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

by Lew Wallace

  CHAPTER IX.

  OVER THE WALL,--INTO THE PALACE.

  The duty Hualpa had been charged with by the 'tzin was not difficult ofperformance; for the bridges of the capital, even those along thebeautiful street, were much simpler structures than they appeared. Whenhe had seen the balustrades and flooring and the great timbers thatspanned the canal--the first one south of the old palace--torn fromtheir places, and hauled off by the canoemen whom he had collected forthe purpose, he returned to the temple to rejoin his master.

  The assault upon the palace, when he reached that point, was morefurious than at any previous time. The companies in the street werefighting with marvellous courage, while the missiles from the _azoteas_and westward terraces of the temple, and all the houses around,literally darkened the air. Amidst the clamor Hualpa caught at intervalsthe cry,--"The 'tzin, the 'tzin!" He listened, and all the loyalthousands seemed shouting, "The 'tzin, the 'tzin! _Al-a-lala!_"

  "Has anything befallen the 'tzin?" he asked of an acquaintance.

  "Yes, thanks to Huitzil'! He has broken one of Malinche's towers topieces, and killed everybody in it."

  Hualpa's love quickened suddenly. "Blessed be all the gods!" he cried,and, passing on, ascended to the _azoteas_. It may have been the battle,full of invocations, as battles always are; or it may have been thatIo', in full enjoyment of his command, and so earnest in itsperformance, stimulated his ambition; or it may have been the influenceof his peculiar sorrow, the haunting memories of his love, and she, itsstar, separated from him by so little,--something made him restless andfeverish. He talked with the caciques and priests; he clomb the turret,and watched the smoke go softly up, and hide itself in the deeper blueof the sky; with Io', he stood on the temple's verge, and witnessed thefight, at times using bow and sling; but nothing brought him relief. Theopportunity he had so long desired was here calling him, and passingaway. O for an hour of liberty to enact himself!

  Unable to endure the excitement, he started in search of the 'tzin,knowing that, wherever he was, there was action, if not opportunity. Atthat moment he saw a cacique in the street plant a ladder against thewall of the palace not far from the main gate. The Tlascalans defendingat that point tried to throw it off, but a shower of stones from theterrace of the temple deluged them, and they disappeared. Up went thecacique, up went his followers; they gained the crest; then the conflictpassed from Hualpa's view.

  "Io'," he said, "when the 'tzin comes back, tell him I have gone to makea way for him through yon wall."

  "Have a care, comrade; have a care!"

  Hualpa put an arm around him, and replied, smiling, "There is one overthe wall now: if he fears not, shall I? And then,"--he whisperedlow,--"Nenetzin will despise me if I come not soon."

  A dawning fell upon Io', and from that time he knew the power of love.

  "The gods go with you! Farewell."

  Hualpa set about his purpose deliberately. Near the door of thepresence-chamber there was a pile of trophies, shields, arms, and armorof men and horses; he made some selections from the heap, and carriedthem into the chamber. When he came out, under his _panache_ there wasa steel cap, and under his mantle a cuirass; and to some dead Spaniardhe was further beholden for a shield and battle-axe,--the latter socalled, notwithstanding it had a head like a hammer, and a handle ofsteel pointed at the end and more than a yard in length.

  Thus prepared, he went down into the street, and forced his way to theladder planted near the gate; thence to the crest of the wall. A hundredarrows splintered against his shield, as he looked down upon the combatyet maintained by the brave cacique at the foot of the banquette.

  The wall, as I think I have elsewhere said, was built of blocks ofwrought stone, laid in cement only a little less hard than the stone,and consequently impervious to any battery against its base; at the sametime, taken piece by piece from the top, its demolition was easy. Hualpapaused not; between the blocks he drove the pointed handle of his axe: amoment, and down fell the capping-stone; another followed, and another.Alike indifferent to the arrows of the garrison and the acclamations ofthe witnesses outside, looking neither here nor there, bending everyfaculty to the task, he did in a few minutes what seemed impossible:through a breach wide enough for the passage of a double sedan, foemenwithin and without the wall saw each other.

  And there was hastening thither of detachments. Up the ladder and overthe wall leaped the devoted infidels, nothing deterred by waiting swordsand lances; striking or dying, they shouted, "The 'tzin, the 'tzin!_Al-a-lala!_" Live or die, they strove to cover the steadfast workman inthe breach.

  De Olid, at the time in charge of the palace, drew nigh, attracted bythe increasing uproar.

  "Ye fools! Out on ye! See ye not that the dog is hiding behind aChristian shield! Run, fly, bring a brace of arquebusiers! Bring thereserve guns! Upon them, gentlemen! Swords and axes! The Mother for usall! _Christo, Christo!_"

  And on foot, and in full armor, he pushed into the press; for, true tohis training, he saw that the laborer behind the shining shield was moreworthy instant notice than the hordes clambering over the wall.

  Still the breach widened and deepened, and every rock that tumbled fromits place contributed to the roadway forming on both sides of the wallto facilitate the attack. But now the guns were coming, and thearquebusiers made haste to plant their pieces, against which the goodshield might not defend. Suddenly Hualpa stood up, his surcoat whitenedwith the dust of the mortar; without a word he descended to the street:the work was done,--_a way for the 'tzin was ready_! Scarcely had hetouched the pavement before the guns opened; scarcely had the gunsopened before the gorge was crowded with infidels rushing in. Thepalace, wanting the column absent with Cortes, was in danger. To the onepoint every Christian was withdrawn; even the sick and wounded staggeredfrom the hospital to repel the attack. With all his gallantry, De Olidwas beaten slowly back to the house. Cursed he the infidels, prayed hethe return of Cortes,--still he went back. In the midst of hisperplexity, a messenger came to tell him the enemy was breaking throughthe wall of the western front.

  Hualpa had not only made another breach,--De Olid found him inside theenclosure, with a support already too strong for the Tlascalans.

  The fight the good captain was called to witness was that of nativeagainst native; and, had the peril been less demanding, he would haveenjoyed its novelties. An astonishing rattle of shields and spears,mixed with the clash of _maquahuitls_, and a deafening outcry from thecontending tribes saluted him. Over the fighting lines the air wasthick with stones and flying javelins and tossing banners. Quarter wasnot once asked. The grim combatants engaged each other to conquer ordie. Hither and thither danced the priests, heedless of the danger, nowcursing the laggards, now blessing the brave. And at times so shrillyblew the conchs that where they were nothing might be heard but theshriller medley of war-cry answering war-cry.

  I doubt if the captain took other note of the fight than its menace tothe palace; and if he prayed the return of Cortes a little morefervently than before, it was not from fear, or confusion of mind; forstraightway he appealed to that arm which had been the last and savingresort of the Christians in many a former strait. Soon every disengagedgun was in position before the western door of the palace, loaded fullof stones not larger than bird's-eggs, and trained, through the crowd,upon the breach,--and afterwards there were those who charged that thecaptain did not wait for all his Tlascalans to get out of the way. Theguns opened with united voices; palace and paved earth trembled; and thesmoke, returning upon the pieces, enveloped everything, insomuch thatthe door of the house was not to be seen, nor was friend distinguishablefrom enemy.

  If my reader has been in battle, he knows the effect of that fire toowell to require description of me; he can hear the cries of the wounded,and see the ghastly wrecks on the pavement; he can see, too, the recoilof the Aztecs, and the rush of the Tlascalans, savagely eager to followup their advantage. I leave the scene to his fancy, and
choose rather togo with a warrior who, availing himself of the shrouding of the smoke,pushed through the throng behind the guns, and passed into the palace.His steps were hurried, and he looked neither to the right nor left;those whom he brushed out of the way had but time to see him pass, or tocatch an instant's view of a figure of motley appurtenances,--aChristian shield and battle-axe, a close cap of steel, and the gleam ofa corselet under the colorless tatters of a surcoat of feather-work,--afigure impossible to identify as friend or foe. The reader, however,will recognize Hualpa coming out of the depths of the battle, butgoing--whither?

  Once before, as may be remembered, he had been in the ancienthouse,--the time when, in a fit of shame and remorse, he had come to layhis lordship and castle at the king's feet; then he had entered by theeastern portal, and passed to the royal presence under guidance: thistime his entry was from the west, and he was alone, and unacquaintedwith the vast interior, its halls, passages, courts, and chambers. Inhis first visit, moreover, peace had been the rule, and he could not goamiss for friends: now the palace was a leaguered citadel, and he couldhardly go amiss for enemies.

  Whatever his purpose, he held boldly on. It is possible he counted onthe necessities of the battle requiring, as in fact they did, thepresence of every serviceable man of the garrison. The few he met passedhim in haste, and without question. He avoided the courts and occupiedrooms. In the heart of the building he was sensible that the walls andvery air vibrated to the roar without; and as the guns in the easternfront answered those in the western, he was advised momentarily of thedirection in which he was proceeding, and that his friends stillmaintained the combat.

  Directly three men passed clad in _nequen_; they were talking earnestly,and scarcely noticed him; after them came another, very old, anddistinguished by a green _maxtlatl_ over his white tunic,--one of theking's councillors.

  "Stay, uncle," said Hualpa, "stay; I have a question to ask you."

  The old man seemed startled.

  "Who are you?" he inquired.

  Hualpa did not appear to hear him, but asked, "Is not the princessNenetzin with the king, her father?"

  "Follow this hall to its end," replied the ancient, coldly. "She isthere, but not with the king, her father. Who is he," he continued,after a pause,--"who is he that asks for the false princess?"

  With a groan Hualpa passed on.

  The hall ended in a small _patio_, which, at sight, declared itself aretreat for love. The walls were finished with a confusion of arabesquemoulding, brilliantly and variously colored; the tracery around the opendoors and windows was a marvel of the art; there were flowers on thefloor, and in curious stands, urns, and swinging baskets; there werealso delicate vines, and tropical trees dwarfed for the place, amongstwhich one full grown banana lifted its long branches of velvet green,and seemed to temper the light with dewy coolness; in the centre, therewas a dead fountain. Indeed, the patio could have been but for the onepurpose. Here, walled in from the cares of empire, where only the daywas bold enough to come unbidden, the wise Axaya' and his less fortunatesuccessors, Tecociatzin and Avizotl, forgot their state, and drank theircups of love, and were as other men.

  All the beauty of the place, however, was lost on Hualpa. He saw onlyNenetzin. She was sitting, at the time, in a low sedilium, her whitegarments faintly tinted by the scarlet stripes of a canopy extended highoverhead, to protect her from the too ardent sun.

  At the sound of his sandals, she started; and as he approached her, shearose in alarm. In sooth, his toilette was not that most affected forthe wooing of women; he brought with him the odor of battle; and as heknelt but a little way from her, she saw there was blood upon his hands,and upon the axe and shield he laid beside him.

  "Who are you?" she asked.

  He took off the steel cap and shapeless _panache_, and looked up in herface.

  "The lord Hualpa!" she exclaimed. Then a thought flashed upon hermind, and with terror in every feature, she cried, "Ah, you havetaken the palace! And the _Tonatiah_?"--she clasped her handsdespairingly,--"dead? a captive? Where is he? I will save him. Take meto him."

  At these words, the uncertain expression with which he had looked up toher upon baring his head changed to utter hopelessness. The hurriedsentences tore his heart, like talons. For this he had come to herthrough so much peril! For this he was then braving death at her feet!His head sunk upon his breast, and he said,--

  "The palace is not ours. The _Tonatiah_ yet lives, and is free."

  With a sigh of relief, she resumed her seat, asking,--

  "How came you here?"

  He answered without raising his eyes, "The keepers of the palace arestrong; they can stay the thousands, but they could not keep me out."

  The face of the listener softened; she saw his love, and all hisheroism, but said, coldly,--

  "I have heard that wise men do such things only of necessity."

  "I do not pretend to wisdom," he replied. "Had I been wise, I would nothave loved you. Since our parting at Chapultepec, where I was so happy,I have thought you might be a prisoner here, and in my dreams I haveheard you call me. And a little while ago, on the temple, I said to Io','Nenetzin will despise me, if I come not soon.' Tell me, O Nenetzin,that you are a prisoner, and I will take you away. Tell me that thestories told of you on the streets are not true, and--"

  "What stories?" she asked.

  "Alas, that it should be mine to tell them! And to you, Nenetzin, mybeautiful!"

  With a strong effort, he put down the feeling, and went on,--

  "There be those who say that the good king, your father, is in thisprison by your betrayal; they say, too, that you are the keeper of ashrine unknown to the gods of Anahuac; and yet more shamelessly, theysay you abide here with the _Tonatiah_, unmindful of honor, father, orgods known or unknown. Tell me, O Nenetzin, tell me, I pray you, thatthese are the tales of liars. If you cannot be mine, at least let me gohence with cause to think you in purity like the snow on the mountaintop. My heart is at your feet,--O crush me not utterly!"

  Thereupon, she arose, with flushed face and flashing eyes, never soproud, never so womanly.

  "Lord Hualpa, were you more or less to me than you are, I would makeoutcry, and have you sent to death. You cannot understand me; yet I willanswer--because of the love which brought you here, I will answer."

  She went into a chamber, and returning, held up the iron cross, moreprecious to her, I fear, as the gift of Alvarado than as the symbol ofChrist.

  "Look, lord Hualpa! This speaks to me of a religion better than thatpractised in the temples, and of a God mightier than all those known inAnahuac,--a God whom it is useless to resist, who may not beresisted,--the only God. There, in my chamber, is an altar to Him, uponwhich rests only this cross and such flowers as I can gather here in themorning; that is the shrine of which you have heard upon the street. Iworship at no other. As to the king, I did come and tell the strangersof the attack he ordered. Lord Hualpa, to me, as is the destiny of everywoman, the hour came to choose between love and father. I could notelse. What harm has come of my choice? Is not the king safe?"

  At that moment, the noise which had all the time been heard in the_patio_, as of a battle up in the air, swelled trebly loud. The tendrilsof the vines shook; the floor trembled.

  "Hark!" she said, with an expression of dread. "Is he not safer thanthat other for whom I forsook him? Yet I thought to save them both; andsaved they shall be!" she added, with a confident smile. "The God Iworship can save them, and He will."

  Then she became silent; and as he could tell by her face that she wasstruggling with a painful thought, he waited, listening intently. Atlength she spoke, this time with downcast eyes:--

  "It would be very pleasant, O Hualpa, to have you go away thinking mepure as snow on the mountain-top. And if--if I am not,--then in thiscross"--and she kissed the symbol tearfully--"there is safety for me. Iknow there is a love that can purify all things."

  The sensibilities are not alike in all persons; but it is not tru
e, assome philosophers think, that infidels, merely because they are such,are incapable of either great joy or great grief. The mother of El Chicoreviled him because he took his last look at Granada through tears; notless poignant was the sorrow of Hualpa, looking at his love, by her ownconfession lost to him forever; his head drooped, and he settled downand fell forward upon his face, crushed by the breath of a woman,--hewhom a hundred shields had not sufficed to stay!

  For a time nothing was heard in the _patio_ but the battle. Nenetzinstirred not; she was in the mood superinduced by pity and remorse, whenthe mind merges itself in the heart, and is lost in excess of feeling.

  At length the spell was broken. A woman rushed in, clapping her handsjoyfully, and crying,--

  "Be glad, be glad, O Nenetzin! Malinche has come back, and we aresaved!"

  And more the Dona Marina would have said, but her eyes fell upon thefallen man, and she stopped.

  Nenetzin told his story,--the story women never tire of hearing.

  "If he stays here, he dies," said Marina, weeping.

  "He shall not die. I will save him too," said Nenetzin, and she went tohim, and took his hands, bloody as they were, and, by gentle words, wokehim from his stupor. Mechanically he took his cap, shield, and mace, andfollowed her,--he knew not whither.

  And she paused not until he was safely delivered to Maxtla, in thequarters occupied by the king.