he inhabitants was all for their L'Ouverture, now
that France had put him in opposition to herself. Leclerc and his
confidential advisers committed the error of attributing all this to
Toussaint's personal qualities; and they drew the false inference (most
acceptable to the First Consul) that if Toussaint were out of the way,
all would be well for the purposes of France. Having never seriously
regarded the blacks as free men and fellow-citizens, these Frenchmen
omitted to perceive that a great part of their devotion to Toussaint was
loyalty to their race. Proceeding on this mistake, Leclerc and his
council, sanctioned by the First Consul, ruined their work, lost their
object, and brought irretrievable disgrace upon their names--some of
which are immortalised only by the infamy of the act which ensued.

From day-to-day, they endeavoured to entrap Toussaint; but he knew it,
surrounded as he was by faithful and vigilant friends. Day by day he
was warned of an ambush here, of spies there, or of an attempt meditated
for such an hour. During a fortnight of incessant designs upon his
person, he so baffled all attempts as to induce a sort of suspicion
among the French soldiery that he was protected by magic.

It was an anxious season for his family. Their only comfort was that it
would soon be over; that this, like all other evils connected with the
invasion, was to last only "till August;" the familiar words which were
the talisman of hope throughout the island. The household at Pongaudin
counted the days till August; but it was yet only the beginning of June;
and the season passed heavily away. On one occasion, a faithful servant
of Toussaint's was brought in dead--shot from a thicket which his master
was expected to pass. On another, the road home was believed to be
beset; and all the messengers sent by the family to warn him of his
danger were detained on some frivolous pretext; and the household were
at length relieved by his appearing from the garden, having returned in
a boat provided by some of his scouts. Now and then, some one mentioned
retiring to the mountains; but Toussaint would not hear of it. He said
it would be considered a breach of the treaty, and would forfeit all the
advantages to be expected from a few weeks' patience. The French were,
he knew, daily more enfeebled and distracted by sickness. Caution and
patience, for two months more, would probably secure freedom without
bloodshed. He had fo