Jacques
had told Papalier, on finding that he had not been walking at all, that
his horse was wanted, and Papalier had felt all the danger of refusing
to yield it up. He was walking moodily by the side of Therese, when
Toussaint offered him the mule, which he haughtily declined.

When Dessalines was mounted, Jacques came running forward to Toussaint,
to ask and to tell much concerning their singular circumstances.

"Your party is too noisy," said he. "The whole country is up; and I
saw, not far-off, two hours ago, a party that were bringing ammunition
from Cap. There may be more; and, if we fall in their way, with a white
in company--"

"True, true." And Toussaint turned back to command silence. He told
every one that the safety of all might depend on the utmost possible
degree of quietness being observed. He separated Isaac from Aimee, as
the only way of obtaining silence from them, and warned the merry blacks
in the rear that they must be still as death. He and Jacques, however,
exchanged a few more words in a low whisper, as they kept in advance of
the party.

"How do they get ammunition from Cap?" asked Toussaint. "Have they a
party in the town? I thought the town negroes had been sent on board
ship."

"The suspected ones are. They are the silly and the harmless who have
still wit and mischief enough to give out powder and ball slyly for the
plantation negroes. Once over the river, what will you do with your
party?"

"My wife and children will be safe with my brother Paul--you know he
fishes on the coast, opposite the Seven Brothers. I shall enter the
Spanish ranks; and every one else here will do as he thinks proper."

"Do not you call yourself a commander, then! Why do you not call us
your regiment, and take the command as a matter of course, as Jean has
done?"

"If it is desired, I am ready. Hark!"

There was evidently a party at some distance, numerous and somewhat
noisy, and on the approach from behind. Toussaint halted his party,
quickly whispered his directions, and withdrew them with all speed and
quietness within the black shade of a cacao-plantation, on the left of
the road. They had to climb an ascent; but there they found a green
recess, so canopied with interwoven branches that no light could enter
from the stars, and so hedged in by the cacao plants, growing twelve
feet high among the trees, that the party could hardly have been seen
from the road in broad daylight. Ther