human
Do not imagine, said he, solemnly,
gpt
But the wars are at an end. Your battles are all over, my love.
human
How can we be sure of that, when Bonaparte has yet to learn what the Assembly has done? Hedouville is on the way home, eager to report of the blacks, while he is ignorant of their minds, and prejudiced about their conduct. Monsieur Papalier and other planters are at Paris, at the ear of Bonaparte, while his ear is already so quickened by jealousy, that it takes in the lightest whisper against me and my race. How can we say that my battles are over, love, when every new success and honour makes this man, who ought to be my brother, yet more my foe?
gpt
Oh, write to him! Write to him, and tell him how you would have him be a brother to you!
human
Have I not written twice, and had no reply but neglect? I wrote to him to announce the earliest prospect of entire peace. I wrote again, to explain my intercourse with his agent Roume, and requested his sanction of what I had done. There has been no reply.
gpt
Then write again. Write this very night!
human
I wrote yesterday, to inform him fully concerning the new constitution framed by the Assembly. I told him that it should be put in force provisionally, till the pleasure of his government is made known.
gpt
Oh, then, that must bring an answer.
human
He must send some sort of answer to that, pursued Margot.
gpt
What answer do you think it will be?
human
You remember the great eagle that I shot, when we lived under the mountains, Margot? Do you remember how the kids played in the pasture, with the shadow of that huge eagle floating above them?
gpt
You saw to-day, he continued,
human
But you shot the eagle, cried Margot;
gpt
Heaven only knows how it may end with us, said Toussaint;
human
Oh, can Bonaparte be so cruel?
gpt
I do not blame him for this our danger; and any future woe must all go to the account of our former slavery. We negroes are ignorant, and have been made loose, deceitful, and idle, by slavery. The whites have been made tyrannical and unjust, by being masters. They believe us now ambitious, rebellious, and revengeful, because it would be no wonder if we were so. All this injustice comes of our former slavery. God forbid that I should be unjust too, and lay the blame where it is not due! For nothing done or feared in Saint Domingo do I blame Bonaparte.
human
Then you think--Oh! say you think there is no danger for Placide and Isaac. Bonaparte is so kind to them! Surely Placide and Isaac can be in no danger!
gpt
There is no fear for their present safety, my love.