Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [76]
The people in Croix des Bouquets said that Dessalines was in the casernes of Port-au-Prince, so we rode there, though not so quickly with Maillart leading. I was not sure how quickly Major Maillart wanted to get to Dessalines, who was no friend of any white people whether they served Toussaint or not. It was night when we came to Port-au-Prince, and at the casernes they told us that Dessalines was not there. He had gone to Saint Marc, people thought, where he had built a fine house for himself, but no one knew for certain where he was.
In the place of Dessalines a blanc called Agé commanded the town, with Lamartinière, a mulatto, as his second. It might be that Dessalines hated colored men even more than he hated the blancs, and he had seemed to enjoy killing them very much during the war against Rigaud, but Lamartinière was one of the few he liked and respected for his courage. I, Riau, had not known Lamartinière well before this night, but we had seen each other’s faces and knew each other’s names, and I went to sit near him when we came into the council room, while Maillart went to the white general Agé.
The ships of the French soldiers had come into the bay of Port-au-Prince already but no one had landed, except for a messenger, Captain Sabès. Another blanc named Gimont was with him, but it was Sabès who carried the words. The council room was scattered over with papers this Sabès had brought, each paper saying the same thing, that the French soldiers were not coming to take away our freedom but that they were sworn to protect us and our liberty. I thought that these papers gave nothing but lies, and it seemed to me that Lamartinière did not trust them either. Agé would have sent Sabès back to the ships with a message for friendship, but Lamartinière wanted to hold him there, though without hurting or killing him. There was that difference between Agé and Lamartinière, and though Agé commanded, the men were with Lamartinière.
I learned these things while talking quietly with Lamartinière at one end of the room, while Maillart and Agé had put their heads together in the other. I told Lamartinière that Toussaint had made a lying letter for someone like Agé, telling him to receive the French though not too quickly, but the true word from Toussaint’s mouth to Riau’s ear was that if French soldiers began to land, Dessalines must burn the town and kill the blancs and go into the mountains. Then Lamartinière told me that Dessalines had gone not to Saint Marc but to Léogane. He wanted to know where Toussaint was, but I did not know anything to tell him.
That night a letter was written by Agé which said to the French in the ships that Dessalines had gone away from Port-au-Prince and that they must not land till Dessalines came back, or sent his order. Maillart was given this letter to carry to the ships, and Agé whispered to him to tell the French generals that he, Agé, did not really have any power now to control what happened in the town.
We did not know about this whispering until afterward, but still Lamartinière found a way to send another message to the ships, with someone different than Maillart. His message said that if the French soldiers made any sign that they would come ashore, three cannon shots would be fired from the mountain and at this signal the blancs would all be killed and the town set afire. And that was near enough to what Toussaint had wanted.
Maillart went to the French ships then, and Agé stayed with Sabès in the casernes, but I, Riau, went into the streets with Lamartinière. Lamartinière wanted to raise the people to defend the town,