from Rigaud's followers within. The contest continued through the night, but the mob were defeated in every attempt which they made to obtain a lodgment within the walls of the edifice, and no decisive success could be obtained to disperse them. Rigaud, now convinced that the witchery of his power existed no longer, made a formal abdication of his authority, and nominated General Borgella as his successor in the command of the South. Rigaud, worn with chagrin and humiliation, retired to his plantation, Laborde, where he died within a few days after, a victim to the faithlessness of the multitude.
Thus ended the life of André Rigaud, the ablest scholar and most accomplished military man of any color which the St. Domingo revolution had produced. The death of Rigaud had the effect of uniting the mulatto generals, Borgella and Boyer under Pétion, and against Christophe; the latter, however, succeeded in maintaining his authority in the North, and still looked forward to a time when he should be able to govern the whole Island.
Christophe, like Dessalines, had been made a monarch by the constitution which formed a basis to his power; but he had at first only assumed to himself the modest title of President. This moderation in his ambition arose from the desire to supplant Pétion in his government, and become the supreme head of the whole country without any rival or associate. For this purpose it was necessary to surround his power with republican forms; to make it attractive in the estimation of the better class of blacks and mulattoes, with whom republican notions happened to be in vogue.
