title to authority than that her first husband had died in the Saint Domingo invasion. She did us the good service of pointing out the grave, however. The brickwork which surrounds the coffin now forms part of a new wall; but it was till lately within the church.
This woman's story was that which was probably given out on the spot, to be told to inquirers; so inconsistent is it in itself, and with known facts. Her account was, that Toussaint was carried off from Saint Domingo by the ship in which he was banqueted by Leclerc (the last of a line of two hundred), weighing anchor without his perceiving it, while he was at dinner. The absurdity of this beginning shows how much reliance is to be placed upon the rest of her story. She declared that the Commandant Rubaut had orders from the Government to treat the prisoner well; that his servant remained with him to the last; that he was well supplied with books, allowed the range of the fortress, and accustomed to pass his days in the house of the Commandant, playing cards in the evenings: that on the last night of his life he excused himself from the card-table, on the plea of being unwell; that he refused to have his servant with him, though urged not to pass the night alone; that he was left with fire, fauteuil, flambeaux, and a book, and found dead in his chair in the morning; and that the physicians who examined the body declared his death to have been caused by the rupture of a blood-vessel in the heart. This last particular is known to be as incorrect as the first. As for the rest, this informant differs from all others in saying that Mars Plaisir remained with his master to the last day of his life; and we may ask why Toussaint's nights were to be passed in his horrible cell, if his days were so favoured; and how it was that no research availed to discover to the eager curiosity of all Europe and the West Indies the retreat of L'Ouverture, if he, a negro, was daily present to the eyes of the garrison of the fortress, and to those of all the inhabitants of the village, and of all the travellers on that road who chose to raise their eyes to the walls.
Our third informant was a boy, shrewd and communicative, who could tell us the traditions of the place; and, of course, young as he was, nothing more. It was he who showed us where the additional stove was placed when winter came on. He pointed to a spot beside the fireplace, where he said the straw was spread on which Toussaint lay. He declared that Toussaint lived and died in solitude; and that he was found dead and cold, lying on that straw--his wood-fire, however, not being wholly extinguished.
The dreary impressions of the place saddened our minds for long after we had left it; and, glad as we were, on rejoining our party at Lausanne, to report the complete success of our enterprise, we cannot recur to it, to this day, without painful feelings.
How the lot of Toussaint was regarded by the generous spirits of the time is shown in a sonnet of Wordsworth's, written during the disappearance of L'Ouverture. Every one knows this sonnet; but it may be read by others, as by me, with a fresh emotion of delight, after having dwelt on the particulars of the foregoing history.
"Toussaint, the most unhappy Man of Men!
Whether the whistling rustic tend his plough Within thy hearing, or thy head be now Pillow'd in some deep dungeon's earless den:-- O miserable Chieftain! where and when Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not: do thou Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow: Though fallen thyself, never to rise again, Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind Powers that will work for thee: air, earth, and skies There's not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee: thou hast great allies; Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and Man's unconquerable mind."
The family of Toussaint were first sent to Bayonne, and afterwards to Agen, where one of the sons died of a decline. The two elder ones, endeavouring to escape from the surveillance under which they lived, were embarked for Belle Isle, and imprisoned in the citadel, where they were seen in 1803. On the restoration of the Bourbons, not only were they released, but a pension was settled on the family. Madame L'Ouverture died, I believe, in the South of France, in 1816, in the arms of Placide and Isaac.
What Napoleon afterwards thought of the dungeon of Toussaint, is known through an anecdote which I have received from high authority.
The next occupant of Toussaint's cell was the Duc de Riviere, afterwards the first French ambassador to Constantinople. The Duc (then Marquis) was a young man, on the point of marriage with Mademoiselle de la Ferte, when, for some unknown offence, he was thrown into prison at Joux, and apparently forgotten. There he wasted three of the best years of his life. Mademoiselle de la Ferte never relaxed in her efforts to obtain his liberation; but she was told, at length, that Napoleon was weary of her solicitations, and that further efforts on her part would have no better result than increasing the displeasure of the Emperor. In the hour of her despair, the kind-heartedness of Josephine came to her aid.
The ladies caused a model of the cell at Joux to be prepared--bearing the most exact resemblance to the horrible abode; and this model Josephine placed, with her own hands, on the bureau of the Emperor.
"Ah! fi donc! Quel est ce lieu abominable?" said the Emperor.
The Empress informed him that it was one of his Majesty's state prisons; to which he replied that it was impossible; that no man could live four-and-twenty hours in such a den. This brought out the information that the Marquis de Riviere had lived three years in it, and was still lying there, by his Majesty's commands.
"Otez-moi ca!" cried the Emperor, tartly. "Cette vue me fait fremir."
The model was removed. The Marquis was presently afterwards liberated.
He retired to Germany, where he was met by Mademoiselle de la Ferte, whom he there married. In after-years he was fond of relating the anecdote which I have given, as nearly as possible, in his method and language.
For some years I have read whatever came within my reach on the subject of my present work: so that it would not now be easy to assign my authority for every view and every statement it contains. The authorities which I have principally consulted while actually writing, I will, however, give. They are--Rainsford's "Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti;" the above-mentioned article in the _Quarterly Review_; Bryan Edwards's "Saint Domingo"; the article "Toussaint L'Ouverture," in the "Biographie Universelle;" and the "Haytian Papers," edited by Prince Sanders.
Of these, Bryan Edwards, who did not live to complete his history, barely names my hero; and the reports he gives of the Revolution of Saint Domingo are useful chiefly as representing the prejudices, as well as the interests, of the planters. The article in the _Quarterly_ is valuable, as being an able and liberal digest of various narratives; some derived from Hayti itself. Rainsford's book is nearly unreadable, from the absurdity of its style; but it is truly respectable in my eyes, notwithstanding, from its high appreciation of L'Ouverture's character.
It contains more information concerning Toussaint than can be found, I believe, anywhere else, except in the Biographie; and it has the advantage of detailing what fell under the writer's own observation.
The Biographie furnishes many valuable facts; but appears, from the inconsistency of various parts, and the confused impression which it conveys as a whole, to be a compilation in which the workman has been more careful to record dates and other facts correctly, than to understand the personage whose portrait he professes to give. The "Haytian Papers" are the most valuable of all authorities, as far as they go.
Of my other personages, all had a real existence, except Monsieur Revel, Euphrosyne, and their servants; some of the planters mentioned in the second chapter; the children of Bellair; the Abbess and her establishment; and some of the visitors at Toussaint's levee; with a few other subordinate characters.
Of the real personages, several were probably very unlike what I have represented them. I knew the names of some, without knowing their characters; as in the instances of Placide and Isaac, Messieurs Pascal and Moliere, Mars Plaisir, Madame Oge, the Marquis d'Hermona, Laxabon, Vincent, and Paul.
Of others, I knew the character and history, without being able to ascertain the names; as in the instances of Madame Dessalines and Madame Bellair. Since the issue of my first edition, I have learned that the name of Madame Dessalines was Marie; and her second name, before marriage, Claire or Clerc. I have not thought it advisable to substitute Marie for Therese in this edition, as nothing could be thereby gained which would compensate for disturbing the associations of my readers in regard to one of the chief personages of the story.
Of others, such as the wife, daughters, and third son of Toussaint, Monsieur Papalier, and the tutors, Azua and Loisir, I knew only that they existed, without being able to learn their names or characters.
The only character designed to be fully and faithfully accordant with history is that of Toussaint himself. Those which have much, but less absolute, pretension to historical truth are those of Jean Francais, Christophe, Dessalines, and the other negro Generals, old Dessalines, Bellair, Raymond, the French Commissaries and Envoys, Bayou, and Moyse.
Note 1. I believe the term "morne" is peculiar to Saint Domingo. A morne is a valley whose bounding hills are themselves backed by mountains.