. The storied West Indies . poisoned, shouted: Dost 170 THE STORIED WEST INDIES know, thou little white thing, that if I had drunk thewine which thou pouredst out I should have desiredto drink thy blood and that of thy general! A few days later, indeed, he and Dessalines wereinvesting the city of the Cape with their black sol-diers, and the ill-fated Leclerc, shutup within thewalls, unable toescape by sea be-cause of the loss ofhis sailors by theplague, himselfsuccumbed to thedisease in Novem-ber, and soon ex-pired. The be-reaved Paulinefound sailorsenough to takeher to France, andon arrival a
. The storied West Indies . poisoned, shouted: Dost 170 THE STORIED WEST INDIES know, thou little white thing, that if I had drunk thewine which thou pouredst out I should have desiredto drink thy blood and that of thy general! A few days later, indeed, he and Dessalines wereinvesting the city of the Cape with their black sol-diers, and the ill-fated Leclerc, shutup within thewalls, unable toescape by sea be-cause of the loss ofhis sailors by theplague, himselfsuccumbed to thedisease in Novem-ber, and soon ex-pired. The be-reaved Paulinefound sailorsenough to takeher to France, andon arrival at Pariswas tenderly em-braced by herbrother, to whomshe told the terrible story of defeat and listened in silence, and then said: Here,then, is all that remains of my fine army: the body of abrother-in-law, of a general, my right arm, a handfulof dust. All has perished, all will perish! Fatal con-quest! Cursed land! Perfidious colonists! A wretchedslave in revolt! These are the cause of so many General Jean Jacques Dessalines. BLACK KINGS AND EMPERORS 171 Should lie not rather have said: PerfidiousBonaparte, who sent away so many brave warriors,that they might not throw their bayonets across theroad to the imperial throne, whither he was urgedby his insatiate desires ? The command of the French now devolved uponGeneral Rochambeau, the deformed, degenerate sonof an illustrious sire who had won glorious laurelsin behalf of American independence. Having re-ceived re-enforcements enough to bring the numberof his troops up to twenty thousand, he spared neithersex nor age in the pursuit of his one purpose—tocompletely subjugate the blacks. Four hundred cap-tives, it is said, were drowned by his orders, andfive hundred more shot and cast into a great pit, thewounded with the dead. To avenge this slaughterof his countrymen, Dessalines took as many Frenchsoldiers whom he had captured and hung them ongibbets in sight of their former
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