Civilizations

by Laurent Binet

  That was a mistake.

  Yesterday – on 19 July of the old era – the Mexicans, although vastly outnumbered, treacherously attacked the French camp by surprise, sowing panic and death, killing as many as they could.

  At the same time, we learned that the English in Calais had launched an attack on the city of Boulogne.

  King Francis, who only just escaped the Mexicans’ attack, took refuge a few arrow flights away from Rouen, but must now face enemies on two fronts. There is no doubt in his mind that the English and the Mexicans are working together. He has issued a retreat in battle order towards Paris.

  It was only by a miracle that I myself was able to escape unscathed from the Mexicans’ trap. Taking advantage of the confusion all around me, and of the colour of my skin, which made me look like one of theirs, I was able to run away through the battlefield, as if through a forest of lances, avoiding the axe and sword blades that hissed through the air, until I could mount a horse that had lost its rider. That was how I managed to flee the camp, abandoning the French people to their grisly fate at the hands of those Mexicans. Had I not been such an accomplished rider, I would be dead now. Instead, I am safe and sound, having joined up with the remnants of the French army, but I do not know for how long.

  From Mantes, 20 July 1544.

  Your unfortunate princess, Higuénamota

  73. Letter from Manco to Atahualpa

  Sovereign emperor of the Fifth Quarter, my brother, greetings to you,

  Having set off, at the head of an army of fifteen thousand men, to rescue the king of France, I crossed a country in turmoil.

  The French troops, scattered into disarray by the Mexicans’ surprise attack, had taken refuge in the outskirts of Paris. The king of France must also fight against the English, who have joined forces with the Mexicans. According to the most recent reports, Boulogne will soon fall.

  The French army is in great difficulty, faced with this double threat, but the situation is far from hopeless. If you were to send Quizquiz, at the head of an army of thirty or forty thousand men, I guarantee that we would be able to drive the enemy back to the sea.

  Assuming that you will receive this letter within five days, I would estimate that your army should be able to reach us in about fifteen days. I am certain that we can hold Paris for that long.

  From Poissy, 24 July 1544 of the old era,

  Thirteenth year of the Fifth Quarter.

  To my sovereign and brother,

  General Manco, prince of Navarre

  PS: Queen Eleonore has disappeared, and we do not know if she is dead or taken prisoner.

  74. Quipu from Huascar to Atahualpa

  Tumipampa under siege.

  Resisting fiercely.

  Inca losses: 20,000.

  Enemy losses: 10 to 15,000.

  Counter-offensive: 60,000 men (including 20,000 Chancas, 10,000 Charas, 8,000 Canaris, 4,000 Chachapoyas).

  Artillery: 120 cannons.

  Cavalry: 6,000 horses.

  Battle of Quito: 30,000 losses on either side.

  Talks in progress. (Generals Atoc, Tupac Atao and?*)

  Truce possible.

  75. Letter from Higuénamota to Atahualpa

  My king,

  If only I had received your letter in time … I might have been able to convince Francis of the Mexicans’ duplicity and thus avoid this catastrophe that has thrown us into chaos, with his army in desperate retreat.

  Here, the situation has deteriorated alarmingly. The French are fleeing, pursued by the Mexicans, who receive reinforcements almost daily from Havre de Grace. The English, meanwhile, have taken Boulogne and are marching on Paris, threatening to catch us in a pincer movement.

  It is said that Queen Eleonore has become Cuauhtémoc’s lover and is providing the Mexicans with information on many important subjects, such as the inhabitants’ customs, the topography and fauna of France, and the weaponry and tactics of her husband the king’s army. Francis finds this idea inconceivable, but she is a Habsburg, after all, and will always be a Habsburg, and to my mind there is nothing inconceivable about it at all.

  Manco has arrived with fifteen thousad men and those reinforcements gave us some respite, without which the French army would have been swept away – and us with it. Nevertheless, it will not be enough when the Mexicans and the English attack in concert. You alone have the means to save us. I beg you to send an army immediately to rescue us from the jaws of the enemy before they crush us into dust.

  From Saint-German-en-Laye, 6 August 1544.

  Your ever faithful Higuénamota

  76. Quipu from Huascar to Atahualpa

  Truce agreed.

  Requesting end to war in Fifth Quarter.

  77. Letter from Higuénamota to Atahualpa

  My friend, all is lost!

  Manco was killed in combat, braving the fury of the Mexicans to his last breath. He sacrificed himself to defend besieged Paris, and all his men perished with him.

  We have taken refuge with the king, in his palace at the Louvre, but His Majesty is in such pain from the fistula on his backside that he can barely stand, never mind ride a horse, and remains bedridden for the greater part of each day. The Duke of Guise is leading the defence of the city with great zeal and diligence, but the situation is so bad that even a hundred times his present resources would not be enough.

  You are our only hope, my prince, and we are constantly on the lookout for an army led by Quizquiz or Ruminahui or perhaps even the proud face of my emperor himself. This is what I dream about every time the anguish in my heart and the clash of arms outside fall quiet enough that I am able to sleep a little.

  Son of the Sun, if we never see each other again, remember your Cuban princess.

  Paris, 10 August 1544.

  Your Higuénamota

  78. Quipu from Huascar to Atahualpa

  Peace conditional upon ceasefire in all territories.

  Restoration of trade with Cuba negotiated.

  10 merchant ships ready to leave.

  Resources almost exhausted. Empire dying.

  Chinchaysuyu and Antisuyu on verge of civil war.

  Requesting immediate end to combat.

  79. Letter from Atahualpa to Jean de Saint-Mauris, Imperial Ambassador in France

  I, Atahualpa, emperor of the Fifth Quarter, hereby order you to transmit to General Cuauhtémoc without delay the expression of my friendship, as well as the assurance of my sovereign and unconditional desire for a lasting peace with the glorious people of Mexico.

  Please let him know that the emperor of the Fifth Quarter, king of the Spanish, has no greater wish than to sign a peace treaty with him and his master Moctezuma, and that this wish is so profound that, to achieve it, I am prepared to renounce my alliance with France and to free myself of all obligation for military assistance, or any other kind of assistance, towards the French or towards their king.

  Please tell him to ensure that, if the Princess Higuénamota ever comes into his possession, she should be kept safe and treated with kindness.

  I do not think I need to explain to you the importance of this embassy. I am relying on you to see it through with the diligence and industry for which Charles chose you, and for which he and I, his successor, have always congratulated ourselves. The peace of the Empire is in your hands. May my father, the Sun, be with you.

  From Seville, 15 August 1544 of the old era,

  Thirteenth harvest of the Fifth Quarter.

  Atahualpa I, king of Spain, prince of the Belgians

  and the Netherlands, king of Tunis and Algiers, king of Naples

  and Sicily, emperor of the Fifth Quarter

  80. Letter from Atahualpa to Higuénamota

  My beloved princess, my soul, providential companion of all my enterprises, who has saved me a hundred times from the most terrible predicaments,

  I hope with all my heart that this letter will find its way to you.

  Listen carefully: there will be no reinforcements
. France is lost. Escape if you can. Leave Paris. Return to Spain. That is an order.

  Seville, 15 August 1544.

  Your sovereign, Atahualpa

  81. Letter from Higuénamota to Atahualpa

  My prince, my friend,

  I do not know if this letter will reach you. The Mexicans are massed around the palace and will attack tonight or tomorrow.

  Forgive me, I couldn’t abandon Francis. You know that I am entirely devoted to you, and that is why – when you sent me long ago to Paris to negotiate our alliance with France against Charles and Ferdinand – I gave myself to him without reservations and without regrets. In the dusk of his life and his reign, I do not have the heart to leave him alone. I feel too much tenderness and friendship for this broken man, whose kingdom is disintegrating before his eyes. If you saw him weeping in his bed of pain, invoking his god and begging for death to take him, I do not doubt that your heart would, like mine, be torn with pity by such a lamentable sight.

  Outside, I can hear the drums of the Mexicans. Their war songs are like the howling of a beast; they chill my blood. There will be a great massacre, soon. This time, I doubt whether I will survive.

  Think of me. Farewell.

  From Paris, 1 September 1544.

  Your H

  82. Letter from Ambassador Jean de Saint-Mauris to Atahualpa

  To my sovereign Atahualpa, son of the Sun, Emperor of the Fifth Quarter,

  Sire,

  I am replying to the letter that it pleased Your Majesty to write to me on the fifteenth day of the past month.

  First of all, sire, I will follow up on Your Majesty’s command regarding the salvation of the Princess Higuénamota and the peace offer to be delivered to General Cuauhtémoc.

  But before I do, sire, permit me to inform Your Majesty of the latest events here, which will, I feel sure, be of interest to you.

  After a week of bloody fighting, the Mexicans finally took possession of the Louvre. Following this, all combat ceased in Paris, with the exception of a few pockets of resistance in the eastern suburbs.

  Notwithstanding, the Duke of Guise surrendered to General Cuauhtémoc and handed over the keys to the city. The duke, who fought with great bravery, had received a terrible wound in his face from a lance, and his scar was still bleeding as he signed the surrender. He is, at this very moment, in the hands of a young surgeon famed for his ability to perform wonders at sewing flesh and mending bones.

  The king is presently being held in his apartments, along with his two sons.

  His health was so poor that the doctors did not believe he had long to live. But after three fits of Tertian fever, his doctors now say that this fever will be the cause of his best health and disposition.

  In compliance with Your Majesty’s wishes, the life of the Princess Higuénamota was spared, amid all the other souls who passed away during that great carnage, and I personally ensured that she is being well treated, which, I hope, will please Your Majesty.

  I must add, sire, that those rumours concerning Queen Eleonore have been confirmed. In fact, they did not go far enough. So it was that I witnessed the astonishing spectacle of the queen of France entering Paris on General Cuauhtémoc’s arm, and since then I have seen her offering him advice and supplying him with information on local customs. There can be little doubt as to the nature of their relations.

  As for the last and most difficult point, its accomplishment caused me a great deal of pain, not to mention fear, since, as Your Majesty may imagine, it was not easy, amid the confusion that reigned at the time, to convince the new authorities of my credentials. But, following your command, I delivered Your Majesty’s peace proposal into the hands of General Cuauhtémoc, who has asked me to transmit to you his salutations and regards, and to assure you of his most favourable disposition towards you. He is confident that common ground can be found, ‘to the benefit of the Incas as well as the Mexicans’ (these are his very words, translated by a spokesman and by Queen Eleonore herself).

  Sire, I beg the Creator to grant to Your Majesty the complete fulfilment of your highest, noblest and most virtuous desires.

  From Paris, 18 September 1544 of the old era,

  Year 13 of the Fifth Quarter.

  Your very humble and obedient servant,

  Jean de Saint-Mauris

  83. Letter from Higuénamota to Atahualpa

  Son of the Sun, glory of Quito, faithful ally,

  Francis died today, in circumstances that I wish you to know.

  Your new Mexican friends have built a pyramid in the Louvre courtyard. It is a stone edifice, quite imposing and, I must admit, rather harmonious in its proportions, composed of steps that are reminiscent of the terraces that you, the Incas, sculpt in the mountains.

  I had no doubt that it was intended for some ritual purpose. I could not suspect, however, the dread task for which it was used.

  You will be happy to learn that the Mexicans have their god of the Sun, too, whom they venerate with particular fervour, and who also happens to be their god of war. Isn’t that amusing? Don’t you find it appropriate?

  It was to the Sun that the Mexicans sacrificed the king of France, his two sons, the Duke of Guise, and a hundred other members of the French nobility, including several young women whom they thought would be to the taste of their gods.

  Would you like to know how they were executed?

  The king, who was too weak to climb the steps himself, was carried, more dead than alive, to the top of the pyramid. After tearing off his shirt, they laid him down on a stone. Four men held his arms and legs, and a fifth held his head, then a sort of priest opened his chest with a pointed blade, plunged his hands into the incision and ripped out his heart, which he brandished aloft, to the shocked cries of the crowd. Then he put the heart into an urn and, as if that was not horrific enough already, he shoved the king’s body off the edge so that it tumbled down the blood-covered steps to the bottom of the pyramid. There, some other Mexicans took the corpses away and, apparently, cut them into pieces so that their bones could be used to make jewellery or musical instruments.

  O Sun, what crimes have been committed in your name!

  At least Francis, the first to be executed, was spared the sadness of watching the executions of his two sons, Henri and Charles, both of whom struggled horribly on the sacrifice stone.

  I know, through Saint-Mauris, that my life was one of the conditions that you insisted upon before signing your peace treaty with the Mexicans, and I am grateful to you for that, even if I am old enough not to be of interest to the gods, which would probably have spared me the king’s fate anyway.

  But I am sure you will understand that I no longer wish to serve on your council. In fact, to be perfectly honest, after the tragic events that have shaken France, which I was unfortunate enough to witness and in which you are not entirely innocent, I no longer have any desire to see Spain again. Naturally, I have no intention of acting like Queen Eleonore, although I do not want to cast judgement on the reasons why she betrayed her husband and her adoptive country. I am the daughter of a queen and have only ever served one king; I will not serve another. But today I am soliciting your famous generosity: please let me show my loyalty in another way. I would like to be made regent of the Netherlands, in place of your wife Mary, who was, by your indulgence, kept in her post after our campaign there, but who, before that, did not exactly merit your trust.

  To the sovereign of the Holy Empire, to the prince of Quito, farewell.

  Paris, 9 October 1544.

  H

  84. The Division of Bordeaux

  It would be an understatement to say that the sudden appearance of the Mexicans in the New World shook the political foundations that Atahualpa had so patiently constructed.

  The decision to abandon the king of France had been difficult but ultimately inevitable, and there had been no debate about it: the Fifth Quarter could not survive without the other four. If Tawantinsuyu fell, Atahualpa’s empire would follow,
like a child suddenly deprived of its mother’s breast. Higuénamota, blinded by her attachment to King Francis, had not wanted to admit this, just as she had refused to consider the implications for her homeland of a pact with Mexico. Cuba would recover its role as the nexus of the two worlds. Haiti would be spared. Oil, wine, wheat, gold and silver would be traded once again. The Taínos would prosper. Soon, people in every country would be smoking cohiba.

  Among the many consequences of the Mexican invasion, one was the development of a coastal city named Bordeaux, which became the capital of France. It was here that the peace treaty was signed, here that the New World was divided.

  Atahualpa travelled there to meet Cuauhtémoc. The Mexican general had married Francis’s daughter, Margaret of France, in order to legitimise his authority in the eyes of the French and to reign without impediments. Since tearing out the hearts of the two sons, he had nothing left to fear from the royal family, of which he was now officially a member.

  Cuauhtémoc was not only a fierce warrior. He was also a skilful strategist and politician, who quickly developed a strong grasp of the local customs. He saw the advantages of converting to the religion of the nailed god and decided that the son he would have with his wife, Margaret, would be baptised with a Mexican name to ensure his lineage in the local history, then raised in accordance with the customs and rites of the Levantines. The custom in this country was for the king to have a variable number of secondary wives, who were known as ‘mistresses’, often preferred to the principal wife. Sometimes there was more benefit in being a mistress than in being a royal spouse. Cuauhtémoc kept Francis’s widow, Eleonore, as his mistress.