194     PRESENT STATE OF HAYTI, ETC.   [cHAP. VII
rity with which he moved from one point of his
command to another, astonished even his enemies.
He was vain, capricious, and fond of flattery;
and those who were most forward to compliment
him for his exterior embellishments, to which he
was exceedingly attentive, were certain of being
admitted into his favour. His last wife, for he had
been twice married, is now living in Port au Prince
in retirement, and with a very small income. She
is quite neglected by the present government, to its
disgrace, as she had often been the means of staying
the bloody hand of her husband, when he was about
to sign an order for the indiscriminate execution of
the whites and mulattoes. She bears the marks of
a negress who at one time was extremely handsome,
and her exterior must have been commanding : she
is rather above the middle size of females, but not
too tall, nor yet too large in proportion. The white
inhabitants of Port au Prince, and particularly
strangers who occasionally visit it, never fail to at-
tempt to obtain a sight of her, as her name and
her character excite a great deal of interest, and
surely entitle her to the best support of the existing
government, which boasts—and it is only an empty
boast—of being generous to those who have rendered
the country a service.