1820, October 6–8: (The Last Stand of Henry Christophe at Sans Souci): Lying paralyzed at Sans Souci, the King learned of the St.

1820, October 6–8: (The Last Stand of Henry Christophe at Sans Souci): Lying paralyzed at Sans Souci, the King learned of the St. Marc rising on October 4 and early on the 6th ordered Marmelade to march south with every available soldier — but instead, Marmelade called the senior officers together at the Cap, and late that day the garrison troops were formed in the Place d’Armes, where the soldiers cried “Liberté! Indépendance!” as Marmelade tore off his Cross of St. Henry and declared: “I am no longer Duc de Marmelade — I am the General Richard you have always known,” before shouting “Point roi! Point nobilité! Point tyrannie!” to thunderous cries of “À bas le tyran! À bas Christophe!” Up at Milot, the King called for hogsheads of rum heated boiling hot and infused with the fiery pimento liquor that Haitians would later know as sauce Ti malis, and bathing himself in this burning solution, he had attendants massage his crippled limbs until by supreme effort he rose, donned his uniform, and slowly dragged his way to the forecourt where his 1,200-man royal guard was paraded. The soldiers who had served him with absolute loyalty for over a decade now stood in silence as their paralyzed King struggled to mount his horse and command them to march against the rebellion. The spectacle of the once-mighty Henry Christophe — Destroyer of Tyranny, First Crowned Monarch of the New World — reduced to a broken figure attempting to rally troops who no longer believed in his cause, marked the final collapse of the most ambitious experiment in Black self-governance the hemisphere had yet seen.