“Domage never received your instructions. La Plume carried them, and no doubt, your aide-de-camp also, straight to the French. Chaney has not been seen: he is traitor or prisoner.”
“Then Cayes is not burned, nor Jeremie defended?”
“Neither the one nor the other. Both are lost; and so is Port-au-Prince. My troops and I did our best at the Croix de Bosquets: but what could we do in such a case? I am here, wounded within an inch of my life; and they are in the fastnesses. You were a doctor once, L’Ouverture. Set me up again; and I will gather my men from the mountains, and prick these whites all across the peninsula into the sea.”
“I will be doctor, or nurse, or anything, to save you, Jacques.”
“What if I have more bad news? Will you not hate me?”
“Lose no time, my friend. This is no hour for trifling.”
“There is no room for trifling, my friend. I fear—I am not certain—but I fear the east is lost.”
“Is Clerveaux bought too?”
“Not bought. He is more of your sort than La Plume’s. He is incorruptible by money; but he likes the French, and he loves peace. He would be a very brother to you, if he only loved liberty better than either. As it is, he is thought to have delivered over the whole east, from the Isabella to Cap Samana, without a blow.”
“And my brother!”