by V. V. Vide
CHAPTER V.
ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS AT THE CAPITAL--THEIR RECEPTION BY MONTEZUMA--DETERMINED HOSTILITY OF GUATIMOZIN.
~Hark! at the very portals now they stand, Demanding entrance. Can I shut them out, When all the gods commission them to come? Can we admit them, and preserve intact Our honor and the state?~
The spectacle of this day, the eighth of November, 1519, has not itsparallel in the annals of history, and will probably never be repeatedin the history of man. The sovereign and absolute monarch of a populousand powerful empire, stooping from his imperial throne, flinging wideopen the gates of his capital, and condescending to go out, and receivewith an apparent welcome an invading foe, whom he had in vain attemptedto keep out, but whom he had now the power to crush under his feet in amoment. That invading foe consisted only of a few hundred adventurers,three thousand miles from home, in the heart of the country they hadravaged, and surrounded by countless thousands of exasperated foes,burning to revenge the injuries and insults they had received at thehands of the strangers, and only held back from rushing upon them, likeherds of ravening tigers, by the strong arm of the royal prohibition.Their position was like that of a group of children in a menagerie,amusing themselves with teasing and exasperating the caged animalsaround them. The furious creatures glare on them with looks of rage,growling fiercely, and gnashing their teeth. The keeper sympathizes withhis enraged subjects, burning to let them loose upon their annoyers, butrestrained by that mysterious agency, in which the divine hand is everywhere moulding and subduing the natural impulses of humanity, andworking out its own wise ends by the wrath and passions of men.
Let the keeper but raise the bar of that cage for a moment, and not oneof the bright group would be left to tell the tragic issue of theirsport. Let the terror-stricken Montezuma put on once more the air of amonarch, and raise his finger as a signal for the onset, before theenemy has become entrenched in his fortress, and few, if any, of thatbrave band would be left to tell the world of their fate--the marvellousstory of the Conquest would never be told; the Aztec dynasty wouldoutlive the period assigned it by those mystic oracles; and Montezuma,recovered from the dark dreams of an imagination disordered bysuperstition--the long dreaded crisis of his destiny passed--would haveswayed again the sceptre of undisputed empire over the broad andbeautiful realms of Anahuac. Having once vanquished and destroyed theterrible strangers, and stripped them of that supernatural defence,which the idea of their celestial origin threw around them, he wouldnever again have yielded his soul to so unmanly a fear. If such hadbeen the issue of the invasion of Cortez and his band, it is doubtfulwhether the Aztec dynasty would ever have been overthrown. Thecivilization of Europe would soon have been engrafted upon its own.Christianity would have taken the place of their dark and bloodypaganism; which, with a people so far enlightened as they were, couldnot have endured for a moment the noon-day blaze of the gospel; and theterrible power of that heathen despot would have been softened, withoutweakening it, into the consolidated colossal strength of an enlightened,Christian, peaceful empire. Christianity propagated by fire and swordconsumes centuries, and wastes whole generations of men, in effecting arevolution, which they who go with the olive branch in their hand, andthe gospel of peace in their hearts, require only a few years toaccomplish. Witness the recent triumphs of a peaceful Christianity inthe Sandwich Islands, as contrasted with the bloody and wasting Crusadesof Spaniards in all portions of the new world.
With the earliest dawn, the reveille was beaten in the Spanish camp, andall the forces were mustered and drawn up in the order of their march.Cortez, at the head of the cavalry, formed the advanced guard, followedimmediately by the Castilian infantry in solid column. The artillery andbaggage occupied the centre, while the dark files of the Tlascalansavages brought up the rear. The whole number was less than seventhousand, not more than three hundred and fifty of whom were Spaniards.Putting on their most imposing array, with gay flaunting banners, andthe stirring notes of the trumpet, swelling over lake and grove, androlling away in distant echoes among the mountains, they issued forthfrom the city, just as the rising sun, surmounting the easterncordillera, poured the golden stream of day over the beautiful valley,and lighted up a thousand resplendent fires among the gilded domes, andenameled temples of the capital, and the rich tiara of tributary citiesand towns that encircled it. Moving rapidly forward, they soon enteredupon the grand causeway, which, passing through the capital, spans theentire breadth of the Tezcucan lake, constituting then the mainentrance, as its remains do now the principal southern avenue, to thecity of Mexico. It was composed of immense stones, fashioned withgeometrical precision, well laid in cement, and capable of withstandingfor ages the play of the waters, and the ravages of time. It was ofsufficient width, throughout its whole extent, to allow ten horsemen toride abreast. It was interrupted in several places by well built drawbridges for the accommodation of the numerous boats, that carried on abrisk trade with the several towns on the lake, and for the betterdefence of the city against an invading foe. At the distance of abouthalf a league from the capital, it was also traversed by a thick heavywall of stone, about twelve feet high, surmounted and fortified bytowers at each extremity. In the centre was a battlemented gateway, ofsufficient strength to resist any force that could be brought againstit, by the rude enginery of native warfare. This was called the Fort ofXoloc.
Here they were met by a very numerous and powerful body of Aztec nobles,splendidly arrayed in their gayest costume, who came to announce theapproach of Montezuma, and again in his name to bid the strangerswelcome to the capital. As each of the chiefs presented himself, in histurn, to Cortez, and made the customary formal salutation, aconsiderable time was consumed in the ceremony; which was somewhat moretedious than interesting to the hot spirited Spaniards.
When this was over, they passed briskly on, and soon beheld theglittering retinue of the Emperor emerging from the principal gate ofthe city. The royal palanquin, blazing with burnished gold and preciousstones, was borne on the shoulders of the principal nobles of the land,while crowds of others, of equal or inferior rank, thronged inobsequious attendance around. It was preceded by three officers, bearinggolden wands. Over it was a canopy of gaudy feather-work, powdered withjewels, and fringed with silver, resting on four richly carved andinlaid pillars, and supported by four nobles of the same rank with thebearers. These were all bare-footed, and walked with a slow measuredpace, as conscious of the majesty of their burden, and with eyes bent onthe ground. Arrived within a convenient distance, the train halted, andMontezuma, alighting from his palanquin, came forward, leaning on thearms of his royal relatives, the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan. Asthe monarch advanced, under the same gorgeous canopy which had beforescreened him from the public gaze, and the glare of the mid-day sun, theground was covered with cotton tapestry, while all his subjects of highand low degree, who lined the sides of the causeway, bent their headsand fixed their eyes on the ground, as unworthy to look upon so muchmajesty. Some prostrated themselves on the ground before him, and allin that mighty throng were awed by his presence into a silence that wasabsolutely oppressive.
The appearance of Montezuma was in the highest degree interesting to theSpanish general and his followers. Flung over his shoulders was the_tilmatli_, or large square cloak, manufactured from the finest cotton,with the embroidered ends gathered in a knot round his neck. Under thiswas a tunic of green, embroidered with exquisite taste, extending almostto his knees, and confined at the waist, by a rich jeweled vest. Hisfeet were protected by sandals of gold, bound with leathern thongsrichly embossed with the same metal. The cloak, the tunic, and thesandals were profusely sprinkled with pearls and precious stones. On hishead was a _panache_ of plumes of the royal green, waving gracefully inthe light breeze.
He was then about forty years of age. His person was tall, slender, andwell proportioned. His complexion was somewhat fairer than that of hisrace generally. His countenance was expressive of great benignity. Hi
scarriage was serious, dignified and even majestic, and, without theleast tincture of haughtiness, or affectation of importance, he movedwith the stately air of one born to command, and accustomed to thehomage of all about him.
The strangers halted, as the monarch drew near. Cortez, dismounting,threw his reins to a page, and, supported by a few of his principalcavaliers, advanced to meet him. What an interview! How full ofthrilling interest to both parties! How painfully thrilling toMontezuma, who now saw before him, standing on the very threshold ofhis citadel, the all-conquering white man, whose history was somysteriously blended with his own; whose coming and power had beenforeshadowed for ages in the prophetic traditions of his country,confirmed again by his own most sacred oracles, and repeated by so manysigns, and omens, and fearful prognostics, that he was compelled eitherto regard him as the heaven-sent representative of the ancient rightfullords of the soil, or to abandon his early and cherished faith, thereligion of his fathers, and of the ancient race from which they sprung.
Putting a royal restraint upon the feelings which almost overwhelmedhim, the monarch received his guest with princely courtesy, expressinggreat pleasure in seeing him personally, and extending to him thehospitalities of his capital. The Castilian replied with expressions ofthe most profound respect, and with many and ample acknowledgments forthe substantial proofs which the Emperor had already given of his morethan royal munificence. He then hung on the neck of the king a sparklingchain of colored crystal, at the same time making a movement, as if hewould embrace him. He was prevented, however, by the timely interferenceof two Aztec lords from thus profaning, before the assembled multitudesof his people, the sacred person of their master.
After this formal introduction and interchange of civilities, Montezumaappointed his brother, the bold Cuitlahua, to conduct the Spaniards totheir quarters in the city, and returned in the same princely state inwhich he came, amid the prostrate thousands of his subjects. Ponderingdeeply, as the train moved slowly on, upon the fearful crisis in hisaffairs which had now arrived, his ear was arrested by a faint low voicein the crowd, which he instantly recognized as Karee's, breathing out aplaintive wail, as if in soliloquy with her own soul, or in highcommunion with the spirits of the unseen world. The strain was wild andbroken, but its tenor was deeply mournful and deprecatory. It concludedwith these emphatic words--
The proud eagle may turn to his eyrie again, But his pinions are clipped, and his foot feels the chain, He is monarch no more in his wide domain-- The falcon has come to his nest.
With an air of bold and martial triumph, their colors flying, and musicbriskly playing, the Spaniards, with the singular trail of half savageTlascalans, the deadly enemies of the Aztecs, made their entrance intothe southern quarter of the renowned Tenochtitlan, and were escorted bythe brave Cuitlahua, to the royal palace of Axayacatl, in the heart ofthe city, once the residence of Montezuma's father, and now appropriatedto the accommodation of Cortez and his followers.
As they marched through the crowded streets, new subjects of wonder andadmiration greeted them on every side. The grandeur and extent of thecity, the superior style of its architecture, the ample dimensions,immense strength, and costly ornaments of the numerous palaces, pyramidsand temples, separated and surrounded by broad terraced gardens in thehighest possible state of cultivation, and teeming with flowers of everyhue and name--the lofty tapering sanctuaries, and altars blazing withinextinguishable fires,--and above all, the innumerable throngs ofpeople who swarmed through the streets and canals, filling everydoor-way and window, and clustering on the flat roof of every buildingas they passed, filled them with mingled emotions of admiration,surprise and fear.
The swarming myriads of the Aztecs were, on their part, no lessinterested and amazed at the spectacle presented by their strangevisitors. An intense and all-absorbing curiosity pervaded the entiremass of the people. Nothing could surpass their wonder and admiration ofthe prancing steeds, or four legged and double-headed men, as to theirsimple view they seemed to be, the rider as he sat with ease in hissaddle, appearing to be but a part of the animal on which he rode. Thepiercing tones of the loud mouthed trumpets, astonished and delightedthem exceedingly. But the deep thunder of the artillery as it burst uponthem amid volumes of sulphurous smoke and flame, and then rolled away inlong reverberated echoes among the mountains, filled them withindescribable alarm, and made them feel that the all-destroying god ofwar was indeed among them in the guise of men.
While these scenes were enacting in the city, the palace was shrouded inthe deepest gloom. When the monarch arrayed himself, in the morning, togo forth to meet the strangers, several incidents occurred, which weredeemed peculiarly ominous, confirming all the superstitious forebodingsof the king, and tending to take away from the yet trusting hearts ofhis household, their last remaining hope. The imperial clasp, whichbound his girdle in front, bearing as its device, richly engraven on theprecious _chalchivitl_, the emblem of despotic power, which was theeagle pouncing upon the ocelot--snapped in twain, scattering thefragments of the eagle's head upon the marble pavement. The principaljewel in the royal diadem was found loose, and trembling in its setting.But, more portentous than all to the mind of the devout Montezuma, thepriest, who had charge of the great altar on the Teocalli ofHuitzilopotchli, had been seized with convulsions during the precedingnight, and fallen dead at his post. The perpetual fire had gone out, forwant of a hand to replenish it, and when the morning sun shot his firstbeams upon that high altar, there was not a spark among the blackenedembers, to answer his reviving glow.
It was impossible to shake off the influence of presages like these.From infancy, he had been taught to read in all such incidents, theshadowy revealings of the will of the gods, the dark lines of destinyforeshown to the faithful. The soul of Montezuma was oppressed almost tosinking. But he roused himself to his task, and went forth, feeling, ashe went, that the ground trembled beneath his feet, while an untimelynight gathered at noon-day over the sky.
* * * * *
Among the noble princes who graced the court of Montezuma, there was noone of a nobler bearing, or a loftier heart, than his nephew Guatimozin,the favored lover of Tecuichpo. Unlike her disappointed suitor, thePrince of Tezcuco, he had uniformly and powerfully opposed the timidpolicy of the king, and urged, with Cuitlahua, a bold and unyieldingresistance to the encroachments of the intruding Spaniards. Hisreluctance to their admission to the capital was so great, that herefused to witness the humiliating spectacle; preferring to shut himselfup in the palace, and sustain, if he could, the fainting courage of theprincess, and her mother. All that could be done by eloquence, inspiredby patriotic zeal and inflamed by a pure and refined love, was attemptedby the accomplished youth, till, excited and inflamed by his own effortsto comfort and persuade others, and nerved to higher resolves, by a newcontemplation of the inestimable heart-treasures, which were staked uponthe issue, a new hope seemed to dawn upon the clouded horizon of theirdestiny.
"My fair princess," cried the impassioned lover, "it shall not be. Thesewide and glorious realms, teeming with untold thousands of brave andpatriotic hearts, ready and able to defend our altars and our hearths,shall never pass away to a mere handful of pale-faced invaders. They_must_, they _shall_ be driven back. Or, if our gods have utterlydeserted us--if the time has indeed come, when the power and glory ofthe Aztec is to pass away for ever, let the Aztec, to a man, pass awaywith it. Let us perish together by our altars, and leave to therapacious intruder a ravaged and depopulated country. Let not one remainto grace his triumph, or bow his neck to the ignominious yoke."
"Nay, my sweet cousin," she replied, with a tone and look ofindescribable tenderness, "we will indeed die together, if need be, butlet us first see if we cannot live together."
"Live?" exclaimed Guatimozin. "Oh! Tecuichpo, what would I not attempt,what would I not sacrifice, to the hope of living, if I might sharethat life with you. But my country! my allegiance! how can I sacrificethat which is not
my own?--that inheritance which was all mybirth-right, and which, as it preceded, must necessarily be paramountto, all the other relations of life."
"But, my father! dear Guatimozin! must he not be obeyed?"
"Yes, and he shall be. But he _must_ be persuaded, even at this latehour, to dismiss the strangers, and banish them for ever from hisdomains. He has no right to yield it up. It belongs to his subjects noless than to him. He belongs to them, by the same sacred bond that bindsthem all to him. He may not sacrifice them to a scruple, which has in itmore of superstition than of religion. I must go to the Temple ofCholula, and bring up the hoary old prophet of Quetzalcoatl, and see ifhe cannot move the too tender conscience of your father, and persuadehim that his duty to his gods cannot, by any possibility, be made toconflict with his duty to his empire, and the mighty family of dependentchildren, whom the gods have committed to his care."
"Oh! not now, Guatimozin, I pray you. Do not leave us at this terriblemoment. Stay, and sustain with your courageous hopes the sad heart of mydear father, who is utterly overwhelmed with the dire omens of thisdismal morning."
"Omens! Oh! Tecuichpo, shall we not rather say that the gods have thusfrowned upon our cowardly abandonment of their altars, than that theydesign, in these dark portents, to denounce an irreversible doom, whichour prayers cannot avert, nor our combined wisdom and courage prevent?"
* * * * *
At this moment Montezuma returned. But the deep distress depicted in hiscountenance, and the air of stern reserve which he assumed in thepresence of those whose counsels would tend to shake his resolve,effectually prevented Guatimozin from pursuing, at that moment, theobject nearest his heart. He retired into the garden, where he was soonjoined by the fair princess, who wished to divert him from his purposedvisit to Cholula, knowing full well it would be a fruitless mission.
"But why, my brave cousin, may not my father be right, in feeling thatthese strangers are sent to us from the gods? And if from the gods, thensurely for our good; for the gods are all beneficence, and can onlyintend the well-being of their children, in all the changes that befalus here. Perhaps these strangers will teach us more of the beings whomwe worship, and direct us how we may serve them better than we now do,and so partake more largely of their favor."
"Alas! my beloved, how can we hope that they who come to destroy, whoseonly god is gold--to the possession of which they are ready to sacrificelife, love, honor, every thing--how can we hope that they will teach usany thing better or higher than we learn from the ancient oracles of ourfaith, and the holy priesthood of our religion? No, it cannot be. Theirpathway is drenched in blood, and so it will be, till the throne, and hewho honors it, are laid in dust at their feet, and you and I, and allthe myriads of our people, have become their abject slaves."
"Say not so, I beseech you, dear Guatimozin. Where my father leads, Imust follow, and hope for the best. And you must follow too, for Icannot go without you. Here, take this rose, and wear it as a pledge tome, over this sparkling fountain, that you will no more hazard theimperial displeasure, and the anger of the gods, by your bold and rashresistance of the known decrees of fate. And I will weave a chaplet ofthe same, to lay upon the altar, to propitiate for us all the favor ofheaven."
There was too much real chivalry in the heart of Guatimozin, to resistthe earnest love and eloquent persuasion of his lady-love. He kissed herfair cheek in token of submission to her sway, and then led her to thepalace, to learn if any thing new had transpired to encourage his hopethat his wishes would yet be realized, in the exclusion of the Spaniardsfrom the city. As they passed along, they heard Karee-o-than, thegarrulous pet of the Princess, seemingly soliloquising among thebranches of the flowering orange that hung over her favorite arbor. Theypaused a moment, but could gather nothing from his chatterings but"Brave Guatimozin! noble Guatimozin! all is yours."
"An omen! my sweet cousin, a genuine emphatic omen! Even Karee-o-thanencourages me in my treason. I wish I knew how she would respond to thename of this redoubtable Cortez. Pray ask her, Tecuichpo, what shethinks of the Spaniard."
"Fear you not to trifle thus?" asked Tecuichpo.
"Fear not, brave Guatimozin!" responded the parrot.
"There, I have it again, my love; all she says is against you. And whatdo you say of Malinche, pretty Karee-o-than?"
"Poor Malinche! brave Guatimozin."
"Bravo!" exclaimed the Prince, "the bird is as good as an omen, andI"----
At that moment, Karee appeared, and coming towards them in great hasteand trepidation, informed them that the Spaniards had already reachedtheir quarters in the old palace, and that Montezuma had gone thither,in royal state, to receive them.
"And what think you of all these things, my fairy queen," askedGuatimozin, playfully.
"Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial house of Tenochtitlan!" energeticallyreplied Karee,--"its glory is departed for ever,--its crown has fallenfrom the head of the great Montezuma, and there is none able to wear it,or to redeem it from the hand of the spoiler. Thou, most noble Prince,wilt do all that mortal courage and prowess can do, to rescue it fromdesecration, and to protect the house of Montezuma from the cruel fateto which he has delivered it up; but it will be all in vain. _He_ mustperish by an ignominious death. _They_ must pass under the yoke of thestrangers, and thou, too, after all thy noble struggles and sacrifices,must perish miserably under their cruel and implacable rapacity."
This was too much for Tecuichpo. She looked upon Karee as an inspiredprophetess, and had always found it exceedingly difficult to sustain thefilial confidence which sanctified every act and every purpose of herroyal father, when the powerful incantations of Karee were directedagainst them. It was a continual struggle between an affectionatesuperstition, and filial love. But that first, and holiest, andstrongest instinct of her heart prevailed, and she clung the more warmlyto her father, when she found that every thing else was against him. Butnow the shaft had pierced her at another and an unguarded point. Herspirit fainted within her. She swooned in the arms of Guatimozin, andwas borne to her apartment in a state of insensibility, where, under thekind and skilful nursing of Karee, and the affectionate assurances ofGuatimozin, she was soon restored to health, and her accustomedcheerfulness. But these ceaseless agitations, these painful alternationsof hope and fear, were slowly wearing upon her gentle spirit, andundermining a frame so delicately sensitive, that, like the aspen,
------It trembled when the sleeping breeze But dreamed of waking.