“I grieve,” said he, “that you cannot yet fulfil your function altogether in peace. My generals and I have done what we can to preserve our fields from devastation, and our cultivators from the dangers and the fears of ambushed foes; but Rigaud’s forces are not yet subdued; and for a while we must impose upon our cultivators the toil of working armed in the field. We are soldiers here,” he added, looking round upon his officers, “but I hope there is not one of us who does not honour the hoe more than the gun. How far have you been able to repair in the south-eastern districts the interruption in the September planting?”
The superintendent of those districts came forward, and said that some planting had been effected in November, the sprouts of which now looked well. More planting had been done during the early part of the present month; and time would show the result.
“Good!” said Toussaint. “Some of the finest crops I have seen have risen from January plants, though it were best it were done in September. How do you report about the rats?”
“The nuisance is still great,” replied the head superintendent; “their uninterrupted possession of the fields during the troubles has made them very powerful. Would that your excellency were as powerful to conquer the rats as the mulattoes!”
“We have allies,” said Toussaint, gravely—“an army more powerful than that which I command. Where are the ants!”
“They have closed their campaign. They cleared the fields for us in the autumn; but they have disappeared.”
“For a time only. While there are rats, they will reappear.”
“And when there are no more rats, we must call in some force, if your excellency knows of such, to make war upon the an Is; for they are only a less evil than that which they cure.”
“If they were absent, you would find some worse evil in their stead—pestilence, perhaps. Teach your children this, if you hear them complain of anything to which Providence has given life and an errand among us. The cocoa walks at Plaisance—are they fenced to the north?”
“Completely. The new wood has sprung up from the ashes of the fires, like a mist from the lake.”