Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [17]
“And in what force?” the doctor said. At once he remembered what Maillart had begun to tell him earlier, about Vincent.
“I don’t know. You might ask Pascal—he must have seen the letter. I thought you might have seen it yourself.” Isabelle looked at him sharply to see if perhaps he actually had. “The letter is reported to say that enough troops will be sent to ensure that French sovereignty is respected.”
And just how many would that be? The doctor felt the bottom of his stomach drop. Following Isabelle’s expert lead, he spun and caught a glimpse of Maillart, beckoning to him as he moved toward the outer door. By good luck Captain Howarth, on the other side of the ballroom, was signaling his interest in a dance with Isabelle. Doctor Hébert surrendered his partner with a smile and followed the major onto the steps outside.
It was calm and cool outdoors beneath the crescent moon, and a breeze was shivering the leaves of the tall palms. A few other men stood smoking, talking quietly lower on the steps. Farther in the courtyard or beyond the gate, some of the guests had brought their ladies to still more private colloquies. Maillart offered his flask and the doctor took it gratefully and drank. The burn of new white rum spread through him. He was humid from the effort of his dancing, but now he felt a little cooler from the breeze.
“Vincent,” he said. “Elba—what does it mean?”
“As you may imagine,” said the major, “Toussaint’s constitution, which Vincent was charged to present to the First Consul, was no better received than he had predicted before he left here.”
“I can imagine all too well.” The doctor returned the flask to Maillart, who nursed at it contemplatively.
“Yes,” he said. “In such cases the messenger sometimes must suffer, as everyone knows. But Vincent, despite being so compromised, was recalled more recently to give his opinion on the advisability of sending an expedition in full force.”
“ ‘To ensure that French sovereignty is respected,’ ” Doctor Hébert quoted. “And Vincent’s opinion?”
“Against,” said Maillart, as he capped the flask and slipped it into the pocket of his coat. “By his own account, Vincent advised the First Consul simply to reject the constitution. That he send a token force escorting a new governor. Toussaint would then be left the choice of submission or open rebellion against France.”
“I do not think he would openly rebel,” the doctor said.
“Perhaps you are right,” said Maillart. “Do you think he would submit to a new governor? When the constitution which you yourself have copied out names him Governor for life?”
The doctor exhaled, with a noisy flutter of his lips.
“So,” Maillart went on, “when pressed on the point of a military excursion, Vincent advised that it would be most unlikely to succeed, since there are forty thousand natives under arms in some fashion or other, which a force of twenty thousand French soldiers could not—in his opinion, mind you!—reduce. The native troops, who can live on nothing, would hold out in the mountains, beyond pursuit, harrying the European soldiers who would be rapidly dying of fever, the climate, their inevitable privations . . . along with casualties inflicted by a numerically superior force.”
“An uninviting prospect,” said the doctor.
“Yes,” Maillart said. “Of course, one does not safely suggest to Bonaparte that his arms could ever fail. For that reason, we may presume, our friend Vincent now finds himself addressing his correspondence from Elba.”
In the ensuing silence, Pascal emerged onto the steps, biting at his thumbnail.
“I thought you were in for a night of it,” said the doctor, who himself served often enough as one of Toussaint’s many scribes. Toussaint required no more than a couple of hours’ sleep out of twenty-four, and would often drive his secretaries until dawn.
“No,” said Pascal. “The Governor has left the town.”
“Where was he bound?” Maillart inquired.
“Fort Liberté was what he said.”
“So he may be going anywhere but there,” the major muttered. He displayed his flask and Pascal reached for it eagerly.