The Hour and the Man Part 68

"Hark! The bell! There is hope," said Toussaint. "No resistance! but let us gain time."

The door was burst open, and with General Brunet entered a personage whom he introduced as Admiral Ferrari, followed by a file of grenadiers.

"What can be your errand at this hour?" asked Toussaint.

"I have orders from the Captain-General to arrest you," replied Admiral Ferrari. "Your guards are disarmed and bound. Our troops are everywhere. You are dead if you resist. Deliver up your sword!"

"I shall not resist such a force as you have thought it necessary to bring against me," replied Toussaint, handing his sword to the admiral.

"Am I to be a prisoner here, in my own house?"

"No, indeed! I have orders to convey you and your family to Cap Francais. No delay! To the boats this moment! You will find your family on board the frigate, or on the way to it."

"Do what you will with me; but Madame L'Ouverture is in weak health.

Suffer her and my children to remain at home."

"Lose no more time. General. March! or we must carry you."

Voices of lamentation and of pa.s.sion were heard in the corridor, which quickened L'Ouverture's movements more than threats or insults could have done. He left the library, and found the ladies of the household in the corridor--Margot weeping and trembling, and Genifrede addressing Monsieur Coa.s.son in a tone of high anger.

"You here! Monsieur Coa.s.son!" said Toussaint; "and availing yourself once more of the weakness and woes of women, I perceive."

"I came as guide," replied Monsieur Coa.s.son. "The admiral and his troops needed some one to show them the way; and, as you are aware, I was qualified to do so. I have always felt, too, that I had a sort of appointment to fulfil with this young lady. Her kind expressions towards the whites on my last visit might be considered a sort of invitation to come again--with such a train as you see," pointing to the stiff row of grenadiers who stood behind.

Genifrede groaned.

"Make yourself happy with your train," said Toussaint, as he seized the wretch by the collar, hurled him back among the grenadiers, and kicked him over as he lay, introducing great disorder into the formal arrangements of that dignified guard.

This would have been the last moment of Toussaint, if General Brunet had not drawn his sword, and commanded every one to stand back. His orders, he said, were to deliver his prisoner alive.

"Come, my love," said Toussaint to Madame L'Ouverture. "We are to sleep on board a frigate this night. Come. Genifrede! We may sleep in peace. General Brunet will hardly be able to digest your hospitality, my Margot; but _you_ may sleep. Who else?" he asked, as he looked round upon his trembling household.

"We are following," said Monsieur Pascal, who had his wife and Euphrosyne on either arm.

"Pardon me," said General Brunet. "Our orders extend only to General Toussaint and his family. You must remain. Reverend father," he said to Father Laxabon, "you will remain also--to comfort any friends of General Toussaint whom you may be able to meet with to-morrow. They will be all inconsolable, no doubt."

Monsieur Coa.s.son whispered to the admiral, who said, in consequence, bowing to Euphrosyne--

"I can answer for this young lady being a welcome guest to Madame Leclerc. If she will afford to a countryman the pleasure and honour of conveying her, it will give him joy to introduce her to a society worthy of her."

"I do not wish to see Madame Leclerc," said Euphrosyne, speaking with surprising calmness, though her cheek was white as ashes. "I wish to be wherever I may best testify my attachment to these my honoured friends, in the day of their undeserved adversity."

She looked from Monsieur Pascal to L'Ouverture.

"Stay with those who can be your guardians," said Toussaint.

"For our sakes," added Genifrede.

"Stay with us!" cried Monsieur Pascal and Afra.

"Farewell, then," said Euphrosyne, extending her arms to Madame L'Ouverture.

"We are losing time," said General Brunet, as the clang of the alarm-bell was heard again. By his order, some soldiers went in search of the traitor who was ringing the bell; and others pushed the captive family before them towards the door. Monsieur Coa.s.son thrust himself between the parting friends, and began to count the family, in order to tell who was missing. It would not do, he observed, to leave any behind.

"Lose no more time," said the admiral. "Those who may be left behind are cared for, I promise you. We have a hundred of them safe already."

"A hundred of whom?" asked Toussaint, as he walked.

"Of your friends," replied Admiral Ferrari.

This was too true. A hundred of Toussaint's most attached adherents had been seized this night. No one of them was ever again heard of in the island.

At the door of the mansion Denis was brought forward, guarded. His eyes were flashing fire.

"The country is up!" he cried. "I got good service out of the old bell before they found me."

"Right, my boy! Thank you!" said his father, cheerfully.

"Give Genifrede to me, father. My mother is ready to sink."

Proudly he supported his sister to the boats, carrying her on so rapidly as to prevent the need of any soldier speaking to her.

There was an array of boats along the sh.o.r.e of the bay. Distant firing was heard during the whole time that the prisoners and the troops were embarking.

"They must be very much afraid of us," observed Denis, looking round, as soon as he had taken his place beside his sister in the boat. "They have given us above a hundred guards, I believe."

"They are afraid of us," said Toussaint.

"There is terrible fighting somewhere," murmured the weeping Margot. "I am afraid Placide is in the midst of it."

"He is in his duty if he be," said Toussaint.

Placide had discharged this kind of duty, however, and now appeared to fulfil the other--of sharing the captivity of his parents. He leaped into the boat, breathless, after it had pushed off from the sh.o.r.e.

"In time, thank G.o.d!" gasped he.

"He can hardly speak!" exclaimed his mother. "He is wet! He is wounded--cruelly wounded!"

"Not wounded at all, mother. Whole in heart and skin! I am soaked in the blood of our enemies. We have fought gloriously--in vain, however, for to-night. Latortue is shot; and Jasmin. There are few left but Christophe; but he is fighting like a lion."

"Why did you leave him, my son?" asked Toussaint.

"He desired me to come, again and again, and I fought on. At last I was cut off from him. I could not give any more help there; and I saw that my business lay here. They say this frigate is the _Creole_. Whither bound, I wonder?"

"To Cap Francais," replied the officer in the stern: "to join the _Heros_, now in the roads there."

"The _Heros_--a seventy-four, I think," said L'Ouverture.

"A seventy-four--you are correct," replied the officer. No one spoke again.