CHAPTER XX.
The morn, which by this time was breaking over the sea, was ushered inwith a thousand sounds of triumph; and the drums of the vanquishedrolled in concert with the trumpets of the victors. In truth, saving tothe wounded and broken-spirited Biscayan, and some few cavaliers whohad remained faithful to him and to his employer, the change of othersfrom rivalry to subjection, was a circumstance more of gratulation thanregret; as was proved by the ready alacrity with which they betookthemselves to the audience of their conqueror.
In the gilded and feather-broidered chair in which he had first seen theperson of the unlucky Narvaez, Don Amador de Leste now perceived thefigure of the Conqueror, a rich mantle of an orange hue thrown over hisshoulders, his head bare, but his heel resting on a certain footstool orball of variegated feathers, and altogether preserving an appearance ofsingular, but superb state. His valiant and well-beloved officers stoodranked on either side, and on either side, also, his resolute followerswere displayed, as if performing the duties of a body-guard. In thissituation of pride, he prepared to receive the congratulations or thegriefs of his enemies; and, as if to add still further to the imposingmagnificence of the ceremony, at that moment, as a wild roar of conchesand drums mingling with the wilder shouts of human beings, burst overthe city, a great multitude of native warriors from the province ofChinantla, marching in regular and alternate files of spearmen andarchers, and glittering with feathers and brilliant cotton garments,strode upon the square, and dividing upon either side of the pyramid,halted only when they had surrounded it with their warlike and mostromantic array. The spectacle was no more surprising to the people ofNarvaez than to those friends of Cortes, who had not before looked uponan Indian army, among whom Don Amador was one. He regarded thepicturesque barbarians with much admiration; though his eye soonwandered from them to dwell upon the leader, and the ceremonious part hewas then enacting. He sat in his chair like a monarch, and though, attimes, when some conquered cavalier more honoured, or better beloved,than others, approached, he arose, and even extended his arms with afriendly embrace, in the greater number of instances he was content topronounce some simple words of compliment, and present his hand to bekissed,--a mark of homage reverentially rendered by all.
It did not become Don Amador, though he surveyed these proceedings withsome little contempt, as indicating on the one side, too much arrogance,and on the other, too much humility, to interrupt them, in whichpersuasion, he stood patiently aside, with his company, watching untilsuch moment when he might approach with propriety. Being thus a witnessof the degree of friendliness which characterized the receptions, aswell as the many petitions which the comers made to be accredited andenrolled among the general's true friends and followers, he began tolose somewhat of the wonder with which he had regarded the suddennessand facility of the victory. It was apparent, that most of the officersof Narvaez had long made up their minds to devote themselves to theservice of his enemy; and when they had paid their compliments to DonHernan, they dropped among his officers, as if joining old friends andcomrades.
It gave the neophyte some pain, when at the conclusion of theseceremonies, he beheld the Biscayan led forward in chains, (for he washeavily ironed,) to salute his rival. His casque was off; a bandagecovered his eye; his face was very pale; and he strode forward with anuncertain gait, as if feeble from the loss of blood, or agitated byshame and despair. Nevertheless, he spoke with a firm and manly voice,when he found himself confronted with his vanquisher.
"Thou mayest congratulate thyself, Cortes," said the fallen chief. "Thystar has the ascendant, thy fate is superior; and so much do I admire myown misfortune, that I could compliment thee upon it, did I not know itwas wrought less by the valour of my enemies, than the perfidy of myfriends."
"Thou doest thyself, as well as all others, a great wrong to say so,brother Narvaez," said the victor, gravely; "and it would better becomethee magnanimously to confess thou art beaten by thine own fault, ratherthan to follow the example of little-minded men, and lay the blame uponothers."
"I confess that I _am_ beaten," said the captive;--"and that the shameof my defeat will last longer than my grave. But I aver to God, and Imaintain in thy teeth, though I am but a captive in thy hands, that thisvictory is altogether so miraculous, it could not have happened unlessby the corruption of my people."
"To heaven and my good soldiers, it is all owing," said Cortes,composedly: "and so little miraculous, my brother, do I myself esteemit, after having twice or thrice beaten thirty thousand Tlascalans, at atime, all valiant men, that I vow to thee on my conscience, I cannot doother than consider this triumph as altogether the least of myachievements in Mexico."
"It must be so, since you say it," responded Narvaez, his breast heavingunder the sarcasm, with a bitter and suffocating pang; "yet it mattersnot. Let the glory be ever so little, the shame is not the lessnotorious; and though thou scornest thy reward of fame, I will not flyfrom mine own recompense of contempt.--What more is expected of me? Diosmio! I cannot, like the rest, kiss thy hand, and take upon me the oathsof service. I am thy prisoner!"
"Had I been thine," said Cortes, gravely, "thou wouldst have fulfilledthy word, and hanged me, wouldst thou not?"
"What matters it?" replied the unfortunate man, with a firm voice."Doubtless, if the passion that beset me at the time of theproclamation, had lasted after a victory, I should have been as good asmy word: for which reason I will anticipate thy excuses, and assure theeout of mine own mouth, thou wilt but retaliate fairly, to dismiss me tothe same fate."
"Thou canst not understand the moderation thou hast not practised," saidCortes rising, and speaking with dignity. "The foolish rage thatprovoked thee to set a price upon my head, I remember not; the madnessthat proclaimed these true and most loyal men for rebels and traitors,must be passed by, as other hallucinations: but as, in doing this, thouhast greatly injured and jeoparded the interests of thy master the king,thou art worthy to suffer the death of a rebellious subject, for as suchthou hast acted. Nevertheless, I will do thee a grace thou wouldst notaccord to me; I will conceive, that, however traitorous have been thyactions, thou mayest have been faithful at heart,--mistaken, but notdisloyal: in which thought, I give thee thy life, and will recommendthee into the hands of his majesty for judgment and mercy."
The conqueror waved his hand, and Narvaez was led away:--to terminate,in after years, a life of mischance by a death of misery, among thoseruder tribes of the North who are but now vanishing from the borders ofthe Mississippi, and to add his melancholy tale to the gloomy historiesof De Leon and De Soto.
"What will my noble and thrice-honoured friend, Don Amador de Leste?"cried Cortes, as he perceived the neophyte approaching him. "We shouldbe good friends, senor; for I owe thee much, and we have been in periltogether."
"Twice, I thank your excellency," said Amador, "you have done me theoffice of a true cavalier; for which I will not now trifle the time tothank you, inasmuch as my arm is henceforth unshackled, and I can writemy gratitude better with it, than with my tongue. What I have now torequire, is that your excellency will judge between me and this fellow,the master of a ship, in the matter of a Moor called Abdalla, otherwiseEsclavo de la Cruz, and his son Jacinto; both of whom being ChristianMoors, though captured in a Barbary vessel, this man doth claim to behis slaves; I, on the other hand, as their vowed protector and champion,upholding them to be free, and in the condition of wards to his majestythe king."
"They are my slaves," said the master--but a frown from the generalinstantly closed his lips.
"It is well for the Moor," said Cortes, as, at his command, Abdallaapproached, followed by Jacinto: "it is well for the Moor that he has sopowerful a protector as Don Amador; for otherwise, having discovered itwas his accursed hand shot off the falcon which destroyed me four bravemen and maimed as many more, I had resolved to hang him like a hound,this very morning!"
"There is no better cannonier in all your excellency's train," said themaster, who, however likely to be
robbed of his property, could notcheck the impulse to praise it.
"I fired the cannon with the fear of death in my eyes, if I refused,"said Abdalla, humbly; "and my lord should as well be wroth with thelinstock as with myself."
"Say not a word, sirrah Moor," said Cortes; "for the favour of DonAmador having saved thy life, I have nothing further to do, but to judgethy claims to liberty; the which if thou establish, I will not scrupleto employ thee in mine own service."
"The freedom of these twain," said Amador, "was recognised by hisexcellency, the admiral Cavallero; and I thought he had satisfied thisship-master."
"His excellency, the admiral, protested he would represent the matter tothe governor Velasquez," said the surly captain; "and I was content toabide his decision. But my sailors, hearing there was more gold to begathered among these hills than on the sea, deserted me; and not havingthe means to carry my ship to Cuba, I was fain to follow after them;hoping the excellent cavaliers would do me justice, and pay me for mycaptives."
"Sirrah," said the general, "wert thou with Narvaez, or with me, in thisbattle?"
"With neither," said the sailor. "I arrived at night-fall; and not beingable to make my way to Narvaez, I slept off my fatigue in a hut below,till roused by the din of this siege; coming forth to behold which, Idiscovered my slaves, and straightway claimed them: and my sailorsyonder will witness I won them in fair fight."
"The Moriscos are Christians, and therefore not thy property," said thecommander; "and if they were, being taken out of the camp of an enemy,they should be reckoned spoils of war, and for that reason, mypossessions, and not thine. Cease therefore thy demands; follow thysailors, if thou wilt,--for on the lakes of Mexico, I shall haveemployment for thy best skill; and if, in time, I discover theefaithful, and this Moor as dexterous as thou representest, I will,without allowing thee any right to the same, give thee very good guerdonfor his services."
The master, concealing his dissatisfaction, retired.
"I hoped," said Amador, "your excellency might be persuaded to sendAbdalla and the boy to Spain."
"I am loath to say to Don Amador, that may not be," replied Cortes. "Asa good Christian, Abdalla will doubtless rejoice to fight the infidel;and as for his boy, if there be no other cavalier willing to advance himto the honours of a page, I will myself receive him. I hear he is a goodmusician; and I want a playmate for my little Orteguilla, whom I leftdancing boleros before the emperor Montezuma."
The fame of Jacinto as a lutist and singer, had already spread among thecavaliers; and his appearance was at the same time so prepossessing,that many of them stepped forward, and avowed themselves ready toreceive him into service. Don Amador himself, now for the first timeperusing his countenance at leisure, and moved as much by its beauty asby its air of grief and destitution, added himself to the number; and itseemed as if the claims of the various applicants might lead to heat andmisunderstanding. The cap of Jacinto had fallen from his head, and longringlets, such as greatly stirred the envy of the younger cavaliers,fell over his fair brow and exceedingly beautiful countenance. Hisdelicately chiseled lips, parted in alarm and anxiety, moved and playedwith an ever-varying expressiveness; while his large black eyes, inwhich brilliancy was mingled with a pensive gentleness, rolled fromgeneral to cavalier, from Amador to his father, with a wild solicitude.
The difficulty was terminated at last by Don Hernan.
"I vow by my conscience," said he, "I like the boy's face well; but Iwill not oppose my wishes to those of worthier gentlemen here present.In my opinion, no man hath so fair a claim to the boy as Don Amador deLeste, who first befriended him; and not doubting that, herein, the boywill agree with me, I propose the election of a master to be left tohimself, or, what is the same thing, to his father, as a measure equallyagreeable to all. Choose, therefore, Abdalla, between these cavaliersand thy benefactor; for it is not possible the stripling can remain withthyself."
Abdalla bent his troubled eyes around the assembly; and Amador, notdoubting his choice, regarded him with a benignant encouragement. Longdid the Almogavar survey him, now with eagerness, as if about to throwhimself at his feet and beseech his protection, and now faltering withhesitation and doubt. Amador, mistaking the cause of his embarrassment,prepared to reassure him; when the eyes of the Moor, wandering away fromhimself, fell upon the figure of Don Gabriel standing hard by. The samehesitation that disturbed him before, again beset him; but it lasted notlong. Amid the clouds of dejection and distraction that characterisedthe countenance of the knight of Rhodes, there shone a ray ofbenevolence as if the emanation of a fixed and constant principle; andAbdoul al Sidi, as he remarked it, forgot that Calavar was the slayer ofhis people.
"If my lord, my very noble lord," he said, bending to the earth, "willhear the prayer of his servant, and waste his charity on so great awretch as Abdoul, there is no one of all this noble assembly to whosebenevolent protection Abdoul would sooner confide his helpless andsinless child."
The cavaliers stared; yet Abdalla had not erred, when he reckoned on thehumanity of Calavar.
The knight received the hand of Jacinto from his father, and regardinghim with a paternal kindness, said,--
"For the sake of Him who did not scorn to protect little children, Iwill receive this boy into my arms, and protect him with my beststrength, both from sorrow, and the sin that is the parent of sorrow."
"And I may see him sometimes?" said the Moor, lingering, though thegeneral had motioned him away.
"Surely I keep him from harm, not from the love of his father."
"I commend thee to heaven, my child," said the Almogavar, embracing him."Confide in thy master, remember thy father, and pray often.--Farewell!"
But the boy, with a cry that drew the commiseration of all present,threw himself into Abdalla's arms, and clasping him as if forever, wepton his bosom.
"Thy master waits thee, my child!" said Abdalla, disengaging his hands,and again leading him to Calavar. "Be wise and faithful, and remember,if not always in thy presence, I shall not often be far from thy side."
The stripling once more kissed the lips of the Morisco, and thenchecking his lamentations, as his father left him, wrapped his cloakround his head, as if to hide his tears, and stood by the knight insilence.
While this incident was passing, the attention of Cortes was attractedby two Indians differing much in equipment from the warriors ofChinantla, but still of a soldier-like bearing, who, in company with twoor three of his chief cavaliers, hastily approached him, and conferredwith him through the medium of an interpreter. A cloud came over hiscountenance; he arose, and smote his hands together with fury.
"What, ho, cavaliers!" he cried; "we must think of other matters thancrying babes and jingling pages. I thank God for this victory, for nevercame one more opportunely; and ye, true friends, who have, this moment,protested your allegiance, prepare now to make it more manifest. Sharpenyour swords, saddle your horses; for to-day we must march toTenochtitlan!"
A murmur of surprise ran through the multitude that thronged thepyramid; and Amador forgot both the boy, and the touch of indignationwith which he had seen him transferred to another, though his kinsman,as he pressed towards the excited general.
"Know ye, friends and brothers!" continued Cortes, "that the devil has,at last, waked up in the infidel city; blood has been shed,--the bloodof Spaniards as well as of pagan Mexicans,--and, at this moment,Alvarado is besieged in the palace by the whole hordes of the valley;and he swears to me, by these Tlascalan messengers, that unless I renderhim speedy assistance, he must die of starvation, or perish under thesword of the barbarians. So God speed us to the Venice of the New World,the Babylon of the mountains! The gold shall not be snatched out of ourhands, nor the fame blotted from our histories: we have this good daynumbers enow to chase the imps from the islands, and to tumble the godsfrom their temples; and so will we, in the name of God and St. Peter,Amen!--God speed us to Tenochtitlan!"
The shout that answered this pious and valiant rhapsody f
rom the pyramidand the square, gave note of the zeal with which his followers, both oldand new, were prepared to second the resolution of their leader.