"Decidedly the declaration of Robespierre, on the rights of man, is the order of the day. Yesterday, in a club, every one who wished to speak was made to sign the charter of truth of the rights of man. "A person ascended the tribune, signed, and commenced speaking. "However, citizens,' said he, interrupting himself, I regret having signed the charter of the rights of man, and I desire to cancel my signature.' 66 6 Why? why?' was asked from all sides. "It is because I have read in those regulations that the earth belongs to man, and I do not believe it. (Cries, menaces, and noises of all sorts.) No, citizens, I do not believe it; for I am certain that the earth belongs to God, and that man is only a lodger.' "True! true! No! no! Vote!' "The vote was taken, and God was found proprietor by a majority of two voices." The late revolution was the occasion of the liberation of thousands of persons from the surveillance of the police. Some of these men were not slow in taking advantage of their good fortune. One of the most remarkable is Juin D' Allas, who suddenly made his appearance on the political horizon, where he shone for a short time as a meteor of the first magnitude. On the news of the revolution reaching this person, he hastened to Paris, where he immediately put himself in communication with the violent party, and soon succeeded in establishing a club called la Montaigne, of which he was appointed president. However, that no trace of his former career might interfere with his present one, he adopted the name of Michelot, under which he commenced his political life, which, unfortunately for him, turned out but of short duration. He commenced on a great scale, and the advertisements of his club covered the walls of Paris. Every one was astonished. Who was this Michelot? No one seemed to know any thing about him. Thus he continued to engage the public attention for some time, when, suspicion having fallen on him, inquiries were set on foot, and his true character was brought to light. One morning a descent was made on his hotel by the police, and his political life was brought to an end, for M. Michelot, President of the Club of la Montaigne, was found to be identical with Juin D' Allas, who had been condemned at the Court of Assizes of the Seine in 1840 to perpetual banishment. Thus his political journey to Paris has turned out but an indifferent speculation, as he has again been sent to the galleys, from which he will find it a difficult matter to escape. -Tait's Edinburgh Magazine. DESSALINES AND TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF HAITI. A gentleman travelling, about a dozen years ago, among the picturesque but seldom-trodden wilds of the mountains of Cibao, in the interior of Haiti, stopped, at the close of evening, to rest his horse and refresh and shelter himself for the night, at a small inn by the roadside. This inn proved to be the property of a Mustee woman, about fifty years of age, who had formerly been a mistress of the first black Emperor of Haiti, Jean Jacques Dessalines; and who, on the traveller entering into conversation with her, told him some striking incidents of Dessalines' life not generally known. Her story, such as it was, is now laid before the reader, interlarded with other facts, heard from the natives of Haiti, concerning. the Emperor's co-laborers, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Christophe, and others. It is necessary to preface any thing relating to Dessalines with some short account of the state of the island of St. Domingo before the break ing out of the Revolution in 1791. When the colonists elected themselves to legislative functions, on the dismemberment of France, the mulattoes, on account of their color, were excluded from all share in the government of the island, though many were men of property and of the highest education; and this, more than the slavery of the negroes (as is generally supposed,) was the cause of those horrible events which subsequently occurred. A great many of the yellow people leaving the colony settled in the mother country, and in Paris enrolled themselves into a society called "Amis des Noirs." Those who remained in St. Domingo, devoted entirely to the race of their mothers, repeatedly expressed to the blacks their anxious desire to see them free. This conduct caused many negroes to rebel, and sundry mulattoes were therefore brought to trial, and executed. Among the first of those who thus suffered was Ogé. He had particularly endeared himself to the sons and daughters of Africa, by taking a very active part to procure their emancipation; and he had been long and early loved by Dessalines. On the morning that he was hanged, Dessalines was one of the throng of blacks collected on the Plaine du Nord to witness his execution. The poor negroes fell overwhelmed by the stroke of Ogé's death; one in particular, overcome by the misfortune, had broken out into a fit of weeping, when a short, stout negro, about forty years of age, with something very remarkable in his appearance, came up behind him and touched him on his shoulder. Looking up, the negro met the glance of the stranger's meditative eye. 66 and trousers, and carrying a basket of fruit on his head, descended the hill side, from one of the pretty country-houses along the road to the village of Limbé. Arrived on the spacious and well-paved quay, he stationed himself under the shade of a tamarind tree, and, standing still for several seconds, examined every object carefully, when suddenly casting up his eyes, he saw on the roof of a small house, at the corner of the Rue St. Joseph, a middle-aged negro, short, stout, and with a strongly-made frame, driving nails into boards, and hammering shingles on to the roofing of the edifice. Recognizing Dessalines in the black carpenter, he entered into conversation with him. He spoke of the hang Why do they hang that man?" said the ing of Ogé, and of the breaking on the wheel other, pointing towards Ogé. of Chavane; 4000 negroes rising and making a stand in behalf of their race against the French soldiers on the plantation of Monsieur Latour on the plain of Cul-de-Sac; of 2000 more rebelling in the same cause in the Parish of Mirelabbais, burning sugar, cotton, and coffee plan"Dotations, and killing the whites indiscriminately. "And now," continued the negro, "they are going to Port-au-Prince, to burn that also, and, as my master says, to 'grab hold of every thing they can.'" The negro replied that he did not know, but he believed because the lawyers said that he had stolen, or, rather, got things that the negroes had stolen, and bought with them a small country-house. "What then?" exclaimed the other, in a commanding but stern tone of voice. you not think that white men also buy stolen things? There stands your master; go and tell the constable "Run-hold-him-fast!" He knew you were stolen from your father and mother, yet he bought you. Well, if the black rascal is to be hanged for stolen things, I hope the white rascal will be hanged too, for the same thing, when we catch him." - Uttering the last few words in a significant tone, he turned on his heel and disappeared. It was Dessalines a man as the above speech is sufficient to prove him to have been of a wild and flighty mind, but yet of a composed and melancholy behaviour. His spirits, at this period, were much relaxed by his heart resting entirely on the vague and shadowy, but strong and overpowering, hope of the independence of Haiti and universal liberty. He worked pensively at his tasks, and was at times unboundedly irritablesickening with impatience at the delay of that relief for the negroes which he so ardently coveted. Whenever he was from home and he was often absent from his master- he was rendering himself romantically intimate with negroes of similar dispositions; and to them he laid bare his whole heart. So time rolled on. It was the noon of May-day, 1791, and the sun was blazing on the deserted quay which overlooks the bay of Cape Français. The seabreeze was rustling through the foliage of the tall palm and cocoa-nut trees which shaded the pleasant Esplanade, and the gray tri-colored flag was fluttering round the Vigie, or signal post on one of the summits of Morne du Cap. Suddenly a negro, of a highly intelligent expression of countenance, drest in a linen shirt "So it is always," here exclaimed, in a fiery manner, Dessalines, who had hitherto been listening with patience to what his friend had been saying to him. "When black men go together in a body, the white men say they steal every thing. Well; and the white men -- Do they steal nothing? Your master, now, I will be bound, does not give you food enough. Say to him, - Sir, you starve me; give me more." "He will tell you the American privateers steal all the vessels laden with provisions." "He says so." 399 "Ay; and a very good story 'tis, when told twice or thrice; but, told over again and again, for a hundred times, who believes the truth of it? Your master is a robber of your provisions. Hearken!" continued Dessalines, striking the shingles passionately with his hammer, "if the American privateer every day steals the vessel with herrings and salt-fish, why does he never steal the vessel with the grabbing-hoe and the pick-axe, the saw and the hammer?" A new light flashed across his countenance. Early next morning, these two negroes having effected their escape from their masters, and assumed (what is common among the blacks) their proprietors' names, which were Dessalines and Christophe, were climbing the sides of the lofty mountains, near the source of the river La Troulbe, on the verge of the Spanish possessions. It was about an hour before daybreak, and the air was perfectly calm. Occasionally, a sudden and confused noise, like the shrieks of women and children, spread up from the neighbouring villages and plantations at the foot of the mountains. Suddenly Christophe stopped, and laying his hand on the other's arm: "Hush!" said he. "Listen!" Dessalines (as we must henceforth call the black carpenter) listened attentively. Through the breathless air, sounds, like the barking of powerful dogs, proceeding from a great distance, burst from the opposite side of the mountains. "Here come bloodhounds!" he observed, in a subdued but excited tone of voice. "We are certainly lost unless we climb some tree. Here is a wild fig. In its boughs only can we hope for safety. Climb." - a They clambered up into the tree with nimble agility, and reached almost the topmost boughs. Scarcely had they laid themselves down straight on one of the vast limbs of the gigantic wild fig, keeping their heads against the bark, and entirely concealing their bodies from the sight of any one below, when some unhappy wretches, black woman with a babe in her arms, and her two sons, boys of about eight and nine years of age, screaming from terror, 1ushed out from some bushes, in the attempt to run from the pursuit of bloodhounds, which, here hunting them down, flew at them with a hideous yell, and threw them on the ground; then growling in a dreadful manner, devoured their flesh from their bones. With their jaws drenched with gore, the horrid animals, then barking loud, and snuffing along the ground, came up to the tree, and stopping at the trunk, leaped against it, and howled for their prey. Presently their keepers and a body of French troops, armed with muskets, came to the spot, and seeing the motion of the dogs, looked up into the tree; and one of them discharged his musket into its branches. A second elapsed; then a few leaves and the musket-ball came rattling down about his ears, whereupon, with French levity, bursting into a peal of laughter, he and his comrades, chasing on the dogs, pursued their way, skipping through the long grass in their white gaiters. Dessalines and Christophe then descended from the tree. "Come along," shouted Dessalines, grasping the other by the hand with a wrench, and with his brow furrowed with savage frowns. Down the back of the mountain they went, and in due time reached a sandy desert plain, which separated the French possessions from the Spanish Cantons; and here, finding assembled a multitude of negroes who had rebelled, they enrolled themselves among their number. At that time the negroes had not united themselves into an organised body, but separating into small parties, hid behind hedges on the roadside, in the open country, or behind trees and rocks in intricate mountain passes, and rushing out upon every white passenger, barbarously massacred him. From this- -as they resembled Italian highway-men- they acquired the name of bandits, which ever afterwards adhered to them. In the week after Dessalines and Christophe had thus joined these black banditti, the estate of M. Flaville was fired; and on the morning of the conflagration, just as the sun was rising, the proprietor, in his endeavours to escape from the country, was galloping on horseback at full speed, along the Chemin de l'Eglise, which leads to the Bay de L'Acul. As he reached a winding in the road, Dessalines, with a number of companions armed with bludgeons, sprang out from a lurking-place in a thicket of bamboos, and, stopping the Frenchman, knocked him off his horse and murdered him. "Ho! ça! mes frères !" cried Dessalines, brandishing his weapon over his head with a fierce gesture as he spake. "This white man is done for. Now comes the turn of M. Galifet, after him, M. Clements, and then M. Bayon de Libertas. All these three white men bear no good will towards the black men. Let us go to their houses, burn their buildings, and deprive them of their lives. Huzza! mes frères, huzza!" And Dessalines, in his check-shirt tucked up over his right arm, dashed through the citron hedge by the road side, followed by his companions, shouting wildly. As he said, so he did. That night the fire shells were sounding on the estates in the neighbourhood of Roncooaw, while straggling lights were gleaming through the wood between Les Habitations Noé and L'Hericourt. It was the depth of night, and M. Bayon de Libertas, the commandeur (or manager) on the former property, was, at the time, in bed, but was soon startled from his sleep, by the sounding of the shells and the shouting and shrieking of the negroes. The first object that met his vision was the glare of flames flickering against the roof and ceiling of his chamber. He sprang from his "We have had a very narrow escape," ob- bed, almost beside himself from fear; just then served Christophe, almost in a whisper. his faithful negro, Toussaint, entered the room with tottering steps, and a voice broken by convulsive agitation :— "Fly, Sir," said he; "for the love of Heaven, fly. The bandits, who are on the estate destroying everything, come to burn us out to cut our throats. Already, on the adjoining plantation, have they murdered M. Clements." 66 Haste, Toussaint; fetch me my coat and hat. I will put myself on board a ship in the harbour, and sail for America." "It is indeed imperative. Sir," said the negro. "Come with me, and I beseech you be cautious; for if the brigands see us we are infallibly lost." M. Bayon de Libertas, mounting a horse, galloped hurriedly down the avenue of limes, and, crossing a canepiece, reached the hedge of citron trees which separated the estate of his employer, Count de Noé, from that of M. Joly, without meeting with any adventure. Then making his way through a gap in the fence, he got down, by a steep bank, into a smooth, wide road, shaded, on both sides, by lime-trees, and, occasionally, by palm and pimento, which led to the Bay de L'Acul; and accomplishing the distance before the dawn, put himself on board a little schooner, and sailed for Baltimore in Maryland. When Toussaint saw his master embarked in safety, he passed through many cotton plantations and tobacco fields, and, reaching the summit of Morne Rouge, went back, across the country, to L'Habitation Noé. On his arrival there he found only the walls of the sugar-works standing; the large and elegant substantial stonebuilt dwelling-house smouldering in flames; scarcely a cane to be seen; and only a dozen or sixteen negroes loitering about their huts, the rest about a thousand in number having joined the bandits. Toussaint having now neither master to serve, nor estate to live on, bade adieu to L'Habitation Noé. Catching and saddling a mule that was loitering about the devastated fields, eating cane leaves, he retraced his steps, going towards Cape Français, with the intention of taking up his dwelling there, and living with soine of his relations. He travelled over a generally low and flat country, riding leisurely. On reaching that part of his journey where the Chemin de l'Acul and the Chemin de la Coupe de Limbé join by the river Sallée, he was accosted by a party of bandits, at the head of whom as usual was Dessalines. "Stand, you damned black rascal," shouted Dessalines, in a stentorian and authoritative voice. "Where are you going to?" "What is that to you?" was the rejoinder of Toussaint L'Ouverture, in an equally loud and commanding tone. "Join us, or we murder you," said Dessalines. "But we wage not war against the blacksonly against the whites. Come, then, and join us, and you shall have every thing you want, the houses and the wives, and the freedom of the white men." "I care not for the houses and the wives,” replied Toussaint L'Ouverture, “but only for the freedom of the whites." A loud shout drowned the remainder of his speech, and the bandits, gathering round him, bore him off in triumph, and carried him to the Haut du Cape, where the rest of their comrades were assembled, and where Toussaint L'Ouverture exchanged his whip for a sabre, becoming a soldier instead of a postillion. It so happened that Toussaint L'Ouverture was an educated negro: he knew both how to read and write, and, being a man of great ability, he soon placed himself at the head of all the bandits, and brought under control Dessalines, Biasson, and the most refractory of them. The rebels at this time amounted to upwards of 100,000; and this formidable force Toussaint rendered invincible, by organising into an army. He gave military titles, and a particular kind of uniform, a blue coat with scarlet cuffs and collar, gilt buttons, gold epaulettes, and white gaiters and neckcloths, after the style of the French regimentals; and this gay and handsome dress doubtless induced many of the negroes, from their partiality to a gaudy attire, to join the army. The sanguinary war which then ensued between the blacks and whites lasted for ten years; and all efforts to vanquish the negroes proving ineffectual, the island was proclaimed independent of France on the 8th of July, 1801; and Toussaint L'Ouverture, who had liberated his country, and been the commander in chief of all the forces, was appointed Governor of the Black Republic. While he was in this height of power, his old master, M. Bayon de Libertas, hearing of his success in life, returned to Haiti, thinking that he might, under the protection of Toussaint, live safely on some property. Never was a man more deceived. Immediately on landing on the quay at Cape Français he was captured by some soldiers drawn up in array, with fixed bayonets, and marched in chains to the Black's camp at Breda. He was there brought before a courtmartial, composed of twelve black general officers, by whom he was condemned to be hanged the next morning. Meanwhile he was imprisoned in a dilapidated building, situated in the midst of a rich valley, and secured with strong iron bars. When left alone in his prison to night and darkness, he stretched himself out in silent agony upon his couch of dried sugar-canes, awaiting the coming of the morrow in despair. | been unfortunately cast again upon the unhospiIt was somewhat past the middle of the night, table Haiti. when his attention was roused by seeing a slender black man, a little above the middle height, attired in a field officer's uniform, descending into the ravine from the opposite side of the valley from the Black's camp. In the easy and almost elegant deportment of the black general, he did not at first recognise his old slave. "What brings you back to Haiti, my kind, old master?" said Toussaint L'Ouverture, as he stood before the iron bars of the cage. "The quelling of the insurrection, and the hopes of dwelling on my old property protected by you, Toussaint L'Ouverture, from the violence and resentment of your brethren." "It is not possible for me to do that. Even now the greatest danger awaits you. Tomorrow they mean to hang you; and if I attempt to save you they will kill me. My brethren will have vengeance on all white men. Leave then this island this night; and bear with you the good wishes of a grateful heart, and one, who, though he has a black skin, knows how to do his duty." "Noble Toussaint !" "Thank me not. But quit this spot. Go to the coast of St. Marc. There is a ship ready to transport you to the shores of America; and, when you leave Haiti, never more return." Toussaint L'Ouverture then unlocked the door of the prison, and, relieving M. Bayon de Libertas of his weighty chains, saw him depart in safety, and returned to the camp of negroes. The independence of Haiti was destined to be soon disturbed by the influence of foreign powers. Bonaparte being then at peace with all Europe, turned his thoughts to the re-conquest of that island. Thither, with that object in view, he despatched 30,000 troops, and his brotherin-law, Le Clerc, to be captain-general and chief magistrate of the colony. Toussaint resisted the authority of Le Clerc; and a proclamation was issued, declaring him an outlaw and ordering all to pursue and treat him as an enemy of the French Republic. This corrupted the fidelity of his soldiers, and Dessalines proposed that some other general be promoted to the chief command, which was accordingly done; and the command of the army was transferred to him. While Toussaint was thus deposed in his command, a little Danish schooner, bound from America to one of the small West Indian islands, was driven late in the afternoon, one day, by the violence of a huricane, close under the walls of the Cape Français, near the battery. Assistance was given by the soldiers, and the crew being mostly Frenchmen, were carried to the fort, and the next morning conveyed to Breda. Among them was M. Bayon de Libertas, who had thus "We must release these prisoners," said Toussaint L'Ouverture, when his old master and the others were brought before the court-martial: "for we make not war with the elements." "They remain our prisoners," said Dessalines, 66 as if taken in battle." "One of them has been here before," said Biasson, "and escaped, no one knows how. This time he must be removed to prison, and have a double guard to watch him." “And be hanged at sunrise in the morning," said Dessalines. The generals arose and retired, except Dessalines and Toussaint L'Ouverture. If you are my friend," said Toussaint L'Ouverture," you will not condemn these men. Save them from death; they are innocent. Grant me the pardon of, at least, one of them; he was my master, and kind and good to me." "He must perish, to satisfy the army," said Dessalines, fiercely. "They must not say that favour is shown to any white man. He must perish, because he is white. His color is his guilt." "Oh! Dessalines, what can I say to this?" The dawn approached; and, meanwhile, during the night there had been erected on a declivitous plain, between a small wood and the Black camp, several gibbets. At day break, a number of people were assembled under them, for the purpose of executing the unfortunate Frenchmen. Toussaint L'Ouverture was sitting on the fortifications of the camp. He cast his eyes towards the plain on a particular gibbet; he saw the men adjusting the rope, and the victims standing under it: he could gaze no longer; he turned his eyes aside for a few moments, and when he looked again, he saw the body of M. Bayon de Libertas swinging in the air. A wild commotion of thoughts swept over his mind, and he yielded to its influence. "I have leagued with vice," he thought, "vice which destroys, but never spares life. Dessalines has no humanity, no charity. He has no generous feelings; none, none." He bent his steps to the camp of Dessalines, and as soon as he was in his presence, cast his sword at his feet. "General," said he, "that sword I drew in the cause of honor, but now I resign it; for I am the enemy of oppression, and will not be the assassin of innocent men. I am no longer your soldier." At this period a social circle of friends, consisting of generals, colonels, captains, and other |