[28] "The party of the colonists was very powerful in Paris: public opinion required the possession of St. Domingo. On the other hand, the first consul was not sorry to dissipate the apprehensions of the English, by sending 15,000 men to St. Domingo. These 15,000 men would have succeeded, had it not been for the yellow fever. If Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe had chosen to submit, they would have secured their liberty, rank, and fortune, as well as those of the people of their colour; the freedom of the blacks would have been securely confirmed."--NAPOLEON, _Montholon_, tom. ii., p. 218. [29] "The first consul ardently seized the happy opportunity of sending away a great number of officers, formed in the school of Moreau, whose reputation pained him, and whose influence with the army, if not a subject of alarm, was at least to him one of restraint and inquietude. 'Well,' said Buonaparte to me one day, 'your Jacobins malignantly say, that they are the soldiers and friends of Moreau whom I am sending to perish at St. Domingo; they are grumbling maniacs; let them talk on.'"--FOUCHÉ, tom. i., p. 217. [30] Anxiety, age, and a climate too severe for his constitution, soon put an end to his days. He died on April 27, 1803, after a captivity of ten months. His mysterious fate excited great interest--witness the noble sonnet of Wordsworth:-- "TOUSSAINT! the most unhappy man of men! Whether the all-cheering sun be free to shed His beams around thee, or thou rest thy head Pillow'd in some dark dungeon's noisome den-- O, miserable chieftain! where and when Wilt thou find patience?--Yet die not; do thou Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow: Though fallen thyself, never to rise again, Live and take comfort. Thou hast left behind Powers that will work for thee--Air, Earth, and Skies; There's not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee; thou hast great allies; Thy friends are Exultations, Agonies, And Love, and Man's unconquerable Mind." [31] "Leclerc was an officer of the first merit, equally skilful in the labours of the cabinet and in the manœuvres of the field of battle: he had served in the campaigns of 1796 and 1797 as adjutant-general to Napoleon; and in that of 1799 as a general of division under Moreau. He commanded at the battle of Freisingen, where he defeated the Archduke Ferdinand; he led into Spain an army of observation, of 20,000 men, intended to act against Portugal; finally, in this expedition of St. Domingo, he displayed great talent and activity."--NAPOLEON, tom. i., p. 211. [32] "I have to reproach myself with the attempt made upon the colony during the Consulship. The design of reducing it by force was a great error. I ought to have been satisfied with governing it through the medium of Toussaint."--NAPOLEON, _Las Cases_, tom. iv., p. 171.