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

by Lew Wallace

  CHAPTER VI.

  IN THE LEAGUER.

  By and by a Spaniard came out through the main gateway of the palace;after brief leave-taking with the guard there, he walked rapidly downthe street. The 'tzin, observing that the man was equipped for ajourney, surmised him to be a courier, and smiled at the confidence ofthe master who sent him forth alone at such a time.

  The courier went his way, and the great movement proceeded.

  After a while Hualpa and Io' came down from the turret where, under theurn of fire, they too had been watching, and the former said,--

  "Your orders, O 'tzin, are executed. The armies all stand halted at thegates of the city, and at the outlet of each canal I saw a division ofcanoes lying in wait."

  The 'tzin looked up at the sun, then past meridian, and replied, "It iswell. When the chiefs see but one smoke from this temple they will enterthe city. Go, therefore, and put out all the fires except that ofHuitzil'."

  And soon but one smoke was to be seen.

  A little afterwards there was a loud cry from the street, and, lookingdown, the 'tzin saw the Spanish courier, without morion or lance,staggering as he ran, and shouting. Instantly the great gate was flungopen, and the man taken in; and instantly a trumpet rang out, and thenanother and another. Guatamozin sprang up. The alarm-note thrilled himno less than the Christians.

  The palace, before so slumberous, became alive. The Tlascalans pouredfrom the sheds, that at places lined the interior of the parapet, andfrom the main building forth rushed the Spaniards,--bowmen, slingers,and arquebusiers; and the gunners took post by their guns, while thecavalry clothed their horses, and stood by the bridles. There was notumult, no confusion; and when the 'tzin saw them in theirplaces--placid, confident, ready--his heart beat hard: he would win,--onthat he was resolved,--but ah, at what mighty cost!

  Soon, half drowned by the voices of the captains mustering the enemybelow, he heard another sound rising from every quarter of the city,but deeper and more sustained, where the great columns marched.He listened intently. Though far and faint, he recognized the_susurrante_,--literally the commingled war-cries of almost all theknown fighting tribes of the New World. The chiefs were faithful; theywere coming,--by the canals, and up and down the great streets, theywere coming; and he listened, measuring their speed by the growingdistinctness of the clamor. As they came nearer, he became confident,then eager. Suddenly, everything,--objects far and near, the old palace,and the hated flags, the lake, and the purple distance, and theunflecked sky,--all melted into mist, for he looked at them throughtears. So the Last of the 'Tzins welcomed his tawny legions.

  While he indulged the heroic weakness, Io' and Hualpa rejoined him.About the same time Cortes and some of his cavaliers appeared on the_azoteas_ of the central and higher part of the palace. They were inarmor, but with raised visors, and seemed to be conjecturing one withanother, and listening to the portentous sounds that now filled thewelkin. And as the 'tzin, in keen enjoyment, watched the wonder thatplainly possessed the enemy, there was a flutter of gay garments uponthe palace, and two women joined the party.

  "Nenetzin!" said Io', in a low voice.

  "Nenetzin!" echoed Hualpa.

  And sharper grew his gaze, while down stooped the sun to illumine theface of the faithless, as, smiling the old smile, she rested lovinglyupon Alvarado's arm. He turned away, and covered his head. But soon ahand was laid upon his shoulder, and he heard a voice,--the voice of the'tzin,----

  "Lord Hualpa, as once before you were charged, I charge you now. Withyour own hand make the signal. Io' will bring you the word. Go now."Then the voice sunk to a whisper. "Patience, comrade. The days for manyto come will be days of opportunity. Already the wrong-doer is in thetoils; yet a little longer. Patience!"

  The noise of the infidels had now come to be a vast uproar, astonishingto the bravest of the listeners. Even Cortes shared the common feeling.That war was intended he knew; but he had not sufficiently credited theAztec genius. The whole valley appeared to be in arms. His face became ashade more ashy as he thought, either this was of the king, or thepeople were capable of grand action without the king; and he griped hissword-hand hard in emphasis of the oath he swore, to set the monarch andhis people face to face; that would he, by his conscience,--by the bloodof the saints!

  And as he swore, here and there upon the adjacent houses armed menshowed themselves; and directly the heads of columns came up, and,turning right and left at the corners, began to occupy all the streetsaround the royal enclosure.

  If one would fancy what the cavaliers then saw, let him first recall theplace. It was in the heart of the city. Eastward arose the_teocallis_,--a terraced hill in fact, and every terrace avantage-point. On all other sides of the palace were edifices eachhigher than its highest part; and each fronted with a wall resembling aparapet, except that its outer face was in general richly ornamentedwith fretwork and mouldings and arches and grotesque corbals andcantilevers. Every roof was occupied by infidels; over the sculpturedwalls they looked down into the fortress, if I may so call it, of thestrangers.

  As the columns marched and countermarched in the streets thusbeautifully bounded, they were a spectacle of extraordinary animation.Over them played the semi-transparent shimmer or thrill of air, so tospeak, peculiar to armies in rapid movement,--curious effect of changingcolors and multitudinous motion. The Christians studied them with aninterest inappreciable to such as have never known the sensations of asoldier watching the foe taking post for combat.

  Of arms there were in the array every variety known to the Aztecanservice,--the long bow; the javelin; slings of the ancient fashion,fitted for casting stones a pound or more in weight; the _maquahuitl_,limited to the officers; and here and there long lances with heads ofbronze or sharpened flint. The arms, it must be confessed, added littleto the general appearance of the mass,--a deficiency amply compensatedby the equipments. The quivers of the bowmen, and the pouches of theslingers, and the broad straps that held them to the person werebrilliantly decorated. Equally striking were the costumes of the severalbranches of the service: the fillet, holding back the long, straighthair, and full of feathers, mostly of the eagle and turkey, though notunfrequently of the ostrich,--costly prizes come, in the way of trade,from the far _llanos_ of the south; the _escaupil_, of brightestcrimson; the shield, faced with brazen plates, and edged with flyingtufts of buffalo hair, and sometimes with longer and brighter locks, thegift of a mistress or a trophy of war. These articles, though halfbarbaric, lost nothing by contrast with the naked, dark-brown necks andlimbs of the warriors,--lithe and stately men, from whom the officerswere distinguished by helmets of hideous device and mantlesindescribably splendid. Over all shone the ensigns, _indicia_ of thetribes: here a shining sphere; there a star, or a crescent, or a radialsun; but most usually a floating cloth covered with blazonry.

  With each company marched a number of priests, bareheaded and frocked,and a corps of musicians, of whom some blew unearthly discords fromconchs, while others clashed cymbals, and beat atabals fashioned likethe copper tam-tams of the Hindoos.

  Even the marching of the companies was peculiar. Instead of the slow,laborious step of the European, they came on at a pace which, betweensunrise and sunset, habitually carried them from the bivouac twentyleagues away.

  And as they marched, the ensigns tossed to and fro; the priests sangmonotonous canticles; the cymbalists danced and leaped joyously at thehead of their companies; and the warriors in the ranks flung theirshields aloft, and yelled their war-cries, as if drunk with happiness.

  As the inundation of war swept around the palace, a cavalier raised hiseyes to the temple.

  "_Valgame Dios!_" he cried, in genuine alarm. "The levies of the valleyare not enough. Lo, the legions of the air!"

  On the _azoteas_ where but the moment before only the 'tzin and Io' wereto be seen, there were hundreds of caparisoned warriors; and as theChristians looked at them, they all knelt, leaving bu
t one man standing;simultaneously the companies on the street stopped, and, with those onthe house-tops, hushed their yells, and turned up to him their facescountless and glistening.

  "Who is he?" the cavaliers asked each other.

  Cortes, cooler than the rest, turned to Marina: "Ask the princessNenetzin if she knows him."

  And Nenetzin answered,--

  "The 'tzin Guatamo."

  As the two chiefs surveyed each other in full recognition, down from thesky, as it were, broke an intonation so deep that the Christians werestartled, and the women fled from the roof.

  "_Ola!_" cried Alvarado, with a laugh. "I have heard that thunderbefore. Down with your visors, gentlemen, as ye care for the faces yourmothers love!"

  Three times Hualpa struck the great drum in the sanctuary of Huitzil';and as the last intonation rolled down over the city the clamor of theinfidels broke out anew, and into the enclosure of the palace theypoured a cloud of missiles so thick that place of safety there was notanywhere outside the building.

  To this time the garrison had kept silence; now, standing each at hispost, they answered. In the days of the former siege, besides preparingbanquettes for the repulsion of escalades, they had pierced the outerwalls, generally but little higher than a man's head, with loop-holesand embrasures, out of which the guns, great and small, were suddenlypointed and discharged. No need of aim; outside, not farther than theleap of the flames, stood the assailants. The effect, especially of theartillery, was dreadful; and the prodigious noise, and the dense,choking smoke, stupefied and blinded the masses, so unused to suchenginery. And from the wall they shrank staggering, and thousands turnedto fly; but in pressed the chiefs and the priests, and louder rose theclangor of conchs and cymbals: the very density of the multitude helpedstay the panic.

  And down from the temple came the 'tzin, not merely to give the effectof his presence, but to direct the assault. In the sanctuary he hadarrayed himself; his _escaupil_ and _tilmatli_, of richest feather-work,fairly blazed; his helm and shield sparkled; and behind, scarcely lesssplendid, walked Io' and Hualpa. He crossed the street, shouting hiswar-cry. At sight of him, men struggling to get away turned to fightagain.

  Next the wall of the palace the shrinking of the infidels had left aclear margin; and there, the better to be seen by his people, the 'tzinbetook himself. In front of the embrasures he cleared the lines of fire,so that the guns were often ineffectual; he directed attention to theloopholes, so that the appearance of an arbalist or arquebus drew ahundred arrows to the spot. Taught by his example, the warriors foundthat under the walls there was a place of safety; then he set them toclimbing; for that purpose some stuck their javelins in the cracks ofthe masonry; some formed groups over which others raised themselves;altogether the crest of the wall was threatened in a thousand places,insomuch that the Tlascalans occupied themselves exclusively in itsdefence; and as often as one raised to strike a climber down, he madehimself a target for the quick bowmen on the opposite houses.

  And so, wherever the 'tzin went he inspired his countrymen; the wounded,and the many dead and dying, and the blood maddened instead of dauntingthem. They rained missiles into the enclosure; upon the wall they foughthand to hand with the defenders; in their inconsiderate fury, manyleaped down inside, and perished instantly,--but all in vain.

  Then the 'tzin had great timbers brought up, thinking to batter in theparapet. Again and again they were hurled against the face of themasonry, but without effect.

  Yet another resort. He had balls of cotton steeped in oil shot blazinginto the palace-yard. Against the building, and on its tiled roof, theyfell harmless. It happened, however, that the sheds in which theTlascalans quartered consisted almost entirely of reeds, with roofs ofrushes and palm-leaves; they burst into flames. Water could not bespared by the garrison, for the drought was great; in the extremity, theTlascalans and many Christians were drawn from the defences, and set tocasting earth upon the new enemy. Hundreds of the former were killed ordisabled. The flames spread to the wooden outworks of the wall. Thesmoke almost blotted out the day. After a while a part of the wall felldown, and the infidels rushed in; a steady fire of arquebuses sweptthem away, and choked the chasm with the slain; still others braved theperil; company after company dashed into the fatal snare uselessly, aswaves roll forward and spend themselves in the gorge of a sea-wall.

  The conflict lasted without abatement through long hours. The sun wentdown. In the twilight the great host withdrew,--all that could. Thesmoke from the conflagration and guns melted into the shades of night;and the stars, mild-eyed as ever, came out one by one to see the wrecksheaped and ghastly lying in the bloody street and palace-yard.

  All night the defenders lay upon their arms, or, told off in workingparties, labored to restore the breach.

  All night the infidels collected their dead and wounded, thousands innumber. They did not offer to attack,--custom forbade that; yet over thewalls they sent their vengeful warnings.

  All night the listening sentinels on the parapet noted the darknessfilled with sounds of preparation from every quarter of the city. Andthey crossed themselves, and muttered the names of saints and goodangels, and thought shudderingly of the morrow.