The Fair God; or, The Last of the 'Tzins: A Tale of the Conquest of Mexico

by Lew Wallace

  CHAPTER IX.

  THE QUESTIONER OF THE MORNING.

  When Montezuma departed from the old Cu for his palace, it was not tosleep or rest. The revelation that so disturbed him, that held himwordless on the street, and made him shrink from his people, wild withthe promise of pomp and combat, would not be shut out by gates andguards; it clung to his memory, and with him stood by the fountain,walked in the garden, and laid down on his couch. Royalty had nomedicine for the trouble; he was restless as a fevered slave, and attimes muttered prayers, pronouncing no name but Quetzal's. When themorning approached, he called Maxtla, and bade him get ready his canoe:from Chapultepec, the palace and tomb of his fathers, he would see thesun rise.

  From one of the westerly canals they put out. The lake was still rockingthe night on its bosom, and no light other than of the stars shone inthe east. The gurgling sound of waters parted by the rushing vessel, andthe regular dip of the paddles, were all that disturbed the brooding ofmajesty abroad thus early on Tezcuco.

  The canoe struck the white pebbles that strewed the landing at theprincely property just as dawn was dappling the sky. On the highestpoint of the hill there was a tower from which the kings were accustomedto observe the stars. Thither Montezuma went. Maxtla, who alone daredfollow, spread a mat for him on the tiles; kneeling upon it, and foldinghis hands worshipfully upon his breast, he looked to the east.

  And the king was learned; indeed, one more so was not in all his realm.In his student days, and in his priesthood, before he was taken fromsweeping the temple to be arch-ruler, he had gained astrological craft,and yet practised it from habit. The heavens, with their blazonry, wereto him as pictured parchments. He loved the stars for their sublimemystery, and had faith in them as oracles. He consulted them always; hisarmies marched at their bidding; and they and the gods controlled everymovement of his civil polity. But as he had never before been moved byso great a trouble, and as the knowledge he now sought directlyconcerned his throne and nations, he came to consult and question theMorning, that intelligence higher and purer than the stars. If Quetzal'was angered, and would that day land for vengeance, he naturallysupposed the Sun, his dwelling-place, would give some warning. So hecame seeking the mood of the god from the Sun.

  And while he knelt, gradually the gray dawn melted into purple and gold.The stars went softly out. Long rays, like radiant spears, shot up andathwart the sky. As the indications multiplied, his hopes arose.Farther back he threw the hood from his brow; the sun seemed comingclear and cloudless above the mountains, kindling his heart no less thanthe air and earth.

  A wide territory, wrapped in the dim light, extended beneath his feet.There slept Tenochtitlan, with her shining temples and blazing towers,her streets and resistless nationality; there were the four lakes, withtheir blue waters, their shores set with cities, villages and gardens;beyond them lay eastern Anahuac, the princeliest jewel of the Empire.What with its harvests, its orchards, and its homesteads, its forests ofoak, sycamore, and cedar, its population busy, happy, and faithful,contented as tillers of the soil, and brave as lions in time of need, itwas all of Aden he had ever known or dreamed.

  In the southeast, above a long range of mountains, rose the volcanicpeaks poetized by the Aztecs into "The White Woman"[25] and "The SmokingHill."[26] Mythology had covered them with sanctifying faith, as, in adifferent age and more classic clime, it clothed the serene mountain ofThessaly.

  But the king saw little of all this beauty; he observed nothing but thesun, which was rising a few degrees north of "The Smoking Hill." In allthe heavens round there was not a fleck; and already his heart throbbedwith delight, when suddenly a cloud of smoke rushed upward from themountain, and commenced gathering darkly about its white summit. Quickto behold it, he scarcely hushed a cry of fear, and instinctively wavedhis hand, as if, by a kingly gesture, to stay the eruption. Slowly thevapor crept over the roseate sky, and, breathless and motionless, theseeker of the god's mood and questioner of the Morning watched itsprogress. Across the pathway of the sun it stretched, so that when thedisk wheeled fairly above the mountain-range, it looked like a ball ofblood.

  The king was a reader of picture-writing, and skilful in deducing themeaning of men from cipher and hieroglyph. Straightway he interpretedthe phenomenon as a direful portent; and because he came looking foromens, the idea that this was a message sent him expressly from the godswas but a right royal vanity. He drew the hood over his face again, anddrooped his head disconsolately upon his breast. His mind filled with ahost of gloomy thoughts. The revelation of Mualox was prophecy hereconfirmed,--Quetzal' was coming! Throne, power, people,--all the gloriesof his country and Empire,--he saw snatched from his nerveless grasp,and floating away, like the dust of the valley.

  After a while he arose to depart. One more look he gave the sun beforedescending from the roof, and shuddered at the sight of city, lake,valley, the cloud itself, and the sky above it, all colored with anominous crimson.

  "Behold!" he said, tremulously, to Maxtla, "to-day we will sacrifice toQuetzal': how long until Quetzal' sacrifices to himself?"

  The chief cast down his eyes; for he knew how dangerous it was to lookon royalty humbled by fear. Then Montezuma shaded his face again, andleft the proud old hill, with a sigh for its palaces and the beauty ofits great cypress-groves.

  FOOTNOTES:

  [25] Iztacoihuatl.

  [26] Popocatepetl.