CHAPTER XXII
THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS
'Otomie,' I said presently, 'when will they kill us?'
'When the point of light lies within the ring that is painted over yourheart,' she answered.
Now I turned my head from her, and looked at the sunbeam which piercedthe shadow above us like a golden pencil. It rested at my side aboutsix inches from me, and I reckoned that it would lie in the scarletring painted upon my breast within some fifteen minutes. Meanwhile theclamour of battle grew louder and nearer. Shifting myself so far as thecords would allow, I strained my head upwards and saw that the Spaniardshad gained the crest of the pyramid, since the battle now raged upon itsedge, and I have rarely seen so terrible a fight, for the Aztecs foughtwith the fury of despair, thinking little of their own lives if theycould only bring a Spaniard to his death. But for the most part theirrude weapons would not pierce the coats of mail, so that there remainedonly one way to compass their desire, namely, by casting the white menover the edge of the teocalli to be crushed like eggshells upon thepavement two hundred feet below. Thus the fray broke itself up intogroups of foes who rent and tore at each other upon the brink of thepyramid, now and again to vanish down its side, ten or twelve of themtogether. Some of the priests also joined in the fight, thinking less oftheir own deaths than of the desecration of their temples, for I sawone of them, a man of huge strength and stature, seize a Spanish soldierround the middle and leap with him into space. Still, though veryslowly, the Spaniards and Tlascalans forced their way towards the centreof the platform, and as they came the danger of this dreadful end grewless, for the Aztecs must drag them further.
Now the fight drew near to the stone of sacrifice, and all who remainedalive of the Aztecs, perhaps some two hundred and fifty of them, besidesthe priests, ringed themselves round us and it in a circle. Also theouter rim of the sunbeam that fell through the golden funnel, creepingon remorselessly, touched my painted side which it seemed to burn as hotiron might, for alas, I could not command the sun to stand still whilethe battle raged, as did Joshua in the valley of Ajalon. When it touchedme, five priests seized my limbs and head, and the father of them, hewho had conducted me from the palace, clasped his flint knife in bothhands. Now a deathly sickness took me and I shut my eyes dreaming thatall was done, but at that moment I heard a wild-eyed man, the chief ofthe astronomers whom I had noted standing by, call out to the ministerof death:
'Not yet, O priest of Tezeat! If you smite before the sunbeam lies uponthe victim's heart, your gods are doomed and doomed are the people ofAnahuac.'
The priest gnashed his teeth with rage, and glared first at the creepingpoint of light and then over his shoulder at the advancing battle.Slowly the ring of warriors closed in upon us, slowly the golden raycrept up my breast till its outer rim touched the red circle paintedupon my heart. Again the priest heaved up his awful knife, again I shutmy eyes, and again I heard the shrill scream of the astronomer, 'Notyet, not yet, or your gods are doomed!'
Then I heard another sound. It was the voice of Otomie crying for help.
'Save us, Teules; they murder us!' she shrieked in so piercing a notethat it reached the ears of the Spaniards, for one shouted in answerand in the Castilian tongue, 'On, my comrades, on! The dogs do murder ontheir altars!'
Then there was a mighty rush and the defending Aztecs were swept in uponthe altar, lifting the priest of sacrifice from his feet and throwinghim across my body. Thrice that rush came like a rush of the sea, andeach time the stand of the Aztecs weakened. Now their circle was brokenand the swords of the Spaniards flashed up on every side, and now thered ray lay within the ring upon my heart.
'Smite, priest of Tezcat,' screamed the voice of the astronomer; 'smitehome for the glory of your gods!'
With a fearful yell the priest lifted the knife; I saw the goldensunbeam that rested full upon my heart shine on it. Then as it wasdescending I saw the same sunbeam shine upon a yard of steel thatflashed across me and lost itself in the breast of the murderer priest.Down came the great flint knife, but its aim was lost. It struck indeed,but not upon my bosom, though I did not escape it altogether. Full uponthe altar of sacrifice it fell and was shattered there, piercing betweenmy side and that of Otomie, and gashing the flesh of both so that ourblood was mingled upon the stone, making us one indeed. Down too camethe priest across our bodies for the second time, but to rise no more,for he writhed dying on those whom he would have slain.
Then as in a dream I heard the wail of the astronomer singing the dirgeof the gods of Anahuac.
'The priest is dead and his gods are fallen,' he cried. 'Tezcat hasrejected his victim and is fallen; doomed are the gods of Anahuac!Victory is to the Cross of the Christians!'
Thus he wailed, then came the sound of sword blows and I knew that thisprophet was dead also.
Now a strong arm pulled the dying priest from off us, and he staggeredback till he fell over the altar where the eternal fire burned,quenching it with his blood and body after it had flared for manygenerations, and a knife cut the rope that bound us.
I sat up staring round me wildly, and a voice spoke above me inCastilian, not to me indeed but to some comrade.
'These two went near to it, poor devils,' said the voice. 'Had my cutbeen one second later, that savage would have drilled a hole in him asbig as my head. By all the saints! the girl is lovely, or would be ifshe were washed. I shall beg her of Cortes as my prize.'
The voice spoke and I knew the voice. None other ever had that hardclear ring. I knew it even then and looked up, slipping off thedeath-stone as I looked. Now I saw. Before me fully clad in mail was myenemy, de Garcia. It was HIS sword that by the good providence of Godhad pierced the breast of the priest. He had saved me who, had he known,would as soon have turned his steel against his own heart as on that ofmy destroyer.
I gazed at him, wondering if I dreamed, then my lips spoke, without mywill as it were:
'DE GARCIA!'
He staggered back at the sound of my voice, like a man struck by a shot,then stared at me, rubbed his eyes with his hand, and stared again. Nowat length he knew me through my paint.
'Mother of God!' he gasped, 'it is that knave Thomas Wingfield, AND IHAVE SAVED HIS LIFE!'
By this time my senses had come back to me, and knowing all my folly, Iturned seeking escape. But de Garcia had no mind to suffer this. Liftinghis sword, he sprang at me with a beastlike scream of rage and hate.Swiftly as thought I slipped round the stone of sacrifice and after mecame the uplifted sword of my enemy. It would have overtaken me soonenough, for I was weak with fear and fasting, and my limbs were crampedwith bonds, but at that moment a cavalier whom by his dress and portI guessed to be none other than Cortes himself, struck up de Garcia'ssword, saying:
'How now, Sarceda? Are you mad with the lust of blood that you wouldtake to sacrificing victims like an Indian priest? Let the poor devilgo.'
'He is no Indian, he is an English spy,' cried de Garcia, and once morestruggled to get at me.
'Decidedly our friend is mad,' said Cortes, scanning me; 'he says thatthis wretched creature is an Englishman. Come, be off both of you, orsomebody else may make the same mistake,' and he waved his sword intoken to us to go, deeming that I could not understand his words; thenadded angrily, as de Garcia, speechless with rage, made a new attempt toget at me:
'No, by heaven! I will not suffer it. We are Christians and come tosave victims, not to slay them. Here, comrades, hold this fool who wouldstain his soul with murder.'
Now the Spaniards clutched de Garcia by the arms, and he cursed andraved at them, for as I have said, his rage was that of a beast ratherthan of a man. But I stood bewildered, not knowing whither to fly.Fortunate it was for me indeed that one was by who though she understoodno Spanish, yet had a quicker wit. For while I stood thus, Otomieclasped my hand, and whispering, 'Fly, fly swiftly!' led me away fromthe stone of sacrifice.
'Whither shall we go?' I said at length. 'Were it not better to trust tothe mercy of the Spa
niards?'
'To the mercy of that man-devil with the sword?' she answered. 'Peace,Teule, and follow me.'
Now she led me on, and the Spaniards let us by unharmed, ay, and evenspoke words of pity as we passed, for they knew that we were victimssnatched from sacrifice. Indeed, when a certain brute, a TlascalanIndian, rushed at us, purposing to slay us with a club, one of theSpaniards ran him through the shoulder so that he fell wounded to thepavement.
So we went on, and at the edge of the pyramid we glanced back and sawthat de Garcia had broken from those who held him, or perhaps he foundhis tongue and had explained the truth to them. At the least he wasbounding from the altar of sacrifice nearly fifty yards away, and comingtowards us with uplifted sword. Then fear gave us strength, and we fledlike the wind. Along the steep path we rushed side by side, leaping downthe steps and over the hundreds of dead and dying, only pausing now andagain to save ourselves from being smitten into space by the bodiesof the priests whom the Spaniards were hurling from the crest of theteocalli. Once looking up, I caught sight of de Garcia pursuing farabove us, but after that we saw him no more; doubtless he wearied of thechase, or feared to fall into the hands of such of the Aztec warriors asstill clustered round the foot of the pyramid.
We had lived through many dangers that day, the princess Otomie and I,but one more awaited us before ever we found shelter for awhile. Afterwe had reached the foot of the pyramid and turned to mingle with theterrified rabble that surged and flowed through the courtyard of thetemple, bearing away the dead and wounded as the sea at flood reclaimsits waste and wreckage, a noise like thunder caught my ear. I lookedup, for the sound came from above, and saw a huge mass bounding down thesteep side of the pyramid. Even then I knew it again; it was the idol ofthe god Tezcat that the Spaniards had torn from its shrine, and likean avenging demon it rushed straight on to me. Already it was upon us,there was no retreat from instant death, we had but escaped sacrificeto the spirit of the god to be crushed to powder beneath the bulk ofhis marble emblem. On he came while on high the Spaniards shouted intriumph. His base had struck the stone side of the pyramid fifty feetabove us, now he whirled round and round in the air to strike againwithin three paces of where we stood. I felt the solid mountainshake beneath the blow, and next instant the air was filled with hugefragments of marble, that whizzed over us and past us as though a mineof powder had been fired beneath our feet, tearing the rocks from theirbase. The god Tezcat had burst into a score of pieces, and these fellround us like a flight of arrows, and yet we were not touched. My headwas grazed by his head, his feet dug a pit before my feet, but I stoodthere unhurt, the false god had no power over the victim who had escapedhim!
After that I remember nothing till I found myself once more in myapartments in Montezuma's palace, which I never hoped to see again.Otomie was by me, and she brought me water to wash the paint from mybody and the blood from my wound, which, leaving her own untended, shedressed skilfully, for the cut of the priest's knife was deep and I hadbled much. Also she clothed herself afresh in a white robe and broughtme raiment to wear, with food and drink, and I partook of them. Then Ibade her eat something herself, and when she had done so I gathered mywits together and spoke to her.
'What next?' I said. 'Presently the priests will be on us, and we shallbe dragged back to sacrifice. There is no hope for me here, I must flyto the Spaniards and trust to their mercy.'
'To the mercy of that man with the sword? Say, Teule, who is he?'
'He is that Spaniard of whom I have spoken to you, Otomie; he is mymortal enemy whom I have followed across the seas.'
'And now you would put yourself into his power. Truly, you are foolish,Teule.'
'It is better to fall into the hands of Christian men than into those ofyour priests,' I answered.
'Have no fear,' she said; 'the priests are harmless for you. You haveescaped them and there's an end. Few have ever come alive from theirclutches before, and he who does so is a wizard indeed. For the rest Ithink that your God is stronger than our gods, for surely He must havecast His mantle over us when we lay yonder on the stone. Ah! Teule, towhat have you brought me that I should live to doubt my gods, ay, and tocall upon the foes of my country for succour in your need. Believe me, Ihad not done it for my own sake, since I would have died with your kissupon my lips and your word of love echoing in my ears, who now must liveknowing that these joys have passed from me.'
'How so?' I answered. 'What I have said, I have said. Otomie, you wouldhave died with me, and you saved my life by your wit in calling on theSpaniards. Henceforth it is yours, for there is no other woman in theworld so tender and so brave, and I say it again, Otomie, my wife, Ilove you. Our blood has mingled on the stone of sacrifice and therewe kissed; let these be our marriage rites. Perhaps I have not long tolive, but till I die I am yours, Otomie my wife.'
Thus I spoke from the fulness of my heart, for my strength and couragewere shattered, horror and loneliness had taken hold of me. But twothings were left to me in the world, my trust in Providence and the loveof this woman, who had dared so much for me. Therefore I forgot mytroth and clung to her as a child clings to its mother. Doubtless it waswrong, but I will be bold to say that few men so placed would have actedotherwise. Moreover, I could not take back the fateful words that I hadspoken on the stone of sacrifice. When I said them I was expecting deathindeed, but to renounce them now that its shadow was lifted from me, ifonly for a little while, would have been the act of a coward. For goodor evil I had given myself to Montezuma's daughter, and I must abide byit or be shamed. Still such was the nobleness of this Indian lady thateven then she would not take me at my word. For a little while she stoodsmiling sadly and drawing a lock of her long hair through the hollow ofher hand. Then she spoke:
'You are not yourself, Teule, and I should be base indeed if I made sosolemn a compact with one who does not know what he sells. Yonder on thealtar and in a moment of death you said that you loved me, and doubtlessit was true. But now you have come back to life, and say, lord, who setthat golden ring upon your hand and what is written in its circle?Yet even if the words are true that you have spoken and you love me alittle, there is one across the sea whom you love better. That I couldbear, for my heart is fixed on you alone among men, and at the least youwould be kind to me, and I should move in the sunlight of your presence.But having known the light, I cannot live to wander in the darkness. Youdo not understand. I will tell you what I fear. I fear that if--if wewere wed, you would weary of me as men do, and that memory would growtoo strong for you. Then by and by it might be possible for you to findyour way back across the waters to your own land and your own love, andso you would desert me, Teule. This is what I could not bear, Teule.I can forego you now, ay, and remain your friend. But I cannot be putaside like a dancing girl, the companion of a month, I, Montezuma'sdaughter, a lady of my own land. Should you wed me, it must be for mylife, Teule, and that is perhaps more than you would wish to promise,though you could kiss me on yonder stone and there is blood fellowshipbetween us,' and she glanced at the red stain in the linen robe thatcovered the wound upon her side.
'And now, Teule, I leave you a while, that I may find Guatemoc, if hestill lives, and others who, now that the strength of the priests isshattered, have power to protect you and advance you to honour. Thinkthen on all that I have said, and do not be hasty to decide. Or wouldyou make an end at once and fly to the white men if I can find a meansof escape?'
'I am too weary to fly anywhere,' I answered, 'even if I could.Moreover, I forget. My enemy is among the Spaniards, he whom I havesworn to kill, therefore his friends are my foes and his foes myfriends. I will not fly, Otomie.'
'There you are wise,' she said, 'for if you come among the Teules thatman will murder you; by fair means or foul he will murder you within aday, I saw it in his eyes. Now rest while I seek your safety, if thereis any safety in this blood-stained land.'