The Cul-de-Sac plain. An accidental fire in a cabin raises the alarm at Port-Républicain.

As soon as these letters had been handed to him, General Pamphile de Lacroix, unaware that Dessalines was at Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite, laid ambushes on the night of 8 to 9 Ventôse (26 to 27 February) between the Pont Rouge and the Saint-Joseph gate. Rear Admiral Latouche-Tréville came ashore into the town with two thirds of his crews and reinforced the garrison. At every moment during the night the French expected Dessalines to arrive. Fire broke out by accident in one of the cabins of the plain of the Cul-de-Sac; the flames were seen from Fort National, which commands the whole town. Dessalines! Dessalines! came the cry from every side; to arms! The garrison, the national guard and the sailors took their places on the ramparts. The place fired on the plain for part of the night; the astonished cultivators fled far off, seeking shelter from the cannonballs. The garrison of the Croix-des-Bouquets, hearing the cannon roar, stood on the defensive. At daybreak the French, finding no enemy, gloried in their success; Pamphile de Lacroix was pleased with himself for having saved Port-Républicain from a surprise attack, when a courier arriving from the Croix-des-Bouquets announced that Dessalines had not appeared in the plain, which was in perfect submission. Captain Chancy, the bearer of the two incendiary letters that had been intercepted, was awaiting death in the dungeons of Port-Républicain. To save him, several Indigenous officers serving in the French army declared to General Pamphile de Lacroix that he had many times been persecuted by the former governor because of his devotion to the mother country, and that he would never have agreed to carry such a packet had he known its contents. They added that a few months before the arrival of the French, Chancy had been imprisoned for his French opinions. Chancy had indeed been imprisoned, but for having seduced a married woman. The French general, deceived by this false declaration, at once set the prisoner free.