Inland among the mountains, two days distance from Cap François, is the village of Ennery; there Toussaint has stationed his family. The quiet of the place is moved by an unwonted stir—what can it mean, for the sounds are not those of troops? Towards nine o’clock at night messengers bring word to the wife of Toussaint that her sons, they who had been so long absent in France, are coming. With a few friends, she goes with torches into the highway to meet them. In the midst of that great crowd, hushed to silence in the serene night, she greets them with joy and tears. Towards midnight of the next day Toussaint arrives; he presses his sons to his breast, and tears once more water the furrows of his worn face.
The young men present their tutor (M. Coisnon), who, after receiving the warm thanks of the father, hands him a golden box containing a letter from Napoleon. Toussaint reads it. Highly complimentary to him, it objected to the Constitution already formed, but suggested no other; it advised submission to the new Captain-General Le Clerc, and threatened punishment for disobedience; it spoke of their liberties as due to France (Toussaint is grave—he does not even smile here); it did not promise anything on this score, but pointed to the liberty France had given to other nations, and stated that they could only enjoy liberty as French citizens, and asked submission, co-operation, and peace.[59]
Toussaint turns to M. Coisnon, and says—“Three months after the date you bring me a letter which announces peace; the action of General Le Clerc is war. I had established order and justice here; now all is confusion and misery. Take back my sons, M. Coisnon, I cannot receive them as the price of my surrender.” The children were again sent to him; they threw themselves into his arms with entreaties. Toussaint remained inflexible. “My children,” he said, “make your choice—whatever it is, I shall always love you.” Placide alone said—“My father, I am yours; I fear the future—I fear slavery.”
FOOTNOTES:
[59] Beard’s Life, p. 174.
XVI.
Le Clerc was indignant; and declared he would take Toussaint before he had his boots off! He issued his proclamation—almost as grand—brief as Napoleon’s, and declared Toussaint and Christophe outlaws, etc., etc., Toussaint reads it to his soldiers; with one voice they cried—“We will die with you!” His plan now is to harass the French continually, to leave them no rest, never to meet them in open warfare, but to cut them off in detail—to destroy all before them, houses, food and water; “throw corpses and horses into the fountains, burn and annihilate everything in order that those who come to reduce us to slavery may have before their eyes the image of that hell which they deserve.” “Do not forget while waiting for the rainy season, which will rid us of our foes, that we have no resource but destruction and flames.” Such are his instructions—the fierce Dessalines more than obeyed them. He drove the whites before him and destroyed their towns, and left dead bodies lying in heaps to tell the French of their desperation and ferocity. The “horrors” again were abroad—fear began them, the French seconded them; blacks again murdered whites—whites again slaughtered blacks. All the blacks, however, were not savage, nor all the whites bloodthirsty, for the heart of man returns to mercy.
The strong redoubt of Crête à Pierrot, built by the English, defends the entrance to the wild mountains of the Artibonite; there a small army can fight against numbers. Thither Toussaint collects his beaten forces, thither came Dessalines and Lamartinière, their leaders. He strengthens Crête à Pierrot, and charges them to defend it.
The French drew near under Debelle, Rochambeau, and Hardy; they were the troops of Italy and the Nile, twelve thousand strong, before whom this rabble of blacks were to fly like sheep. When they appeared Dessalines opened his gates and called upon all who feared or favored the French to walk out of the fort. Some went, but the rest were the stronger. The French came on with their usual ardor; the firing began; the moment they were within reach of the blacks the batteries swept them down. Four hundred men went down that day, among them Generals Debelle and Devaux. Le Clerc heard and was chagrined; he hastened from Port au Prince with General Boudet’s division. Dessalines had improved the time to build another strong redoubt. The French again advanced, Rigaud and Petion among them, and drove in the blacks; again the well-manned batteries mowed them down, and Boudet was wounded. General Dagua brought in his division; he was struck and but one general officer (Lacroix) kept the field. The blacks then charged and beat the assailants, and Le Clerc himself received a slight wound. The French in this attempt lost eight hundred men.
Le Clerc was still obliged to wear his boots, for Toussaint was not taken, nor even Crête à Pierrot. The French then sat down before this fort to invest and besiege it in regular form, for the blacks fought like devils; they would not fly.