Ahead of the Army

by William Osborn Stoddard

  CHAPTER X.

  PICTURES OF THE PAST

  "Oh, how I wish we had some news from the war!" exclaimed Ned.

  "Well," said Senorita Felicia, doubtfully, "there isn't much, but Isuppose there is some almost ready to come."

  "I'm tired of waiting for it," replied Ned, "and if there isn't to beany war news, I wish I had some books!"

  The thought that was in Ned Crawford's mind had broken out suddenly, ashe sat at the dinner-table of Senora Mercedes Paez, at the end of thosefirst days after his arrival in the city of Mexico. There were a numberof persons at the table, and at the head of it was Senora Paez herself.She was shorter and stouter, but she was every ounce as stately andimposing as was even Senora Tassara. In front of her sat one affairwhich had, from the beginning of his visit in that house, made him feelmore at home than he might otherwise have done. He had become used toit, and it seemed like an old friend. That Seville coffee-urn hadornamented the table in the house at Vera Cruz, his first refuge afterhe came ashore out of the destructive norther. It had winked at him froma similar post of honor in the country-house out in Puebla, and SenoraTassara had affectionately brought it with her to the residence of hercity cousin. She had said that she thought it would be safer here, evenif the city should be captured by those terrible robbers, the Americans.They could not be intending to steal and melt up all the old silver inMexico.

  "Why, Senor Carfora!" exclaimed Senorita Felicia, indignantly. "Did younot know? Aunt Paez has piles and piles of books. They are up in thelibrary. If you wish to read them, she will let you go there. I hadforgotten that you know how to read. He may do it, may he not, AuntMercedes?"

  "Of course he may," replied the senora, "but it is a curious idea for aboy of his age."

  "Oh, thank you!" exclaimed Ned. "But what I'd like to have are somebooks that tell about old Mexico and about the city of Tenochtitlan,that stood here before the Spaniards came. I've been all aroundeverywhere. I've seen the swamps and the lakes and the walls and fortsand everything. The great cathedral--"

  "That," interposed Senora Tassara, "stands on the very spot where an oldtemple of the Aztec war-god stood. There were altars in it, where theyused to kill and burn hundreds and thousands of human sacrifices toHuitzilopochtli, and there were altars to other gods."

  "I can't exactly speak that name," said Ned, "but I want to know allabout him and the sacrifices. I want to learn, too, just how Cortes andhis men took the old city. I suppose that when the Americans come, itwill be a different kind of fight--more cannon."

  "They won't get here at all," quietly remarked a military-looking oldgentleman sitting near the other end of the table. "It is a long roadfrom the Rio Grande, and President Paredes is to march, in a few days,to crush our enemies with an army of twenty thousand men. They have notso much as taken Monterey yet. You are right, though. If they shouldever get here, they will find the city harder to take than Cortes did.They will all die before the walls."

  He spoke with a great deal of patriotic enthusiasm, and Ned knew that itwas his turn to keep still, for the old gentleman had no idea that hewas talking to a wicked young gringo. Senora Paez, however, calmlyreplied:

  "Ah, Colonel Rodriguez, my dear friend, the President himself has saidthat, after he has beaten them at the northern border, as he surelywill, the Americans are sure to make another attempt by way of VeraCruz. That, too, was the opinion of our brave friend, Colonel Guerra,and he is making every preparation for a siege. It is part of ourgrateful hospitality to our guest, Senor Carfora, that his friends havesupplied the Castle of San Juan de Ulua with the ammunition which willbe needed. He came over on the ship which brought it, and he hasremained with us ever since."

  Just then Ned Crawford knew what it was to feel very mean indeed. Hefelt as if he himself were telling a large lie, and his cheeks flushedred-hot. He was aware, nevertheless, that even Senora Tassara had notbeen told everything, and that Senora Paez was reasonably honest in whatshe had been saying. There was no necessity for enlightening ColonelRodriguez. Hardly, therefore, had the old gentleman vehementlyexclaimed, "They never can take San Juan de Ulua!" than Ned went hastilyback to his first subject of the ancient history.

  "That's it," he said. "I want to find out how Cortes got ashore, and howhe fought his way from the coast to this place. He must have had tocross the mountains, through the passes, just as our party did when wecame."

  "Yes," said the colonel. "He had to climb seven thousand and fivehundred feet up out of the _tierra caliente_, and, if any gringos evertry that path, they will find all the passes full of fighting Mexicansand good artillery well posted. Hernando Cortes had all the gunpowderthere was in America when he tried that road."

  "My dear young friend," said Senora Paez, "you will find plenty of thebooks you wish for. My husband was fond of collecting them. Afterdinner, the senorita will show you the library, and you may readanything there."

  Ned was silent once more, for he was still feeling mean, and was askinghimself whether he were not, after all, a kind of spy in the Mexicancamp, going around in disguise, and all the while wishing that he couldhelp the American army to capture the city.

  "Anyhow," he thought, "I can't help myself just now, and when the cityis taken, everything in the Paez house will be entirely safe. Ishouldn't wonder if that old coffee-urn will be safer from thieves thanit is now. There have been half a dozen burglaries since we came, andI've seen hundreds of the wildest-looking kinds of fellows from themountains. Every man of them looked as if he'd like to steal somesilver."

  While he was thinking, he was also listening, with a great deal ofinterest, to a description which the old officer was giving of thedefences of Monterey, and of the reasons why the American troops wouldsurely be defeated. It appeared that he had at one time been thecommander of the garrison of the fortress known as the Black Fort, justoutside of the walls of Monterey, on the north, and he evidentlybelieved it to be impregnable. Ned was no soldier, and it did not occurto him to ask, as General Taylor might have done, whether or not it waspossible to take the town without wasting time in taking the fort first.

  "Come, Senor Carfora," said Felicia, as they all arose from the table,"I will show you the library. You can't do much reading there to-night,though, for the lamps have all been taken away. I do not wish to gothere, anyhow, except in the daytime. It is a pokerish kind of place. Doyou believe in ghosts? I do not, but, if I were a ghost, I would pickout that library for a good place to hide in. Come along. You are aforeigner, and any kind of good Mexican ghost won't like you."

  Whether she herself did so or not, she led the way, and no lamp was asyet needed, although the day was nearly over and the shadows werecoming. Up-stairs they went and through a short passageway in the secondstory of the Paez mansion, and they were almost in the dark when shesaid to him:

  "Here we are. Hardly any one ever comes here, and it will be dreadfullydusty. Books are dusty old things anyhow."

  She turned the big brass knob in the dusky door before them, and shovedagainst it with all her might, but Ned had to help her with hisshoulder, or the massive mahogany portal would not have yielded an inch.It did go slowly in, upon its ancient-looking bronze hinges, and thenthey were in a room which was worth looking at. It was not so verylarge, only about fifteen feet by twenty, but it was unusually high, andit had but one tall, narrow slit of a window. Close by this, however,were a finely carved reading chair and table, ready to receive all thelight which the window might choose to let in. Ned was staring eagerlyaround the room, when his pretty guide remarked:

  "You had better see all you can before it gets any darker. Take down asmany books as you want. I don't care much for those fusty-musty oldhistories. I must go away now--"

  "Hullo, senorita!" exclaimed Ned. "There is a lamp on the table. I havesome matches--"

  "I don't believe you can make it burn," she said, "but you can try. Ithas not been lighted for this ever so long, and the oil may have driedup."

  Around she whirled and away she went, le
aving Ned to his own devices.His next thought was almost impolite, after all, for he was more thanhalf glad that she did go, so that he might have the library all tohimself to rummage in. He did not instantly examine the lamp, for he hadnever before been in just this kind of room, and it fascinated him. Allits sides were occupied by high bookcases, every one of them crammedfull of volumes of all sorts and sizes. He thought that he had neverseen larger books than were some of the fat folios on the lower shelves.There were great, flat, atlas-looking concerns leaning against them, andout on the floor stood several upright racks of maps. Old Senor Paez mayhave been what is called a book-worm. At all events, Ned had understoodthat he was a very learned man, with a strong enthusiasm for Americanhistory.

  "Heavens and earth!" suddenly exclaimed Ned. "What is that?"

  He darted forward to a further corner of the room, as if he were in agreat hurry to meet somebody who had unexpectedly come in. It certainlywas something almost in human shape, but it had been standing there along while, and the hand which it appeared to hold out to him was ofsteel, for it was nothing in the wide world but a complete suit ofancient armor. It was so set up in that corner, however, that it almostseemed alive, with its right hand extended, and its left holding a long,pennoned lance. Its helmet had a barred vizor, so that if there had beenany face behind that, it would have been hidden. Ned went and stoodsilently before it for a moment, staring at that vizor.

  "I say," he muttered, as if he did not care to speak any louder. "Idon't believe General Taylor's men would care to march far with as muchiron as that on them--not in hot weather. But the old Aztecs didn't haveanything that would go through that kind of uniform. If Cortes and hismen wore it, there is no wonder that they went on killing the Indianswithout being much hurt themselves."

  In fact, not all of them had been dressed up in precisely such a manner,although they did wear armor.

  Ned examined the whole affair, piece by piece, from head to foot, andthen he turned away from his inspection, for the room behind him wasgetting dim and it was time for him to look at his lamp. He took out amatch as he went toward the table at the window, and in a moment more hewas busy with a wick which seemed to be determined not to burn for him.

  "It's an old whale-oil lamp," he remarked. "Mother had one, once. Iremember seeing her try to light it and it would sputter for ever solong. There! It's beginning to kindle, but it's too big for me to carryaround and hunt for books with. I wish I had a smaller one. Hullo!Here's one of the biggest of those old concerns, right here on thetable."

  It was a folio bound in vellum, and when he opened it a great deal ofdust arose from the cover which banged down. Then Ned uttered a loudexclamation, and was glad he had succeeded in lighting the lamp, forthere before his eyes was a vividly colored picture of a mostextraordinary description. Moreover, it unfolded, so that it was almosttwice the size, length, and width of the book pages.

  "They are all in Spanish," he said, "but I guess I can read them.They're more than a hundred years old. People don't print such books,nowadays. Nobody would have time enough to read them, I suppose, andthey couldn't sell 'em cheap enough. This is wonderful! It's a pictureof the old Mexican god, Huitzilopochtli."

  There was an explanatory inscription, and the artist had pictured theterrible deity sitting upon a throne of state, gorgeously arrayed ingold and jewels, and watching with a smile of serene satisfaction thesacrifice of some unfortunate human victims on the altar in theforeground at the right. One of the priests attending at the altar hadjust cut open the bosom of a tall man lying before him, and was tossinga bleeding heart upon the smoking fire, where other similar offeringswere already burning.

  "That must have been a horrible kind of religion," thought Ned. "I'mglad that Cortes and his men in armor came to put an end to it. SenoraPaez told me that in only a few years before he came, and hergreat-grandfather and his father with him, those priests cut up morethan twenty thousand men, women, and children. He's a curious kind ofgod, I should say, to sit there and grin while it was going on."

  He could not linger too long over one picture, however, for he haddiscovered that there were others in that volume which were asbrilliantly colored and as interesting. On the whole, it was notnecessary to hunt for anything better than this the first evening, andit appeared as if he were asking a useless question of the steel-cladwarrior in the corner, when at last he turned to him to say:

  "Did you ever see anything like this before? I never did. Were youthere, in any of these battles? This is the way that Cortes and hiscavalry scared the Indians, is it? They were awfully afraid of horses.You can buy horses for almost nothing, nowadays, anywhere in Mexico.I've learned how to ride 'em, too, but didn't I get pitched off by someof those ponies! It would have scared mother half to death. I wish Icould see her to-night, and show her some of these pictures. I'd like tosee Bob and the girls, too. They never saw a book like this."

  He had examined a number of the pictures, and the lamp was burningfairly well, but a long time had elapsed since he came into that room,and he was not at all aware of it.

  "Senor Carfora?" called out a voice in the doorway. "Oh, you are here.You did light the lamp. I was almost afraid you were in the dark."

  "No, I'm not," said Ned. "I made it burn, and I've been looking at allsorts of things. These pictures are just wonderful."

  "Oh!" she said, "I would not be in this room in the dark for anything! Iknow all those things in that book, though. They are hideous! But theysay that that suit of armor has the worst kind of ghost in it."

  "Maybe it has," said Ned. "I don't believe he can get out, anyhow. He'sjust stuck in it. I'd rather wear the clothes I have on."

  "Well," she replied, "mother sent me to find if you were here, and itis dreadfully late--"

  "Oh, yes!" interrupted Ned. "I suppose it is time for me to go to bed.I'll go, but I mean to see all there is in this library, senorita. Iwon't try to read it all. I don't care for ghosts, but I'd like to seeone."

  "I do not care for them in the daytime, either," she told him. "But oldMargarita, the Tlascalan, says that they come at night and sit here andtell stories of all the Mexican idol gods. All of them hate us, too,because we turned them out of their temples, and I hate them."

  "I'm glad they are gone, anyhow," said Ned, but it was really time togo, and he carried some of the most brilliant of those illustrationsinto some of his dreams that night.