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Beware of imputing to them the sins of their colour; protect them from your hearts defend them with your lives. In the hour of danger, as you invoke the blessing of Heaven, save first the Creole whites, and next your wives and your children." Such were the exhortations spoken everywhere by Christophe, La Plume, and Clerveaux.
News, stirring news, came from all corners of the colony with every fresh arrival. Deesha, especially, could tell all that had been done, not only at L'Etoile, and in all the plain of Cul-de-Sac, but within the districts of the unfaithful generals, Clerveaux and La Plume.
La Plume had fallen by bribery; Clerveaux by cajolery; and both means had been attempted with Christophe. The troops were assailed on the side of their best affections. They were told that Leclerc came to do honour to L'Ouverture to thank him for his government of the island during the troubles of France, and to convoy to him the approbation of the First Consul, in papers enclosed in a golden box.
It is probable that, if they had not heard from Toussaint's own lips of the establishment of slavery in the other French colonies, the authorisation of the slave-trade, and the threat to do what was convenient with Saint Domingo all the negroes would have made the French welcome, as Clerveaux had done.
Say no more of it, Toussaint: I cannot be lieutenant to Do not make me utter the word." "You have always hitherto obeyed me, Henri." "I have; and when we are in a state of war, I will obey you again. Do not 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."
Dessalines was the chief: but leaders sprang up wherever soldiers appeared, asking to be led; and that was everywhere, from the moment of the report of the abduction of Toussaint. Clerveaux revolted from the French, and visited on them the bitterness of his remorse. Maurepas also repented, and was putting his repentance into action when he was seized, tortured, and murdered, with his family.
La Plume and Clerveaux, to whom such demonstrations were less familiar than to the other generals, no longer doubted that all would be well. They pronounced that the colony already showed itself invincible. Toussaint thought that he might have been of the same opinion, if the expected foe had been any other than French.
You will be ever ready for battle, of course; but remember that I rely on you for every point of the south-west coast being watched, from Leogane round to Aux Cayes. Send your communications through Dessalines' line of scouts." La Plume withdrew, and Toussaint gazed after him in reverie, till he was out of sight. "And I?" said Clerveaux, the only general officer now left in attendance.
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.
Every one of them sees the difference between falling at the feet of Leclerc, like Clerveaux; or joining him on the very field on which you were about to oppose him, like Maurepas; and making a truce, for a short interval, when you are almost destitute of ammunition, and the enemy so exhausted with the heats as to decline coming into the field; while, at the same time, fresh troops are pouring in upon the coast, in such numbers as to prevent your regaining your independence by remaining in arms.
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