Alarm is beaten in Port-au-Prince when general Yayou’s plan to assassinate Pétion and deliver the city to the enemy is discovered; Yayou flees toward Jacmel.

“In the night of the 22nd to the 23rd of this month, the tranquillity which we seemed to enjoy was suddenly broken by the sound of the general alarm beaten in the town. The soldiers of the garrison had hurried of their own accord to the posts and had had it beaten, because they had been informed of General Yayou’s perfidious plan to come to my house that very night to assassinate me, to take hold of the soldiers’ minds and to deliver the city to the enemy, who had already advanced, under the guidance of Pierre Toussaint, as far as the Boucassin. The general officers and other senior chiefs of the army repaired to the government house. General Yayou did not appear there. He betook himself to the Léogane post, where the 21st demi-brigade was. He sent an order to the 24th, which was stationed behind the government house and at the barracks, to join him; but that demi-brigade refused. Then Yayou had a drumroll sounded and left the enclosure of the town with the 21st. As soon as I was informed of it, I sent the 3rd and 11th demi-brigades in pursuit of him; but he had had time to reach Léogane before our troops. During his stay in town this general had allowed himself to utter insulting remarks about the Government, about the Senate, and particularly about me. Chervain, Charles Cadet, Sanglaou, Romain, Jourdain and Madame Germain (1) had followed him.

“When the 21st learned Yayou’s designs to bear arms against me, it showed horror and repugnance at them, and left him entirely. Seeing himself abandoned by his troops, he was compelled to make his way toward Jacmel with the confederates named above. On the following day, the 23rd, I betook myself to Léogane, where General Magloire came to join me, on the invitation I had made to him. This general answered to me for Yayou and undertook to bring him back. His efforts have proved useless: Yayou, after getting rid of his following, has gained the woods in order to form bands there. But I have at once sent detachments in pursuit of him to every pass by which he can go over to the enemy. I do not despair that before long he will fall into my hands. Charles Cadet has been arrested in the plain of the Cul-de-Sac. He was seeking to make his way into Arcahaye. General Magloire announces that he is going to send me Chervain and Jourdain under escort.