human
What pains you are taking! he said.
gpt
You have only to follow your own fancy and convenience about Christophe's house. Christophe has never been to France. Tell him, or any others of my countrymen, that any building you choose to put up is European, and in good taste, and they will be quite pleased enough.
human
You are a sinner, said Loisir;
gpt
Nay--do not you find the blacks one and all ready to devour your travellers' tales--your prodigious reports of European cities? You have only to tell like stories in stone and brick, and they will believe you just as thankfully.
human
No, no, Vincent. I have told no tales so wicked as you tell of your own race. My travellers' tales are all very well to pass an hour, and be forgotten; but Christophe's mansion is to stand for an age--to stand as the first evidence, in the department of the arts, of the elevation of your race. Christophe knows, as well as you do without having been to Paris, what is beautiful in architecture; and, if he did not, I would not treacherously mislead him.
gpt
Christophe knows! Christophe has taste!
human
Yes. While you have been walking streets and squares, he has been studying the aisles of palms, and the crypts of the banyan, which, to an open eye, may teach as much as a prejudiced mind can learn in all Rome.
gpt
So Loisir is of those who flatter men in power?
human
I look further, said Loisir;
gpt
I am working for men unborn. I am ambitious; but my ambition is to connect my name honourably with the first great house built for a negro general. My ambition is to build here a rival to the palaces of Europe.
human
Do what you will, you will not rival your own tales of them--unless you find Aladdin's lamp among these ruins.
gpt
If you find it, you may bring it me. Azna has found something half as good--a really fine statue in the grass.
human
General Vincent declares that he is as affectionate to us as if we were the nearest to him of all the children of the empire.--Did you not say so? she asked, eagerly.
gpt
Is not the First Consul's friendship for us real and earnest? Does he not feel a warm regard for my father? Is he not like a father to my brothers?
human
Certainly, said Vincent.
gpt
Do not your brothers confirm this in their letters?
human
Do they not, Genifrede?
gpt
They do; but we see that they speak as they think: not as things really are.
human
How can you so despise the testimony of those who see what we only hear of?
gpt
I do not despise them or their testimony. I honour their hearts, which forget injuries, and open to kindness. But they are young; they went from keeping cattle, and from witnessing the desolations of war here, to the first city of the world, where the first men lavish upon them instructions, and pleasures, and flatteries; and they are pleased. The greatest of all--the First of the Whites, smiles upon the sons of the First of the Blacks; and their hearts beat with enthusiasm for him. It is natural. But, while they are in Paris, we are in Saint Domingo; and we may easily view affairs, and judge men differently.
human
And so, said Aimee,
gpt
We think the jealousy of race is with them, said Moyse, bitterly.
human
There is not a measure of L'Ouverture's which they do not neutralise-- not a fragment of authority which they will yield. As to friends, if the Consul Bonaparte is our best friend among the Whites, may we be left thus far friendless!
gpt
You mean that he has not answered my father's letters. Monsieur Vincent doubts not that an answer is on the way. Remember, my brothers have been invited to his table.
human
There are blacks in Paris, who look on,
gpt
And are there not whites too, from this island, who watch every movement?
human
Yes: and those whites are in the private closet, at the very ear of Bonaparte, whispering to him of L'Ouverture's ambition; while your brothers penetrate no further than the saloon.
gpt
My brothers would lay down their lives for Bonaparte and France, said Aimee;
human
And with me, said Vincent, in a whisper at her ear.
gpt
Where I find the loyal heart in woman, mine is ever loyal too.
human
Here is Monsieur Vincent, of our own race, who has lived here and at Paris--who has loved my father.--You love my father and his government?
gpt
Certainly. No man is more devoted to L'Ouverture.
human
Devoted to my father, pursued Aimee,
gpt
Isaac and the First Consul--these are the idols of Aimee's worship, said Genifrede.
human
Worship Isaac still; for that is a harmless idolatry; but give up your new religion, Aimee; for it is not sound.
gpt
Why not sound? How do you know that it is not sound?
human
When have the blacks ever trusted the whites without finding themselves bound victims in the end?
gpt
I have, said Vincent.
human
I have lived among them a life of charms, and I am free, he continued, stretching his arms to the air--
gpt
The end has not come yet,
human
What end?
gpt
Nay, God knows what end, if we trust the French.
human
You speak from prejudice, said Aimee.
gpt
Monsieur Vincent and my brothers judge from facts.
human
We speak from facts, said Genifrede;
gpt
The eight Commissaries that the colony has been blessed with, said Moyse.
human
If they had taken that monkey which is looking down at your drawing, Aimee, and seven of its brethren, and installed them at Cap, they would have done us all the good the Commissaries have done, and far less mischief. The monkeys would have broken the mirrors, and made a hubbub within the walls of Government-house. These Commissaries, one after another, from Mirbeck to Hedouville, have insulted the colony, and sown quarrels in it, from end to end.
gpt
Mirbeck! Here is Mirbeck,
human
Then they sent Saint Leger, the Irishman, continued Moyse,
gpt
Then there was Roume.
human
Roume. My father speaks well of Roume,
gpt
He was amiable enough, but so weak that he soon had to go home, where he was presently joined by his successor, Santhonax, whom, you know, L'Ouverture had to get rid of, for the safety of the colony. Then came Polverel. What the tranquillity of Saint Domingo was in his day we all remember.
human
For shame, Denis? said Aimee.
gpt
You are ridiculing him who first called my father L'Ouverture.
human
And do you suppose he knew the use that would be made of the word? asked Genifrede.
gpt
If he had foreseen its being a tide, he would have contented himself with the obsequious bows I remember so well, and never have spoken the word.
human
Now, Denis, be quiet! Raymond, dear Raymond, came next;
gpt
Raymond is excellent as a man, whatever he may be as governor of Cap, said Moyse.
human
But we have been speaking of whites, not of mulattoes-- which is another long chapter.
gpt
Raymond was sent to us by France, however,
human
So was our friend Vincent there; but that is nothing to the purpose.
gpt
Well; who next?
human
Do not encourage him, said Aimee.
gpt
My father would be vexed with you for training him to ridicule the French--particularly the authorities.
human
Now we are blessed with Hedouville, pursued Moyse.
gpt
There you have him, Denis--only scarcely sly, scarcely smooth enough. Yet, that is Hedouville, who has his eye and his smiles at play in one place, while his heart and hands are busy in another.
human
Busy, said Genifrede,
gpt
Stay a moment,