human
Genifrede?
gpt
She is there. I do not know what you will think of the means I have taken to procure her sleep. But she was so shaken--she so dreaded this night!
human
You have given her medicine. Is she asleep?
gpt
I gave her henbane, and she is asleep.
human
Is there a chance of her sleeping till noon?
gpt
If she be not disturbed. I have carefully darkened the room. What, has been done? she inquired, looking in his face. Struck with its expression, she exclaimed,
human
How you have suffered!
gpt
Yes. Life is bitter to those whom God has chosen. If Moyse did but know it, I almost envy him his rest.
human
Is it over, then? is he dead?
gpt
He dies at sunrise. You think Genifrede may sleep till noon?
human
He is found guilty, and sentenced. There was no escape. His guilt is clear as noonday.
gpt
No escape from the sentence, said Therese, eagerly.
human
But there is room for mercy yet. You hold the power of life and death over all the colony--a power like that of God, and put into your hand by Him.
gpt
A power put into my hand by Him, and therefore to be justly used. Moyse's crime is great, and mercy to him would be a crime in me. I have fault enough already to answer for in this business, and I dare not sin yet further.
human
You yourself have sinned?
gpt
Yes. I ought to have discerned the weakness of this young man. I ought to have detected the passions that were working in him. I was misled by one great and prolonged effort of self-control in him. I appointed an unworthy officer to the care of the lives and safety of the whites. Many of them have gone to lay their deaths to my charge in heaven. All I can now do is, by one more death (would to God it were my own!) to save and to reassure those who are left. It is my retribution that Moyse must die. As for Paul, as for Genifrede--the sin of the brother is visited upon the brother--the sin of the father upon the child.
human
But, said Therese,
gpt
True--and therefore were they peculiarly under my charge. I have guaranteed the safety of the whites; and none need my protection so much as those who do not, by justice, obedience, and gentleness, by gaining the good-will of their neighbours, protect themselves.
human
But Moyse did not murder any. He was not even present at any death.
gpt
It has just been proved that, while he knew that slaughter was going on, he took no measures to stop it. The ground of his guilt is plain and clear. The law of the revolution of Saint Domingo, as conducted by me, is No retaliation. Every breach of this law by an officer of mine is treason; and every traitor to the whites must die.
human
Alas! why so harsh now--only now? You have spared the guilty before, by tons, by hundreds. Why, now, cause all this misery for this one young life?
gpt
Those whom I have spared were my personal foes; and I spared them not so much for the sake of their separate lives, as for the sake of the great principles for which I live and govern--reconciliation and peace. For this end I pardoned them. For this end I condemn Moyse.
human
You make one tremble, said Therese, shuddering,
gpt
That hate the whites? I know it, replied Toussaint.
human
I know that if God were to smite all among us who hate His children of another race, there would be mourning in some of the brightest dwellings of our land. I thank God that no commission to smite such is given to me.
gpt
My office is, said Toussaint,
human
But if I could prove to you, at this moment, that Moyse's enmity towards the whites is mild and harmless--his passions moderation, compared with the tempest in the breasts of some whom you employ and cherish--would not this soften you--would it not hold your hand from inflicting that which no priest can deny is injustice in God?
gpt
I leave it to no priest, Therese, but to God Himself, to vindicate His own justice, by working as He will in the secret hearts, or before the eyes of men. He may have, for those who hate their enemies, punishments too great for me, or any ruler, to wield; punishments to which the prison and the bullet are nothing. You speak of the tempest within the breast: I know at this moment, if you do not, that years of imprisonment, or a hundred death-strokes, are mercy compared to it. But no more of this! I only say, Therese, that while Jacques--
human
Say me too!
gpt
While Jacques and you secretly hate, I have no concern with it, except in my secret heart. But if that hatred, be it more or less than that of this young man, should interfere with my duty to friend or foe, you see, from his fate, that I have no mercy to grant. Jacques is my friend: Moyse was to have been my son.
human
Genifrede?
gpt
I have something to tell you--something to show you, replied Therese.
human
Her sleep or stupor came upon her suddenly: but she kept a strong grasp upon the bosom of her dress. When I laid her on the bed, she kept her hands clasped one upon the other there. As she slept more heavily, the fingers relaxed; her hands fell, and I saw one end of this.
gpt
Ha! the red water!
human
I thought it was,
gpt
Who taught her this? Who has been tampering with her, and with her life?
human
Perhaps this may tell,
gpt
How strange, said he,