e round his person by those who could best
read his eye. After the priest had given the blessing, the amnesty was
road which declared pardon for all political offences, and all personal
offences against the Commander-in-chief, up to that hour. The moment it
was concluded, those who had arrived at the church in custody, left it
in freedom, though in shame, and sped away to their several homes, as if
the death they had anticipated were at their heels. There they told
their wonderful tale to their families, turning the desolation of wives
and children into joy almost too great to be believed.

Afra found, to her satisfaction, that no one had entered to tell
Euphrosyne of this act of L'Ouverture. Euphrosyne had been full of
perplexity about the mulattoes--almost disposed to think that the whole
race must have suddenly gone mad. She had seen them two hours before,
flocking to church with faces whose gloom contrasted strangely with
their numbers, their holiday dresses, and their eagerness to be in time
to secure admittance. She now saw them return, as if intoxicated with
joy, cheering, the whole length of the walk, and crying with an
enthusiasm, if possible, surpassing that of the blacks, "Long live the
Deliverer!"

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

THE COUNCIL OF FIVE.

A council was held one morning, soon after the events just related,
whose aspect would have perplexed an old colonist, if he could have
looked forward in vision to that day. In a shady apartment of
Toussaint's house at Pongaudin sat five men, in whose hands lay the
fortunes of the colony; and only one of these men was a white.

The five came to report well to one another of the fortunes of the
colony. Never, in the old days, could any set of counsellors have been
gathered together, who could have brought with them such proofs of the
welfare and comfort of every class of inhabitants. In former times the
colonial legislators were wont to congratulate the Assembly on the good
working of their system; which meant that the negroes were quiet, the
mulattoes kept under, and the crops promising; but under this "good
working" there were the heart-burnings of the men of colour, the woes
and the depravity of the slaves, and the domestic fears and discomforts
of the masters, arising from this depravity. Now, when there was no
oppression and no slavery, the simple system of justice was truly
"working well"; not only in the prospect of the crops, and the external
quie