learning that much. But I imagine there will be something else for
Toussaint to do presently, than teaching the birds of the woods to
praise him."

As no one asked what was likely to happen, she reserved for the present
the news they trembled to hear; and went on--

"It is grievous to see so good a negro as Toussaint lost and spoiled. I
knew him of old, when he was at Breda: and many a time has Monsieur
Bayou told me that he was the most faithful, decent, clever,
well-mannered negro on the estate."

"I believe he preserves those qualities still," observed the abbess,
reproving with a glance the laugh which was rising at this description
of the Commander-in-chief.

"If those had been masters who ought to have been masters," pursued
Madame Oge, "Toussaint would, no doubt, have been placed at the head of
the negroes: for we knew him well--I and they whom I have lost. Then,
without insubordination,--without any being lifted out of their proper
places, to put down others--we should have had a vast improvement in the
negroes. Toussaint would have been made their model, and perhaps would
have been rewarded with his freedom, some day or other, for an example.
This would have satisfied all the ambition he had by nature. He would
have died a free man, and perhaps have emancipated his family. As it
is, they will all die slaves: and they will feel it all the harder for
the farce of greatness they have been playing these ten years. I am
very sorry for them: and I always was; for I foresaw from the beginning
how it would end."

"Do you really imagine that any one thinks of enslaving this wonderful
man again? And what should make him submit to it?"

"He would sooner lay a train to the root of Cibao, and blow up the
island," exclaimed Euphrosyne.

"Are you one of his party, young lady? You look too much as if you were
but just landed from France for me to suppose that I was speaking before
a friend of L'Ouverture's. If you really are lately from France, you
may know that there is a greater than our poor Toussaint, to whom he
must yield at command."

"I have never been at Paris, madame; and I do not believe that there is
a greater than L'Ouverture, there, or anywhere else."

"You have been a happy child, I see: you have lived so retired from our
miserable world as not to have heard of Bonaparte. It was by Bonaparte,
my dear, for Bonaparte's convenience, and (it is my idea) for his
amusement, that Toussaint was mad