Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [77]
At last we came to the Armory, and there at the door was a blanc named Lacombe, who had the keys to the Armory, and he would not give up the keys when Lamartinière asked for them. Lacombe had got a copy of the same paper which Sabès had managed to scatter in the streets on his way to the casernes, and he said that because the paper said that the French were coming in friendship, there was not any reason to get weapons out to fight them. Some of the people who had been following us through the streets called out that they agreed with him. Lamartinière did not spend any time arguing with Lacombe, though, but only called him a miserable colon and with the same word shot him, so that his brains came out of the back of his head and splashed on the door of the Armory. There was nobody in the crowd who agreed with Lacombe any more after that, and Lamartinière took the keys from his body and opened the door to get out the guns.
No one noticed Riau going away while these things were happening. I had seen how many ships there were at Samana Bay, and I had seen how Toussaint was made weak for a moment when the sight of those ships first struck his eyes. It did not seem to me to be sure at all that Lamartinière could protect the town without burning it, and the people in the town were divided, too. I walked back to the casernes and got my horse without saying anything to anyone and rode out the south gate toward Léogane.
It was just dawn when I started from Port-au-Prince, and by the time I came to Léogane it was full day and the heat was rising. Dessalines was not at Léogane. I lost much time looking for him in one place and another, because I was suddenly afraid of what would happen, and I could not believe that Dessalines could not be found when he was needed. Everyone at Léogane told me now that Dessalines was at Saint Marc, but I did not know if I believed that I would find him there either. While I was looking for him, there came word to Léogane that blanc soldiers had landed at Lamentin and they were coming up the road.
I went then to the fort of the Piémont, which covered the road from Léogane to Port-au-Prince. Soldiers of the Sixty-eighth were in this fort, though Dessalines was not, but Lamartinière came there soon after I did. Then the French soldiers came in sight around a bend of the road below the fort, which was a half-circle earthwork with six big cannons. One of the blanc officers came out in front of all the rest. He came near enough that a musket shot could have reached him easily, but no one fired at him. Everyone waited, and the officer called in a loud voice— We have not come to fight you—you are French! you are our brothers!
Saying these words, he took his sword out of the sheath and threw it away to the side of the road. He shouted that he wanted to come into the fort alone to parley with us. But at that his own soldiers began to argue with him and at the same time some of the officers in the fort began to argue with Magny, who was the chef de bataillon there. Some of them wanted to let the French come up and believed that we should not fight them after all.
Lamartinière stood apart from this talk. He was light-skinned enough that Riau could see how all the blood had washed out of his face. His head was turned to one side, listening. He was waiting to hear the cannons at Fort Bizoton, but they did not fire.
In back of the French soldiers I could see that there were some officers much bigger than the one who had come forward. Generals of brigade were there,