The Hour and the Man, An Historical Romance

  CHAPTER TWELVE.

  A NIGHT OF OFFICE.

  As soon as Toussaint was out of hearing of his family and suite, he puthis horse to its utmost speed. There was not a moment to be lost, ifthe peace of the island was to be preserved. Faster than ever fugitiveescaped from trouble and danger, did the negro commander rush towardsthem. The union between the black and white races probably depended onhis reaching Cap by the early morning--in time to prevent certainproclamations of Hedouville, framed in ignorance of the state of thecolony and the people, from being published. Forty leagues lay betweenL'Etoile and Cap, and two mountain ridges crossed his road: but he hadridden forty leagues in a night before, and fifty in a long day; and hethought little of the journey. As he rode, he meditated the work of thenext day, while he kept his eye awake, and his heart open, to the beautyof the night.

  He had cleared the plain, with his trompette at his heels, before thewoods and fields had melted together into the purple haze of evening;and the labourers returning from the cane-pieces, with their tools ontheir shoulders, offered their homage to him as he swept by. Someshouted, some ran beside him, some kneeled in the road and blessed him,or asked his blessing. He came to the river, and found the ford linedby a party of negroes, who, having heard and known his horse's tread,above the music of pipe and drum, had thrown themselves into the waterto point out the ford, and save his precious moments. He dashed throughuncovered, and was lost in the twilight before their greeting was done.The evening star was just bright enough to show its image in the stillsalt-lake, when he met the expected relay, on the verge of the mountainwoods. Thence the ascent was so steep, that he was obliged to relax hisspeed. He had observed the birds winging home to these woods; they hadreached it before him, and the chirp of their welcome to their nests wassinking into silence; but the whirring beetles were abroad. The frogswere scarcely heard from the marshes below; but the lizards and cricketsvied with the young monkeys in noise, while the wood was all alight withluminous insects. Wherever a twisted fantastic cotton-tree, or adrooping wild fig, stood out from the thicket and apart, it appeared tosend forth streams of green flame from every branch; so incessantly didthe fireflies radiate from every projecting twig.

  As he ascended, the change was great. At length there was no moresound; there were no more flitting fires. Still as sleep rose themountain-peaks to the night. Still as sleep lay the woods below. Stillas sleep was the outspread western sea, silvered by the steady starswhich shone, still as sleep, in the purple depths of heaven. Such wasthe starlight on that pinnacle, so large and round the silver globes, sobright in the transparent atmosphere were their arrowy rays, that thewhole, vault was as one constellation of little moons, and the horse andhis rider saw their own shadows in the white sands of their path. Theridge passed, down plunged the horseman, hurrying to the valley and theplain; like rocks loosened by the thunder from the mountain-top. Thehunter, resting on the heights from his day's chase of the wild goats,started from his sleep, to listen to what he took for a threatening ofstorm. In a little while, the child in the cottage in the valleynestled close to its mother, scared at the flying tramp; while thetrembling mother herself prayed for the shield of the Virgin's graceagainst the night-fiends that were abroad. Here, there was a solitarylight in the plain; there, beside the river; and yonder, behind thevillage; and at each of these stations were fresh horses, the best inthe region, and smiling faces to tender their use. The panting animalsthat were left behind were caressed for the sake of the burden they hadcarried, and of the few kind words dropped by their rider during hismomentary pause.

  Thus was the plain beyond Mirbalais passed soon after midnight. In thedark the horsemen swam the Artibonite, and leaped the sources of thePetite Riviere. The eastern sky was beginning to brighten as theymounted the highest steeps above Atalaye; and from the loftiest point,the features of the wide landscape became distinct in the cool greydawn. Toussaint looked no longer at the fading stars. He lookedeastwards, where the green savannahs spread beyond the reach of humaneye. He looked northwards, where towns and villages lay in the skirtsof the mountains, and upon the verge of the rivers, and in the greenrecesses where the springs burst from the hill-sides. He lookedwestwards, where the broad and full Artibonite gushed into the sea, andwhere the yellow bays were thronged with shipping, and every greenpromontory was occupied by its plantation or fishing hamlet. He paused,for one instant, while he surveyed what he well knew to be virtually hisdominions. He said to himself that with him it rested to keep outstrife from this paradise--to detect whatever devilish cunning mightlurk in its by-corners, and rebuke whatever malice and revenge mightlinger within its bounds. With the thought he again sprang forward,again plunged down the steeps, scudded over the wilds, and splashedthrough the streams; not losing another moment till his horse stoodtrembling and foaming under the hot sun, now touching the Haut-du-Cap,where the riders had at length pulled up. Here they had overtaken thefirst trompette, who, having had no leader at whose heels he mustfollow, had been unable, with all his zeal, quite to equal the speed ofhis companion. He had used his best efforts, and showed signs offatigue; but yet they had come upon his traces on the grass road fromthe Gros Morne, and had overtaken him as he was toiling up theHaut-du-Cap.

  Both waited for orders, their eyes fixed on their master's face, as theysaw him stand listening, and glancing his eye over the city, theharbour, and the road from the Plain du Nord. He saw afar signs oftrouble: but he saw also that he was not too late. He looked down intothe gardens of Government-house. Was it possible that he would showhimself there, heated, breathless, covered with dust as he was? No. Hedismounted, and gave his horse to the trompettes, ordering them to go bythe most public way to the hotel, in Place Mont Archer, to give noticeof the approach of his secretary and staff; and thence to the barracks,where he would appear when he had bathed.

  The trompettes would have gone round five weary miles for the honour ofcarrying messages from the Commander-in-chief through the principalstreets of Cap. They departed with great zeal, while Toussaint ascendedto the mountain-pool, to take the plunge in which he found his bestrefreshment after a long ride. He was presently walking leisurely downthe sloping field, through which he could drop into the grounds ofGovernment-house by a back gate, and have his interview with Hedouvillebefore interruption came from the side of the town. As he entered thegardens, he looked, to the wondering eyes he met there, as if he hadjust risen from rest, to enjoy a morning walk in the shrubberies. Theywere almost ready to understand, in its literal sense, the expression ofhis worshippers, that he rode at ease upon the clouds.