rty. But this was not enough: some of the planters
mounted the English hat and sent to the English for succor. Even
"_perfide Albion_" was welcome, if they might but reestablish slavery
and get again their estates. In this extremity, Santhonax decided to
make friends with the blacks, and proclaimed at Cap Francois universal
freedom (August 20, 1793). Polverel repeated the proclamation at Port au
Prince. The enthusiasm among the negroes was great, but not universal.
Their leaders were not moved; they distrusted the commissioners and they
doubted the stability of the French Republic--so the war went on.

In September, the English landed at Jeremie, in the extreme southwest.
They took possession of St. Nicholas, in the extreme northwest, and
during the year 1794 the whole western coast was in their
possession--St. Nicholas, St. Marc, St. Jacmel, Tiburon, Jeremie; and at
last, on June 4th, Port au Prince, the capital, yielded. "Twenty-two
topsail vessels," with their cargoes, worth four hundred thousand pounds
sterling, were a part of the spoil. The mulatto chief, Rigaud, had taken
the side of France. Educated in Bordeaux, he had followed, in Santo
Domingo, his trade of a goldsmith, which the whites thought too good for
a "nigger." He was a brave man, mild in peace, and terrible in war, and,
aided by Petion, he kept up a harassing fight against the English.
Shortly after the fall of Port au Prince, a ship arrived with a
requisition for the commissioners to return to France; they must answer
for their doings there, and General Laveaux was left as provisional
governor.

His case, and that of the French, was desperate. Shut up in Port de
Paix, the last stronghold of the French, he wrote (May 24, 1794): "For
more than six months we have been reduced to six ounces of bread a day,
officers as well as men, but from the 13th we have none whatever, the
sick only excepted. If we had powder we should have been consoled. We
have in our magazines neither shoes, nor shirts, nor clothes, nor soap,
nor tobacco. The most of the soldiers mount guard barefoot; we have no
flints for the men; but be assured that we will never surrender; be
assured too, that after us, the enemy will not find the slightest trace
of Port de Paix." Dark was the outlook, but brave was the heart of
General Laveaux.

The hour was nigh: the hands advanced on the dial of time. Events, which
no man could have foreseen or controlled, had gathered for judgment, and
at l