nd you, Monsieur Pascal, remain here to receive the
despatches which may arrive from France. My brethren-in-arms of the
council will be with me. When we have satisfied ourselves, we will let
you know whether or not those who would have loved and served France for
ever as a guardian angel, can cast her off when she becomes an incubus."

It was a time of high excitement--that in which L'Ouverture, attended by
four of his generals, and a train of inferior officers, traversed the
island, to communicate or confirm the intelligence that an expedition
was believed to be setting sail from France, for the purpose of wresting
from the blacks the freedom which was theirs by the law of the land.
Toussaint found, not only that all hearts were ready for the assertion
of freedom, but that all eyes were so fixed upon him, all ears so open
to his lightest word, that there was every probability of his purposes
being fully understood and completely executed. At a word from him, the
inhabitants of Cap Francais and Port-au-Prince began to remove their
property into the fastnesses of the interior, and to prepare to burn
those towns at the moment of the French attempting to land. It was
useless to think of preventing a landing, so exposed was the greater
part of the coast. The more rational hope was so to distress the foe on
shore as to make them glad to go on board their ships again. Equally
satisfactory was the disposition of the interior. The municipal bodies
throughout the colony, previously brought under one system, now acted in
concert. Their means of communication had been improved, so that each
settlement was no longer like an encampment in the wilderness: on the
contrary, every order given by L'Ouverture seemed to have been echoed by
the mountain-tops around, so promptly was it transmitted, and so
continually did he find his commands anticipated. As he went, his four
generals parted off, to examine the forts on either hand, and to inspect
and animate the militia. Everywhere the same story was told, and
everywhere was it received with the same eagerness and docility. "The
French are coming to make slaves of us again; but there shall never more
be a slave in Saint Domingo. They are coming; but they are our
countrymen till they have struck the first blow. We will demand of them
an account of our brethren in Cayenne, in Guadaloupe, and in Martinique.
We will ask of them concerning our brethren on the coasts of Africa.
If, in