Fort Bélair, Fort Bréda. French troops gathered around it

At the same time Generals Clervaux, Christophe and Pétion, who had withdrawn to Morne-Rouge, learning that the captain-general was gravely ill and that Le Cap was in consternation, resolved to attack the town. General Clausel had drawn all the outposts of the French army back onto the heights of the place. As soon as he learned of the enemy’s approach, he gathered the European troops and the national guard around Fort Bélair and Fort Bréda. On 6 Brumaire (28 October), in the morning, the Indigenous attacked the French with such impetuosity that they overthrew them and held their ground at the Haut-du-Cap, in spite of the heaviest fire from the artillery of the forts. General Clausel went back into Le Cap after ordering d’Henin to charge the enemy at the head of the cavalry of the line. D’Henin hurled himself with his usual intrepidity upon the 6th, which received him on its bayonets and drove him back with heavy musketry. Twice the French returned to the charge. At last d’Henin, grievously wounded, went back into Le Cap in the greatest disorder. Leclerc, dying, crushed under the weight of every kind of sorrow, still thought of the safety of the French. He sent Clausel the order to keep to a close defensive: the troops held only the perimeter of Le Cap. The Indigenous were camped less than a league from the gates of the place. The news of Dessalines’s insurrection had dealt the captain-general the final blow. He was heard to cry out: Can I have been so deceived by a barbarian!