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34 - Montezuma's Daughter by H Rider Haggard · Montezumas Daughter

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty three, Isabel de Seguenza is avenged from. Many
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  Speaker 1: years after the death of Guatamaluc I lived with Ottomy
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  Speaker 1: at peace in the city of Pines. Our country was
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  Speaker 1: poor and rugged, and though we defied the Spaniards and
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  Speaker 1: paid them no tribute, now that courts had gone back
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  Speaker 1: to Spain, they had no heart to attempt our conquest,
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  Speaker 1: save some few tribes that lived in difficult places like ourselves.
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  Speaker 1: All Anhuac was in their power, and there was little
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  Speaker 1: to gain except hard blows in the bringing of a
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  Speaker 1: remnant of the people of the Ottomy beneath their yoke.
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  Speaker 1: So they let us be till a more convenient season,
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  Speaker 1: I say, of a remnant of the Ottomy. For as
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  Speaker 1: time went on, many Clams submitted to the Spaniards, till
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  Speaker 1: at length we ruled over the city of Pines alone,
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  Speaker 1: and some leagues of territory about it. Indeed, it was
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  Speaker 1: only love for Otomy and respect for the shadow of
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  Speaker 1: her ancient race and name, together with some reverence from
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  Speaker 1: me as one of the unconquerable white men, and for
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  Speaker 1: my skill as a general, that they kept our following together.
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  Speaker 1: Now it may be asked, was I happy in those years,
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  Speaker 1: I had much to make me happy. No man could
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  Speaker 1: have been blessed with a wife more beautiful and loving,
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  Speaker 1: nor one who had exampled her affection by more signal
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  Speaker 1: deeds of sacrifice. This woman, of her own free will
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  Speaker 1: had lain by my side on the stone of slaughter,
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  Speaker 1: overriding the instincts of her sex. She had not shrunk
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  Speaker 1: from dipping her hands in blood to secure my safety.
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  Speaker 1: Her wit had rescued me in many a trouble. Her
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  Speaker 1: love had consoled me in many a sorrow. Surely, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: if gratitude can conquer the heart of man, mine should
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  Speaker 1: have been at her feet forever in a day. And
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  Speaker 1: so indeed it was, and in a sense is still.
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  Speaker 1: But can gratitude can love itself, or any passion that
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  Speaker 1: rules our souls? Make a man forget the house where
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  Speaker 1: he was born? Could I, an Indian chief, struggling with
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  Speaker 1: the fallen people against an inevitable destiny, forget my youth
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  Speaker 1: and all its hopes and fears? Could I forget the
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  Speaker 1: valley of the Wavene and that flower who dwelt therein
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  Speaker 1: and forsworn though I might be? Could I forget the
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  Speaker 1: oath that I had once sworn. Chance had been against me,
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  Speaker 1: circumstances overpowered me. And I think that there are few
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  Speaker 1: who could they read this story, would not find in
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  Speaker 1: it excuse for all that I had done. Certainly there
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  Speaker 1: are very few who, standing where I stood, surrounded as
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  Speaker 1: I was by doubts, difficulties, and dangers, would not have
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  Speaker 1: acted as I did. And yet my memory would rise
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  Speaker 1: up against me, and time upon time I would lie
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  Speaker 1: awake at night, even by the side of otomy, and
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  Speaker 1: remember and repent, if a man may repent of that
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  Speaker 1: over which he has no control. For I was a
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  Speaker 1: stranger in a strange land, and though my home was
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  Speaker 1: there and my children were about me, the longing for
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  Speaker 1: my other home was yet with me, and I could
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  Speaker 1: not put away the memory of that lily whom I
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  Speaker 1: had lost. Her ring was still upon my hand. But
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  Speaker 1: nothing else of her remained to me. I did not
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  Speaker 1: know if she was married or single, living or dead.
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  Speaker 1: The gulf between us widened with the widening years, but
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  Speaker 1: still the thought of her went with me like my shadow.
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  Speaker 1: It shone across the stormy love of Artemi. I remembered
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  Speaker 1: it even in my children's kiss, And worst of all,
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  Speaker 1: I despise myself for these regrets. Nay, if the worse
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  Speaker 1: can have our worse, there was one, for though she
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  Speaker 1: never spoke of it, I feared that Artemi had read
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  Speaker 1: my mind heart too. Heart, though far apart, so ran
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  Speaker 1: the writing upon Lily's betrothal ring, And so it was
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  Speaker 1: with me far apart. We were indeed so far that
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  Speaker 1: no bridge that I might imagine could join that distance.
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  Speaker 1: And yet I could not say that we had ceased
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  Speaker 1: from being heart to heart. Her heart might throb no more,
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  Speaker 1: but mine beat still towards it, across the land, across
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  Speaker 1: the sea, across the gulf of death. If she were dead,
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  Speaker 1: still in secret must I desire the love that I
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  Speaker 1: had forsworn. And so the years rolled on, bringing little
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  Speaker 1: of change with them, till I grew sure that there
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  Speaker 1: in this far place I should live and die. But
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  Speaker 1: that was not to be my fate. If any should
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  Speaker 1: read this the story of my early life, he will
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  Speaker 1: remember that the tale of the death of a son
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  Speaker 1: Isabella de Seguenza, is peaced into its motley. He will
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  Speaker 1: remember how this Isabella, in the last moments of her life,
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  Speaker 1: called down a curse upon the Holy Father, who added
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  Speaker 1: outrage and insult to her torment, praying that he might
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  Speaker 1: also die by the hands of fanatics, and in a
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  Speaker 1: worse fashion. If my memory does not play me false,
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  Speaker 1: I have said that this indeed came to pass, and
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  Speaker 1: very strangely, for after the conquest of Anuak by Cortez,
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  Speaker 1: among others, this same fiery priest came from Spain to
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  Speaker 1: turn the Indians to the love of God by torment
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  Speaker 1: and by sword. Indeed, of all those who entered on
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  Speaker 1: this mission of peace, he was the most zealous. The
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  Speaker 1: Indian pabbas wrought cruelties enough when tearing out the victim's heart,
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  Speaker 1: they offered it like incense to the Huitzel or Quetzel,
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  Speaker 1: But they at least dismissed his soul to the mansions
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  Speaker 1: of the Sun. With the Christian priest, the thumbscrew and
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  Speaker 1: the stake took the place of the stone of sacrifice.
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  Speaker 1: But the soul, which they delivered from its earthly bondage,
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  Speaker 1: they consigned to the house of Hell. Of these priests,
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  Speaker 1: a certain father Pedro was the boldest and most cruel
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  Speaker 1: to and fro. He passed, marking his path with the
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  Speaker 1: corpses of idolators, until he earned the name of the
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  Speaker 1: Christian devil. At length, he ventured too far in his
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  Speaker 1: holy fervor, and was seized by a clan of the
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  Speaker 1: otomy that had broken from our rule upon this very
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  Speaker 1: question of human sacrifice, but which was not yet subjugated
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  Speaker 1: by the Spaniards. One day, it was, when we had
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  Speaker 1: ruled for about some fourteen years of the city of Pines,
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  Speaker 1: it came to my knowledge that the Pabas of this
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  Speaker 1: clan had captured a Christian priest and designed to offer
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  Speaker 1: him to the god Tescat. Attended by a small guard, only,
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  Speaker 1: I passed rapidly across the mountains, purposing to visit the
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  Speaker 1: Kokik of this clan, with whom, although he had cast
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  Speaker 1: off his allegiance to us, I still kept up a
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  Speaker 1: show of friendship and if I could, to persuade him
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  Speaker 1: to release the priest. But swiftly as I traveled, the
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  Speaker 1: vengeance of the Pabas had been more swift, and I
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  Speaker 1: arrived at the village only to find the Christian devil
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  Speaker 1: in the act of being led to sacrifice before the
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  Speaker 1: image of a hideous idol that was set upon a
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  Speaker 1: stake and surrounded with piles of skulls naked to the waist,
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  Speaker 1: his hands bound behind him, his grizzled locks hanging about
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  Speaker 1: his breast, his keen eyes fixed upon the faces of
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  Speaker 1: his heathen foes in menace rather than in supplication, his
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  Speaker 1: thin lips muttering prayers. Father Pedro passed on to the
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  Speaker 1: place of his doom, now and again, shaking his head
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  Speaker 1: fiercely to free himself from the torment of the insects
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  Speaker 1: which buzzed about it. I looked upon him and wondered.
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  Speaker 1: I looked again and knew. Suddenly there rose before my
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  Speaker 1: mind a vision of that gloomy vault in Seville, of
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  Speaker 1: a woman, young and lovely, draped in serimons, and of
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  Speaker 1: a thin faced, black robe friar, who smote her upon
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  Speaker 1: the lips with his ivory crucifix and cursed her for
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  Speaker 1: a blaspheming heretic. There before me was the man Isabel
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  Speaker 1: de Seguenzer had prayed that a fate like her own
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  Speaker 1: fate should befall him, and it was upon him now,
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  Speaker 1: Nor indeed remain remembering all that had been, was I
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  Speaker 1: minded to avert it, even if it had been in
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  Speaker 1: my power to do so. I stood by and let
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  Speaker 1: the victim pass. But as he passed. I spoke to
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  Speaker 1: him in Spanish, saying, remember that which may well be
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  Speaker 1: you have forgotten, father, Remember now the dying prayer of
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  Speaker 1: Isabella de Seguenzer, who many years ago you did to
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  Speaker 1: death in Seville. The man heard me. He turned livid
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  Speaker 1: beneath his bronze skin and staggered until I thought that
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  Speaker 1: he would have fallen. He stared upon me with terror
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  Speaker 1: in his eyes to see, as he believed, a common
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  Speaker 1: sight enough, that of an Indian chief rejoicing at the
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  Speaker 1: death of one of his oppressors. What the devil are you,
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  Speaker 1: he said, hoarsely, sent from hell to torment me. At
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  Speaker 1: last remembered the dying prayer of Isabella di Seguenza, whom
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  Speaker 1: you struck and cursed, I answered, mocking. Seek not to
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  Speaker 1: know whence I am, but remember this only now and forever.
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  Speaker 1: For a moment he stood still, heedless of the urgings
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  Speaker 1: of his tormentors. Then his courage came to him again,
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  Speaker 1: and he cried, with a great voice, get THEE behind me, Satan.
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  Speaker 1: What have I to fear from thee? I remember that
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  Speaker 1: dead sinner. Well, may her soul have peace, and her
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  Speaker 1: curse has fallen upon me. I rejoiced that it should
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  Speaker 1: be so, For in the further side of yonder stone,
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  Speaker 1: the gates of heaven opened to my sight. Get thee
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  Speaker 1: behind me, Satan, What have I to fear from thee? Crying?
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  Speaker 1: Thus he staggered forward, saying, O God, into thy hand,
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  Speaker 1: I commend my spirit. May his soul have peace also,
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  Speaker 1: for if he was cruel, at least he was brave
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  Speaker 1: and did not shrink beneath his torments, which he had
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  Speaker 1: inflicted on many others. Now this was but a little matter,
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  Speaker 1: but its results were large. Had I saved Father Pedro
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  Speaker 1: from the hands of the papas of theotomy, it is
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  Speaker 1: likely enough that I should not to day be right
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  Speaker 1: in this history here in the valley of Waveney. I
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  Speaker 1: do not know if I could have saved him. I
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  Speaker 1: only know that I did not try, and that because
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  Speaker 1: of his death, great sorrows came upon me. Whether I
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  Speaker 1: was right or wrong, who can say. Those who judge
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  Speaker 1: my story may think that in this as in other mans,
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  Speaker 1: I was wrong. Had they seen Isabella de Seguenza die
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  Speaker 1: within her living tomb, certainly they would hold that I
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  Speaker 1: was right. But for good or ill, matters came about
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  Speaker 1: as I have written. And it also came about that
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  Speaker 1: the new viceroy, sent from Spain, was stirred to anger
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  Speaker 1: at the murder of the Friar by the rebellious and
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  Speaker 1: heathen people of the Ottomy, and set himself to take
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  Speaker 1: vengeance on the tribe that wrote this deed. Soon tidings
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  Speaker 1: reached me that a great force of Taalasquans and other
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  Speaker 1: Indians were being collected to put an end to us,
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  Speaker 1: root and branch, and that with them marched more than
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  Speaker 1: a hundred Spaniards, the expedition being under the command of
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  Speaker 1: none other than Captain Bernald Diaz, that same soldier whom
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  Speaker 1: I spared in the slaughter of the Nostriste, and whose
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  Speaker 1: soared to this day hung at my side. Now we
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  Speaker 1: must needs prepare our defense, for our only hope lay
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  Speaker 1: in boldness. Once before the Spaniards had attacked us with
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  Speaker 1: thousands of their allies and of their numbers, but few
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  Speaker 1: had lived to look again on the camp of Cortes.
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  Speaker 1: What had been done could be done a second time,
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  Speaker 1: so said Ottomy in the pride of her unconquerable heart.
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  Speaker 1: But alas in fourteen years, things had changed much with us.
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  Speaker 1: Fourteen years ago, we held sway over a great district
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  Speaker 1: of mountains, whose rude clans would send up their warriors
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  Speaker 1: in hundreds at our care. Now these clans had broken
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  Speaker 1: from our yoke, which was acknowledged by the people of
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  Speaker 1: the city of Pines alone and those of some adjacent villages.
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  Speaker 1: When the Spaniards came down on me, the Fir I
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  Speaker 1: was able to muster an army of ten thousand soldiers
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  Speaker 1: to oppose them. Now, with much toil, I could collect
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  Speaker 1: no more than between two and three thousand men, and
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  Speaker 1: of those some slipped away. As the hour of danger
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  Speaker 1: drew nigh. Still, I must put a bold face on
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  Speaker 1: my necessities and make what play I might with some
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  Speaker 1: forces as lay at my command. Although in my heart
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  Speaker 1: I feared much for their issue. But of my fears
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  Speaker 1: I said nothing to utter me, and if she felt any, she,
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  Speaker 1: on her part, buried them in her breast. In truth,
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  Speaker 1: I do believe her faith in me was so great
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  Speaker 1: that she thought my single wit enough to overmatch all
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  Speaker 1: the armies of the Spaniards. Now at length the enemy
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  Speaker 1: drew near, and I set my battle as I had
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  Speaker 1: done fourteen years before, advancing down the pass by which
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  Speaker 1: alone they could approach us with a small portion of
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  Speaker 1: my force, and stationing the remainder in two equal companies
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  Speaker 1: upon either brow of the beetling cliffs that overhung the road,
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  Speaker 1: having command to overwhelm the Spaniards with rocks hurled upon
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  Speaker 1: them from above, so soon as I was able to
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  Speaker 1: give the signal by flying before them down the pass.
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  Speaker 1: Other measures I took also, for seeing that do what
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  Speaker 1: I would, it well might happen that we should be
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  Speaker 1: driven back upon the city. I caused its walls and
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  Speaker 1: gates to be set in order, and garrison them. As
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  Speaker 1: a last resort to I store the lofty summit of
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  Speaker 1: the Tiochli, which, now that sacrifices were no longer offered, there,
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  Speaker 1: was used as an arsenal for the material of war
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  Speaker 1: with water and provisions, and fortifies its sides by walls
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  Speaker 1: studded with volcanic glass, and by other devices, till it
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  Speaker 1: seemed well nigh impossible that any should be able to
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  Speaker 1: force them, while a score of men still live to
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  Speaker 1: offer a defense. It was on one night in the
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  Speaker 1: early summer, having bid farewell to utter me and taken
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  Speaker 1: my son with me, for he was now of an age,
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  Speaker 1: when according to the Indian customs, lads were brought face
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  Speaker 1: to face with dangers of battle that I despatched the
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  Speaker 1: appointed companies to their stations on the brow of the precipice,
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  Speaker 1: and sallied into the darksome mouth of the past with
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  Speaker 1: a few hundred men who were left to me. I
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  Speaker 1: knew by my spies that the Spaniards, who were encamped
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  Speaker 1: on the further side, would attempt its passage an hour
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  Speaker 1: before the daylight, trusting to find me asleep. And sure enough,
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  Speaker 1: on the following morning, so early that the first rays
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  Speaker 1: of the sun had not yet stained the loftly snows
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  Speaker 1: of the vulcan Jaka that towered behind us, a distant murmuring,
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  Speaker 1: which echoed through the silence of the night, told me
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  Speaker 1: that the enemy had begun his march. I moved down
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  Speaker 1: the pass to meet him easily enough. There was no
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  Speaker 1: stone in it that was not known to me and
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  Speaker 1: my men. But with the Spaniards it was otherwise, for
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  Speaker 1: many of them were mounted, and moreover they dragged with
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  Speaker 1: them two coronades. Time upon time, these heavy guns remained
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  Speaker 1: fast in the bolder strewn roadway, for in the darkness
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  Speaker 1: the slaves who drew them could find no places for
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  Speaker 1: the wheels to run on till in the end the
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  Speaker 1: captains of the army, unwilling to risk a fight at
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  Speaker 1: so great a disadvantage, ordered them to halt until the
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  Speaker 1: day broke. At length, the dawn came, and the light
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  Speaker 1: fell dimly upon the depths of the vast gulf, revealing
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  Speaker 1: the long ranks of the Spaniards, clad in their bright armor,
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  Speaker 1: and the yet more brilliant thousands of their native allies,
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  Speaker 1: gorgeous in their painted helms and their glittering coats of feathers.
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  Speaker 1: They saw us also, and mocking at our poor array,
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  Speaker 1: their columns twisted forward like some huge snake in the
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  Speaker 1: crack of a rock, till they came to within a
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  Speaker 1: hundred paces of us. Then the Spaniards raised their battle
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  Speaker 1: cry of Saint Peter and lands at rest. They charged
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  Speaker 1: us with their horses. We met them with a rain
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  Speaker 1: of arrows that checked them little, but not for long.
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  Speaker 1: Soon they were among us, driving us back at the
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  Speaker 1: point of their lancers and slaying many. For our Indian
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  Speaker 1: weapons could work little harm to men and horses clad
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  Speaker 1: in armor. Therefore we must fly, and indeed flight, whilst
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  Speaker 1: my plan for by it. I hoped to lead the
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  Speaker 1: foe to that part of the defile, where the road
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  Speaker 1: was narrow and the cliff's sheer, and they might be
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  Speaker 1: crushed by the stones which were hailed on them from above.
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  Speaker 1: All went well, We fled. The Spaniards followed, flushed with victory,
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  Speaker 1: till they were fairly in the trap. Now a single
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  Speaker 1: boulder came, rushing from on high, and falling on a horse,
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  Speaker 1: killed him, Then, rebounding, carried dismay and wounds to those behind.
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  Speaker 1: Another followed, and yet another. And I grew glad at heart,
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  Speaker 1: for it seemed to me that the danger was over,
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  Speaker 1: and that for the second time my strategy had succeeded.
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  Speaker 1: But suddenly, from above there came a sound other than
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  Speaker 1: that of the rushing rocks, the sound of men joining
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  Speaker 1: in battle. That grew and grew till the air was
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  Speaker 1: full of its tumult. Then something whirled down from on high.
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  Speaker 1: I looked it was no stone, but a man, one
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  Speaker 1: of my own men. Indeed he was, but as the
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  Speaker 1: first raindrop of a shower. Alas I saw the truth,
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  Speaker 1: I had been outwitted. The Spaniards, old in war could
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  Speaker 1: not be caught twice in such a trick. They advanced
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  Speaker 1: down the pass with their coronades, indeed, because they must.
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  Speaker 1: But first they sent great bodies of men to climb
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  Speaker 1: the mountains under shelter of the night, by secret paths
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  Speaker 1: which had been discovered to them, and there on its summit,
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  Speaker 1: to deal with those who could stay their passage by
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  Speaker 1: hurling rocks upon them. And in truth they dealt with them,
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  Speaker 1: but too well for my men of the otomy, lying
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  Speaker 1: on the verge of the cliff, among the scrub of
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  Speaker 1: aloes and other prickly plants that grew there, watching the
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  Speaker 1: advance of the foe beneath, and never for a moment
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  Speaker 1: dreaming that foes might be upon their flank, were utterly surprised.
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  Speaker 1: Scarcely had they time to seize their weapons, which were
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  Speaker 1: laid at their side, that they might have greater freedom
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  Speaker 1: in the rolling of heavy masses of rocks. When the enemy,
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  Speaker 1: who outnumbered them by far, were upon them with a yell,
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  Speaker 1: then came a fight, short but decisive. Too late, I
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  Speaker 1: saw it all and cursed the folly that had not
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  Speaker 1: provided against such chances, For indeed, I never thought it
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  Speaker 1: possible that the forces of the Spaniards could find the
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  Speaker 1: secret trails upon the further side of the mountain, forgetting
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  Speaker 1: that treason makes most things possible. End of Chapter thirty three.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Patrick seventy nine