Polvérel and Sonthonax embarked clandestinely at night for France, leaving the government to Laveaux.

Chambon set out from the island of Aix and seized a Portuguese ship whose papers informed him that the English occupied a part of Saint-Domingue. He steered toward the South of that colony. Anchored at the Anses-à-Pitre, he learned from a coaster of the arrival of the commissioners at Jacmel and entered that port on 20 prairial (8 June). He placed the commissioners under arrest (1). Polvérel wrote to Rigaud to urge him to distrust Montbrun. Sonthonax for his part wrote to Laveaux to inform him of the events that had just taken place. Then, cast down with grief by the decree of accusation, but happy to see the mother country sanction the great measure of emancipation, they embarked clandestinely in the night of 25 to 26 prairial (13 to 14 June) (the population would not have permitted their departure), taking Martial-Besse with them to France (1). They left the general government to Laveaux, the command of the Cap and its dependencies to Colonel Villatte, and that of the province of the South to Colonel Rigaud. Montbrun and Beauvais remained at Jacmel, where they were soon to dispute the command.