Quatre-Chemins. Wagnac’s picket arrives; next day Wagnac, Papalier and Bourdet meet and fraternize

While the authorities were directing the insurrection with prodigious activity, a picket of dragoons sent by Wagnac arrived at the Quatre-Chemins, the suburb of Les Cayes on the side of the plain, charged with informing Papalier that, to spare the town the greatest misfortunes, an interview was proposed to him and to the principal citizens. It was four o’clock in the afternoon. This picket came upon a young man of color named Henri, secretary to Yayou, who was arriving from Léogane at full gallop, covered in dust. The dragoons of Les Cayes stopped him and asked what news there was in the West. He answered that he had come to announce to Papalier, on behalf of General Yayou, that the troops of the West were about to march against the South. At once he was dragged violently to Papalier’s house. As Papalier was not at home, they cut off young Henri’s head and carried it through the street on the point of a saber. The assassins found Inginac on the upper gallery of the house, showed him the head of Yayou’s envoy, and said to him: Your turn will come soon. Papalier came home a moment later, was horrified by the bloody scene that had just taken place, and sent the picket of dragoons back with word to Wagnac that he accepted the interview for the following day at the Quatre-Chemins. As Wagnac had let it be known that before entering into negotiations he wished to speak with Colonel Bourdet, Bourdet went to him accompanied by most of the officers of the garrison of Les Cayes, and told him himself that he had accepted the insurrection. This was what Wagnac wished to hear, for he knew that Bourdet exercised a powerful influence over the 13th.

The next day, 10 October, Wagnac and the insurgents of Port-Salut on the one side, and Papalier, Bourdet and the principal inhabitants of Les Cayes on the other, met at the Quatre-Chemins and fraternized. Bourdet proposed to the assembly that it move into the town at once. But the principal insurgents of the countryside, fearing a trap from Papalier, of whom they were not sure, would not consent to it. Bourdet offered to remain as a hostage at the Quatre-Chemins, under the guard of their armed bands. The frankness that shone on his brow dispelled every mistrust, and Wagnac accepted the proposal to enter the town, saying that there was no need of a hostage; that for fourteen years they had made war for liberty, and that it was for liberty again that they had just taken up arms. The assembly decided that Wagnac would take command of the first division of the South, and that Papalier would keep the command of the arrondissement. Papalier announced that he welcomed every measure that might bring about the happiness of the country. Let us enter Les Cayes, cried Wagnac. What! said the squadron commander Racolier, we are forgetting Inginac and Almanzor, those two hired killers of Dessalines. Papalier observed that no one should think of shedding anyone’s blood; that they needed to rally men of every party, and that the surest way to harm the success of the insurrection would be to carry out reprisals. The assembly applauded him, and the people of Port-Salut and of the plain of Les Cayes, with Wagnac and Racolier at their head, entered the town at two o’clock in the afternoon.