Page:Rowland--In the shadow.djvu/230

 Dessalines sent his effects on up the mountain to La Coupe, with a note to Madam Fouchère, begging that he be permitted to avail himself of her hospitality proffered the previous month. He himself passed around the north of Port au Prince on the outskirts of the city, to reach the residence of General Miragoâne, one of his proposed staff, a man whom he had known from boyhood and always liked and trusted. Miragoâne was one of the ministers of the Provisional Government.

Dessalines knew the house well. Throwing the rein over a gatepost, he dismounted from his tired horse and entered the inclosure; but before he had reached the veranda a screen door was thrown open and a man burst out.

"Aristide! Ah, m'cher camarade. Oh! Oh! Oh, m'cher!"

A very black negro seized him in an eager embrace. Dessalines, always emotional, never failing to reciprocate warmth of feeling, kissed his friend upon the lips; they reëmbraced.

"But, my dear Aristide!" cried Miragoâne, "I have been expecting you daily!" His eyes rolled warily about him. "But we must be discreet! Come enter; you will be my guest? That is your horse? a magnificent animal! How fat he is!"

Miragoâne was a man of the people: honest, simple, brave; illiterate, he was regarded with some contempt by the more finished Haytians, among them Dr. Fouchère. He was of medium height, very muscular, and inclined to rotundity. His skin was as black as Dessalines' own but less fine. He spoke Creole; Jules could scarcely have understood him. 220