nsieur and Madame Pascal had, by
great activity, obtained a passage for France in the ship which was
freighted with Leclerc's boastings of his crowning feat. They were
already far on the sea before the _Heros_ spread its sails. Leclerc's
announcement of Toussaint's overthrow was as follows:--

"I intercepted letters which he had written to one Fontaine, who was
his agent at Cap Francais. These afforded an unanswerable proof that
he was engaged in a conspiracy, and that he was anxious to regain his
former influence in the colony. He waited only for the result of
disease among the troops.

"Under these circumstances, it would be improper to give him time to
mature his criminal designs. I ordered him to be apprehended--a
difficult task; but it succeeded through the excellent arrangements
made by General Brunet, who was entrusted with its execution, and the
zeal and ardour of Admiral Ferrari.

"I am sending to France, with all his family, this deeply perfidious
man, who, by his consummate hypocrisy, has done us so much mischief.
The government will determine how it should dispose of him.

"The apprehension of General Toussaint occasions some disturbances.
Two leaders of the insurgents are already in custody, and I have
ordered them to be shot. About a hundred of his confidential
partisans have been secured, of whom some are on board the _Muiron_
frigate, which is under orders for the Mediterranean; and the rest are
distributed among the different ships of the squadron.

"I am daily occupied in settling the affairs of the colony, with the
least possible inconvenience: but the excessive heat, and the diseases
which attack us, render it an extremely painful task. I am impatient
for the approach of the month of September, when the season will
renovate our activity.

"The departure of Toussaint has produced general joy at Cap Francais.

"The Commissary of Justice, Mont Peson, is dead. The Colonial
Prefect, Benezech, is breathing his last. The Adjutant-commandant,
Dampier, is dead: he was a young officer of great promise.

"I have the honour, etcetera,--"

Signed--

"Leclerc."

On board the vessel which carried these tidings was Pascal, prepared to
give a different version of the late transactions, and revolving, with
Afra, the means by which he might best employ such influence as he had
on behalf of his friend. Theirs was a nearly hopeless erran