"You, General, and your troops, will be employed and treated like the
rest of my army. With regard to yourself, you desire repose."--Looking
round, he repeated the words emphatically. "You desire repose: and you
deserve it. After a man has sustained for several years the government
of Saint Domingo, I apprehend he needs repose. I leave you at liberty
to retire to which of your estates you please. I rely so much on the
attachment you bear the colony of Saint Domingo, as to believe you will
employ what moments of leisure you may have during your retreat, in
communicating to me your ideas respecting the means proper to be taken
to cause agriculture and commerce again to flourish. Respecting your
forces, and those of General Christophe, I hold full information. As
soon as a list and statement of the troops under General Dessalines are
transmitted to me, I will communicate my instructions as to the
positions they are to take."
"I will send a messenger from my guard to General Dessalines, this day,"
said Toussaint. "I shall be passing near his post, on my way to my
house at Pongaudin; and he shall have your message."
"This day?" said Leclerc, in a tone of some constraint. "Will you not
spend this day with us?"
"I cannot," replied Toussaint. "I must be gone to my home."
As soon as it was believed that he was fairly out of hearing, the acts
of the morning were proclaimed throughout Cap Francais as the pardon of
Generals Toussaint and Christophe. 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!"
During a halt on the road to Pongaudin, Isaac and Aimee appeared. Aimee
was tearful, but her face was happy. So were her words.
"Oh, father!" she said, "who could have hoped, after what has happened,
that all would so soon be well!"
"I am rejoiced to see you happy, my children."
"And you, father, you are happy? Honoured as you are--the colony at
peace--all parties friends--no more divisions--no more struggles in
families! Father, answer me. Is it not all well?"
"No, my child."
"Are you unhappy, father?"
"Yes, my child."
"I am quite disappointed, quite grieved," said Aimee, drawing back from
his arms, to look in his face.
"Vincent gave us a glorious account on Tortuga," said Isaac, "of the
welcome you had at Cap. We thought--"
"I did not see Vincent at Cap."
"He was not there; but he knew all--"
"But, father," said Aimee, "you will see General Vincent. You will see
him at Pongaudin. Now that you have done as he did--now that you are
friends with the French, as he is, you will see him, father?"
"I have never done as Vincent did, Aimee; and my friendship with the
French is what it ever was. If Vincent comes as your husband, I will
see him as such. As a friend, I cannot. Is he your husband, my love?"
"No!"
"He is to be your husband?"
"If you would see him. If he were your friend. He urges me, father;
and Madame Leclerc and Isaac urge me; but I cannot marry him yet.
Father, you do not know how much my heart is with you and my mother."
"Are you happy, Aimee?"
"Madame Leclerc is very kind; and Vincent's love is everything that
ought to make me happy, but--"
"Will you go home with me, my child?"
"How glad I should be, if only you loved Vincent!"
"I cannot, Aimee. Would that I could!"
"Then, when I have married him, you will see him as my husband? I
cannot marry till my heart is more at ease--till I see everybody as
friendly as Vincent said they were. But when we are married we will
come to Pongaudin. May we?"
"Come, my dear, when you will. Your parents' home and hearts will
always be open to you. Meantime, write often to us, Aimee."
"Oh, yes! I will. I will write very often; and you will answer. I
have heard perpetually of my mother, and of poor Genifrede. But where
is Placide? I thought we should have met him. Was not he at Cap?"
"At Cap! No, indeed! He was too heart-broken to be at Cap to-day."
"I wish I could understand it all!" said Aimee, sadly. "I am sure there
are many things that I do not know or comprehend. I thought all had
been right now; and yet you and Placide are unhappy. I cannot
understand it all."
"Time will explain, my child. There will come a day when all doubts
will be cleared up, and all woes at an end--when the wicked will cease
from troubling, love, and the weary be at rest."
"Must you be going, father, already? Oh! I wish--"
And she looked at Isaac, as if purposing to go to Pongaudin. Isaac,
had, however, promised Madame Leclerc to return by an appointed hour.
There could be no difficulty, he said, in going to Pongaudin any day:
but to-day he had promised that they would both return to Madame
Leclerc. Aimee, therefore, bade her father farewell for the present--
only for a very little while. He must tell her mother that they should
certainly meet very soon.
In the piazza, at Pongaudin, Toussaint found Christophe.
"I wish," said Christophe, "you would send to Dessalines not only the
Captain-General's message, but your own request that he will yield."
"I cannot, Henri."
"But he may spoil all by holding out."
"I have done what I can in yielding myself. I can do no more."
"You approve our act? Surely you do not repent of what you have done?"
"I cannot repent of what I could not avoid. But enough of business for
to-day, my friend. Where is Madame Christophe? Where are your
children? Bring them here; and let us enjoy leisure and friendship once
more, while we can."
"We will. But, Toussaint, if you could only say that you are satisfied
that we have done what is best, it would relieve me much."
"I cannot, Henri. But, be assured, I fully acquiesce. One has not
always the comfort of being able to acquiesce."
"Can you say, then, that you forgive me, in as far as you think me
wrong?"
"Can you doubt it?" replied Toussaint, turning upon him a countenance
full of frank affection. "Are you not a friend of many years?"
"God forgive me if I have misled you, Toussaint!"