you. The cultivators are
marching over the plain; and in four hours the town will be sacked, if
you, Monsieur Hedouville, who have given the provocation, do not
withdraw it. You must sign this proclamation. It is the opposite of
your own now waiting for jubilation. But you must sign and issue it--
and that within this hour. I hear what you say, gentlemen. You say
that I have raised the cultivators. I have not. There is not a negro
in the plain who does not at this moment believe that I am in the south.
I come to put them down; but I will not go out with the sword in one
hand, if I do not carry justice in the other."

"What do you mean about justice, General? What injustice has been
done?"

"Here is the draft of your proclamation--"

"How came you by that paper--by the particulars of my intention?" asked
Hedouville. "My proclamation is yet locked up in my own desk."

"Its contents are nevertheless known throughout the colony. When a
Commissary, lightly and incidentally (and therefore the more
offensively) settles, without understanding them, the most important
points of difference between two unreconciled races, the very winds
stoop in their flight, to snatch up the tidings, and drop them as they
fly. See here! See how you pronounce on the terms of field-service--
and here, on the partition of unclaimed estates--and here, on the claims
of the emigrants! The blacks must be indeed as stupid as you hold them
to be, if they did not spread the alarm that you are about to enslave
them again."

"I protest I never dreamed of such a thing."

"I believe you. And that you did not so dream, shows that you are blind
to the effects of your own measures--that the cultivators of the plain
understand your proceedings better than you do yourself. Here is the
proclamation which must be issued."

And he offered a paper, which Hedouville took, but tore in pieces,
trampling them under foot, and saying, that he had never before been so
insulted in his function.

"That is a childish act," observed Toussaint, as he looked down upon the
fragments of the document. "And a useless one," he continued; "for my
secretary is getting it printed off by this time."

"Are you going to dare to put my name to a proclamation I have not
seen?"

"Certainly not. My name will suffice, if you compel me to dispense with
yours. This proclamation grants--"

Hedouville here gave whispered directions to Delon, who hastened towards
the h