Page:The rising son, or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race (IA risingsonthe00browrich).pdf/219

 An order was then given to the troops to fire, and the execution was complete.

A black named Etienne Magny, was one of the ablest of Christophe's generals; and though he had been secretary to the council of state that had raised the latter to the throne of Hayti, he had now become so dissatisfied with his work that nothing retained him to the standard of his king but the reflection that his family, whom he had left at Cape Henry, would be required to pay the forfeit of his defection with their heads. A body of black soldiers, who were upon the point of deserting to the army of Pétion, willing to give éclat to their defection by taking their commander with them, surrounded the tent of Magny by night, and communicated to him their intention. The black general hesitated not to express his willingness to accompany them; but he urged that tenderness for his family forbade an attempt which would doom them all to certain destruction.

The black soldiers refused to yield to these considerations, and seizing upon Magny, they bore him off undressed, and without his arms, into the town. To preserve the lives of Magny's family, Pétion treated him as a prisoner of war; and he remained at Port au Prince until the death of Christophe, when he was made the commander of the North under Boyer.

Christophe, discouraged at his defeats, and enraged at the sweeping defections which were every day diminishing the numbers of his army, and strengthening the resources of his rival, now commenced his retreat towards the north, whence intelligence had lately reached him of designs in preparation against him