Morne Pelée. The 12th, coming out to aid Pétion, meets Yayou before reaching it

As soon as the firing at Sibert had been heard at Port-au-Prince, General Magloire Ambroise, provisional commander of the division, had assembled the 12th demi-brigade at the Arsenal and issued it ammunition. It had marched out to Pétion’s aid with four field pieces. Before it reached the morne Pelée it caught sight of General Yayou riding back amid a crowd of fugitives, most of them wounded. From Sibert to Drouillard Yayou had shown the most brilliant valor at the head of a few horsemen, striving by several charges to check Christophe’s dragoons so as to give the republican infantry time to reach Port-au-Prince. He ordered the soldiers of the 12th to fall back and take up position at Fort Saint-Joseph. The enemy is upon us, he cried; let us think only of saving the town. As soon as he entered Port-au-Prince he rallied the fugitives and took command of the army, for Pétion’s fate was unknown; and, vigorously seconded by Lys and Caneaux, he posted along the ditches most of the young men, the fathers of families, even boys of about twelve to fourteen, together with a few companies of troops of the line. When all seemed lost, he did not despair of the cause of liberty. At the same time many women and children were leaving their homes and taking ship for the department of the South. The fugitives who kept coming back in groups were plundering the storehouses and abandoned houses. General Yayou, amid this confusion, unable to deal severely with them, let them be, all the while exhorting them to defend the town against Christophe, whom he painted to them as a dreadful tyrant. At this supreme moment all the prisoners were set at liberty. Colonel Lamarre, as soon as he was out of prison, presented himself in civilian dress to the 24th, his former corps. The soldiers greeted him with the liveliest acclamations, put him at their head and carried him in triumph. He went to the Portail Saint-Joseph, where the brave General Yayou stood in the front rank of the troops he had gathered. Yayou went to meet him, embraced him, told him that he had forgotten the past, and gave him his own mount. It will be remembered that Lamarre had been sentenced to four years in prison and to be degraded for having forgotten all his duties as a soldier toward Yayou.