uld have been attended with much success, but for the ill-judged
expedition, which Bonaparte sent against the island, under the command
of Le Clerc. This expedition, fruitless as it was in respect of its
general object, proved fatal to the negro chieftain.

Toussaint was noted for private virtues; among the rest, warm affection
for his family. Le Clerc brought out from France Toussaint's two sons,
with their preceptor, whose orders were to carry his pupils to their
father, and make use of them to work on his tenderness, and induce him
to abandon his countrymen. If he yielded, he was to be made second in
command to Le Clerc; if he refused, his children were to be reserved as
hostages of his fidelity to the French. Notwithstanding the greatness
of the sacrifice demanded of him, Toussaint remained faithful to his
brethren. We pass over the details of the war, which at length, ended in
a treaty of peace concluded by Toussaint, Dessalines and Christophe,
against their better judgment, but in consequence of the effect of Le
Clerc's professions upon their simple followers, who were induced to lay
down their arms. Toussaint retired to his plantation, relying upon the
solemn assurances of Le Clerc, that his person and property should be
held sacred. Notwithstanding these assurances, he was treacherously
seized in the night, hurried on board a ship of war, and conveyed to
Brest. He was conducted first to close prison in Chateaux de Joux, and
from thence to Besancon, where he was plunged into a cold, wet,
subterranean prison, which soon proved fatal to a constitution used only
to the warm skies and free air of the West Indies. He languished through
the winter of 1802-1803; and his death, which happened in April, 1803,
raised a cry of indignation against the government, which had chosen
this dastardly method of destroying one of the best and bravest of the
negro race.

Toussaint L'Ouverture is thus spoken of by Vincent, in his Reflections
on the state of St. Domingo: "Toussaint L'Ouverture is the most active
and indefatigable man, of whom it is possible to form an idea. He is
always present wherever difficulty or danger makes his presence
necessary. His great sobriety,--the power of living without repose,--the
facility with which he resumes the affairs of the cabinet, after the
most tiresome excursions,--of answering daily a hundred letters,--and of
habitually tiring five secretaries--render him so superior to all around
him, that