The President of the Republic had been discovered by the decorations upon his hat; and the enemy kept up a hot pursuit, which hung upon the very footsteps of the mulatto commander-in-chief, whose escape in such circumstances seemed impossible, when one of his officers devoted himself to death to save the life of his chief. Exchanging hats with the president, he rode swiftly in another direction. The whole party of the enemy were thus drawn after him, and he was soon overtaken and cut down, while Pétion made his escape into the town. The siege of Port au Prince had now continued two months, and the obstinacy of its defence had already begun to make Christophe despair of final success, when an occurrence took place which determined him to raise it immediately. Indignant at the tyranny of the black king, several chiefs of his army had formed a conspiracy to assassinate him during his attendance at church. Christophe was always punctual at mass, and upon these occasions the church was filled with officers in waiting, and surrounded with soldiers. It had been arranged to stab him while he was kneeling at the altar, and then to proclaim the death of the tyrant to the soldiery, whose attachment to their monarch, it was thought, was not so warm as to render such an enterprise hazardous. This dangerous undertaking had been prepared in such secrecy, that a great number of the officers and soldiers of the army had been drawn into the ranks of the conspirators, and all things were now in readiness for the final blow. In this stage of the transaction, a mulatto proved faithless to his associates, and informed Christophe minutely of all the plans of the conspiracy, and of all the agents who had devoted themselves to his destruction. The monarch, thus possessed of a full knowledge of all that had been prepared against him, concealed the vengeful feelings that burned within him under an appearance of the utmost composure. He feared lest a whisper intimating that he had been informed of the intentions of the conspirators might snatch them from his vengeance by urging them to desert to the enemy. At the usual hour the troops paraded at the church, and Christophe, instead of entering to assist at the mass, placed himself at the head of his army, and designated by their names the leaders of the conspiracy, who were ordered to march to the centre. An order was then given to the troops to fire, and the execution was complete.