by V. V. Vide
CHAPTER II.
YOUTH OF THE PRINCESS--HER EARLY LOVE REVEALED--PROPHETIC ANNOUNCEMENT AND SUDDEN ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS.
~Breathe not his noble name even to the winds, Lest they my love reveal.~
* * * * *
~I have mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadows before.~
The childhood of the fair princess passed away without any event ofimportance, except the occasional recurrence of those dark prophecieswhich overshadowed her entrance into life. Her father, who had exercisedthe office of priest before he came to the throne, was thoroughly imbuedwith the superstitious reverence for astrology, which formed a part ofthe religion of the Aztecs. To all the predictions of this mysticscience he yielded implicit belief, regarding whatever it foreshadowedas the fixed decrees of fate. He was, therefore, fully prepared, andalways on the look-out, for new revelations to confirm and establish hisfaith. These were sometimes found in the trivial occurrences ofevery-day life, and sometimes in the sinister aspect of the heavenlybodies, at peculiar epochs in the life of his daughter. With thissuperstitious foreboding of evil, the pensive character of the princessharmonized so well, as to afford, to the mind of the too credulousmonarch, another unquestionable indication of her destiny. It seemed tobe written on her brow, that her life was a doomed one; and eachreturning year was counted as the last, and entered upon with gloomyforebodings of some terrible catastrophe.
As her life advanced, her charms, both of person and character maturedand increased; and, at the age of fourteen, there was not a maiden inall the golden cities of Anahuac, who could compare with Tecuichpo. Herexceeding loveliness was the theme of many a song, and the fame of herbeauty and her accomplishments was published in all the neighboringnations. While yet a child, her hand was eagerly sought by Cacamo, ofthe royal house of Tezcuco; but, with the true chivalry of an unselfishdevotion, his suit was withdrawn, on discovering that her youngaffections were already engaged to another. The discovery was made in amanner too singular and striking to be suffered to pass unnoticed.
In the course of her wanderings in the forest, Karee had taken captive abeautiful parrot, of the most gorgeous plumage, and the most astonishingcapacity. This chatterer, after due training and discipline, she hadpresented to her favorite princess, among a thousand other tokens of herunchangeable affection. Tecuichpo loved the beautiful mimic, to whom shegave the name of Karee-o-than--the voice of Karee,--and often amusedherself with teaching her to repeat the words which she loved best tohear. Without being aware of the publicity she was thus giving to hermost treasured thoughts, she entrusted to the talkative bird the secretof her love, by associating with the most endearing epithets, the nameof her favored cavalier. While strolling about the magnificent gardensattached to the palace of Montezuma, Cacamo was wont to breathe out, inimpassioned song, his love for Tecuichpo, repeating her name, with everyexpression of passionate regard, which the language afforded.Karee-o-than was often flying about in the gardens, and soliloquizing inthe arbors, the favorite resorts of her beautiful mistress, and oftenattracted the notice of Cacamo.
One evening, as the prince was more than usually eloquent in pouringinto the ear of Zephyr the tale of his love, the mimic bird, perchedupon a flowering orange tree, that filled the garden with its deliciousperfume, repeated the name of his mistress, as often as her loveruttered it, occasionally connecting with it the name of Guatimozin, andthen adding some endearing epithet, expressive of the most ardentadmiration. The prince was first amused, and then vexed, at the frequentrepetition of the name of his rival. In vain did he endeavor to inducethe mischievous bird to substitute his own name for that of Guatimozin.As often as he uttered the name of the princess, the echo in the orangetree gave back "noble Guatimozin," or "sweet Guatimozin," or some othersimilar response, which left no doubt on the mind of Cacamo, that theheart of his mistress was pre-occupied, and that the nephew of Montezumawas the favored object of her love. The next day, he bade adieu toTenochtitlan, placed himself at the head of the army of Tezcuco, andplunged into a war then raging with a distant tribe on the west, hopingto bury his disappointment in the exciting scenes of conquest.
Guatimozin was of the royal blood, and, as his after history will show,of a right royal and heroic spirit. From his childhood, he had exhibitedan unusual maturity of judgment, coupled with an energy, activity, andfearlessness of spirit, which gave early assurance of a heroism worthyof the supreme command, and an intellectual superiority that might claimsuccession to the throne. His training was in the court and the camp,and he seemed equally at home and in his element, amid the refinedgaieties of the palace, the grave deliberations of the royal council,and the mad revelry of the battle-field. His figure was of the mostperfect manly proportions, tall, commanding, graceful--his countenancewas marked with that peculiar blending of benignity and majesty, whichmade it unspeakably beautiful and winning to those whom he loved, andterrible to those on whom he frowned. He was mild, humane, generous,confiding; yet sternly and heroically just. His country was his idol.The one great passion of his soul, to which all other thoughts andaffections were subordinate and tributary, was patriotism. On thataltar, if he had possessed a thousand lives, he would freely have laidthem all. Such was the noble prince who had won the heart of Tecuichpo.
Meanwhile, to the anxious eye of her imperial father, the clouds of fateseemed to hang deep and dark over the realm of Anahuac. Long before theprophetic wail, which welcomed the lovely Tecuichpo to a life ofsorrow, Montezuma had imbibed from the dark legends of ancientprophecies, and the faint outgivings of his own priestly oracles, a deepand ineradicable impression that some terrible calamity was impendingover the realm, and that he was to be the last of its native monarchs.It was dimly foreshadowed, in these prophetic revelations, that thedescendants of a noble and powerful race of men, who had many agesbefore occupied that beautiful region, and filled it with the works oftheir genius, but who had been driven out by the cruelty and perfidy ofthe Toltecs, would return, invested with supernatural power from heaven,to re-possess their ancient inheritance.[B] To this leading and longestablished faith, every dark and doubtful omen contributed itsappropriate share of confirmation. To this, every significant event wasdeemed to have a more or less intimate relation. So that, at thisparticular epoch, not only the superstitious monarch, and his priestlyastrologers, but the whole nation of Azteca were prepared, as were theancient Jews at the advent of the Messiah, for great events, thoughutterly unable to imagine what might be the nature of the expectedchange.
These gloomy forebodings of coming evil so thoroughly possessed the mindof Montezuma, that the commanding dignity and pride of the monarch gaveway before the absorbing anxiety of the man and the father, and, in amanner, unfitted him for the duties of the lofty place he had so noblyfilled. He yielded, as will be seen in the sequel, not without grief,but without resistance, to the fixed decrees of fate, and awaited theissue, as a victim for the heaven-appointed sacrifice.
It was about fifteen years after the prophetic announcement of the doomof the young princess of the empire, that Montezuma was reclining in hissummer saloon, where he had been gloomily brooding over his darkeningprospects, till his soul was filled with sadness. His beautiful daughterwas with him, striving to cheer his heart with the always welcome musicof her songs, and the affectionate expression of a love as pure and deepas ever warmed the heart of a devoted child. She had gone that day intothe royal presence to ask a boon for her early and faithful friend,Karee. This lovely and gifted creature, now in the full maturity of allher wonderful powers of mind, and personal attractions, had often beenadmitted, as a special favorite, into the royal presence, to exhibit herremarkable powers of minstrelsy, and her almost supernatural gifts as animprovisatrice of the wild melodies of Anahuac. Some of her chants wereof rare pathos and sublimity, and sometimes she was so carried away withthe impassioned vehemence of her inspiration, that she seemed aninspired messenger from the skies, uttering in their l
anguage theoracles of the gods. On this occasion, she had requested permission tosing a new chant in the palace, that she might seize the opportunity tobreathe a prophetic warning in the ear of the emperor. She had thricedreamed that the dark cloud which had so long hung over that devotedland, had burst in an overwhelming storm, upon the capital, and buriedMontezuma and all his house in indiscriminate ruin. She had seen thedemon of destruction, in the guize of a snow white angel, clad inburnished silver, borne on a fiery animal, of great power, and fleet asthe wind, having under him a small band of warriors, guarded and mountedlike himself, armed with thunderbolts which they hurled at will againstall who opposed their progress. She had seen the monarch ofTenochtitlan, with his hosts of armed Mexicans, and the tributary armiesof Tezcuco, Islacapan, Chalco, and all the cities of that gloriousvalley, tremble and cower before this small band of invaders, and yieldhimself without a blow to their hands. She had seen the thousands andtens of thousands of her beloved land fall before this handful ofstrangers, and melt away, like the mists of the morning before therising sun. And she had heard a voice from the dark cloud as it broke,saying, sternly, as the forked lightning leaped into the heart of theimperial palace, "The gods help only those who help themselves."
Filled and agitated with the stirring influence of this propheticvision, Karee, who had always regarded herself as the guardian genius ofTecuichpo, now imagined the sphere of her duty greatly enlarged, anddeemed herself specially commissioned to save the empire from impendingdestruction. Weaving her vision, and the warning it uttered, into one ofher most impassioned chants, and arraying herself as the priestess ofnature, she followed Tecuichpo, with a firm step into the royalpresence, and, with the boldness and eloquence of a prophetess, warnedhim of the coming danger, and urged him to arouse from his apathy,unbecoming the monarch of a proud and powerful nation, cast off theslavery of his superstitious fears, and prepare to meet, with the powerof a man, and the wisdom of a king, whatever evil might come upon him.Rising with the kindling inspiration of her theme, she ventured gentlyto reproach the awe-struck monarch with his unmanly fears, and to remindhim that on his single will, and the firmness of his soul, hung not onlyhis own destiny but that of wife and children; and more than that, of awhole nation, whose myriads of households looked up to him, as thecommon father of them all, the heaven-appointed guardian of their lives,liberty and happiness. At length, alarmed at her own energy andboldness, so unwonted even to the proudest noble of the realm, in thatroyal presence, she bent her knee, and baring her bosom, she lowered hervoice almost to a whisper, and said imploringly--
Strike, monarch! strike, this heart is thine, To live or die for thee; Strike, but heed this voice of mine It comes from heaven, through me; It comes to save this blessed land, It comes thy soul to free From those dark fears, and bid thee stand The monarch father of thy land, That only lives in thee.
Strike, father! if my words too bold Thy royal ears offend; The visions of the night are told, Thy destiny the gods unfold-- Oh! be thy people's friend, True to thyself, to them, to heaven-- So shall this lowering cloud be riven And light and peace descend, To bless this golden realm, and save Tecuichpo from an early grave.
The vision of the beautiful pythoness had deeply and powerfully affectedthe soul of Montezuma; and her closing appeal moved him even to tears.Though accustomed to the most obsequious deference from all hissubjects, even from the proudest of his nobles, he had listened to everyword of Karee with the profoundest attention and interest, as if it hadbeen from the acknowledged oracle of heaven. When she ceased, there wasa breathless silence in the hall. The monarch drew his lovely daughterto his bosom in a passionate embrace. Karee remained prostrate, with herface to the ground, her heart throbbing almost audibly with the violenceof her emotions. Suddenly, a deep long blast from a distant trumpetannounced the arrival of a courier at the capital. It was a signal forall the attendants to retire. Tecuichpo tenderly kissing her father,took Karee by the hand, raised her up and led her out, and the monarchwas left alone.
In a few moments, the courier arrived and entering, barefoot and veiled,into the royal presence, bowed to the very ground, handed a scroll tothe king, and departed. When Montezuma had unrolled the scroll, heseemed for a moment, as if struck with instant paralysis. Fear,astonishment, dismay, seized upon his soul. The vision of Karee wasalready fulfilled. The pictured tablet was the very counterpart of heroracular chant--the literal interpretation of her prophetic vision. Itannounced the arrival within the realms of Montezuma, of a band of palefaced strangers, clad in burnished armor, each having at his command abeautiful animal of great power, hitherto unknown in that country, thatbore him with the speed of the wind wherever he would go, and seemed,while he was mounted, to be a part of himself. It described theirweapons, representing them as having the lightning and thunder at theirdisposal, which they caused to issue sometimes from dark heavy engines,which they dragged along the ground, and sometimes from smaller oneswhich they carried in their hands. It delineated, faithfully andskilfully their "water houses," or ships, in which they traversed thegreat waters, from a far distant country. The peculiar costume andbearing of their commander, and of his chiefs, were also happilyrepresented in the rich coloring for which the Aztecs weredistinguished. Nothing was omitted in their entire array, which couldserve to convey to the eye of the emperor a correct and completeimpression of the appearance, numbers and power of the strangers. It wasall before him, at a glance, a living speaking picture, and told thestory of the invasion as graphically and eloquently, as if he had beenhimself a witness of their debarkation, and of their feats ofhorsemanship. It was all before him, a terrible living reality. The godswhom he worshipped had sent these strangers to fulfil their ownirresistible purposes--if, indeed, these were not the gods themselves,in human form.
The mind of Montezuma was overwhelmed. Like Belshazzar, when the divinehand appeared writing his doom on the wall, his soul fainted in him, hisknees smote together, and he sat, in blank astonishment, gazing on thepicture before him, as if the very tablet possessed a supernatural powerof destruction.
Paralyzed with the influence of his long indulged fears so singularlyand strikingly realized, the monarch sat alone, neither seeking comfort,nor asking counsel of any one, till the hour of the evening repast. Thesummons aroused him from his reverie; but he regarded it not. Heremained alone, in his own private apartments, during the whole night,fasting and sleepless, traversing the marble halls in an agony ofagitation.
With the first light of the morning, the shrill notes of the trumpet,reverberating along the shadowy slopes of the cordilleras, announced theapproach of another courier from the camp of the strangers. It rung inthe ears of the dejected monarch, like an alarum. He awoke at once fromhis stupor, and began to consider what was to be done. The warning ofKaree rushed upon his recollection. Her bold and timely appeal struckhim to the heart. He resolved to be once more the monarch, and thefather of his people. Uttering an earnest prayer to all his gods, heawaited the arrival of the courier.
Swift of foot as the mountain deer, the steps of the messenger were soonheard, measuring with solemn pace, the long corridor of the royalmansion, as one who felt that he was approaching the presence ofmajesty, and bearing a message pregnant with the most important issuesto the common weal. Bowing low, with that profound reverence, which wasrigorously exacted of all who approached the presence of Montezuma, hetouched the ground with his right hand, and then, his eyes bent to theearth, delivered his pictured scroll, and retired. It was a courteousand complimentary message from the strangers he so much dreaded,requesting that they might be permitted to pay their respects to hisimperial majesty, in his own capital. The quick-sighted monarchperceived at once that prudence and policy required that this interviewshould be prevented.
A council of the wisest and most experienced of the Aztec nobles wasimmediately called. The opinions of the royal advisers were variouslyexpressed, but all, with one accord, ag
reed that the request of thestrangers could not be granted. Some counselled a bold and warlikemessage, commanding the intruders to depart instantly, on pain of theroyal displeasure. Some recommended their forcible expulsion by the armyof the empire. The more aged and experienced, who had learned how mucheasier it is to avoid, than to escape, a danger, proposed a morecourteous and peaceable reply to the message of the strangers. Theydeemed it unworthy of a great and powerful monarch, to be angry, whenthe people of another nation visited his territories, or requestedpermission to see his capital. To manifest, or feel any thing like fear,in such a case, would be a reproach alike upon his courage and hispatriotism. So long, therefore, as the strangers conducted themselvespeaceably, and with becoming deference to the will of the emperor, andthe laws of the realm, they should be treated civilly, and hospitablyentertained.
To this wise and prudent counsel, the monarch was already fully preparedto yield. It was strongly seconded by his superstitious reverence forthe heaven-sent strangers, and his mortal dread of their superhumanpower. He, therefore, selected the noblest and wisest of his chiefs asambassadors, to bear his message, which was kindly and courteouslyexpressed; at the same time conveying a firm but respectful refusal toadmit the foreigners to an interview in the capital, or to extend tothem the protection of the court, after a reasonable time had elapsedfor their re-embarkation. This message was accompanied with a munificentroyal present, consisting of the richest and most beautiful suits ofapparel for the chief and all his men, with gorgeous capes and robes offeather-work, glittering with jewels--precious stones richly set ingold, and many magnificent ornaments of pure gold.
At the head of this embassy were princes of high estate, and most noblebearing, commanding in person, and of great distinction, both at thecourt and in the camp. When they arrived near the encampment of thestrangers, which was the spot where the city of Vera Cruz now stands,they sent a courier forward, to announce their approach, and prepare fortheir reception.
The meeting of the parties was one of no little pomp and ceremony, forthe courtly manners and chivalric bearing of the European cavaliers werescarcely superior, in impressiveness and effect, to the barbaricsplendor, and graceful consciousness of power, which characterized theflower of the Aztec nobility. The chief, advancing towards the invaders,bowed low to earth, touching the ground with his right hand, thenraising it to his head, and presenting it to his guest, announcedhimself as the envoy and servant of the great Montezuma, sole monarchand master of all the realms of Anahuac; and demanded the name of thestranger, the country from which he came, and the motives which inducedhim to trespass upon the sacred territories of his royal master, and topresume to ask an interview with the emperor, in his capital. TheCastilian chieftain, with a courteous and knightly bearing replied, thathis name was Hernando Cortez--that he was one of the humblest of theservants of the great Charles, the mighty monarch of Spain, andsovereign ruler of the Indies, and that he had come, with his littleband of followers, to pay his court to the great Montezuma, and to bearto him the fraternal salutation of his master, which he could onlydeliver in person.
The reply of the Mexican was dignified, courteous, and pointed, and leftno hope to the Spaniard, that he would then be able to effect hispurpose, of visiting in person the golden city. "If," said the prince,"your monarch had come himself to our shores, he might well demand apersonal meeting with our lord, the emperor, but when he sends hisservant to represent him, he surely cannot presume to do more thancommunicate with the servants of the great Montezuma. If it werepossible that another sun should visit yonder sky, he might look uponour sun, in his march, and move and shine in his presence. But the moonand the stars cannot shine when he is abroad. They can look upon eachother only when he withdraws his light."
The royal message having been delivered, the presents which accompaniedit were brought forward, and spread out upon mats, in front of thegeneral's tent. The Spaniards were struck, with surprise and admirationat the fineness of the texture of the cloths, the richness of theirdyes, the gorgeous coloring and tasteful arrangement of thefeather-work, the masterly workmanship and exquisite finish of thejewelry, and, above all, the immense value, and magnificent size of thegolden toys which were presented them. They conceived, at once, the mostexalted ideas of the riches of the country, and the munificence andsplendor of the monarch that ruled over it. Their avarice and cupiditywere strongly excited, and more than one of the inferior officers, aswell as their general, formed the immediate resolution, that, in despiteof the imperial interdict, they would endeavor, either by diplomacy orby force, to win their way to the capital, which they supposed must ofnecessity be the grand depository of all the treasures in the empire.Their intentions were kept secret, even from each other, and, undercover of a specious submission to the expressed will of the monarch,Cortez requested permission to delay his departure, till his men shouldbe recruited, and his stores replenished for his long voyage.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of this unauthorized reprieve, the artfuland indefatigable Castilian contrived to draw off from their unwillingand burdensome allegiance to Montezuma, the Totonacs, a considerabletribe, residing in that part of the country where he had effected hislanding; and so to impress them with a sense of his own power and thelenity of his government, as to bind them to him in a solemn treaty ofalliance. He also sent an embassy to the Tlascalans, a nation that hadlong maintained its independence against the ambitious encroachments ofMexico, and held Montezuma their natural and only foe. They were a braveand warlike people, and nearly as far advanced in the arts ofcivilization as their enemies. Their government was a kind of republic.Cortez, with magniloquent pretensions of invincible power, andinexhaustible resources, proposed to assist the Tlascalans in reducingthe power of Mexico, and putting an end to the oppressions and exactionsof Montezuma. For this purpose, he asked leave to pass through theircountry, on his march to the great capital.
Distrusting the intentions of the strangers, and fearing that, insteadof a disinterested friend and ally, they should find in them only a newenemy, whom, once admitted, they could never expel from their dominions,and whose yoke might be even harder to bear than that which the Aztecmonarch had in vain attempted to fasten upon them--the proposed allianceof the Spaniards was rejected, with such bold and ample demonstrationsof hostility, as left no room for doubt, that any attempt to force apassage through their territories, would be fiercely and ably contested.
Never daunted by obstacles, though somewhat perplexed, the brave Cortezrushed forward, encountered the almost countless hosts of the Tlascalanarmy, and, after several severe and deadly contests, in which the skilland prowess of his handful of men, with their terrible horses and yetmore terrible fire-arms, were nearly overpowered by the immense numbers,astonishing bravery, and comparative skill of the enemy, he succeeded interrifying them into submission, and winning them to a treaty ofalliance, offensive and defensive, against the tyrant Montezuma, thecommon enemy of all the nations of Anahuac. By these singular andunparalleled successes, the little band of Castilian adventurers foundthemselves fortified, in the heart of the country, in close alliancewith two powerful tribes, who swelled their army to ten times itsoriginal number, besides supplying them liberally with all theprovisions that were needed for themselves and horses.
Never was adventure so rashly undertaken, or so boldly pushed, as thissingular expedition of the Spanish cavaliers. And never, probably, werethere associated, in one little band, so many of the master spirits ofchivalry, the true material of a conquering army. The compeers ofCortez, who submitted to his authority, and acted in perfect harmonywith him, as if they were but subordinate parts of himself, were eachcompetent to command a host, and lead it on to certain victory. Theimpetuous, daring Alvarado, the cool, courageous, trusty Sandoval, thehigh-spirited, chivalrous Olid, the rash, head-long, cruel Velasquez deLeon, and others, worthy to be the comrades of these, and ofCortez--when have the ranks of the war-god assigned so many masterspirits to one enterprize? And the brave, the gifted, t
he indomitableXicotencatl, the mountain chief of Tlascala, whom the Spaniards, with somuch difficulty, first subdued and then won to their cause, as anally--what a noble personification of the soul and spirit of heroism,realizing in personal bravery, martial skill and prowess, and in all thecommanding qualities of person and of character, which go to constitutethe victorious warrior, the best pictures of the type-heroes of epicpoetry and history.
In all their previous discoveries in the New World, the progress of theSpaniards to victory was easy, and almost unresisted. The invaders ofMexico, however, found themselves suddenly introduced to a new people,and new scenes--to nations of warriors, to races intelligent, civilized,and competent to self-government and self-defence. And all the skill,courage, and energy of their ablest commanders, and their bravest men,would have availed them nothing in their herculean enterprize, if theyhad not craftily and skilfully worked upon the jealousies anddifferences existing between the various tribes and nations of Anahuac,and fomented the long smothered discontents, and unwritten complaints ofan over-taxed and sternly-governed people, into open and clamorousresistance to the despotic sway of Montezuma. It is curious andmelancholy to observe, how eagerly they shook off the golden yoke oftheir hereditary monarch, for the iron one of a new master, andexchanged their long-established servitude to their legitimate king andtheir pagan gods, for a more galling, hopeless, and wasting slavery tothe cruel and rapacious invader, under the life-promising Sign of theCross, the desecrated banner of the Prince of Peace.
[B] One version of this singular prophetic legend represented the expected invaders, as the descendants of the ancient god Quetzalcoatl, who, ages agone, had voluntarily abdicated the throne of Anahuac, and departed to a far country in the East, with a promise to his afflicted people, that his children would ultimately return, and claim their ancient country and crown.