guard him; and his surprise and concern were evidently so
real, and his activity was so great in preparing for defence, that there
seemed nothing for it but trusting him to protect the women who were
under his charge. Dessalines, however, kept his eye upon him, and his
piece in readiness to shoot him down, on the first evidence of
treachery.

Another doubt was as to the foe they had to contend against. How they
got into the morne, and why such an approach was made to an object so
important as securing a party of hostages like these; whether, if
Vincent had nothing to do with it, the spies had; and whether,
therefore, more attacks might not be looked for, were questions which
passed through many minds, but to which no consideration could now be
given. Here were the foe; and they must be kept off.

The struggle was short and sharp. Small as was the force without, it
far outnumbered that of the fighting men in what had been supposed the
secure retreat of Le Zephyr; and there is no saying but that the ladies
might have found themselves at length on Tortuga, and in the presence of
Bonaparte's sister, if the firing had not reached the watchful ear of
L'Ouverture at the Plateaux, on the way to which all the three
messengers had been captured. Toussaint arrived with a troop, in time
to deliver his household. After his first onset, the enemy retreated;
at first carrying away some prisoners, but dropping them on their road,
one after another, as they were more and more hardly pressed by
L'Ouverture, till the few survivors were glad to escape as they could,
by the way they came.

Toussaint returned, his soldiers bringing in the mangled bodies of the
two boys. When he inquired what loss had been sustained, he found that
three, besides the children, were killed; and that Vincent was the only
prisoner, besides the three messengers turned back in the morne.

"Never was there a more willing prisoner, in my opinion," observed
Pascal.

"He carries away a mark from us, thank Heaven!" said Dessalines.
"Madame Bellair shot him."

It was so. Deesha saw Vincent join the French, and go off with them, on
the arrival of L'Ouverture; and, partly through revenge, but not without
a thought of the disclosures it was in his power to make, she strove to
silence him for ever. She only reached a limb, however, and sent him
away, as Dessalines said, bearing a mark from Le Zephyr.

One of the French troop, made prisoner, was as communica