Calavar; or, The Knight of The Conquest, A Romance of Mexico

by Robert Montgomery Bird

  CHAPTER XLVII.

  From a deep slumber, that seemed, indeed, death, for it was dreamless,the cavalier, at last, awoke, somewhat confused, but no longerdelirious; and, though greatly enfeebled, entirely free from fever. Ayellow sunbeam,--the first or the last glimmering of day, he knew notwhich,--played through a narrow casement, faintly illuminating theapartment, and falling especially upon a low table at his side, whereon,among painted and gilded vessels of strange form, he perceived hishelmet, and other pieces of armour as well as a lute, of not lessremembered workmanship. He raised his eyes to the attendant, who satmusing, hard by, and, with a thrill and exclamation of joy, beheld theMoorish page, Jacinto.

  "Is it thou, indeed, my dear knave Jacinto! whom I thought in the mawsof infidels?" he cried, starting up. "And how art thou; and how is thylord, Don Gabriel, to-day? Tell me, where hast thou been, these twotroubled days? and how didst thou return? By my faith, this last boutwas somewhat hard, and I have slept long!"

  "Leave not thy couch, and speak not too loud, noble master," said thepage, kneeling, and kissing his hand,--"for thou art sick and wounded,and here only art thou safe."

  "Ay, now indeed!" said Don Amador, with a sudden and painfulconsciousness of his situation, "I remember me. I was struck down, andmade a prisoner. What good angel brought me into thy company? Thanks beto heaven! for my hurts are not much; and I will rescue thee fromcaptivity."

  "I am not a captive, senor," said the boy, gently.

  "Are we, then, in the palace?--Where are our friends?--Am I not aprisoner?"

  "Senor, we are far from the palace of Axajacatl. But grieve not; forhere thou art with thy servants."

  "Thou speakest to me in riddles," said the novice, with a disturbed andbewildered countenance. "Have I been dreaming? Am I enchanted? Am Iliving, and in my senses?"

  "The saints be praised, thou art indeed," said the page, fervently;"though, both nights, and all day, till the blessed potion set theeasleep, I had no hopes thou wouldst ever recover."

  "Both nights!" echoed Don Amador, fixing his eyes inquiringly on theboy; "Has a night--have two nights passed over me, and wert thou, then,with me, during it all?--Ha! Was it thine acts of sorcery, which broughtme those strange and melancholy visions? Didst _thou_ conjure up to methe image of Leila?--That priestess, that very supernaturalprophetess--By heaven! as I see thee, so saw I her standing at mybed-side, in some magical light, which straightway turned to darkness.Didst thou not see her? Tell me boy, art thou indeed an enchanter?Prepare me thy spells again, reveal me her fate, and let me look on theface of Leila!"

  As the cavalier spoke, he strove in his eagerness to rise from thecouch.

  "Senor," said the page, a little pleasantly, "if thou wilt have mesatisfy thy questions, thou must learn to acknowledge me as thyphysician and jailor; and give me such obedience as thou wouldst,formerly, have claimed of me. Rise not up, speak not aloud, and give notway to the fancies of fever; for here are no priestesses, and no Leilas.I will sing to thee, if that will content thee with bondage. But nowthou must remain in quiet, and be healed of thy wounds."

  "I tell thee, my boy Jacinto," went on the cavalier, "wounds or nowounds, jailed or not jailed, I am in a perplexity of mind, which, ifthou art able, I must command, or, what is the same thing, beseech theeto remove. First, therefore, what house is this? and where is it?(whether on the isle Mexico, the lake side, the new world, or the old,or, indeed, in any part of the earth at all?) Secondly, how got'st thouinto it? Thirdly, how came I hither myself?--and especially, what goodChristian did snatch my body out of the paws of those roaring lions, theMexicans, when I was hit that foul and assassin-like blow by--by----"

  "Senor," said the page, not doubting but that his patron had paused forwant of breath, "to answer all these questions, is more than I amallowed. All that I can say, is, that if prudent and obedient, (I sayobedient, noble and dear master," continued the boy archly, "for now youare my prisoner,) you are safer in this dungeon than are your Spanishfriends in their fortress,--reduced to captivity, indeed, but preservedfrom destruction----"

  "By the false, traitorous, and most ungrateful knave, Abdalla, thyfather!" exclaimed the neophyte, with a loud and stern voice; for justas he had hesitated to wound the ears of the boy, he beheld, slowlystalking into the apartment, and eyeing him over Jacinto's shoulder, theAlmogavar himself; and the epithets of indignation burst at once fromhis lips. Jacinto started back, alarmed; but Abdalla approached, andregarding the wounded cavalier with an unmoved countenance, motioned theboy to retire.--In an instant the Moor of Barbary and the Spaniard ofCastile were left alone together.

  "Shall I repeat my words, thou base and cut-throat infidel?" cried DonAmador, rising so far as to place his feet on the floor, though stillsitting on the platform which supported his mattress, and speaking withthe most cutting anger. "Was it not enough, that thou wert a renegade tothe rest, but thou must raise thy Judas-hand against thy benefactor?"

  "My benefactor indeed!" said Abdoul calmly, and with the most musicalutterance of his voice. "Though I wear the livery of the pagans;" (Hehad on an armed tunic, somewhat similar to that of Quauhtimotzin, thoughwithout a plume to his head, and looked not unlike to a Mexican warriorof high degree;) "and though I am, by birth, the natural enemy of theeand thine, yet have I not forgot that thou _art_ my benefactor! Iremember, that, when a brutal soldier struck at me with his lance, thyhand was raised to protect me from the shame; I remember, when athousand weapons were darting at my prostrate body on the pyramid ofZempoala, that thou didst not disdain to preserve me; I remember, that,when I fled from the anger of Don Hernan, thou offeredst me thineintercession. Senor, I have forgotten none of this; nor have Iforgotten," he went on, with earnest gratitude, "that, to these favours,thou didst add the greater ones, of shielding my feeble child fromstripes, from ruin, and perhaps from death. This have I not forgotten,this can I never forget! The name of Spaniard is a curse on my ears; Ihate thy people, and, when God gives me help, I will slay, even to thelast man! but I remember, that thou art my benefactor, and thebenefactor of my child."

  "And dost thou think," said the neophyte, "that these oily words willblind me to thy baseness? or that they can deceive me into belief, whenthy actions have so foully belied them? Cursed art thou, misbelievingMoor! an ingrate and apostate; and, had I no cause, in mine own person,to know thy perfidy, it should be enough to blazon thy villany, thatthou hast, on thine own confession, deserted the standard of Christ, andthe arms of Spain, to enlist in the ranks of their pagan foes!"

  "The standard of Christ," said the Moor, with emphasis, "waves not overthe heads of the Spaniards, but the banner of a fiend, bloody, unjust,and accursed, whom they call by His holy name, and who bids them todefile and destroy; while the Redeemer proclaimeth only good-will andpeace to all men. Have thy good heart and thy strong mind been sodeluded? Canst thou, in truth, believe, that these oppressors of aharmless people, these slayers, who raise the cross of heaven on theplace of blood, and call to God for approval, when their hands aresmoking with the blood of his creatures, are the followers of Christ thepeaceful, Christ the just, Christ the holy? These friends whom thou hastfollowed, are not Christians; and God, whom they traduce and belie inall their actions, has given them over to the punishment of hypocritesand blasphemers, to sufferings miserable and unparalleled, to deathsdreadful and memorable! May it be accomplished,--Amen!"

  "Dost thou speak this to _me_, vile Almogavar! of my friends andcountrymen? Dost thou curse them thus in my presence, most unworthyapostate?"

  "Sorrowful be their doom, and quickly may it come upon them!" criedAbdalla, with ferocious fervour, "for what are they, that it should notbe just? and what am I, that I should not pray that it be accomplished?I remember the days of Granada! I remember the sack of the Alhambra! Iremember the slaughter of the Alpujarras! and I have not forgotten themourning exiles, driven from those green hills, to die among the sandsof Africa, the clime of their fathers, but to them a land of strangers!I remember me how the lowly were given
to the scourge, and the princelyto the fires of Inquisitors,--our children to spears, our wives toravishers and murderers!--Cursed be they that did these things, even tothe last generation!"

  The cavalier was amazed and confounded at the vehement and loftyindignation of the Morisco; and as the form of Abdoul-al-Sidi swelledwith wrath, and his countenance darkened under the gloomy recollection,he seemed to Don Amador rather like one of those mountain princes, whohad defied the conquerors, to the last, among the Alpujarras, than apoor herdsman of Fez, deriving his knowledge, and his fury, only fromthe incitations of exiles. His embarrassment was also increased by asecret consciousness, that the Moor had cause for his hate and hisdenunciations. He answered him, however, with a severe voice:--

  "In these ills and sufferings, _thou_ hadst no part, unless thou hastlied to me; having been a child of the desert, afar from the sufferersof Granada."

  "I _lied_ to thee, then," said Abdalla, elevating his figure, andregarding the cavalier with proud tranquillity. "From the beginning tothe end, was I a chief among the mourners and rebels,--the first tostrike, as I am now the last to curse, the oppressor,--a child of thedesert, only when I had no more to suffer among the Alpujarras; and thoumayst know, now, that my fury is as deep as it is just,--for the poorAbdalla is no Almogavar of Barbary, but a Zegri of Granada!"

  "A Zegri of Granada!" cried Don Amador, with surprise.

  "A Zegri of Granada, and a prince among Zegris!" said the Moor, with amore stately look, though with a voice of the deepest sorrow; "one whosefathers have given kings to the Alhambra, but who hath lived to see hischild a menial in the house of his foe, and both child and fatherleagued with, and lost among, the infidels of a strange land, in a worldunknown!"

  "I thought, by heaven!" said the cavalier, eyeing the apostate with alook almost of respect, "that that courage of thine in the pirate rover,did argue thee to be somewhat above the stamp of a common boor; andtherefore, but more especially in regard of thy boy, did I give theeconsideration myself, and enforce it, as well as I could, to be yieldedby others. But, by the faith which thou professest, sir Zegri! be thouignoble or regal in thy condition, I have not forgotten that, by theblow which has made me (as it seems to me, I am,) thy prisoner, thouhast shown thyself unworthy of nobility; and I tell thee again, withdisgust and indignation, that thou hast done the act of a base and mostvillanous caitiff!"

  "Dost thou still say so?" replied the Zegri, mildly. "I haveacknowledged, that no gratitude can repay thy benefactions; this do Istill confess; and yet have I done all to requite thee. Thou lookest onme with amazement. What is my crime, noble benefactor?"

  "What is thy crime? Art _thou_ bewitched, too?--Slave of an ingrate,didst thou not, when I was already overpowered, smite me down with thineown weapon?"

  "I did,--heaven be thanked!" said the Moor, devoutly.

  "Dost thou acknowledge it, and thank heaven too?" said the incensedcavalier.

  "I acknowledge it, and I thank heaven!" said Abdalla, firmly. "Thousaidst, thou wert already overpowered. Wert thou not in the hands of theMexicans, beyond all hope of rescue?"

  "Doubtless, I was," replied the neophyte; "for Cortes was afar, andAlvarado full three spears' length behind. Nevertheless, I did notdespair of maintaining the fight, until my friends came up to myrelief."

  "Thou wert a captive!" cried the Zegri, impetuously,--"a living captivein the hands of Mexicans! Dost thou know the fate of a prisoner in suchhands?"

  "By my faith," said Don Amador, "I have heard, they put their prisonersto the torture."

  "They sacrifice them to the gods!" cried the Moor. "And the death," hecontinued, his swarthy visage whitening with horror, "the death is ofsuch torment and terror as thou canst not conceive; but _I_ can, for Ihave seen it! Now hear me: I saw my benefactor a captive, and I knew hislife would end on the stone of sacrifice, offered up, like that of abeast, to false and fiendish gods! I say, I saw thee thus; I knew thisshould be thy doom; and I did all that my gratitude taught me, to savethee. I struck thee down, knowing, that if I slew thee, the blow wouldbe that of a true friend, and that thou shouldst die like a soldier, notlike a fatted sheep. Heaven, however, gave me all that I had dared tohope: I harmed thee not; and yet the Mexicans believed that death hadrobbed them of a victim. I harmed thee not; and the heathens suffered meto drag away what seemed a corse; but which lived, and was _mybenefactor_,--the saviour of myself, and the protector of my child!"

  As Abdalla concluded these words, spoken with much emphasis and feeling,a tear glistened in his eye; and the neophyte, starting up and eagerlygrasping his hand, exclaimed,--

  "Now, by heaven! I see all the wisdom and truth of thy friendship; and Ibeg thy pardon for whatever insulting words my folly has caused me tospeak. And, now that I know the blow was struck for such a purpose, Iconfess to thee, as thou saidst thyself, it would have been truegratitude and love, though it had killed me outright."

  "I have done thee even more service than this," said the Zegri, calmly;"but, before I speak it, I must demand of thee, as a Christian andhonourable soldier, to confess thyself my just and true captive."

  "Thy captive!" cried Don Amador. "Dost thou hold me then as a prisoner,and not as a guest and friend? Dost thou check my thankfulness in thebud, and cancel thy services, by making me thy thrall?"

  "I will not answer thy demands," said Abdalla. "I call upon thee, as anoble and knightly soldier, fairly captured, in open war, by my hands,to acknowledge thyself my captive; and, as such, in all things, justlyat my disposition."

  "If thou dost exact it of me," said the cavalier, regarding him withmuch surprise and sorrow, "I must, as a man of honour, so acknowledgemyself. But I began to think better of thee, Abdalla!"

  "And, as a prisoner, to whose honour is confided the charge of his ownkeeping, thou engagest to remain in captivity, without abusing theconfidence which allows such license, by any efforts to escape?"

  "Dost thou demand this much of me?" said Don Amador, with mortified anddejected looks. "If thou art thyself resolved to remain in theindulgence of thy treason, thou surely wilt not think to keep me from myfriends, in their difficulties? and especially from my poor kinsman; whois now greatly disordered, and chiefly, I think, because thou hastrobbed him of Jacinto."

  "This am I not called upon to answer," said Abdalla, gravely. "I onlydemand of thee, what thou knowest thou canst not honourably refuse,--thyknightly gage, to observe the rules of captivity, until such time as Imay think proper to absolve and free thee."

  "Sir Almogavar, or sir Zegri, or whatsoever thou art," said thecavalier, folding his arms, and surveying his jailor sternly, "use thepowers which thou hast, thy chains, and thy magical arts; for I believethou dealest with the devil;--get me ready thy fetters, and thy dungeon.Thou hast the right so to use me, and I consent to the same; but I willgage thee no word to keep in bonds, inglorious and at ease, while myfriends are in peril. However great the service thou hast done to me, Iperceive thou art a traitor. I command thee, therefore, that thou haveme chained and immured forthwith; for, with God's will and help, I willescape from thee as soon as possible, and especially, whensoever myfriends come to assist me."

  "I grant thee this privilege, when thy friends come near to us," saidAbdalla, coolly, "whether thou art chained or not. It is not possiblethou canst escape, otherwise, at all. Thou art far from the palace,ignorant of the way, and, besides, divided from it by a wall ofMexicans, who cannot be numbered. What I ask thee, is for thy good, andfor the good of myself, and Jacinto. If thou leave this house, thou wiltbe immediately seized, and carried to the stone of sacrifice."

  Don Amador shuddered, but said,--

  "I trust in God! and the thought of this fate shall not deter me."

  "Go then, if thou wilt," said the Zegri, haughtily. "The service I havedone thee, has not yet released me from thy debt; and thou canst yetcommand me. Begone, if thou art resolute: the door is open; I opposethee not. Preserve thy life, if thou canst; and when thou art safe atthe garrison, remember, that Abdoul-al-Sidi,
and the boy Jacinto, havetaken thy place on the altar of victims."

  "What dost thou mean? I understand thee not.--What meanest thou?"

  "Even that thou canst not escape, without the same being made known tothe Mexicans; and that it cannot be made known to this vindictivepeople, that I have robbed them of their prey, without the penalty of myown life, and that of Jacinto, being immediately executed. When thoufliest, the father and the son perish."

  "Dost thou speak me this in good faith?" said the cavalier, greatlytroubled. "God forbid I should bring harm to thee, and especially to theboy. If I give thee my gage,--thou wilt not hold me bound to refrainfrom joining my friends, should I be so fortunate as to see them passby, and am persuaded, the Mexicans will not discover thou hast harbouredme?"

  "If they pass by, I will myself open the doors," said Abdalla; "for Iprotest to thee, I keep thee here only to ensure thy security."

  "Hark'ee, sir Moor--Don Hernan is about to retreat. Dost thou intend Ishall remain in captivity--a single victim among the barbarians--whilemy countrymen are flying afar, perhaps returning to Christendom?"

  "I swear to thee, senor," said the Zegri, earnestly, "that, when theSpaniards fly from this city, thou shalt be free to fly with them. Irepeat, I make thee a prisoner, to prevent thy becoming a victim."

  "And what hinders that we do not fly together to the palace? Thyknowledge may conduct us through the streets by night; and, with myhead, I will engage thee a free pardon, and friendly reception."

  "God hath commissioned me to the work, and it shall go on!" said theMoor, with solemn emphasis. "I know that thou couldst not save me fromthe fury of Don Hernan: he would grant thee my life at midnight, and, onthe morrow, thou wouldst find me dead in the court-yard. Fly, if thouwilt, and leave me to perish by the hands of Mexicans: Spaniards shalldrink my blood no more!"

  "I give thee my gage," said the cavalier, "with this understanding,then, that I am free to fly, whenever I may do so without perilling thylife, and the life of Jacinto."

  "And thou wilt hold to this pledge, like a true cavalier?" demandedAbdalla, quickly.

  "Surely, I cannot break my plighted word!"

  "God be thanked!" cried the Zegri, grasping the hand of the cavalier,"for, by this promise, thou hast saved thy life! Remain here; Jacintoshall be thy jailor, thy companion, thy servant. Be content with thylot, and thank God; for thou art the only brand plucked out of theburning, while all the rest shall perish.--God be praised!--I save mybenefactor!"

  With these exclamations of satisfaction, Abdalla departed from thechamber.