Port-Salut. Moreau tours the district and feasts the inhabitants

A few days before the rising in arms she sent for Inginac at ten o’clock at night. He went to her at once and found her seated on a sofa, all in tears. * She implored him to assume the supreme authority so as to foil the conspiracy which, according to the latest information she had obtained, was to break out within a few days at Port-Salut. Inginac repeated to her that he could not take this responsibility upon himself, but that he would gather at her house the chief authorities, Moreau, Papalier, Étienne Mentor, Bourdet, Wagnac and the administrator Almanzor, to inform them of what was happening and to bring them to take vigorous measures against the factious. She would not consent to this meeting, saying that these men were fainthearted, not to call them something worse. At Inginac’s urging she resolved to receive Almanzor, who, when consulted, was of the opinion that they should embark on a State felouque commanded by Aoua and abandon Les Cayes. He said he foresaw, from all that reached him, that he might be sacrificed, as might Inginac. Inginac declared to him that he would never abandon his post. They parted without having been able to agree. To his great astonishment Inginac learned the following day that Almanzor was a cousin of General Christophe, whose name the conspirators were putting forward. From then on he had no more dealings with him and even avoided him. He told Papalier what he had learned from Mademoiselle Euphémie, and ordered Aoua to sail along the lower coast in his felucca as far as Jérémie, to make sure of the state of feeling in each place and to report to him. He then went with Papalier to General Moreau and made known to him everything that had reached him. Moreau told him that all these reports were lies. He added: I am certain there is nothing; I hold all the people of Port-Salut in my hands; I have great influence over them; they would have warned me if there were anything out of the ordinary. He nevertheless told them that he would make a tour of the district of Port-Salut to see for himself the state of feeling, and that before leaving he would give a festivity. The mass of the people so detested General Moreau that he had learned nothing so far, even from the secret agents he paid. On the 2nd of October he gave a sumptuous dinner at which several toasts were drunk to the glory of the Emperor with great demonstrations of devotion. The next day he left Les Cayes to begin his tour. He was accompanied by his aides-de-camp, his secretary and thirty horsemen. He reached Port-Salut the same day. On the 5th he assembled the inhabitants of the district and exhorted them to remain ever faithful to the Emperor, and on the 6th he gave them a great feast. The following day he prepared to continue his journey.