CHAPTER X.
Amador surveyed the prisoner, though somewhat indifferently. He was, infigure and age, very much such a man as Baltasar, but in other respectsvery dissimilar. His face was wan, and even cadaverous; but this mighthave been the effect of the blows he had received from the dyingsoldier, as was made probable by the presence of several spots of bloodencrusted over his visage. His cheeks were broad, and the bonesprominent; his eyes very hollow, and expressive of a wild solemnity,mingled with cunning; his beard long and bushy, and only slightlygrizzled, and a rugged mustache hung over his lips so as almost toconceal them. His apparel was of black cloth, none of the freshest, theprincipal garment of which was a long loose doublet, under which wasbuckled an iron breast-plate,--his only armour; for, instead of amorion, he wore a cloth hat of capacious brim, stuck round with thefeathers of divers birds, as well as several medals of the saints,rudely executed in silver. Besides these fantastic decorations, he hadsuspended to his neck several instruments of the Cabala,--a pentacle ofsilver, and charms and talismans written over with mystical characters,as well as a little leathern pouch filled with various dried herbs androots. This mystagogue, an agent of no little importance among many ofthe scenes of the Conquest, was led into the presence of the general,and approached him without betraying any signs of fear or embarrassment;nor, on the other hand, did he manifest any thing like audacity orpresumption; but lifting his eyes to the visage of the Biscayan, hegazed upon him with a silent and grave earnestness, that seemed somewhatto disconcert the leader.
"Sirrah sorcerer," said he, "since the devil has deserted you at last,call up what spirits you can muster, and find me why I shall not hangyou for a spy, early in the morning."
"_Tetragrammaton Adonai!_" muttered the warrior-magician in the holygibberish of his art, with a voice of sepulchral hollowness, and with acountenance gleaming with indignation or enthusiasm. "In the name ofGod, Amen! I defy the devil, and am the servant of his enemy; and in theland of devils, of Apollyon in the air, Beelzebub on the earth, andSatan in men's hearts, I forswear and defy, contemn and denounce them;and I pray for, and foresee, the day when they shall tumble from thehigh places!"
"All this thou mayst do, and all this thou mayst foresee," said thegeneral; "but nevertheless thy wisdom will be more apparent to employitself a little in the investigation of thine own fate; which, I promisethee, is approaching to a crisis."
"I have read it in the stars, I have seen it in the smoke of waters andof blessed herbs, and I have heard it from the lips of dead men and thetongues of dreams," cried the professor of the occult sciences, withmuch emphasis. "But what is the fate of Botello, the swordsman, to thatof the leaders of men, the conquerors of kings and great nations? I haveread my own destinies; but why shouldst thou trifle the time to knowthem, when I can show thee the higher mysteries of thine own?"
"Canst thou do so? By my faith then, I will have thee speak them verysoon," said Narvaez. "But first, let me know what wert thou doing whenthou wert found prowling this morning so near to my camp?"
"Gathering the herbs for the suffumigation which shall tell me in whatpart of the world thou shalt lay thy bones!" said the magician,solemnly. "The moon, in the house Alchil, showed me many things, but notall; a thick smoke came over the crystal, and I saw not what I wanted; Islept under the cross, with a skull on my bosom, but it breathed nothingbut clouds. Wherefore I knew, it should be only when the wolf spoke tothe vulture, and the vulture to the red star, that Camael the angelshould unlock the lips of destiny, and lead me whither I longed tofollow."
"I am ever bound to thee," said the general, with a manner in which anattempt at mockery was mingled with a natural touch of superstition,"for the extreme interest thou seemest to cherish in my fate and again Isay to thee, I will immediately converse with thee on that subject. Butat present, senor nigromante, I warn thee, it will be but wisdom, toconfine thy rhapsodies within the limits of answers to suchinterrogatories as I shall propose thee.--Where lies thy master, theoutcast and arch-rebel, my enemy?"
"My _master_ is in heaven!" said Botello, with a devout and loftyearnestness, "and there is no outcast and rebel but he that dwelleth inthe pit, under the foot of Michael; and _he_ is the enemy!"
"Sirrah! I speak to thee of the knave Cortes," cried the general,angrily. "When wert thou last at his side? and where?"
"At midnight,--on the river of Canoes, where he has rested, as thouknowest, for a night and a day."
"Ay!" said the Biscayan fiercely; "within a league of my head-quarters,whither my clemency has suffered him to come."
"Whither God and his good star have drawn him," said the magician.
"And whence I will drive him to the rocks of the mountains, or themangroves of the beach, ere thou art cured of thy wounds!"
"Lo! my wounds are healed!" said Botello; "the hand that inflicted themis stiff and cold, and Hernan Cortes yet lies by the river! Ay, the holyunguent, blessed of the fat of a pagan's heart, hath dried the blood andglued the skin; and yet my captain, whose fate I have seen and spoken,even from the glory of noon to the long and sorrowful shadows of theevening, marshals his band within the sound of thy matin bell; and wobe to his foeman when he is nearer or further!"
"Prattling fool," said the commander, "if thou hadst looked to thebright moon to-night, thou wouldst have seen how soon the cotton-treesof the river should be strung with thy leader and companions, and withthyself, as a liar and an impostor, in their midst!"
"I looked," said the veteran, tranquilly, "and saw what will be seen,but not by _all_. There was thunder in the temple, and peace by theriver, and more wailing than comes from the lips of the PenitentKnight."
The angry impetuosity with which Narvaez was about to continue theconference, was interrupted by the impatience of the novice. He hadlistened with much disgust both to the mystic jargon of the soldier andthe idle demands and bravadoes of the general. The interest with whichhe discovered how short a distance separated him from his kinsman, wasincreased to an irresistible excitement, when he heard the title withwhich, as the admiral had told him, the knight was distinguished amongthe invaders, on the lips of Botello. Rising therefore abruptly, hesaid,
"Senor Narvaez, I have to beg your pardon, if, in my own impatience tobe satisfied in a matter which I have much at heart, I am somewhat blindto the importance of this present controversy. If your excellency willdo me the favour to examine the letters of the admiral, you willdiscover that it is not so much my purpose to lay claim to yourhospitable entertainment, the proffer of which I acknowledge with muchgratitude, as to request your permission to pass through the lines ofyour army, to join my kinsman the knight Calavar. Understanding,therefore, from the words of this lunatic, or enchanter, whichever hemay be, that I am within the short distance of a league from my goodknight, to whom all my allegiance is due, I see not wherefore I shouldnot proceed to join him forthwith, instead of wasting the night inslumber. I must, therefore, crave of your excellency to grant me, to thecamp of the senor Cortes, a guide, to whom I will, with my life andhonour, guarantee a safe return;--or such instructions concerning myroute, as will enable me to proceed alone--that is to say, with myattendants."
The effect of this interruption and unexpected demand, on thecountenances of all, was remarkable enough. The cavaliers present staredat the novice with amazement, and even a sort of dismay; and thesecretary Fabueno, looking by chance at the captain Salvatierra,observed the visage of this worthy suddenly illuminated by a grin ofdelight. As for the general himself, nothing could be more unfeignedthan his surprise, nothing more unquestionable than the displeasurewhich instantly began to darken his visage. He rose, thrust his handinto his belt, as if to give his fingers something to gripe, and drawinghimself to his full height, said haughtily and severely,
"When I invited the cavalier De Leste to share the shelter of thistemple, I did not think I received a friend of the traitor Cortes or ofany of his people; nor did I dream an adherent of this outlaw would dareto beard me at my head-quarters with
so rash and audacious a request!"
"The senor Narvaez has then to learn," said Amador, with a degree ofmoderation that could only be produced by a remembrance of hisengagement to the admiral, and his promise to the secretary, notcauselessly to provoke the anger of the general,--but nevertheless withunchanging decision, "that if I boast not to be the friend of Cortes,whom you call a traitor, I avouch myself to be very much the creature ofmine own will; and that if I cannot be termed the adherent of an outlaw,I am at least a Spanish hidalgo, bent on the prosecution of my designs,and making requests more as the ceremonies of courtesy, than the tributeof humility. I will claim nothing more of your excellency than yourexcellency is, without claim, inclined to grant; and allowing thereforethat you invited me to your lodgings under a mistaken apprehension of mycharacter, I will straightway release you from the obligation, onlypreviously desiring of your excellency to reconsider your expressions,wherein, as I think, was an innuendo highly unjust and offensive."
"Now, by heaven!" exclaimed the Biscayan, with all the irascibility ofhis race, and the arrogant pride of his station, "I have happened upon astrange day, when a vagabond esquire, wandering through my jurisdiction,asks my permission to throw himself into the arms of my enemy; and whenI admonish him a little of his rashness, rebukes me with insult anddefiance!"
"A very strange day indeed!" muttered a voice among the cavaliers, inwhich Amador, had he not been too much occupied with otherconsiderations, might have recognized the tones of Salvatierra.
"Biscayan!" said he, with an eye of fire, "I have given you all therespect, which, as a governor's governor, and a captain's captain, youhad a right to demand; I have also done you the homage of a guest to hishost, and of a gentleman to a reputed hidalgo; but neither as a governornor commander, neither as a host nor a nobleman, have you the privilegeto offend with impunity, or to insult without being called to areckoning."
"Is this another madman of the stock of Calavar, that the silly admiralhath sent me?" cried the enfuriated leader, snatching up a sword fromthe table, and advancing upon the novice.
"Senor Panfilo!" cried Amador, confronting the general, and waving hishand with dignity, "unless thou force me by thine own violence, I cannotdraw my sword upon thee on thine own floor, not even although thou addto thy wrongs a sarcasm on my knight and kinsman. Nevertheless I flingthis glove at thy feet, in token that if thou art as valiant as thou artill-bred, as ready to repair as to inflict an injury, I will claim ofthee, as soon as may suit thy convenience, to meet me with weapons, andto answer thy manifold indignities."
"_Dios santisimo!_" cried the commander, foaming with rage and stampingfuriously on the floor. "What ho! swords and pikemen! shall I strikethis _galofero_ braggart with my own hands? Arrest him!"
"The blood of him that stays me, be on his own head!" said Amador,drawing his sword and striding to the entrance. "I will remember thee,uncourteous cavalier, when I see thee in a fitter place."
The arm of the governor had been arrested by Duero; and in the confusionof the moment, though the door of the tower was instantly beset by adozen gaping attendants, Don Amador would doubtless have passed throughthem without detention, notwithstanding the furious commands of Narvaez.But at the moment, when, as he waved his sword menacingly, thehesitating satellites seemed parting before him, Salvatierra steppednimbly behind, and suddenly seizing his outstretched arm, and calling tothe guards at the same time, in an instant Don Amador was disarmed and aprisoner. His rage was for a moment unspeakable; but it did not renderhim incapable of observing the faithful boldness of the secretary.
"Senor general!" cried Lorenzo, though with a stammering voice, "if yourexcellency will read this letter to the end, your excellency will findmy master recommends Don Amador as of a most noble and lofty family,and, at this moment, raised above arrest and detention, by being chargedwith authority from the Grand Master of Rhodes."
The only answer of the general was a scowl and a wave of the hand, whichinstantly left Fabueno in the predicament of the cavalier. He wasseized, and before he could follow the example of his patron, and drawhis sabre, it was snatched from his inexperienced hand.
All this passed in a moment; and before the neophyte could giveutterance to the indignation which choked him, he was dragged, withFabueno, from the sanctuary.