CHAPTER II.
The extraordinary and exciting events which took place in the prison,that night which Juan Lerma esteemed the last he should spend uponearth, had reduced to exhaustion a body already enfeebled by inaction,and a mind almost consumed by care. Hence, when, having struggled for atime with the restlessness and delirium which, in such cases, usher insleep with a thousand phantasms--apparitions both of sight andsound,--he at last fell asleep, his slumbers were profound anddreamless. The loud alarms, which drove the executioners of Villafanafrom the Hall of Audience, made no impression on his ear; and even theyells, that accompanied the attack on his dreary abode, were equallyunheard. The guards were routed, the doors were forced, and he waslifted to his feet by unknown hands, almost before he had opened hiseyes; and even voices, that, at another time, would have attracted hisattention, and words that would have inspired him with the joy ofdeliverance, were all lost upon him. Nay, such was the stupor whichoppressed his mind, that he was dragged from the dungeon, and hurriedrapidly along through a host of infidels to the water-side, before hewas convinced that all was not really a dream. Then, indeed, the bustle,the din of shrieks and Indian drums, mingled with the sounds of trumpetsand fire-arms, the howl of winds and the plash of waves, though theyrecalled him to his wits, yet left him confounded, and, for a while,incapable of understanding and appreciating his situation. In thiscondition, he was deposited in a canoe of some magnitude, whichinstantly putting off from the shore, under the impulse of thirtypaddles, he soon found himself darting over the lake at a speed whichpromised soon to remove from his eyes, and perhaps for ever, the sceneof his late humiliation and suffering.
The darkness of the night was almost palpable, and, save the few torchesthat could be seen hurrying through the alarmed city, no other lightilluminated the scene, until the moment when the four brigantines, firedby the assailants, burst up in a ruddy blaze. At this sight, a shout oftriumph burst from his capturers, and altering the course of the canoe,it seemed as if they were about to rush into the thick of the conflict.
As they approached the burning ships, Juan was able in the increasingglare, to examine the figures of his companions, and beheld the darkvisages and half-naked bodies of thirty or more barbarians, each,besides his paddle, having a weighty battle-axe dangling from his wrist,and a broad buckler of some unknown material hung over his back. Two mensat by him, one on each side, and he soon discovered that these, whom hehad thought mere guards for his safe-keeping, were no other than theOttomi Techeechee and the young prince of Mexico, the latter now freedfrom his disguise.
"Guatimozin," said he, no longer doubting the purpose for which he hadbeen snatched from the prison, and resolved at once to express hisdisapprobation, "dost thou think to make me a renegade to my countrymen?I swear to thee--"
"Peace, and fear not," replied the royal chief. "Thou shalt have verysweet vengeance."
"I ask it not, I seek it not; and surely I will not accept it, when itmakes me the traitor I have been so falsely called. Am I thy prisoner?"
"My friend," replied Guatimozin, quickly, starting up, seizing a paddlefrom the hands of the nearest rower, and himself urging the canoetowards the nearest vessel, which was, by this time, so close at hand,that Juan could clearly perceive the figures, and almost the faces, ofthe Spaniards on board, contending, and, as it seemed, notunsuccessfully, both with the flames and the assailants. A great herd ofMexicans was seen fighting hand to hand with the Christians; but it wasmanifest, from the cheery cries, with which the latter responded to theyells of the former, and from the frequent plunges in the water, as ofmen leaping or cast overboard, that, in this brigantine at least, thebattle went not with the pagans. This Guatimozin remarked as clearly asJuan, and as he struck the water more impetuously with his paddle, heshouted aloud, "Be strong, men of Mexico, be strong!"
All this passed in the space of an instant. A loud cry, the rush ofother canoes against the ship, and the frantic exertions of thecombatants already on board to maintain their places, made it apparentthat the voice of the prince was not unknown or unregarded. Still, theSpaniards fought well and fiercely, and their cries of "God and St.James! Honour and Spain!" kindled its natural enthusiasm in the breastof the young islander. Forgetting his late wrongs and oppressions, andthe mournful truth, that, at this moment, the Christians were more hisenemies than the Mexicans, he determined, if possible, to make hisescape. Watching his opportunity, and perceiving that many ropes,sundered by the flames, were hanging over the sides of the vessel in thewater, he chose a moment, when the canoe was within but ten or twelvefathoms of her, and but few of those savages who had leaped overboardwere swimming near, he rose to his feet, and shouting aloud, "Help foran escaping captive! and good courage to all!" he plunged boldly intothe lake.
To one, who, like Juan, had rolled in his childhood among the breakerson the northern coast of Cuba, and to whom it was as easy a diversion todive for conches in such depths as would have tried the wind of apearl-diver, as to gather limpets and periwinkles from the beach, it wasno great exploit to leap among the puny billows of Tezcuco, and swim toan anchored vessel, even when the path was obstructed by enemies,themselves not unfamiliar with the water. His escape was so sudden andunexpected, and the prince, Techeechee, and the rowers, were so occupiedwith the scene of combat into which they were hurrying, that it ispossible it would not have been noticed, had it not been for hisexclamation. Then, perceiving him in the water, all were seized withconfusion and fury, some striking at him with their paddles, someleaping over in pursuit, and all so confounded and divided in action,that the canoe was on the very point of being overset. In this period ofconfusion, they soon lost sight of him; for it was not possible todistinguish him among the mass of infidels that were swimming about inall directions.
The cry of Juan was perhaps not heard by his fellow-Christians in thebrigantine; but there was one friend aboard, and that a brute one, whoseears were far quicker to detect his call, and whose heart was muchprompter to obey. This was the dog Befo, who, having been taken from theprison on the day of the trial, and afterwards been refused admission,he so annoyed the guards by his whining and howling, and indeed all inthe palace, likewise, that they were glad to send him aboard a vessel,to have him out of the way, until after the time of execution, when, itwas apprehended, from his remarkable affection for the prisoner, hemight give additional trouble. His services were turned to good accountby the sailors, during the attack; for, being instantly loosed, hesprang upon barbarian after barbarian, tumbling them into the water, oramong the Spaniards, who despatched them. His appearance, fiercer thanthat of the largest beasts of prey in Mexico, and his savage bark, notless frightful than the yell of the jaguar or the puma, were perhapsstill more effectual than his fangs; for at the sight and sound, theMexicans, climbing over the bulwarks, recoiled, and with screams ofdismay, jumped into the water, and swam again to the nearest canoes.
In the midst of the conflict, Befo heard the cry of his master, andloosing a barbarian whom he had caught by the throat, he sprang to theside of the vessel, thrust his paws and nose over the gunwale, andlooked eagerly into the lake, whining all the time, and barking, as ifto attract Juan's notice. He then ran to the after-deck, where wereseveral sailors busily engaged in knotting a rope that seemed to pass tothe shore, or to another brigantine nearer to the lake-side; andflinging himself over the railing here as before, he looked out andwhined loudly again. As he peered thus into the darkness, a faint groan,as of one strangling in the water, came to his cars; and the nextmoment, he sprang, with a wild howl, into the flood.
That groan came from Juan Lerma, who, that instant, was struck a violentblow, he knew not by whom or with what, which, for a time, deprived himof all sensation, and left him drowning in the lake.