The Hour and the Man, An Historical Romance

by Harriet Martineau

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

  CONFLICTING.

  "What to do!" said L'Ouverture to Christophe, as they entered hisapartment at Le Dondon. "What to do? Everything, this year and for thefuture, may depend on what we decide on for our next step. And we mustdecide before we leave this room, say your thoughts, Henri."

  "I am for a truce."

  "I am for a retreat in the mountains. Now for our reasons! Why do youdesire a truce?"

  "Because I see that Leclerc so earnestly wishes it, that I am confidentwe may make good terms, for the interval of waiting till we recoveraltogether our power, our territory, and our people. Leclerc willrevoke our outlawry. That done, you will be the virtual rider of ourpeople till August; after which no foes will be left upon our soil.What have you to say against this?"

  "That it is yielding, unnecessarily and fatally, to the invaders. Whereare our censures of Clerveaux and Maurepas, if we, too, yield toLeclerc, and make terms with him?"

  "Every one of our people will understand the difference in the cases.Every one of them sees the difference between falling at the feet ofLeclerc, like Clerveaux; or joining him on the very field on which youwere about to oppose him, like Maurepas; and making a truce, for a shortinterval, when you are almost destitute of ammunition, and the enemy soexhausted with the heats as to decline coming into the field; while, atthe same time, fresh troops are pouring in upon the coast, in suchnumbers as to prevent your regaining your independence by remaining inarms. If every man of the negroes has not wit enough to understand thisfor himself, who is better able than you to inform them of whatsoeveryou desire them to know? Be assured, Toussaint, powerful as yourinfluence is this day among our people, it will be more so when you areno longer an outlaw. It is worth a large sacrifice of our feelings tohave our outlawry revoked."

  "Have you more reasons to give for accepting a truce; or, as the Frenchunderstand it, a peace?"

  "Let me first hear your reasons for a retreat in the mountains."

  "A retreat in the mountains is the more honest proceeding of the two,Henri. If we make terms with the French, it will be knowing that thatwhich goes by the name of peace is no more than a truce till August."

  "And will not they know that as well as we? Is it necessary to tell thewhites, at this day, that they are liable to the fever in the heats, andthat any army, however glorious in its strength previously, becomes askeleton at that season? This is a matter that is perfectly understoodby all the parties."

  "We must look forward, Henri, to the days to come, when August itself ispast. The influence of myself or my successor will be injured by myhaving, even apparently, yielded to the invaders. My power over ourpeople's minds will be immeasurably greater, if I shall haveconsistently refused to tolerate the foe, from the moment of their firsthostile act to the end of the struggle. Am I not right?"

  "That character of consistency will be purchased at a price too dear;--at the cost of your characteristic of mercy, Toussaint--of reverence forhuman life. You will be ranked with Dessalines, if you keep up, forfour months, the disturbance and devastation of war, when every oneknows that your end will be as certainly gained after these four monthshave been spent in peace. What a grief it would be to see you changedin all eyes from the adored L'Ouverture to Toussaint the bandit! Pardonmy freedom."

  "I required it of you, my friend; so do not speak of pardon. We areagreed that the moral influence of my conduct is the main consideration,as the destruction of the French army is certain, sooner or later--ourindependence secure, if we so will it. If we remain in the mountains,cutting off in detail the grasp which France shall attempt to lay on anypart of our territory or our system; training our people, meantime, foranother campaign, if France should attempt another; replenishinggradually our stores with perpetual small captures from the enemy,allowing them no asylum, discountenancing their presence, in everypossible way--we shall be taking the shortest, and therefore the mostmerciful method of convincing the French and the blacks at once thattheir empire here is at an end, and slavery henceforth impossible forthe negroes of Saint Domingo. But, if I make a peace or truce, how dimand perplexed will be the impression of my conduct! I cannot holdoffice, civil or military, under the French. Henri, you would not haveme do so!"

  "Certainly not. Till August, retire to your estate, that every officein the colony may thereafter be in your hand."

  "If I co-operate with the French, even in the faintest appearance, mymoral influence will be all on their side, and a second year of warfarewill find us farther from peace or independence than the first. If Iact, more or less, for the blacks, Leclerc will send me to France as atraitor. If I do nothing, neither party will believe in my doingnothing: each will suspect me of secret dealings with the other. It isalso true that I cannot, if I would, be inoperative. Every glance of myeye, every word of my lips, in my own piazza at Pongaudin, would be madeto bear its interpretation, and go to disturb the single and distinctimage which I now stand before every eye and in every mind."

  "I do not agree with you," said Henri. "While the image of August isdistinct in the minds of the Saint Domingo people, it will keep yourinfluence single and intelligible to them. As for what the Frenchthink, that is their own affair. They have the means of knowledge. Letthem use them. There is one fact which no one can misunderstand, thewhile--that after the defections under which you have suffered, andunder your known want of military stores, an incursive war from themountains appears ferocious--both revengeful and cruel--when every oneknows that time will render it unnecessary."

  "These defections do not discourage me as they do you, Henri. Full onethird of my forces are faithful--are proved so by trial. These, withthe goodness of our cause, are enough for my hopes--almost for mydesires. There is no ferocity, but rather mercy, in hastening on theday of our independence and peace, by using a force so respectable--sohonoured, as this tried remnant of my army."

  "You reckon fallaciously, Toussaint. You include my troops in the forceyou speak of."

  "Henri!" exclaimed L'Ouverture, stopping in his walk up the apartment;"it cannot be that you will desert me. No, no! forgive me that thewords passed my lips!"

  "Never will I desert you or our cause, Toussaint. Never will I intermitmy enmity to our invaders; never will I live for any other object thanthe liberties of our people. But the time may be come for us to pursueour common object by different paths. I cannot go and play the banditin the mountains."

  "Why did you not call me a bandit when I was at the Plateaux?"

  "Because you were then waging an honourable war. War, not peace, wasthen beckoning you on to freedom. A state of voluntary outlawry, apractice of needless ravage, will make a different man of you. Say nomore of it, Toussaint: I cannot be lieutenant to--Do not make me utterthe word."

  "You have always hitherto obeyed me, Henri."

  "I have; and when _we_ are in a state of war, I will obey you again. Donot class me with La Plume and Clerveaux--or, rather, do, if you will,and when August is past I will prove to you the difference."

  "Do not you see, Henri, that you not only cease to aid me at a greatcrisis but that you put a force upon me?"

  "I cannot help it; I must do so, rather than go and be a butcher in themornes with Dessalines."

  "Say with me, too: call me a butcher, too! After the long years thatyou have known my heart, call me a butcher too."

  "Let us talk sense, Toussaint: this is no time for trifling. AfterAugust, I shall join you again--to fight, if it be necessary: but I hopeit will not."

  "Not if heaven strengthens me to do my work without you, Christophe.After the fever, it is much for the sick to walk: we do not expect thedead to rise."

  "When I join you, after August," resumed Christophe, "whether for thelabours of war or peace, you, and perhaps even Jacques, will wish thatyour hands were as clean from blood as mine. Your thought, Toussaint!--tell me your thought. If--"

  "I was thinking that you _will_ join us, Henri. You _w
ill_ labour tillour great work is done. You may err; and you may injure our cause byyour error; but you will never be seduced from the rectitude of your ownintentions. That is what I was thinking. I would fain keep my judgmentof you undisturbed by a grieving heart."

  "You are more than generous, Toussaint: you are just. I was neither.Pardon me. But I am unhappy--I am wretched that you are about toforfeit your greatness, when--Oh, Toussaint! nothing should ever grieveme again, if we could but agree to-day--if I could but see you retire,with your wonted magnanimity, to Pongaudin, there, with your wontedpiety, to await the leadings from above. Where is your wonted faith,that you do not see them now, through the clouds that are about us?"

  "I cannot but see them now," said Toussaint, sighing; "and to see is tofollow. If you are wholly resolved to make a truce for yourself andyour division--"

  "I am wholly resolved to do so."

  "Then you compel me to do the same. Without you, I have not forcesufficient to maintain an effectual resistance."

  "Thank God! then we shall see you again L'Ouverture, and no longerToussaint, the outlaw. You will--"

  "Hear me, Henri! You put this constraint upon me. What are youprepared to do, if the French prove treacherous, after our peace ismade?"

  "To drive them into the sea, to be sure. You do not suppose I shallregard them as friends the more for making a truce with them! We willkeep our eyes upon them. We will preserve an understanding with thewhole island, as to the vigilance which the blacks must exercise, dayand night, over their invaders. The first treacherous thought inLeclerc's mind is a breach of the truce; and dearly shall he rue it."

  "This is all well-planned, Henri. If the cunning of Leclerc provesdeeper than yours--"

  "Say ours, Toussaint."

  "No. I have no part in this arrangement. I act under your compulsion,and under my own protest; as I require of you, Henri, to remember. Ifwe are not deep enough, vigilant enough, active enough, for Leclerc andhis council--if he injures us before August, and Bonaparte ordains asecond campaign after it, are you ready to endure the responsibility ofwhatever may befall?"

  "I am."

  "Have you looked well forward into the future, and detected everymischief that may arise from our present temporising, and resolved thatit was a less evil than losing the rest of this season, putting acompulsion upon your best friend, and fettering the deliverer of yourpeople?"

  "I have so looked forward--repudiating the charge of undutifulcompulsion. I act for myself, and those under my command."

  "Virtually compelling me to act with you, by reducing me from being theGeneral of an army to be the leader of a troop; and by exposing ourcause to the peril--the greatest of all--of a declared division betweenyou and me. I yield, Christophe; but what I am going to do, I do underprotest. Order in the French prisoners."

  "Yet one moment," said Henri. "Let me reason with you a little further.Be satisfied of the goodness of the act before you do it."

  "I do not need satisfaction on that. I do not quarrel with the terms weare to make. I do not protest against any of the provisions of thetreaty. I protest against the necessity of treating. Summon theprisoners."

  "Can you," said Christophe, still delaying, "can you improve upon theterms proposed? Can the conditions be altered, so as to give moresatisfaction to your superior foresight? I would not use flatteringterms at this moment, Toussaint; you know I would not. But yoursagacity is greater than mine, or any one's. I distrust myself aboutthe terms of the treaty, I assure you."

  "About anything more than the mere terms of the treaty?" askedToussaint, again stopping in his walk.

  "About the conditions--and about the conditions only."

  "Your self-distrust is misplaced, and comes too late. Order theprisoners to be brought in."

  As Sabes and Martin entered, L'Ouverture and Christophe renewed, by aglance, their agreement to speak and act with the utmost apparentsameness of views and intentions. It was but a poor substitute for thereal coincidence which had always hitherto existed; but it was all thatwas now possible.

  "I am going to send you back to your Captain-General, gentlemen," saidToussaint.

  "Not without apology, I trust," said Sabes, "for having subjected tosuch treatment as we have undergone, messengers sent to parley--bearingactually the necessary credentials from the Captain-General. For nineweeks have my companion and I been dragged from place to place, whereverit suited your purposes to go, in perpetual fear for our lives."

  "I am sorry you have trembled for your lives, gentlemen," repliedToussaint. "It was an unnecessary suffering, as I gave you my word, onyour capture, that your persons were safe. Considering that you werefound crouching among the ferns, within hearing of my privateconversation with my son respecting the affairs of the war, I think yourcomplaints of your detention unreasonable; and I have no apology tomake, on that ground, either to yourselves or your commander. I cannothear another word of complaint, gentlemen. You know well that by anygeneral in Europe you would, under similar circumstances, have beenhanged as spies. Now to public business. I am about to send you toGeneral Leclerc, with proposals from General Christophe and myself tobring this painful war to an end, according to the desire of the headsof both armies. We all know such to be the wish of theCaptain-General."

  "No doubt. It was never his desire, nor that of any true Frenchman,"said Sabes, "to be at war on the soil of this colony. You alone,General Toussaint, are responsible for the loss of lives, and all theother miseries which it has occasioned."

  "How so? Let him say on, Lieutenant Martin. No one suffers by speakinghis thoughts to me, be they what they may. On what consideration is itpossible to impute this war to me?"

  "It would never have broken out if you had not despised the authority,and thrown off the control, of the mother-country. This view cannot benew to you, General Toussaint," continued Sabes, on seeing the look ofamazement with which L'Ouverture turned to Christophe.

  "Indeed it is," replied Toussaint. "The charge is as unexpected as itis untrue. You, sir," he said, appealing to Lieutenant Martin, "are anaval officer. Tell me how you would act in such a case as this.Suppose you commanded a vessel of the state, authorised and approved inyour office? suppose another officer came--without notice, without yourhaving heard a word of complaint--and leaped upon your deck, with a crewdouble the number of your own, striking down and fettering your men. Ifyou resisted their violence in such a case, successfully orunsuccessfully, would you admit that you were the cause of thestruggle--that you despised the government under which you held yourcommand--that you threw off the control of your superiors?"

  There was a pause.

  "Such is my case," said Toussaint; "and thus you must represent it, ifyou be men of honour. The purport of my letter to the Captain-General(which will be ready by the time you are prepared for your journey), isto declare the willingness of General Christophe and myself tonegotiate, as the continuation of the war, under the circumstances whichhave arisen, appears to be without object. The terms which we require,and which it is supposed General Leclerc will agree to, are an amnestyfor all who have ever fought, or otherwise acted, under our command; andthe preservation of the rank of all black officers, civil and military.My friend Christophe and I will retire to our estates, to pray for thepeace and welfare of the colony--the peace and welfare which have,notwithstanding our prayers, been so unhappily broken up. Gentlemen,there can be little doubt that the Captain-General will agree to theseterms of pacification."

  "We cannot answer for his replies," said Martin. "Our representationsshall be faithful."

  "I doubt it not," said Toussaint, "after experiencing your companion'scourage and fidelity in rebuke; for which, though he is mistaken infact, I honour him. Nor can I doubt the readiness of theCaptain-General to treat with us on the terms I shall propose; for hemust know that I shall always, among my native fastnesses, be strong toburn, ravage, and destroy. He must know, that though my negroes may beconquered, they w
ill never more be subdued; and that, entrenched in themornes, they can always effectually prevent an unfriendly settlement ofthe island. He must know that I am open to generous treatment; butotherwise ready and able to sell dearly a life which has done ourcountry some service."

  The French officers assented; but waited, as if to hear something more,besides Christophe's declaration, for his own part, of agreement in whatL'Ouverture had said.

  Sabes at length spoke, not without another cautionary sign from hiscompanion.

  "Your generous frankness, General Toussaint," said he, "induces me toremind you of one more duty which, in case of the desired pacification,you will owe to the Captain-General. You will hold yourself indebted toFrance for all such treasure as, in an hour of alarm, you may havechosen to conceal."

  "What does this mean?" said Toussaint. "General Christophe, do you knowof any public treasure being concealed in any part of the island?"

  "None," said Christophe, "public or private."

  "Nor do I. You hear, gentlemen."

  "You forget, General Toussaint, what we heard on the occasion of ourcapture."

  "You forget your own words to us," said Lieutenant Martin--"that we hadseen and heard too much for you to let us go."

  "I remember my words perfectly; and that they referred to my choice of apost in the mornes, and a retreat for my family--affairs long since madepublic enough. What else do you suppose you saw and heard? If I spokeof depositing my treasures in the mornes, I was doubtless speaking of myhousehold. Did you understand me to mean gold and silver? What was itthat you suppose you saw and heard?"

  "We saw new-made graves, and the tools that dug them, after having heardshots."

  "You are welcome to dig upon the Plateaux, and to take whatever treasureyou may find. You will find only the bones of the brave who fell inattacking and defending the post."

  "And of those who, being there, can tell no tales. You forget that weheard their death-shots before we saw their graves. The time is comefor you to tell the secret that you buried with them."

  Christophe rarely laughed; but he laughed now.

  "They believe," said he--"apparently they believe--that you hid treasurein the morne, and then shot and buried the servants employed."

  "We do," said the officers, gravely.

  "Were you really about to carry this story to the Captain-general?"asked Toussaint, smiling. "Tell him that the wealth of the colony,sufficient for the desires of its inhabitants, is dispersed through allits dwellings, to be enjoyed--not hidden by avarice, and sealed withblood."

  "We are too well informed," said Sabes, "concerning the wealth andsplendour of the colony to believe that any part of its treasure has metour eyes that can be concealed. Duty to France now requires that sheshould be put in possession of the whole wealth of the island."

  "Let France cultivate an honourable peace," said Toussaint, "and herauthorities will assuredly see the wealth of the colony spread over allits fields, and amassed in every harbour. We can then present anoverflowing public treasury. That is all I have to offer: and it oughtto be enough."

  Sabes did not press the point further, because he saw it would beuseless. But he and his companion were more and more persuaded of thetruth of their notion of what they had seen and heard, the more theyrecalled the tales told at the Court of France of the plate, the gems,the bullion and coin, and the personal ornaments which abounded, even inthe prosperous days of the old emigrants. Every one knew, too, that thecolony had been more prosperous than ever since. It is not known bywhom the amount of the hidden treasure was, at length, fixed atthirty-two millions of francs. Sabes and Martin simply told their storyand their ideas to Leclerc, adding the information that ToussaintL'Ouverture was an adept in dissimulation; that they had as nearly aspossible been deprived of this piece of insight, by the apparentfrankness and candour of his manners; and that, but for the boldness ofSabes in pressing the affair of the buried treasure, they shouldactually have quitted the negro chief, after an occasional intercourseof nine weeks, without any knowledge of that power of dissimulationwhich had been formerly attributed to him by those who, it now appeared,knew him well, and which must be the guiding fact in all theCaptain-General's dealings with him. His cunning must be met by all thecunning that Leclerc's united council could muster, or destruction wouldlurk under the pretended pacification. Accordingly, the whole ofLeclerc's policy henceforth proceeded on the supposed fact of ToussaintL'Ouverture being the prince of dissemblers.