pal guide
appeared never to have heard of him. A very old man in the village, to
whom we were referred, could tell us nothing but one fact, which I knew
before--that Toussaint was deprived of his servant, some time before his
death. A woman in the sutler's department of the fortress pretended to
know all about him; but she had never seen him, and had no further title
to authority than that her first husband had died in the Saint Domingo
invasion. She did us the good service of pointing out the grave,
however. The brickwork which surrounds the coffin now forms part of a
new wall; but it was till lately within the church.

This woman's story was that which was probably given out on the spot, to
be told to inquirers; so inconsistent is it in itself, and with known
facts. Her account was, that Toussaint was carried off from Saint
Domingo by the ship in which he was banqueted by Leclerc (the last of a
line of two hundred), weighing anchor without his perceiving it, while
he was at dinner. The absurdity of this beginning shows how much
reliance is to be placed upon the rest of her story. She declared that
the Commandant Rubaut had orders from the Government to treat the
prisoner well; that his servant remained with him to the last; that he
was well supplied with books, allowed the range of the fortress, and
accustomed to pass his days in the house of the Commandant, playing
cards in the evenings: that on the last night of his life he excused
himself from the card-table, on the plea of being unwell; that he
refused to have his servant with him, though urged not to pass the night
alone; that he was left with fire, fauteuil, flambeaux, and a book, and
found dead in his chair in the morning; and that the physicians who
examined the body declared his death to have been caused by the rupture
of a blood-vessel in the heart. This last particular is known to be as
incorrect as the first. As for the rest, this informant differs from
all others in saying that Mars Plaisir remained with his master to the
last day of his life; and we may ask why Toussaint's nights were to be
passed in his horrible cell, if his days were so favoured; and how it
was that no research availed to discover to the eager curiosity of all
Europe and the West Indies the retreat of L'Ouverture, if he, a negro,
was daily present to the eyes of the garrison of the fortress, and to
those of all the inhabitants of the village, and of all the travellers
on that