The Infidel; or, the Fall of Mexico. Vol. I.

by Robert Montgomery Bird

  CHAPTER X.

  The royal garden of Tezcuco was an extensive piece of ground, fenced, onthree sides, by the palace and its dependencies, and bounded on thefourth, by the waters of the lake, from which it was divided by a lowwall, long since broken down by the Conquerors, by certain shadowybuildings, and by clumps of noble cypresses and other trees. The moon,not yet near her full, shone westward of the meridian, in a skyintensely azure and almost cloudless; and her beams could be traced,through the wall of cypresses, glittering and dancing on the lightwaves, as they rippled up merrily to the night-breeze. What taste wasdisplayed in the plan and cultivation of the garden, could not bedetermined, at this hour, and in this insufficient, though beautiful,light. One could behold, indeed, obscurely, flower-beds and shrubberies,winding alleys and hanging groves, little still pools and even, here andthere, a jetting fountain, scattered about in a manner which theimagination might believe was designed and judicious; but it seemed, atnight, rather a wilderness, in which the nostrils had greater reason tobe gratified than the eyes. A thousand odours fell from the trees, athousand scents rose from the flowers, as the heads of the one and thepetals of the other were shaken by the flitting gusts. It was a scenecalculated at least to soothe exasperated feelings, and induce sentimentand melancholy in the breast of the contemplative.

  To Juan's temperament, it would have been, at any other moment,saddening enough; but his thoughts were, at present, far too much, andfar too painfully, engaged, to permit any to be wasted upon it.

  As he followed hastily at the heels of the Alguazil, he made one or twoagitated attempts to draw from him some further tokens to remove orconfirm his boding suspicions; but the Alguazil had on the sudden grownvery cautiously or very maliciously silent, and answered only bypressing his finger on his lips, eyeing the youth significantly, andhurrying him more rapidly along.

  He led him to a spot, almost in the centre of the garden, where a littleoval-shaped pool lay embosomed among schinus-trees, whose long weepingbranches, stirred by the wind, swept gracefully over and in the water,which was only agitated, when thus disturbed by the motion of a bough,or by the plunge of the fragrant berries, the harvest of a former year,which dropped at intervals from the cluster. A single moonbeam found itsway into this solitary inclosure, falling upon a limited portion of apath which seemed to surround the pool. In other respects, all was darkand invisible, and not a ray could be seen on the water, save when thespectator, peering over the brink, beheld some faint star of the zenithglimmering down among the shadowy depths.

  Upon this path, and in this moonbeam, the Alguazil paused, and pointinghastily to a nook--the darkest of all where all were dark,--Juanperceived obscurely what seemed a moving figure. The next moment,Villafana passed among the boughs, retracing his steps, and strode againinto the moonlight. As he stood an instant shaking the dew-drops fromhis cloak, he beheld a dark object approaching slowly on the path. Itwas the faithful Befo, who, with his head to the ground, and his taildraggling in the grass, as if sensible of having committed a breach ofdiscipline, yet crawled along after his master, under the irresistibleinstinct of fidelity.

  "This is ill thought on, and may be unlucky," muttered Villafana, with asubdued voice. "Here, Befo! you rascal! come with me, and you shall havea bone.--Ay, thou ill devil!" he continued, in the same whispered tones,as Befo, without stirring to the right or the left, and merely showinghis teeth, when the Alguazil seemed disposed to check him with his hand,passed on towards the grove,--"go thy ways, and growl as thou wilt: thouart the only thing in the land incorruptible. But thou wilt beacquainted with my dagger yet, if thou hast no better appetite for mydinner."

  He resumed his path. He had not taken a dozen steps, before he becamesensible of the approach of another intruder: but this time the intruderwas human. There was something in the fashion and sweep of the garments,which, even at a distance, apprized him of the character of the comer.

  "The devil take these prying priests, monks, friars, and all!" hemuttered irreverently betwixt his teeth.--"Holy father,----Hah! by themass, is it thou, Camarga! my brother of all orders, monkish, mendicant,martial, and so on? Thy masking goes the wrong way: I told thee to meetme at the prison. 'Tis my palace, man; and the princes are inwaiting.--Come, these damp mazes are ill for thy years and diseasedliver. We will walk together."

  "Senor Grunidor, as they call you," said Camarga, flinging back thewhite cowl, and revealing his sallow features in the moonshine, "senorAlguazil, carcelero, rogue, conspirator, devil, and what-not, how I cameto be so deep among your damnable devices, in the short month I havebeen in this land, I know not, except that I have, like thyself, agreater aptitude to be groping among caverns than journeying on kings'highways. But know, sirrah, that besides _thy_ subtleties, I have somewhimseys of my own; to which, when the wind stirs them, yours must giveplace, were they ten thousand times more magnificent than your witstrives to make them appear. Begone, therefore; get thee to thy scurvyTlascalan, whom thou art training to the gallows; to thy MexicanMagnifico, who is an ass to trust his neck to thy keeping; and to whatvagabond Christians will give thee their countenance, who are e'engreater fools than thyself, and the Indians together. Get thee away: Ihave business of mine own; and I will come to you when it is despatched,or I will _not_ come,--just as the imp urges me. So away with you, andleave me to myself."

  "Under your favour, no," said Villafana, apparently too well acquaintedwith the man to be much surprised at a tone and manner so unlike tothose which Camarga had used at the cypress-tree: "I must e'en have yoursaintly cowl and leaden cross, to swear the two infidels together:otherwise there is no trusting them.--They have much superstitiousreverence for our priests and ceremonies. Come, senor; I tell thee, theMexican will make our fortunes."

  "Thine, rogue, _thine_!" said the disguised Camarga, impatiently: "Whytalkest thou to me in this stupid wise? I am an older villain thanthou.--I have a fancy for this lad of the Anakim, this thick-witted,turtle-brained young Magog. Thou makest a mystery of him, too. 'Slid! Iwill penetrate it; for I have a use to make of him, as well as thou."

  "Demonios!" said Villafana; "are you seeking Juan Lerma?"

  "Ay, marry. I dogged thee hitherward, I saw thee hide him in the bush,and by St. Dominic, (who will fry my soul to cinders, for defiling hisgarments--_peccavi_!) I will know what's i' the wind betwixt you, ere Istir a step further in your counsels. Dost thou think I will be thineaccomplice, and have anything hidden from me? Thou swearest, he is to bemurdered to-morrow, too. There is no time to be lost."

  "Thou art mad," said Villafana: "he is engaged on our business. I makeno mystery; I will tell you all. It is well I met thee. He hascompany,--a good sword,--and would think no more of lunging through thyholy lion's skin, if he caught thee eavesdropping--"

  "Hark! dost thou not hear tuck and corselet?" said Camarga, smilinggrimly, and rattling the hilt of a sword against his concealed armour."I must know his companion too. I tell thee, I will have all thysecrets, or I drop thee, perhaps denounce thee."

  "Thou shalt have them," said Villafana, gradually drawing him furtherfrom the pool. "His companion is La Monjonaza."

  "Ha! sits the wind there? I must have a peep at her: they say, she islovely as a goddess."

  "Thou wilt incense her," said Villafana, emphatically. "By heaven, thouknowest not the temper of this woman, which is deadly. Leave the twocooing fools to themselves. Our fortunes,--nay, faith, our lives, dependupon them. La Monjonaza is deep in our secrets,--"

  "Knave!" muttered the pretended friar, in a low but furious voice, "hastthou trusted my life in the keeping of a woman?"

  "Pho, she is an older conspirator than thou; a wiser, too, for she cankeep her temper. Out of her love for the young man, we draw our truestsafety and quickest success."

  "Her love! oh fu! and is she of this corrupt fickleness, that she willhave two lovers in one hour? But it is the way with these creatures!"

  "They are old lovers, very old lovers, senor," said Villafana,endeavouring, as he spoke, b
ut in vain, to quicken the steps of Camarga."You shall hear the story.--Juan Lerma's father was some low, poor, basefellow, killed in some tumult at Isabela. The old hidalgo, Antonio delMilagro, took the boy out of charity, first as a servant--"

  "A servant? Dios mio!--Is he of no better beginning?"

  "Not a jot; but the old fellow liked him, and, in the end, treated himfull as well as his own son,--a knavish lad, called Hilario, some two orthree years older than Juan."

  "Slife!" said Camarga, "tell me no granddam's tale, with all tediousparticulars. How came the youth into the hands of Cortes?"

  "Even by setting out to seek his fortune, somewhat early, and getting toSantiago, where Cortes took him into keeping. You heard us say, that DonHernan, when he received his commission from Velasquez, sent Juan backto his native island, to recruit forces. It was natural he should visithis old friends at Isabela. It was here he met with, and quarrelledabout, Magdalena--"

  "Magdalena!" said Camarga, with surprise. "You swore her name wasInfeliz!"

  "Ay; but the true one is Magdalena. When she came from Spain--"

  "From Spain!" cried Camarga, starting: "is she not an islander?"

  "Pho! didst thou ever see a creature of her beauty, born out ofAndalusia?"

  "I have not seen her--but I will,--yes, by all the saints of heaven, Iwill,--I must.--How came she to the island?"

  "Oh, a-horseback, I think," said Villafana; "for the ship was never seenat Isabela: never question about that. The two young dogs, Hilario andJuan, found her somewhere, brought her to old Milagro, and, Juan beingmore favoured and better beloved than Hilario, who, to say truth, wasboth ugly and vicious, they fought about her, and Hilario was killed.Thus, Juan was left the master of the beauty; but being tired of her, orafraid of old Milagro's vengeance, or perhaps both, he fled again toCuba, and thence as you heard, came to Mexico in a fusta. What broughtMagdalena after him I know not, unless 'twas mad, raging love; yes,faith, that's the cause; for she cares not half so much for Don Hernan.But they did say, at Isabela, she had a better cause; for the ship, itwas well known--"

  "Fool of all fools!" said Camarga, with a strange and unnatural laugh,"didst thou not say the ship was never seen at Isabela?"

  "Ay, truly; but it was seen on the rocks at the Point of Alonso, notmany leagues distant," replied Villafana; and then added, "I would thoucouldst be more choice of thine epithets of endearment. These 'knaves,''rogues,' and 'fools,' do well enough among friends; but one may seasondiscourse too strongly with them, even for the roughest appetite.--Theship was a wreck: there was said to be foul work about it; but that'sneither here nor there. The girl was brought ashore by the young men,Juan being good in the management of a skiff,--indeed, a notoriouslyskilful and fearless sailor. What was said of Magdalena, was this,"continued the Alguazil, with a low, confidential voice: "It wasdiscovered, or at least conjectured, that the ship was no other than theSanta Anonciacion, a vessel sent from Seville with a bevy ofnuns,--faith, some worshippers of thine own good St. Dominic,--who wereto found a convent at the Havana. It was whispered, that the fairMagdalena was even one of the number, and therefore--But the thing mustbe plain! To be a nun, and to love young fellows _par amours_--this is amatter for the Inquisition. But thanks be to God, we have no goodBrothers in Mexico!--I will tell thee more, as we walk, and show thee,if thou hast not the wit to see it, how much it concerns us to have afriend like La Monjonaza."

  "I have heard enough," said Camarga, with tones deep and hoarse;"enough, and more than enough. And this woman was, _then_, the leman ofJuan Lerma, and, now, the creature of Cortes!"--Here he mutteredsomething to himself. Then, speaking with an audible voice, he said,

  "Get thee to thy den, and look to thyself: there is danger afloat, andfull enough to excuse me from meddling with thee to-night. There is aforce of men concealed near to the prison, and commanded by Guzman. Askno questions--look to thyself: thou art suspected."

  At these words, Villafana became greatly alarmed, and exchanging but afew words more with Camarga, hastily departed. He was no sooner gone,than Camarga, yielding to an emotion he had long suppressed, fell uponhis knees and uttered wild prayers, mingled with groans andmaledictions, all the while beating his breast and brows. Then risingand whipping out his sword, as if to execute some deadly purpose ofvengeance, he strode towards the pool.