A Free Man of Color (7 page)

MERIWETHER
(
over Le Clerc’s lines
)
Le Clerc’s forces amount to sixty ships and more than thirty thousand men.

TOUSSAINT
Why are they here?

MERIWETHER
Is this war?

LECLERC
We arrive. We wait. We prepare.

We arrive. We wait. We prepare

TOUSSAINT
It cannot be war.

JEFFERSON
Not yet.

TOUSSAINT
Yet all France has come to Sante Domingue.

LE CLERC
We arrive. We wait. We prepare.

We arrive. We wait. We prepare.

We arrive. We wait. We prepare.

JEFFERSON
Have we sent the ships bearing food and ammunition to the Negroes of Santo Domingo?

MERIWETHER
They are in mid–voyage.

LE CLERC
We attack Sante Domingue by land and by sea! Everything yields to French valor.

TOUSSAINT
France has deceived us. She comes to take revenge and enslave the blacks. We will not perish! Set the city of Fort Dauphin a fire!

LE CLERC
At the sight of the flames, we slaughter as many Negroes as we capture, treating them all as revolters.

TOUSSAINT
The bay of
Mancenille
is stained with the blood of unarmed blacks. We raise an ocean of flame and tease the tide of fire to Port au Prince. The United States has promised to send us ammunition and food! We will triumph! Victory or death for freedom!

Exit Toussaint.

LE CLERC
A scorpion! Put down pans of water. I walk from pan to pan.

Le Clerc goes. Jacques’ bedroom.

MARGERY
Do it again!

JACQUES CORNET
This will be our little secret.

MARGERY
It’s an enormous secret!

JACQUES CORNET
Tell me what Pincepousse is up to? What have you heard about this new Spain?

MARGERY
Huh?

JACQUES
What does he talk to you about?

MARGERY
Nothin’! I am with you forever and ever, never to leave your side. Again!

JACQUES CORNET
You know nothing?

MARGERY
One thing! That I love you.

JACQUES CORNET
It’s been lovely to meet you. Let Murmur show you the door. Murmur?

MARGERY
I’m not leaving! I’m never going back to Pincepousse again.

Pincepousse enters and sees Margery, half dressed.

PINCEPOUSSE
You. Him. It. Bed.(
rubbing his forehead
) We’re not staying here. Margery means more to me. I take my beloved back home to my plantation. I leave the plot of this play. Goodbye. Say goodbye.

JACQUES CORNET
Adieu.

MARGERY
No! I’m not leaving. No!

Pincepousse drags Margery off.

Toussaint enters.

TOUSSAINT
I search the horizon! I look for ships of salvation! Yes! America will honor our request!

Jefferson and Meriwether enter.

MERIWETHER
I can’t believe what you’re saying—

JEFFERSON
Stop the delivery of supplies to Santo Domingo.

MERIWETHER
You can’t renege on a promise to feed and arm Santo Domingo!

JEFFERSON
Order the ships to return to their American port.

MERIWETHER
I refuse.

JEFFERSON
Do it. We can’t allow the cannibal government of Santo Domingo to offend glorious France.

MERIWETHER
But you said Toussaint’s a legitimate government.

JEFFERSON
We don’t offend France, not when we want New Orleans. We
must
have New Orleans. Exercise some pragmatism. Order our ships to return.

MERIWETHER
But sir, you’re an example to the world.

JEFFERSON
Thank you, Meriwether. I treasure your support. Now for some lunch. Fanny? Is the ice cream ready? I am starving.

Exit Jefferson.

MERIWETHER
But sir, you said—Please release me from these duties.

Meriwether goes.

TOUSSAINT
Why are the American ships turning back? No! Mr Jefferson! Your promise! From the head of one government to another, I implore you—Rise up, Lord God! Raise your arm! Do not forget us. My people are starving.

Toussaint goes.

Jacques Cornet’s bedroom. Dr. T appears. Jacques is in bed.

JACQUES CORNET
Lent is finally over. How long must I stay on my deathbed?

DR. T
(
to us
)
As Santo Domingo burns and Jefferson breaks promises, Jacques Cornet lies in agony in his former bed of pleasure.

JACQUES CORNET
It’s been forty days since I last worshipped at the altar of my chosen god?

DR. T
You must be patient. Your God will understand your neglect.

JACQUES CORNET
But not my martyrdom. It’s Easter Sunday. One quick holiday visit to the girls of Madame Mandragola?

DR. T
No! Their gossip would burst the mask of your pretence.

JACQUES CORNET
I am bursting!

DR. T
Then travel to another continent to burst.

JACQUES CORNET
May I get some air?

DR. T
Only in heavy disguise. And avoid all your heirs. Happy Easter.

JACQUES
Murmur!

Murmur appears. Jacques and Murmur go out into the town.

MURMUR
The coast is clear, boss.

JACQUES CORNET
A day of beauty. Smell the air. It contains a woman.

Jacques, looking in a window, sees Doña Polissena peering through her microscope.

DOÑA POLISSENA
Dieu! Thou fluttering thing.

JACQUES CORNET
Behold the morsel with the microscope.

DOÑA POLISSENA
So now, I’ve fixed it.

JACQUES CORNET
Perhaps I might insure her silence.

MURMUR
Boss, don’t play with fire.

JACQUES CORNET
Stand guard.
Jacques Cornet enters her laboratory as Doña Polissena puts an insect under her microscope.

JACQUES CORNET
Allow me to introduce myself to you? Jacques Cornet, New Orleans.

DOÑA POLISSSENA
You’ve recovered from your death?—I’m not interested in a eunuch. One near–eunuch in a household is enough. Excuse me. I find my only solace in science.

JACQUES CORNET
(
inhaling her hair
)
May I ask what you’re looking for?

DOÑA POLISSENA
(
at her microscope
)
The cause of yellow fever. Look—a mosquito was trapped in this letter sent to me from
Sante Domingue
—the
aedes aegypti
—see the female’s white markings—(
Jacques Cornet stands behind her, inhaling her hair
) Oh! What are you doing?

JACQUES CORNET
Suddenly, in the presence of you, fair virgin of science, we enter an age of restoration. Lent is over. (
He flings away his cape.
) Easter morning arrives. He is arisen.

DOÑA POLISSENA
M. Cornet! Come, come here, look through this glass, and see how the blood circulates in the tail of this fish.

JACQUES CORNET
(
undoing her shoulder strap
)
But it circulates prettier in this fair neck.

DOÑA POLISSENA
(
becoming aroused by his nuzzling of her neck
)
Ad domos autem ad quotcumque ivero, ibo ad utilitatem eorum.

JACQUES CORNET
What love potion are you casting?

DOÑA POLISSENA
It is merely the oath of Hippocrates: “Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.” I find Hippocrates very stimulating to my circulation.
Ba-doum Ba-doum. Bad-doum.

JACQUES CORNET
(
undoing her shoulder strap
)
You have not loved enough. Your eyes would sparkle and spread. This hand, when touched by him you love, would tremble to your heart. (
He unbuttons her chemise.
)

DOÑA POLISSENA
Primum non nocere
.

JACQUES CORNET
Yes?

DOÑA POLISSENA
A Latin phrase that means “First, do no harm.”

Her dress falls to the ground.

JACQUES CORNET
Tell me more about yellow fever.
Jacques Cornet leads her to her bed. Dr. T appears and draws a curtain around them.

DR. T
Let us draw a curtain as our hero puts Mme. Creux under
his
microscope. Talk of yellow fever makes me think of Santo Domingo.

Napoleon and Le Clerc appear.

NAPOLEON
Is the light from the star of Napoleon to be outshone by a fiery meteor of a Negro? I order you to arrest Toussaint!

LE CLERC
Which we ultimately do.
Toussaint enters in chains.

TOUSSAINT
What bitter irony that hurls my heart to this prison where I must pray to you, the God of the white race,
those ferocious tyrants who have always insulted us, you are their God. They took away our gods and forced you on us. To whom else can I now pray? I beg you to destroy their system. As the locusts and boils and plagues that beset Egypt did prove your existence to the chosen people, so the yellow fever makes me believe in you. Because Christ chose the cross, he will love the misery you inflict on the whites.

Toussaint goes. Le Clerc hops from pan to pan of water.

LE CLERC
Three thousand men are dead. We lay corpses out in the barracks yards until they can be carried to lime pits.

NAPOLEON
What is this yellow fever?

GHOSTS
appear.

VOICES OF SANTO DOMINGO
The disorder begins in the brain accompanied by fever.

Devouring its victim with burning thirst.

Fiery veins streak the eye.

Mucous secretions surcharge the tongue and take away speech.

When the violence of the disorder approaches the heart, gums blacken.

Sleep, broken by delirium and convulsions, yellowish spots spread.

Lips glaze.

Despair paints itself in the eyes.

Sobs form the only language.

The mouth spreads foam tinged with black and burnt blood.

Death comes on the thirteenth day.

LE CLERC
All remedies are useless.

They go.

Doña Polissena’s laboratory.

DOÑA POLISSENA
(
from behind the curtained bed
)
Yes! Yes! Yes!

DR. T
And at that moment of carnal delight, Mme. Creux has a blinding revelation.

DOÑA POLISSENA
(
opening the bed’s curtain
)
The mosquito!

JACQUES CORNET
(
appearing over her
)
Excuse me?

DOÑA POLISSENA
The mosquito is the cause of yellow fever! Thank you, Jacques. Give me more scientific insights!

Doña Polissena and Jacques Cornet close the bed’s curtain.

DR. T
But no one in science will believe this until October 1900, when Major Walter Reed will announce to the American Public Health Association—

WALTER REED
appears.

WALTER REED
The mosquito serves as the intermediate host for the parasite of yellow fever.

Tumultuous applause. Walter Reed goes.

Doña Athene appears at the window of the lab peering in at the lovers through a spyglass.

DOÑA ATHENE
His amputation a hoax? I will inform Pincepousse of this deception. I will drag Pincepousse back into the plot of this play. He will be the instrument by which I assassinate my assassin, Jacques Cornet.

Doña Athene goes. Le Clerc enters.

LE CLERC
I saw eight scorpions! I lose 160 men a day. My troops flee to the mountains and find the yellow fever waiting for them. The reinforcements you send die as fast as they arrive. Only 4,500 are fit for duty, bringing our total loss to 29,000 Frenchmen. (
hopping even more slowly from pan to pan
) Destroy all mountain blacks! Send shiploads of
rebellious blacks to American ports. Let New Orleans taste Toussaint’s poison! Send these demons out of here!

Le Clerc goes. Ships appear in foggy gloom.

On Mystery Street. Creux enters, Morales following.

CREUX
The demons are here! Look on the horizon.

MORALES
That ship—

CREUX
It comes bearing yellow fever. Yellow fever descends upon New Orleans! We are all in peril.

MORALES
We must rescue what we hold most dear.

CREUX
I suppose my wife. Although—

MORALES
How can we stop them?

CREUX
We could flee.

MORALES
Never! Find Jacques Cornet and his bottomless purse.

Murmur sees them and calls into Jacques.

MURMUR
(
calling in
)
Master? Husband alert! Husband alert!

Jacques Cornet and Doña Polissena open the curtain and dress hurriedly.

DOÑA POLISSENA
Dear God, I am cursed.

JACQUES CORNET
I assume my mask.

Morales and Creux see Murmur.