CHAPTER VII.
IN THE LEAGUER YET.
Guatamozin took little rest that night. The very uncertainty of thecombat multiplied his cares. It was not to be supposed that his enemywould keep to the palace, content day after day with receiving assaults;that was neither his character nor his policy. To-morrow he wouldcertainly open the gates, and try conclusions in the streets The firstduty, therefore, was to provide for such a contingency. So the 'tzinwent along all the streets leading to the old palace, followed by strongworking-parties; and where the highest houses fronted each other, hestopped, and thereat the details fell to making barricades, and carryingstones and logs to the roofs. As a final measure of importance, he cutpassages through the walls of the houses and gardens, that companiesmight be passed quickly and secretly from one thoroughfare to another.
Everywhere he found great cause for mourning; but the stories of the daywere necessarily lost in the demands of the morrow.
He visited his caciques, and waited on the lord Cuitlahua to take hisorders; then he passed to the temples, whence, as he well knew, themultitudes in great part derived their inspiration. The duties of thesoldier, politician, and devotee discharged, he betook himself to the_chinampa_, and to Tula told the heroisms of the combat, and his plansand hopes; there he renewed his own inspirations.
Toward morning he returned to the great temple. Hualpa and Io', havingfollowed him throughout his round, spread their mantles on the roof, andslept: he could not; between the work of yesterday and that to come, hismind played pendulously, and with such forceful activity as forbadeslumber. From the quarters of the strangers, moreover, he heardconstantly the ringing of hammers, the neighing and trampling of steeds,and voices of direction. It was a long night to him; but at last overthe crown of the White Woman the dawn flung its first light into thevalley; and then he saw the palace, its walls manned, the gunners bytheir pieces, and in the great court lines of footmen, and at the maingate horsemen standing by their bridles.
"Thanks, O gods!" he cried. "Walls will not separate my people fromtheir enemies to-day!"
With the sunrise the assault began,--a repetition of that of the daybefore.
Then the guns opened; and while the infidels reeled under the fire, outof the gates rode Cortes and his chivalry, a hundred men-at-arms. Intothe mass they dashed. Space sufficient having been won, they wheeledsouthward down the beautiful street, followed by detachments of bowmenand arquebusiers and Tlascalans. With them also went Mesa and his guns.
When fairly in the street, environed with walls, the 'tzin's tactics andpreparation appeared. Upon the approach of the cavalry, the companiestook to the houses; only those fell who stopped to fight or had not timeto make the exit. All the time, however, the horsemen were exposed tothe missiles tossed upon them from the roofs. Soon as they passed, outrushed the infidels in hordes, to fall upon the flanks and rear of thesupporting detachments. Never was Mesa so hard pressed; never were helmand corselet so nearly useless; never gave up the ghost so many of theveteran Tlascalans.
At length the easy way of the cavalry was brought to a stop; before themwas the first barricade,--a work of earth and stones too high to beleaped, and defended by Chinantlan spears, of all native weapons themost dreaded. Nevertheless, Cortes drew rein only at its foot. On theinstant his shield and mail warded off a score of bronzed points,whirled his axe, crash went the spears,--that was all.
Meantime, the eager horsemen in the rear, not knowing of the obstacle infront, pressed on; the narrow space became packed; then from the roofson the right hand and the left descended a tempest of stones and lances,blent with beams of wood, against which no guard was strong enough. Sixmen and horses fell there. A cry of dismay arose from the pack, and muchcalling was there on patron saints, much writhing and swaying of menand plunging of steeds, and vain looking upward through bars of steel.Cortes quitted smashing spears over the barricade.
"Out! out! Back, in Christ's name!" he cried.
The jam was finally relieved.
Again his voice,--
"To Mesa, some of ye; bring the guns! Speed!"
Then he, too, rode slowly back; and sharper than the shame of theretreat, sharper than the arrows or the taunts of the foe, sharper thanall of them together, was the sight of the six riders in their armorleft to quick despoilment,--they and their good steeds.
It was not easy for Mesa to come; but he did, opening within a hundredfeet of the barricade. Again and again he fired; the smoke wreathedblinding white about him.
"What sayest thou now?" asked Cortes, impatiently.
"That thou mayest go, and thou wilt. The saints go with thee!"
The barricade was a ruin.
At the first bridge again there was a fierce struggle; when taken, thefloor was heaped with dead and wounded infidels.
And so for hours. Only at the last gate, that opening on the causeway toIztapalapan, did Cortes stay the sally. There, riding to the rear, nowbecome the front, he started in return. Needless to tell how well theChristians fought, or how devotedly the pagans resisted and perished.Enough that the going back was more difficult than the coming. Four moreof the Spaniards perished on the way.
At a late hour that night Sandoval entered Cortes' room, and gave him aparchment. The chief went to the lamp and read; then, snatching hissword from the table, he walked to and fro, as was his wont when muchdisturbed; only his strides were longer, and the gride of the weapon onthe tiled floor more relentless than common.
He stopped abruptly.
"Dead, ten of them! And their horses, captain?"
"Three were saved," replied Sandoval.
"By my conscience, I like it not! and thou?"
"I like it less," said the captain, naively.
"What say the men?"
"They demand to be led from the city while yet they have strength togo."
Cortes frowned and continued his walk. When next he stopped, he said, inthe tone of a man whose mind was made up,--
"Good night, captain. See that the sentinels sleep not; and, captain, asthou goest, send hither Martin Lopez, and mind him to bring one or twoof his master carpenters. Good night."
The mind of the leader, never so quick as in time of trouble, had in thefew minutes reviewed the sortie. True, he had broken through thebarricades, taken bridge after bridge, and driven the enemy often asthey opposed him; he had gone triumphantly to the very gates of thecity, and returned, and joined Olmedo in unctuous celebration of theachievement; yet the good was not as clear and immediate as at firstappeared.
He recalled the tactics of his enemy: how, on his approach, they hadvanished from the street and assailed him from the roofs; how, when hehad passed, they poured into the street again, and flung themselves handto hand upon the infantry and artillery. And the result,--ten riders andseven horses were dead; of the Tlascalans in the column nearly all hadperished; every Christian foot-soldier had one or more wounds. AtCempoalla he himself had been hurt in the left hand; now he was sorewith contusions. He set his teeth hard at thought of the moral effect ofthe day's work; how it would raise the spirit of the infidels, anddepress that of his own people. Already the latter were clamoring to beled from the city,--so the blunt Captain Sandoval had said.
The enemy's advantage was in the possession of the houses. Theroofs dominated the streets. Were there no means by which he coulddominate the roofs? He bent his whole soul to the problem. Somewherehe had read or heard of the device known in ancient warfare as_mantelets_,--literally, a kind of portable roof, under which besiegersapproached and sapped or battered a wall. The recollection was welcome;the occasion called for an extraordinary resort. He laid the swordgently upon the table, gently as he would a sleeping child, and sent forLopez.
That worthy came, and with him two carpenters, each as rough as himself.And it was a picture, if not a comedy, to watch the four bending overthe table to follow Cortes, while, with his dagger-point, he drew linesillustrative of the strange mach
ine. They separated with a perfectunderstanding. The chief slept soundly, his confidence stronger thanever.
Another day,--the third. From morn till noon and night, the clamor ofassault and the exertion of defence, the roar of guns from within, therain of missiles from without,--Death everywhere.
All the day Cortes held to the palace. On the other side, the 'tzin keptclose watch from the _teocallis_. That morning early he had seen workmenbring from the palace some stout timbers, and in the great court-yardproceed to frame them. He plied the party with stones and arrows; againand again, best of all the good bowmen of the valley, he himself senthis shafts at the man who seemed the director of the work; as often didthey splinter upon his helm or corselet, or drop harmless from the closelinks of tempered steel defending his limbs. The work went steadily on,and by noon had taken the form of towers, two in number, and high asordinary houses. By sunset both were under roof.
CORTES DREW REIN ONLY AT ITS FOOT]
When the night came, the garrison were not rested; and as to theinfidels, the lake received some hundreds more of them, which was onlyroom made for other hundreds as brave and devoted.
Over the palace walls the besiegers sent words ominous and disquieting,and not to be confounded with the half-sung formulas of the watcherskeeping time on the temples by the movement of the stars.
"Malinche, Malinche, we are a thousand to your one. Our gods hunger forvengeance. You cannot escape them."
So the Spaniards heard in their intervals of unrest.
"O false sons of Anahuac, the festival is making ready; your hearts areHuitzil's; the cages are open to receive you."
The Tlascalans heard, and trembled.
The fourth day. Still Cortes kept within the palace, and still theassault; nor with all the slaughter could there be perceived anydecrease either in the number of the infidels or the spirit of theirattack.
Meantime the workmen in the court-yard clung to the construction of thetowers. Lopez was skilful, Cortes impatient. At last they were finished.
That night the 'tzin visited Tula. At parting, she followed him to thelanding. Yeteve went with her. "The blessing of the gods be upon you!"she said; and the benediction, so trustful and sweetly spoken, wasitself a blessing. Even the slaves, under their poised oars, looked ather and forgot themselves, as well they might. The light of the greattorch, kindled by the keeper of the _chinampa_, revealed her perfectly.The head slightly bent, and the hands crossed over the breast, helpedthe prayerful speech. Her eyes were not upon the slaves, yet theireffect was; and they were such eyes as give to night the beauty ofstars, while taking nothing from it, neither depth nor darkness.
The canoe put off.
"Farewell," said Io'. His warrior-life was yet in its youth.
"Farewell," said Hualpa. And she heard him, and knew him thinking of hislost love.
In the 'tzin's absence the garrison of the temple had been heavilyreinforced. The _azoteas_, when he returned, was covered with warriors,asleep on their mantles, and pillowed on their shields. He bade hiscompanions catch what slumber they could, and went into the grimy butfull-lighted presence-chamber, and seated himself on the step of thealtar. In a little while Hualpa came in, and stopped before him as iffor speech.
"You have somewhat to say," said the 'tzin, kindly. "Speak."
"A word, good 'tzin, a single word. Io' lies upon his mantle; he isweary, and sleeps well. I am weary, but cannot sleep. I suffer--"
"What?" asked the 'tzin.
"Discontent."
"Discontent!"
"O 'tzin, to follow you and win your praise has been my greatesthappiness; but as yet I have done nothing by myself. I pray you, give meliberty to go where I please, if only for a day."
"Where would you go?"
"Where so many have tried and failed,--over the wall, into the palace."
There was a long silence, during which the supplicant looked on thefloor, and the master at him.
"I think I understand you," the latter at length said. "To-morrow I willgive you answer. Go now."
Hualpa touched the floor with his palm, and left the chamber. The 'tzinremained thoughtful, motionless. An hour passed.
"Over the wall, into the palace!" he said, musingly. "Not for country,not for glory,--for Nenetzin. Alas, poor lad! From his life she hastaken the life. Over the wall into the--Sun. To-morrow comes swiftly;good or ill, the gifts it brings are from the gods. Patience!"
And upon the step he spread his mantle, and slept, muttering, "Over thewall, into the palace, and she has not called him! Poor lad!"