Lys leaves Port-au-Prince with Bonnet for the South.

But what above all dismayed Pétion was the defection of Lys: first lieutenant, in 1791, of the company of artillery organized by Pétion at the camp of Diègue, constantly honored by his former chief with the most difficult and perilous missions, Lys left Port-au-Prince on 28 October, at the same time as Bonnet (2). At the news of this defection, which Pétion was far from expecting: “Ah!” he cried, “God damn me! But for the women and children whose fate moves me to pity, I would have quickly opened to Christophe the gate of Saint-Joseph, and I would have gone to that of Léogane to bury myself with Rigaud in one and the same shroud (3).”