The deputation reached Les Cayes, where Rigaud drew his dagger on reading the packet.

The deputation, having furnished itself besides with a safe-conduct from Roume’s agent, whose dying authority Toussaint still deigned from time to time to invoke, went to embark at Jacmel; on 25 messidor (14 July) it was at Les Cayes. Rigaud, who was at the advance posts of Cavaillon, hastened to the spot. Dressed in the dolman, his ordinary garb in war, with a *trabouc* on his shoulder and a dagger at his belt, he went down just as he was to the house the envoys occupied. He had indeed learned of Vincent’s return to the colony, in spite of the mystery with which Toussaint had covered the purpose of that return. He expected to be recalled by the consular government to justify himself, in the event that the verdict were given to his rival, whom success in arms crowned. But he did not expect to hear the law dictated to him by that same rival, when he believed he had acted until then only with a view to the interests of the Republic. So, when he had opened the packet and taken cognizance of it, he drew his dagger and brandished it for some time, as if to end a life that, as he said, was a burden to him (1).