1807–1810: (The Guerre du Môle and the Death of Lamarre): Behind the Artibonite, backed in the mountains by the old Cordon de l’Ouest, Christophe enjoyed a d…

1807–1810: (The Guerre du Môle and the Death of Lamarre): Behind the Artibonite, backed in the mountains by the old Cordon de l’Ouest, Christophe enjoyed a defensible frontier with St. Marc as his outpost, but his flank was open in the Northwest, where a spirit of separatism dated back to colonial times and where Capoix-la-Mort had ruled as satrap. In May 1807, led by a private named Rebecca, Capoix’s former troops revolted at Port-de-Paix, inaugurating three years of sparring between Christophe and Pétion that Haitians call the “Guerre du Môle,” during which Pétion used British and American merchant ships as his navy to put armies into the Northwest. (10) The rehabilitated Lamarre contested the Northwest for two years against Christophe’s efforts, but Pétion was cramped by unforeseen developments in his own rear: Yayou, one of the old Congo chieftains suborned by Christophe, waged guerrilla war against Pétion in the West, and on the far southern tip in the Grand’Anse, a stubborn insurgency under Goman broke out that would smolder for thirteen years. By October 1808, Christophe’s big battalions had ejected Lamarre from Port-de-Paix, and besieged inside the Môle with his supply lines cut by Christophe’s English-officered navy, Lamarre was killed by a cannonball on July 16, 1810 — whereupon Christophe ordered his squadron to the Môle, half-masted the colors in mourning, and fired a funeral salute to honor a brave adversary. Lamarre’s aide-de-camp, a noir lieutenant named Faustin Soulouque, slipped through the lines bearing Lamarre’s heart, which he delivered to Pétion in Port-au-Prince — and the Môle fell on September 28, its surviving defenders condemned to perish toiling on Christophe’s Citadel at La Ferrière.