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130. Sans-Souci rallied his followers and again assumed the offensive. He even compelled Pétion and Christophe to retreat. Charles Belair's friends gathered their forces in the mountains of l'Arcahaie. The French General Pageot, who was sent after them, failed in his mission; he was obliged to return to Port-au-Prince. Numerous bands of rebels threatened Jacmel and Léogane. Rochambeau, accompanied by the French Generals Pageot and Lavalette, undertook to subdue them. His arrival at Jacmel was signalized by a horrible crime: by his orders, about 100 natives, who were only suspected of having little zeal for France, were thrown into the hold of a man-of-war, the hatchways of which were tightly closed; the men were then suffocated by the fumes of the ignited sulphur, their corpses being afterward thrown into the sea.

These atrocities did not have the desired effect of intimidating the people; on the contrary, they became daily more and more aggressive. Lamour Dérance, whose authority was acknowledged by such leaders as Larose, Sanglaou, etc., distributed his warriors about the mountains of Port-au-Prince and in the plains of Cul-de-Sac and Léogane.

In the North the French Generals Brunet and Boyer, notwithstanding the assistance of the black General Maurepas, did not succeed in subduing the rebels. In order to terrify the country-people, Brunet, then in the parish of Gros-Morne, caused some unoffending peasants to be hanged. This uncalled-for act of barbarity was speedily avenged by Capois. Deserting the cause of France he took possession of Port-de-Paix, where he put to death all the whites with the exception of the women and children.

Little by little as the struggle progressed it seemed to assume a more horrible aspect. Rochambeau and his lieutenants doubled the executions, until it became impossible to estimate the number of those who were hanged, drowned, or asphyxiated. A mulattress, Henriette Saint-Marc, simply suspected of being in connivance with the rebels, was hanged in the market-place of