CHAPTER XXVI
THE CROWNING OF GUATEMOC
Our business with the people of the Otomie being ended for a while, wereturned to the city of Tenoctitlan, which we reached safely, havingbeen absent a month and a day. It was but a little time, and yet longenough for fresh sorrows to have fallen on that most unhappy town. Fornow the Almighty had added to the burdens which were laid upon her. Shehad tasted of death by the sword of the white man, now death was withher in another shape. For the Spaniard had brought the foul sicknessesof Europe with him, and small-pox raged throughout the land. Day by daythousands perished of it, for these ignorant people treated the plagueby pouring cold water upon the bodies of those smitten, driving thefever inwards to the vitals, so that within two days the most of themdied.* It was pitiful to see them maddened with suffering, as theywandered to and fro about the streets, spreading the distemper far andwide. They were dying in the houses, they lay dead by companies in themarket places awaiting burial, for the sickness took its toll ofevery family, the very priests were smitten by it at the altar as theysacrificed children to appease the anger of the gods. But the worst isstill to tell; Cuitlahua, the emperor, was struck down by the illness,and when we reached the city he lay dying. Still, he desired to see us,and sent commands that we should be brought to his bedside. In vain didI pray Otomie not to obey; she, who was without fear, laughed at me,saying, 'What, my husband, shall I shrink from that which you must face?Come, let us go and make report of our mission. If the sickness takes meand I die, it will be because my hour has come.'
* This treatment is followed among the Indians of Mexico to this day, but if the writer may believe what he heard in that country, the patient is frequently cured by it.
So we went and were ushered into a chamber where Cuitlahua lay coveredby a sheet, as though he were already dead, and with incense burninground him in golden censers. When we entered he was in a stupor, butpresently he awoke, and it was announced to him that we waited.
'Welcome, niece,' he said, speaking through the sheet and in a thickvoice; 'you find me in an evil case, for my days are numbered, thepestilence of the Teules slays those whom their swords spared. Soonanother monarch must take my throne, as I took your father's, and I donot altogether grieve, for on him will rest the glory and the burdenof the last fight of the Aztecs. Your report, niece; let me hear itswiftly. What say the clans of the Otomie, your vassals?'
'My lord,' Otomie answered, speaking humbly and with bowed head, 'maythis distemper leave you, and may you live to reign over us for manyyears! My lord, my husband Teule and I have won back the most part ofthe people of the Otomie to our cause and standard. An army of twentythousand mountain men waits upon your word, and when those are spentthere are more to follow.'
'Well done, daughter of Montezuma, and you, white man,' gasped the dyingking. 'The gods were wise when they refused you both upon the stone ofsacrifice, and I was foolish when I would have slain you, Teule. To youand all I say be of a steadfast heart, and if you must die, then diewith honour. The fray draws on, but I shall not share it, and who knowsits end?'
Now he lay silent for a while, then of a sudden, as though aninspiration had seized him, he cast the sheet from his face and sat uponhis couch, no pleasant sight to see, for the pestilence had done itsworst with him.
'Alas!' he wailed, 'and alas! I see the streets of Tenoctitlan red withblood and fire, I see her dead piled up in heaps, and the horses of theTeules trample them. I see the Spirit of my people, and her voice issighing and her neck is heavy with chains. The children are visitedbecause of the evil of the fathers. Ye are doomed, people of Anahuac,whom I would have nurtured as an eagle nurtures her young. Hell yawnsfor you and Earth refuses you because of your sins, and the remnantthat remains shall be slaves from generation to generation, till thevengeance is accomplished!'
Having cried thus with a great voice, Cuitlahua fell back upon thecushions, and before the frightened leech who tended him could lift hishead, he had passed beyond the troubles of this earth. But the wordswhich he had spoken remained fixed in the hearts of those who heardthem, though they were told to none except to Guatemoc.
Thus then in my presence and in that of Otomie died Cuitlahua, emperorof the Aztecs, when he had reigned but fifteen weeks. Once more thenation mourned its king, the chief of many a thousand of its childrenwhom the pestilence swept with him to the 'Mansions of the Sun,' orperchance to the 'darkness behind the Stars.'
But the mourning was not for long, for in the urgency of the times itwas necessary that a new emperor should be crowned to take command ofthe armies and rule the nation. Therefore on the morrow of the burial ofCuitlahua the council of the four electors was convened, and with themlesser nobles and princes to the number of three hundred, and I amongthem in the right of my rank as general, and as husband of the princessOtomie. There was no great need of deliberation, indeed, for though thenames of several were mentioned, the princes knew that there was but oneman who by birth, by courage, and nobility of mind, was fitted to copewith the troubles of the nation. That man was Guatemoc, my friend andblood brother, the nephew of the two last emperors and the husband ofmy wife's sister, Montezuma's daughter, Tecuichpo. All knew it, I say,except, strangely enough, Guatemoc himself, for as we passed into thecouncil he named two other princes, saying that without doubt the choicelay between them.
It was a splendid and a solemn sight, that gathering of the four greatlords, the electors, dressed in their magnificent robes, and of thelesser council of confirmation of three hundred lords and princes, whosat without the circle but in hearing of all that passed. Very solemnalso was the prayer of the high priest, who, clad in his robes of sable,seemed like a blot of ink dropped on a glitter of gold. Thus he prayed:
'O god, thou who art everywhere and seest all, knowest that Cuitlahuaour king is gathered to thee. Thou hast set him beneath thy footstooland there he rests in his rest. He has travelled that road which we musttravel every one, he has reached the royal inhabitations of our dead,the home of everlasting shadows. There where none shall trouble him heis sunk in sleep. His brief labours are accomplished, and soiled withsin and sorrow, he has gone to thee. Thou gavest him joys to tastebut not to drink; the glory of empire passed before his eyes like themadness of a dream. With tears and with prayers to thee he took uphis load, with happiness he laid it down. Where his forefathers went,thither he has followed, nor can he return to us. Our fire is an ash andour lamp is darkness. Those who wore his purple before him bequeathed tohim the intolerable weight of rule, and he in his turn bequeaths it toanother. Truly, he should give thee praise, thou king of kings, masterof the stars, that standest alone, who hast lifted from his shoulders sogreat a burden, and from his brow this crown of woes, paying him peacefor war and rest for labour.
'O god our hope, choose now a servant to succeed him, a man after thineown heart, who shall not fear nor falter, who shall toil and not beweary, who shall lead thy people as a mother leads her children. Lord oflords, give grace to Guatemoc thy creature, who is our choice. Seal himto thy service, and as thy priest let him sit upon thy earthly thronefor his life days. Let thy foes become his footstool, let him exalt thyglory, proclaim thy worship, and protect thy kingdom. Thus have I prayedto thee in the name of the nation. O god, thy will be done!'
When the high priest had made an end of his prayer, the first of thefour great electors rose, saying:
'Guatemoc, in the name of god and with the voice of the people ofAnahuac, we summon you to the throne of Anahuac. Long may you live andjustly may you rule, and may the glory be yours of beating back into thesea those foes who would destroy us. Hail to you, Guatemoc, Emperor ofthe Aztecs and of their vassal tribes.' And all the three hundred of thecouncil of confirmation repeated in a voice of thunder, 'Hail to you,Guatemoc, Emperor!'
Now the prince himself stood forward and spoke:
'You lords of election, and you, princes, generals, nobles and captainsof the council of confirmation, hear me. May the gods be my witness
that when I entered this place I had no thought or knowledge that I wasdestined to so high an honour as that which you would thrust upon me.And may the gods be my witness again that were my life my own, and not atrust in the hands of this people, I would say to you, "Seek on and findone worthier to fill the throne." But my life is not my own. Anahuaccalls her son and I obey the call. War to the death threatens her, andshall I hang back while my arm has strength to smite and my brain haspower to plan? Not so. Now and henceforth I vow myself to the serviceof my country and to war against the Teules. I will make no peace withthem, I will take no rest till they are driven back whence they came, ortill I am dead beneath their swords. None can say what the gods havein store for us, it may be victory or it may be destruction, but be ittriumph or death, let us swear a great oath together, my people and mybrethren. Let us swear to fight the Teules and the traitors who abetthem, for our cities, our hearths and our altars; till the cities area smoking ruin, till the hearths are cumbered with their dead, andthe altars run red with the blood of their worshippers. So, if we aredestined to conquer, our triumph shall be made sure, and if we aredoomed to fail, at least there will be a story to be told of us. Do youswear, my people and my brethren?'
'We swear,' they answered with a shout.
'It is well,' said Guatemoc. 'And now may everlasting shame overtake himwho breaks this oath.'
Thus then was Guatemoc, the last and greatest of the Aztec emperors,elected to the throne of his forefathers. It was happy for him that hecould not foresee that dreadful day when he, the noblest of men, mustmeet a felon's doom at the hand of these very Teules. Yet so it cameabout, for the destiny that lay upon the land smote all alike, indeedthe greater the man the more certain was his fate.
When all was done I hurried to the palace to tell Otomie what had cometo pass, and found her in our sleeping chamber lying on her bed.
'What ails you, Otomie?' I asked.
'Alas! my husband,' she answered, 'the pestilence has stricken me. Comenot near, I pray you, come not near. Let me be nursed by the women. Youshall not risk your life for me, beloved.'
'Peace,' I said and came to her. It was too true, I who am a physicianknew the symptoms well. Indeed had it not been for my skill, Otomiewould have died. For three long weeks I fought with death at herbedside, and in the end I conquered. The fever left her, and thanksto my treatment, there was no single scar upon her lovely face. Duringeight days her mind wandered without ceasing, and it was then I learnedhow deep and perfect was her love for me. For all this while shedid nothing but rave of me, and the secret terror of her heart wasdisclosed--that I should cease to care for her, that her beauty and lovemight pall upon me so that I should leave her, that 'the flower maid,'for so she named Lily, who dwelt across the sea should draw me back toher by magic; this was the burden of her madness. At length her sensesreturned and she spoke, saying:
'How long have I lain ill, husband?'
I told her and she said, 'And have you nursed me all this while, andthrough so foul a sickness?'
'Yes, Otomie, I have tended you.'
'What have I done that you should be so good to me?' she murmured. Thensome dreadful thought seemed to strike her, for she moaned as though inpain, and said, 'A mirror! Swift, bring me a mirror!'
I gave her one, and rising on her arm, eagerly she scanned her face inthe dim light of the shadowed room, then let the plate of burnished goldfall, and sank back with a faint and happy cry:
'I feared,' she said, 'I feared that I had become hideous as those arewhom the pestilence has smitten, and that you would cease to love me,than which it had been better to die.'
'For shame,' I said. 'Do you then think that love can be frightened awayby some few scars?'
'Yes,' Otomie answered, 'that is the love of a man; not such love asmine, husband. Had I been thus--ah! I shudder to think of it--within ayear you would have hated me. Perhaps it had not been so with another,the fair maid of far away, but me you would have hated. Nay, I know it,though I know this also, that I should not have lived to feel your hate.Oh! I am thankful, thankful.'
Then I left her for a while, marvelling at the great love which she hadgiven me, and wondering also if there was any truth in her words, andif the heart of man could be so ungrateful and so vile. Supposing thatOtomie was now as many were who walked the streets of Tenoctitlan thatday, a mass of dreadful scars, hairless, and with blind and whitenedeyeballs, should I then have shrunk from her? I do not know, and I thankheaven that no such trial was put upon my constancy. But I am sure ofthis; had I become a leper even, Otomie would not have shrunk from me.
So Otomie recovered from her great sickness, and shortly afterwards thepestilence passed away from Tenoctitlan. And now I had many otherthings to think of, for the choosing of Guatemoc--my friend and bloodbrother--as emperor meant much advancement to me, who was made a generalof the highest class, and a principal adviser in his councils. Nor didI spare myself in his service, but laboured by day and night in the workof preparing the city for siege, and in the marshalling of the troops,and more especially of that army of Otomies, who came, as they hadpromised, to the number of twenty thousand. The work was hard indeed,for these Indian tribes lacked discipline and powers of unity, withoutwhich their thousands were of little avail in a war with white men.Also there were great jealousies between their leaders which must beovercome, and I was myself an object of jealousy. Moreover, many tribestook this occasion of the trouble of the Aztecs to throw off theirallegiance or vassalage, and even if they did not join the Spaniards, toremain neutral watching for the event of the war. Still we labouredon, dividing the armies into regiments after the fashion of Europe, andstationing each in its own quarter drilling them to the better use ofarms, provisioning the city for a siege, and weeding out as many uselessmouths as we might; and there was but one man in Tenoctitlan who toiledat these tasks more heavily than I, and that was Guatemoc the emperor,who did not rest day or night. I tried even to make powder with sulphurwhich was brought from the throat of the volcan Popo, but, having noknowledge of that art, I failed. Indeed, it would have availed us littlehad I succeeded, for having neither arquebusses nor cannons, and noskill to cast them, we could only have used it in mining roads andgateways, and, perhaps, in grenades to be thrown with the hand.
And so the months went on, till at length spies came in with the tidingsthat the Spaniards were advancing in numbers, and with them countlesshosts of allies.
Now I would have sent Otomie to seek safety among her own people, butshe laughed me to scorn, and said:
'Where you are, there I will be, husband. What, shall it be sufferedthat you face death, perhaps to find him, when I am not at your side todie with you? If that is the fashion of white women, I leave it to them,beloved, and here with you I stay.'