The Haitian Trilogy: Plays: Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours, and The Haytian Earth (31 page)

I wish you were in France.

It would be simpler.

(
LECLERC
turns his head aside to sleep.
PAULINE
watches him. Her face. She rises, takes up the basin. She goes to the window. She closes the window carefully. She exits behind a screen.
)

Scene 2

Another part of the hospital.
ANTON
,
asleep.
PAULINE
enters the room. She agitates her loosened bodice gently and blows down the cleft of her bosom. She passes the damp cloth gently over her breast, then she shuts the door.

LECLERC’S VOICE

… to the first consul, etc., etc., from Commander … (
cough
) Commander in Chief, Army of Saint Domingue … etc., etc.… and the date … what is the date?

ANOTHER VOICE

… bruary ninth … eighteen nought two …

LECLERC’S VOICE

… nought two … I have great need of reinforcements. You must … (
cough
) … see how … (
cough
) … give me some water … (
Images. The hospital. A
SOLDIER
in the gamboge dusk, looking out.
) I have already six hundred sick, the majority of my troops having embarked five months ago. Above all, count on my devotion … I shall prove to France that you have made a good choice … I need more men … (
Images.
PAULINE
over the
SOLDIER
.
Watching. He is gasping for breath.
) … three months before our arrival … Moise had sought to supplant Toussaint, and to do this, he had begun the massacre of six hundred to seven hundred white … (
cough
) … Toussaint had him shot and has rid us of him … I have already more than one thousand, two hundred men in hospital, but I myself … (
cough
), am in excellent health … (
A
SURGEON
joins
PAULINE
.
She goes to a window. The young
SOLDIER
’s face.
) … (
cough
) … the rainy season has arrived … Your sister remains as devoted and as true as ever to me, her hus … band (
cough
). Your devoted brother-in-law and general of the armies … You will have to sign for me … I cannot manage even a pen … Victor-Emmanuel.

SURGEON

Madame Leclerc, we must go.

We are moving this hospital.

The fever is worse here.

Anton Calixte just died.

(
PAULINE
walking. She sees a black, half-naked
CHILD
and bends to it. She brings the
CHILD
to her caressingly. The army
SURGEON
emerges.
PAULINE
looks up. The
SURGEON
nods.
PAULINE
resumes playing quietly with the
CHILD
.)

PAULINE

What is your name, eh?
Nom-ous? Ton nom?

(
The
CHILD
,
bewildered, doesn’t answer. The bugle blowing. Fade-out.
)

Scene 3

An army camp.
DESSALINES, CHRISTOPHE. THREE PRISONERS
,
stripped, are waiting.
TOUSSAINT
crosses to the
PRISONERS
.
He looks them over rapidly, his face a cold fury, then taps one on the chest.

TOUSSAINT

You remember my orders?

Ous save ça ous fait?

Ous songer mes ordres?

You know what you did?

(
PRISONER
spits.
TOUSSAINT
turns to him.
)

It amuses me. Tell my why you spat, comrade?

PRISONER
(
Spitting.
)

You would not know me.

I’m a nigger. I fought the French with you.

Now look at this. Look at you.

You are a busy man, General.

(
TOUSSAINT
looks him up and down.
)

TOUSSAINT

Pity. You are a good Haitian.

Bad soldier. You had your orders.

And this spitting business.
Pas bon.

Continue! Shoot them!

(
The
PRISONERS
are taken away. Orders ring out. The
PRISONERS
are shot.
)

… and we made this agreement with the French; I have made it, if you want, for the good of this new country, but that, not even that, is the business of this army. You disobeyed orders, you fought these dragoons when I ordered a cease-fire. Those men behind me there, those French dragoons, are our brother soldiers now, because I, yes I,
moi,
Toussaint, made this agreement with General Leclerc … (
MOISE
,
in full dress but bareheaded, in the evening drizzle, in front of the brigade.
) But General Moise decided that he would disobey. Who here does not know that Moise is my own nephew? But I do not love him more than I love this country … I have nothing to ask Moise. But I have something to ask of you. You will show these French dragoons what Haitian soldiers are … (
Silence.
) You will step forward, all of you, to a man, with your guns loaded, reversed, and you will shoot yourselves. Reverse arms! One step forward, march! Prepare to fire! (
The ranks of
SOLDIERS
have stepped past
MOISE. TOUSSAINT
’s voice, hoarsely.
) Fire! (
The
SOLDIERS
fall. Silence.
MOISE
steps forward, looks
TOUSSAINT
in the eyes, removes his pistol.
)

MOISE

I can shoot myself.

(
He shoots himself.
)

TOUSSAINT

Forward, march!

(
The army moves on.
)

(
Fade-out.
)

Scene 4

Exterior. Night. Le Cap: partially ruined buildings.
POMPEY
hitches his mule in the street, outside the decaying façade of a pension. He looks towards the windows. A half-naked
WHORE
screams at him and slams the jalousies.

WHORE

Maquereau!

(
Laughter within.
POMPEY
enters the salon. Dancing.
SOLDIERS
,
some white,
WHORES. POMPEY
inquires. He climbs a stair cautiously, knocks at a door. A
FRENCH GRENADIER
opens it. He is finishing dressing.
)

GRENADIER

Take your time, citizen.

(
Over his shoulder to
YETTE
in the bed beyond him.
)

I didn’t know you took niggers, too, empress.

(
He salutes
POMPEY
,
exits.
YETTE
lies in bed. Jaded. Smoking. Silence. She turns her head away.
)

POMPEY

Reviens, chérie, reviens.
I beg you.

It have nothing here for you, Yette.

I don’t care how they mash you up.

I know it is the war. I know it is all these people.

Listen, they do not know you like I know you.

(
YETTE
’s face. She rises, sits up on the bed.
)

YETTE

I’m no good for you. This is where I belong.

POMPEY

You know how long I looking for you, Yette? Three months.

And listen. The government, they give me in charge, me …

Me. This big house. They make me responsible,

Me, stupid Pompey that you use to laugh at “little boy.”

Are you not tired, eh, Yette, my Yette? Don’t this life make

You old? So come with me. You want me on my knees inside this place?

I will kneel down. You want me to make jokes?

I will make jokes. The land is a hard mother, but it can

Make more children.

(
YETTE
lies back in bed, her face in the pillows.
)

                                      Well, laugh,
non?

YETTE

I leave you. Why you want me for?

A whore is all I can do. I hate the earth.

I hate the Haitian earth. Why? Tell me.

POMPEY

Why I want you? Because I want to see you with your arms brown and shining picking the corn that will die if you do not come. I want to hear you laughing like the water when you washing the two clothes we have. Because it is the time of peace. The war will finish. The white soldiers who have money, they will go home. Then where you will go? It will have no more soldiers. I will walk by the mule I have outside one thousand hundred miles, and we will reach to the old house. And the high bed there, Yette, and the wind that coming from the mountains where you belong, so say yes, Yette. Or don’t say yes, just even shake your head, a little so, and we will go. Now. Or in a little while. But you and I, we is Haiti, Yette.

YETTE
(
In tears, nodding.
)

I have a few little things I have to get. But yes.

Yes,
Ti-moune.
I will come.

POMPEY

Our house.
Merci, Bon Dieu.

(
YETTE
dresses. They exit into the streets.
)

Scene 5

GENERAL LECLERC
at the window.

LECLERC

After he’s dead let them fight over him,

Christophe the waiter, Dessalines the madman,

Those two black buzzards circling his carcass.

Scene 6

A camp. Shacks.
SOLDIERS
.

Interior. Night. A tent.

DESSALINES
(
Shouting.
)

We did what we had to do. That is all!

C’est tout, Henri. Fini!
I want to hear nothing.

We sold him to the Frenchmen. I don’t want to hear.

CHRISTOPHE

Well, you goddamn will hear!

DESSALINES

                                                    
Qui qualité jurer ça?

Goddamn. You will goddamn well hear!
Gadez,

Me.
Nègre.
African. Not Eeenglesh.
Comprend?

I don’t got to goddamn well hear nothing, gentlemen.

I got to goddamn eat.

(
CHRISTOPHE
lunges, turns him around.
DESSALINES
pauses, disentangles himself.
)

You cannot be serious.

CHRISTOPHE

                                         To feel it. That is all.

To feel it. What we did him. You and me!

Remorse! Jean Jacques.

DESSALINES

                                         Remorse …
bien.
All right.

Why did you sell him to Leclerc?

CHRISTOPHE
(
Hoarsely, wearily
)

For peace. I sold him, as you put it, monsieur,

So that at least this country could have peace,

Because my hand is weak from massacre,

Because I cannot remember the last time I have seen

An ordinary man, a man without a wound.

Give him some honour.

DESSALINES

                                          Honour?

CHRISTOPHE

Yes!

DESSALINES

Do you remember when he turned on that same nigger that gave him his command “The Brigadier” Biassou? That was after he joined the Spanish. You remember Moise? And how he loved Calixte? That was when he was for a king. We went with him, right? And then he turned against the Spanish, and we turn with him? So what is all this shit about dishonour?

CHRISTOPHE

Talk quietly. The officers will hear.

DESSALINES

I will speak quietly,
compère,
and now let me tell you what I remember: I remember Moise, his own nephew that he commanded to execute himself. I remember that smart little monkey of a coachman betraying his own country,
his own country,
to the Spanish, without a reason, none. I remember when you came up to his camp and he had packed his bag of monkey tricks and jumped over the border, to come back fighting his own people, for another set of whites, and if you and me had asked him, he would have said what you said: “I did it for the sake of peace.” So I do not give a particular fuck what the French do with him, whether Bonaparte puts him in a cage in his public gardens for little blond French children to throw bananas at. (
Pause. The two watch each other.
)

Look, we have done it, we have a whole country to rule now, we begin again by betraying the French, after this! We divide it according to the campaigns. You are a general. Let us go back to work. Have a bad night. Have bad dreams if you want, but tomorrow: work.

(
They exit.
)

Scene 7

Aboard ship. A cabin. Dusk.
TOUSSAINT, LECLERC
,
others.

LECLERC

This letter is from my Emperor, who is now yours also.

(
He reads.
)

As regards the return of the blacks to the old regime, the bloody struggle out of which you have just come victorious with glory commands us to use the utmost caution … For some time yet vigilance, order, a discipline at once rural and military, must take the place of the positive and pronounced slavery of the coloured people of your colony. Especially the master’s good usage must reattach them to his rule. When they shall have felt by comparison the difference between a usurping and tyrannical yoke
—And I think he means yours, Excellency—
And that of the legitimate proprietor interested in their preservation
—By which he means himself of course—
then the moment will have arrived for making them return to their original condition
—Naturally he means slavery—
from which it was so disastrous to draw them.
So then are my orders clear?