ofa behind, "I am held responsible for
the faults of our government towards you. What are they?"

"We will discuss them at Cap," replied Toussaint. "There you will be
surrounded by troops of your own colour; and you will feel more at
liberty to open your whole mind to me than, it grieves me to perceive,
you are when surrounded by blacks. When you know the blacks better, you
will become aware that the highest security is found in fully trusting
them."

"What is it that you suppose we fear from the blacks?"

"When we are at Cap, I will ask you what it was that you feared,
Monsieur Hedouville, when you chose to land at Saint Domingo, instead of
at Cap--when you showed your mistrust of your fellow-citizens by
selecting the Spanish city for your point of entrance upon our island.
I will then ask you what it is that your government fears, that it
commits the interests of the blacks to a new legislature, which
understands neither their temper nor their affairs."

"This was, perhaps, the cause of the difficulty we met with at Cap,"
observed General Michel.

"It is the chief cause. Some jealousy on this account is not to be
wondered at; but it has not the less been punished. I would further
ask," he continued, turning again to Hedouville, "what the First Consul
fears, that--"

"Who ever heard of the First Consul fearing anything?" cried Hedouville,
with a smile.

"Hear it now, then."

"In this place?" said Hedouville, looking round. "In public?"

"In this place--among the most loyal of the citizens of France," replied
Toussaint, casting a proud look round upon his officers and assembled
friends. "If I were about to make complaints of the First Consul, I
would close my doors upon you and myself, and speak in whispers. But it
is known that I honour him, and hold him to my heart, as a brother in
destiny and in glory: though his glory is now at its height, while mine
will not be so till my race is redeemed from the consequences of
slavery, as well as from slavery itself. Still, we are brothers; and I
therefore mourn his fears, shown in the documents that he sends to my
soldiers, and shown no less in his sending none to me."

"I bring you from him the confirmation of your dignity," observed
General Michel.

"You do so by message. The honour is received through the ear. But
that which should plant it down into my heart--the greeting from a
brother--is wanting. It cannot be that the First of the Whites has not