Pétion escaped by sea in a fisherman’s boat, took the helm himself, and landed at Marliany, while Lamarre, freed by Yayou, counterattacked from the forts of Port-au-Prince.
The horses unsaddled, their harness embarked, everyone on board, Pétion suddenly seizes the helm, and, heading for the little bay of Marliany (1), toward the Morne-à-Bateau, he is soon in the gulf of Port-au-Prince, sailing close to the wind, as an old sailor himself would have done (2).
Thus did Caesar one day set himself and his fortune against the blows of fate and the caprices of the elements!
Arrived off Port-au-Prince, they saw all the ships and all the boats getting under way: it was the symptom of a general evacuation. “Christophe,” said Pétion, “may well be as intelligent as he is audacious; in that case he would hold the place. Let us go to Marliany: there I shall call the populations of the South to the aid of those of the West, and we shall go and retake Port-au-Prince (1).”
Christophe, for his part, pursued the fugitives as far as the Drouillard plantation. Then, but too late, a detachment of the 12th, under the orders of Chervain, was conducting a four-pounder to Pétion. This detachment turned back. Christophe, at noon, divided the columns at the Pont-Rouge. He charged the adjutant-general Guerrier to attack Fort Saint-Joseph with the 4th and 7th; General Pierre Toussaint to attack Fort Lacroix with the 8th, the 14th and the 20th. Magny commanded these two columns in chief. Jean-Philippe Daux, with the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th and 27th, marched, under the orders of Romain, against Fort-National. Christophe kept with him there, at his headquarters, only the 1st and 2nd demi-brigades, corps in which he had the most confidence.
While Pétion was voyaging on the sea, Yayou had returned to the town with Métellus, Sanglaou and Gédéon. After having, with Blanchet’s help, put a stop to the pillage that had begun, he flew to the prison where Lamarre was held. The latter, chief of the 24th, had in the preceding month of November disowned the authority of Yayou, under whose orders he served; he had carried insubordination to the point of threats. Pétion had been obliged to betake himself to Léogane to appease the disturbances; he had had Lamarre arrested and tried, and Lamarre, condemned to two years of detention, was roaring at his idleness in prison, as the cannon thundered anew, when Yayou came to restore him to liberty (1).
After this fine deed of Yayou, Lamarre ran to Fort Lacroix, where his regiment was posted. Démarattes, to whom the command of that corps had been given, hastened to hand it back to him: thus on every side a contest of generosity in favor of Lamarre: for all knew the valor of his sword.