116 B LIFr OF

the chief of the armed force of the district is authorized
his troops in movement to put down the said meetings; he
begin with mild measures, and then employ severity, if
fored to it. 4
 Article 4. The greatest vigilance shall be observed to
the disturbers of the public peace, and against secret disorgi
izers; the proprietors shall be protected, and their property sla
be respected. The national armed police shall be in permanea
activity in the interior, and those who shall be denounced f
any crime against order and satiety shall be apprehended aj
tried by a council of war, and punished according to the lawj
 This manifesto, the spirit of which is ( enr worse than
logic and its grammar, served only to show how undone Riga*4
was, and how necessary that all who had any regard for theq
selves or the public good should abandon the det-perate gladj
tor. His bands, however, were unwilling to yield. BIoa
therefore, flowed in streams. The old men of the South as
said still to shudder when thby think of that condi,.t, whbi
they designate "the war of the knife," thus showing to wbq
extreme means the combatants rf-sorted in their deadly hatrl
and murderous strife. The proclamation was scarcely anyt ii
more than the half-articulate words of a man who was stagger
ing to his faIL Two more serious conflicts tried, and lost, aqj
Rigaud's star went down below the horizon..
 While, during the we,-ks and months of a long year, thM
 frightful a enes of mutual carnage had been (.rvering one oft
 finest parts ot Hayti with corpse,- and ruini, the Directoryjj
 the mother country, too much occupit-d with its own divisi
 and party interests, gave no attention to the distracted coloui
 A change was at hand. Bonaparte, hastening from Egyj
 overturned the Directory, and snatched the reins of power
 Having taken his seat, he called around him (Dec. 2, 179Q
 those who were thought to be conversant with the condition
 the colony, in order to discuss the means of restoring peace wit
 its borders. The representatives of Tuiaint and of' B
 were alike heard. Shortly after, a decree was issued, by wj