emphatically. "You desire repose: and you
deserve it. After a man has sustained for several years the government
of Saint Domingo, I apprehend he needs repose. I leave you at liberty
to retire to which of your estates you please. I rely so much on the
attachment you bear the colony of Saint Domingo, as to believe you will
employ what moments of leisure you may have during your retreat, in
communicating to me your ideas respecting the means proper to be taken
to cause agriculture and commerce again to flourish. Respecting your
forces, and those of General Christophe, I hold full information. As
soon as a list and statement of the troops under General Dessalines are
transmitted to me, I will communicate my instructions as to the
positions they are to take."

"I will send a messenger from my guard to General Dessalines, this day,"
said Toussaint. "I shall be passing near his post, on my way to my
house at Pongaudin; and he shall have your message."

"This day?" said Leclerc, in a tone of some constraint. "Will you not
spend this day with us?"

"I cannot," replied Toussaint. "I must be gone to my home."

As soon as it was believed that he was fairly out of hearing, the acts
of the morning were proclaimed throughout Cap Francais as the pardon of
Generals Toussaint and Christophe. This proclamation was afterwards
published, by Leclerc's orders, in the _Gazette du Cap_, where it was
read by Toussaint in his study at Pongaudin.

"See!" said he, pointing out the paragraph to Pascal, with a smile.
"This is the way of men with each other. See the complacency with which
one man pardons another for the most necessary, or the best deed of his
life!"

During a halt on the road to Pongaudin, Isaac and Aimee appeared. Aimee
was tearful, but her face was happy. So were her words.

"Oh, father!" she said, "who could have hoped, after what has happened,
that all would so soon be well!"

"I am rejoiced to see you happy, my children."

"And you, father, you are happy? Honoured as you are--the colony at
peace--all parties friends--no more divisions--no more struggles in
families! Father, answer me. Is it not all well?"

"No, my child."

"Are you unhappy, father?"

"Yes, my child."

"I am quite disappointed, quite grieved," said Aimee, drawing back from
his arms, to look in his face.

"Vincent gave us a glorious account on Tortuga," said Isaac, "of the
welcome you had at Cap. We thought--"

"I did not see V