Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [62]
Tocquet took out another cheroot and rolled it in his fingers. “Since Rochambeau has slaughtered the garrison at Fort Liberté, the peaceful reception of his comrades here strikes me as unlikely,” he said. “However much it may be wished for, by our honorable mayor or anyone else. As for Toussaint, I have known him longer than the rest of you, I think—I knew him when he broke horses at Bréda, and drove the coach of the Comte de Noé. If he does not show himself in this affair, I think it is no accident.”
“Think of our children,” Isabelle said.
“Indeed, I do.” Tocquet, ignoring Elise’s extremely audible sigh, leaned forward to light his cheroot at a candle flame.
“I will certainly go with this delegation,” Arnaud said, giving Tocquet his haughtiest look.
“And I also,” Elise said.
Tocquet leaned back, breathing smoke at the ceiling. Elise turned her face to him.
“But first I will order the servants to pack,” she said. “In the worst case, we shall be ready to go to Ennery in the morning. In the meantime, we ought to do whatever we can, that the worst case might be avoided.”
“And you?” Isabelle said to Doctor Hébert.
“Moi?” the doctor grunted. At the sound of his own voice he realized he knew what he would say. “I shall return to Government House,” he told Isabelle. “I am sure General Christophe will receive me, and I may get some news from Pascal, or the others. In case Télémaque’s effort proves unpersuasive, we will then have some footing, at least, in the other camp.” He felt Tocquet’s approving glance as he pushed back his plate and rose from the table.
Arnaud and the Cignys stayed to wait for Elise, while she searched out her trunks and valises and gave Zabeth her many directions, so the doctor was the first one down to the street. The night was clear, with a half-moon risen, the air cool and fresh after the evening storm. He was grateful to be alone on the street and to occupy himself with walking. There was some commotion in front of Christophe’s mansion in the Rue Royale—a wagon and a gang of porters working under torchlight. When the doctor came nearer, he saw that a dozen large barrels of tar were being rolled into Christophe’s courtyard. He gulped back the sour bubble of wine that swelled unpleasantly into his throat, and hurried up the slope to the Rue Espagnole.
The effort broke out a light sweat on him; the night air was humid as well as cool. In the Place Montarcher, half a dozen men were clustered, braiding rags to the ends of long poles and twirling them in an iron cauldron that reeked of tar. Fire spears, the doctor realized with another jolt— lances à feu. A bunch of children loitered at a little distance from the tar pot, giggling and chattering and shoving each other, for all the world as if it were some festival in preparation. Their eyes on the doctor seemed not altogether friendly. He went by quickly; the enclosure of Government House was just across the street.
Those drums in the Place Clugny the night before seemed to beat in his head again; again he saw the stiff masked figure, revolving with its rigid outstretched arms. Instinct told him that Télémaque’s mission was not at all likely to succeed, and if it failed—the doctor had been present for the fire that razed Le Cap in ninety-three. He and Nanon and the child they’d made together had just escaped that conflagration with the clothes scorched on their backs. All he had to do tonight was blink his eyes to see it all in flames again.
Within the Government House compound, the silence was complete, funereal. The doctor recognized several faces among the men of the guard, but no one greeted him, nor did they talk among themselves. There was no sound at all except the shivering of the leaves of the tall palms.
Inside the building the formal dining room had been shut up, and the doctor wondered what had become of the envoy, Lebrun. He put this question to Pascal, whom he found waiting in the anteroom, outside the closed door of the inner cabinet.
Pascal shrugged. “He has been sent off to bed, I suppose. And tomorrow