CHAPTER XIX.
PEACE IN HAYTI, AND DEATH OF PETION.
Christophe had now discovered the too palpable
truth, that so far from his possessing the means to
drive his rival from the government of the South, all
his cares and precautions were requisite to maintain
the sovereignty over his own subjects of the North.
A train of perpetual suspicions kept his jealousy ever
alive, and vexed by the tortures of eternal solicitude,
his despotic temper grew by the cruelty which had
become its aliment. Together with this perpetual
inquietude for the safety of his power, which made
the new throne of Hayti a pillow of thorns and
torture, other considerations had their influence to
arrest the hostilities between the two chiefs of the
country. The giant power of Napoleon had now extended
itself over almost all the thrones of Europe,
and with such an infinity of means at his disposal,
it was yearly expected that another armament, proportioned
to the overgrown power of the French
Emperor, would be sent to crush the insurgents of
St. Domingo, and restore that island once more to
the possession of its ancient colonists.
