Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [163]
Outside, Monsieur Granville had turned up to greet his acquaintances just arrived from Gonaives. “Do you think it is true?” one of the latter was saying, “The Captain-General will not take off his boots until he has managed to capture Toussaint?”
“Perhaps that is only poetry,” Granville said with a choking effort at a laugh. Then, in a lower, more careful voice, “If he does mean it, someone ought to prepare his lady wife for a pair of very smelly feet.”
“ ‘Le Cap headquarters, 28 Pluviôse, Year Ten,’ ” Placide read aloud.
Inhabitants of Saint Domingue: The General Toussaint has sent his children back to me, with a letter in which he assures me that he is ready to obey any order I give him. I have ordered him to report to me; I have given him my word to employ him as my Lieutenant-General. He has not replied to this order except with empty phrases; he is only seeking to gain time. I am entering into campaign and I am going to teach this rebel what the force of the French government is. From this moment forward, he must be nothing more, in the eyes of the good French people who live in Saint Domingue, than an insensatemonster.
I have promised liberty to the inhabitants of Saint Domingue, and I will know how to make them enjoy it.
I command the following:
Article One: The General Toussaint and the General Christophe are outlawed; all citizens are ordered to pursue them—
“Enough.” Toussaint made a cutting movement with his hand and scraped his chair sideways to the table. Placide set down the proclamation paper beside the oil lamp.
“Why is it that he outlaws only you and the General Christophe?” Placide said. “Why not Dessalines or Maurepas or any of the others?”
In lieu of a response, Toussaint stretched out a hand for the proclamation. The printed paper fluttered in the night wind as Placide passed it over. They were sitting, alone, on the open porch on the second floor of the Gonaives headquarters, under a waning moon which poured a cooler, paler light around the yellow orb of the lamp.
Toussaint angled the paper toward the lamp’s glow and scanned it for a moment, his lips pursed. Then he passed it back to Placide. “Read here,” he said, flicking the paper. “And here.”
Placide skimmed the lines Toussaint had indicated:
Article Three: Cultivators who have been led into error and have taken up arms will be treated as misguided children and returned to agriculturalwork.
Article Four: Soldiers who abandon Toussaint’s army will become part of the French army...1
“Enough,” Toussaint said again. “It is Leclerc who is truly the outlaw and I will declare it so.”
“I think I see it,” Placide said slowly. “He means to isolate you, if he can, through these betrayals he invites.”
“Exactly,” Toussaint said. “You see it very clear.”
“But why Christophe?”
“I suppose that the Captain-General is piqued at Christophe, at least for the moment.” Toussaint smoothed away a smile with one hand. “Since Christophe has left him nothing of Le Cap but a wasteland of cinders on which to pitch his camp.”
“And the others?” Placide said. “They will not betray us?”
“Not Dessalines,” Toussaint said. “Not Maurepas.” He exhaled through his loose front teeth. “It may be that some of the field workers will seek the protection of the Captain-General, if he has occupied their land.”
“But your officers,” Placide said.
“Let us think carefully,” Toussaint said. “We must admit that some of the generals may be tempted to follow the example of your brother. Some may accept the false promises of these French blancs, especially those who do not much want to fight anyway, or risk the loss of their comforts and position. Laplume has already sworn his loyalty to General Boudet at Port-au-Prince, I know, but the loyalty of Laplume was never worth much.”
Toussaint leaned back, his eyes half closed, and set the tips of his