CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
THE PLAIN OF HUAJAPAM.
It was a morning of June, just before the commencement of the rainyseason--at that period of the day and year when the tropic sun ofSouthern Mexico is least endurable. His fervid rays, strikingperpendicularly downward, had heated like smouldering ashes the dustyplain of Huajapam, which lay like a vast amphitheatre surrounded byhills--so distant that their blue outlines were almost confounded withthe azure sky above them. On this plain was presented a tableau ofsadness and desolation, such as the destructive genius of man oftencomposes with demoniac skill.
On one side, as far as the eye could reach, horsemen could be seenhurrying about the plain in the midst of pillaged houses--some of whichhad been given to the flames. Under the hoofs of these horses, as theydashed recklessly to and fro, were crushed rich treasures that had beensacked from the deserted dwellings, and now lay scattered upon theground, tempting only the hand of the thievish camp-follower. The soil,defiled in every way, presented only a scanty growth of bruised herbage,upon which the horseman disdained to pasture his steed.
Here and there groups of black vultures told where some dead body ofhorse or rider had been abandoned to their voracity; while the _coyotes_trotted in troops far out from the mountain ridge, going to or returningfrom their hideous repast.
Looking over the plain in another direction, the standard of Spain couldbe seen floating over the tents of the royalist camp, whose night-firesstill sent up their lines of bluish smoke; while from the same quartercould be heard the neighing of horses, the rolling of drums, and thestartling calls of the cavalry bugles.
Farther off in the same direction--above the low, flat-shaped _azoteas_of a village--could be seen the domes and belfries of several churches,all breached with bombs or riddled with round shot. This village lay atthe distance of a few hundred yards from the lines of the royalist camp,and was evidently besieged by the latter. Rude earthworks could beperceived extending between the scattered suburbs, upon which a fewpieces of cannon were mounted, and pointing towards the entrenchments ofthe Spanish encampment. Between the hostile lines the plain wasunoccupied, save by the dead bodies of men and horses that lay unburiedon the dusty surface of the soil.
The village in question--or town it might rather be called--was thefamous Huajapam, that now for more than three months had been defendedby a body of three hundred insurgents against a royalist force of fivetimes their number! The heroic leader of this gallant resistance wasColonel Don Valerio Trujano.
At mention of this name the reader will call to mind the noble muleteerTrujano, whose firm voice he has heard intoning the _De profundis_ and_In manus_ while struggling against the inundation. Beyond a doubt hisreligious zeal had inspired the besieged of Huajapam: for, every now andthen, from out the sad and desolate town may be heard the voices of hismen, chanting in chorus some sacred song or prayer to the God ofbattles!
In that moment when the priests of Huajapam have left the altar to takepart in the defence of their town, there will be observed, neither intheir acts nor words, aught to recall their former profession. At sucha time Don Valerio Trujano may be said to reproduce one of those asceticheroes of the old religious wars--great repeaters of _paternosters_,whose blows always fell without mercy, and who marched into battlereciting quotations from Scripture. Perhaps he might be more happilylikened to one of the old Templars, careless of personal renown,kneeling to pray in front of the foe, and charging upon the Saracen tothe accompaniment of that famous psalm, "Quare fremuerunt gentes?"
Such was the appearance which the plain of Huajapam presented on themorning in question: houses smoking and in ruins--dead bodies scatteredover the ground--vultures wheeling above--the royalist banner face toface with the banner of the insurrection.
We shall first enter the camp of the besiegers, where the BrigadierBonavia, governor of Oajaca, held command--assisted by the Spanishgenerals, Caldelas and Regules.
At an early hour of the morning two dragoons, who had been scouring thedistant plain, were seen returning to the lines of the encampment,conducting with them a third horseman, evidently a stranger to the camp.This was on the side, opposite to that on which lay the town ofHuajapam. The horseman, guided by these dragoons, was costumed as avaquero--that is, he wore a jacket and wide calzoneros of brick-coloureddeerskin, with a huge sombrero of black glaze on his head, and aspeckled blanket folded over the croup of his saddle. He had alreadyreported himself to the dragoons as the bearer of a message to thecolonel--Don Rafael Tres-Villas. Furthermore, in addition to the horseon which he rode, he was leading another--a noble steed of a bay-browncolour.
This animal, startled at the sight and smell of the dead bodies amongwhich they were passing, gave out from time to time a snorting of apeculiar character, which had drawn the attention of the dragoons.
These, after conducting the vaquero through a portion of the camp,halted in front of one of the largest tents. There a groom was saddlinganother steed, in strength and beauty but little inferior to that led bythe vaquero. It was the war-horse of Colonel Tres-Villas, of whom thegroom in question was the _assistente_.
"What is your name, _amigo_?" demanded the latter, addressing himself tothe vaquero.
"Julian," replied the stranger. "I am one of the servitors of thehacienda Del Valle. Colonel Tres-Villas is its proprietor, and I have amessage for him of great importance."
"Very well," responded the other, "I shall tell the Colonel you arehere."
So saying, the _assistente_ entered the tent.
On that day the besieging army was about to make the fifteenth attackupon the town, defended by Colonel Trujano, and Don Rafael was dressinghimself in full uniform to assist at the council of war, called togetherto deliberate on the plan of assault.
At the word "messenger" pronounced by his military servant, a slighttrembling was seen to agitate the frame of Colonel Tres-Villas, whilehis countenance became suddenly overspread with pallor.
"Very well," stammered he, after a moment's hesitation, and in a voicethat betrayed emotion. "I know the messenger; you may leave him free; Ishall answer for him. Presently let him come him in."
The _assistente_ stepped out of the tent and delivered this response ofthe Colonel. The dragoons rode off, leaving the vaquero free tocommunicate to his master the message of which he was the bearer.
It is here necessary for us to detail some portion of the history of DonRafael, from the time when he took his departure at full gallop from thehacienda Del Valle, up to that hour when we again encounter him in theroyalist camp before Huajapam.
When the first shock of grief, caused by the murder of his father--whenthat terrible struggle betwixt love and duty, had passed, and his spiritbecome a little calmer--the only line of conduct that appeared possiblefor him, was to repair at once to Oajaca; and, having found itsgovernor, Don Bernardino Bonavia, obtain from him a detachment oftroops, with which he might return and punish the insurgent assassins.
Unfortunately for Don Rafael, notwithstanding the distinguishedreception accorded to him by the governor, the latter could not place athis disposal a single soldier. The province was already in such a stateof fermentation, that all the men under his command were required tokeep in check the revolt that threatened to break out in the provincialcapital itself. Don Rafael therefore could not prevail upon thegovernor to enfeeble the garrison of Oajaca, by detaching any portion ofit on so distant a service as an expedition to the hacienda Del Valle.
While negotiating, however, word reached him of a royalist corps thatwas being raised at no great distance from Oajaca, by a Spanish officer,Don Juan Antonio Caldelas. Don Rafael, urged on by a thirst forvengeance, hastened to join the band of Caldelas, who on his part atonce agreed to place his handful of men at the disposal of the dragooncaptain for the pursuit of Valdez. Of course Caldelas had himself nopersonal animosity against the insurgent leader; but believing that thedestruction of his band would crush the insurrection in the province, hewas the
more ready to co-operate with Don Rafael.
Both together marched against Valdez, and encountered him and hisfollowers at the _cerro_ of Chacahua, where the ex-vaquero hadentrenched himself. An action was fought, which resulted in Valdezbeing driven from his entrenchments, but without Don Rafael being ableto possess himself of his person, a thing he desired even more than avictory over his band.
A fortnight was spent in vain searches, and still the guerilla chiefcontinued to escape the vengeance of his unrelenting pursuer. At theend of that period, however, the insurgents were once more tempted totry a battle with the followers of Don Rafael and Caldelas. It proved asanguinary action, in which the royalists were victorious. Thescattered followers of Valdez, when reunited at the rendezvous agreedupon in the event of their being defeated, perceived that their leaderwas missing from among them.
Alive they never saw him again. His dead body was found some distancefrom the field of battle, and around it the traces of a struggle whichhad ended in his death. The body was headless, but the head wasafterwards discovered, nailed to the gate of the hacienda Del Valle,with the features so disfigured that his most devoted adherents wouldnot have recognised them but for an inscription underneath. It was thename of the insurgent, with that of the man who had beheaded him, DonRafael Tres-Villas.
Valdez had fled from the field after the defeat of his followers.Before proceeding far, he heard behind him the hoarse snorting of asteed. It was the bay-brown of Don Rafael.
In a few bounds the insurgent was overtaken. A short struggle tookplace between the two horsemen; but the ex-vaquero, notwithstanding hisequestrian skill, was seized in the powerful grasp of the dragoonofficer, lifted clear out of his saddle, and dashed with violence to theearth. Before he could recover himself, the lasso of Don Rafael--equally skilled in the use of this singular weapon--was coiled aroundhim; and his body, after being dragged for some distance at the tail ofthe officer's horse, lay lifeless and mutilated along the ground. Suchwas the end of Antonio Valdez.