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When Toussaint came, he had said to her: "It is the young lady who is the mistress of this house." "And you, monsieur?" Toussaint replied in amazement. "I am a much better thing than the master, I am the father." Cosette had been taught housekeeping in the convent, and she regulated their expenditure, which was very modest.
In 1791, under the leadership of Toussaint l'Ouverture, the slaves began a long and bloody revolt of their own. Slaves flocked to Toussaint's support by the thousands until he had an army much larger than any that had fought in the American revolution, This revolt became entangled with the French revolution and the European wars connected with it.
Then he grunted, and left the room. He had not spoken, and his crest of long feathers as it turned the corner was the last vision of him that the card-players had. Red Cloud came back to the officers, and in their presence formally spoke to his interpreter, who delivered the message: "Red Cloud says Toussaint heap no good. No Injun, anyhow. He not want him. White man hunt pretty hard for him.
His master observed that Toussaint was rather romantic, and did not like jesting on domestic affairs. He was more prudish about such matters than whites fresh from the mother-country. Whether he had got it out of his books, or whether it really was a romantic attachment to his wife, there was no knowing; but he was quite unlike his race generally in family matters.
Early in 1800 a republican constitution was drafted under the auspices of Toussaint, which made Hayti virtually independent, though under the guardianship of France. An election was held and the liberator chosen president for life. When the news of this action reached France in July, 1800, Napoleon was furious. He had just been made First Consul and would brook no equal.
A man was not to receive wages from his master, and to do nothing. He was obliged to perform a reasonable quantity of work, or be punished. Another offence was absence without leave, which was considered as desertion. Toussaint differed from the commissioners, as to the length of time for which labourers should engage themselves to masters.
This proclamation was afterwards published, by Leclerc's orders, in the Gazette du Cap, where it was read by Toussaint in his study at Pongaudin. "See!" said he, pointing out the paragraph to Pascal, with a smile. "This is the way of men with each other. See the complacency with which one man pardons another for the most necessary, or the best deed of his life!"
In the moment's pause occasioned by his not moving on when desired, he heard the dripping of water as in a well. Bellines appeared, and his torch showed the stone walls of the vault shining with the trickling of water. A cold steam appeared to thicken the air, oppress the lungs, and make the torch burn dim. "To what apartment can this be the passage?" thought Toussaint.
"That character of consistency will be purchased at a price too dear; at the cost of your characteristic of mercy, Toussaint of reverence for human life. You will be ranked with Dessalines, if you keep up, for four months, the disturbance and devastation of war, when every one knows that your end will be as certainly gained after these four months have been spent in peace.
"Why, only a brigand would do such a thing!" said Toussaint. "That Anarchism disgusts me. I'll have none of it. But all the same it's for the /bourgeois/ to settle matters. If the others want to blow them up, it's their concern. It's they who brought it about."
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