Noon
`` This is what one may expect from negroes , as the General will leant when he has had enough to do with them . They are all alike . '' This great event in the life of Jacques Dessalines did not delay his proceedings for more than half-an-hour . Noon was but just past , when he led forth his wife from the presence of the priest , mounted her on his own horse before his tent , and sent her forward under the escort of his personal servant , promising to overtake her almost as soon as she should have crossed the river . When she was gone , he sent the word through the negro soldiery , who gathered round him almost to a man , and with the quietness which became their superior force . Jean Francais and Biasson were left with scarcely twenty followers each ; and those few would do nothing . The whites felt themselves powerless amidst the noonday heats , and opposed to threefold numbers : and their officers found that nothing was to be done but to allow them to look on quietly , while Jacques led away his little army , with loud music and a streaming white flag .