Latest / Montezumas Daughter / 39 - Montezuma's Daughter by H Rider Haggard
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Ottomy's farewell. Thus then did I accomplish the vengeance that
- 0:12Speaker 1: I had sworn to my father I would wreak upon
- 0:15Speaker 1: de Gacier. Or rather, thus did I witness its accomplishment.
- 0:21Speaker 1: For in the end he died terribly enough, not by
- 0:25Speaker 1: my hand, but by those of his own fears. Oh,
- 0:31Speaker 1: since then I have sorrowed for this, For when the
- 0:35Speaker 1: frozen and unnatural calm passed my mind, I hated him
- 0:40Speaker 1: as bitterly as ever, and grieved that I should let
- 0:43Speaker 1: him die otherwise than by my hand. And to this hour,
- 0:48Speaker 1: such is my mind towards him. Doubtless many may think
- 0:54Speaker 1: it wicked, since we were taught to forgive our enemies.
- 0:59Speaker 1: But here I leave the forgiveness to God. For how
- 1:03Speaker 1: can I pardon one who betrayed my father, to the priests,
- 1:07Speaker 1: who murdered my mother and my son, who chained me
- 1:11Speaker 1: up in a slave ship, and for many hours tortured
- 1:15Speaker 1: me with his own hand. Rather, year by year do
- 1:22Speaker 1: I hate him more? I write of this at some length,
- 1:28Speaker 1: since the matter has been a trouble to me. I
- 1:32Speaker 1: never could say that I was in charity with all men,
- 1:35Speaker 1: living and dead. And because of this, some years since
- 1:39Speaker 1: a worthy and learned rector of this parriage, took upon
- 1:43Speaker 1: himself to refuse me the rites of the church. Then
- 1:48Speaker 1: I went to the bishop and laid the story before him,
- 1:52Speaker 1: and it puzzled him somewhat. But he was a man
- 1:57Speaker 1: of large mind, and in the end he rebuked the
- 2:00Speaker 1: rector and commanded him to minister to me, For he
- 2:04Speaker 1: thought with me that the Almighty could not ask of
- 2:08Speaker 1: an erring man that he should forgive one who had
- 2:11Speaker 1: roared such evils on him and his even though that
- 2:16Speaker 1: enemy were dead and gone to judgment in another place.
- 2:22Speaker 1: But enough of this question of conscience. When de Garcia
- 2:26Speaker 1: had gone into the pit, I turned my steps homewards,
- 2:30Speaker 1: or rather to the ruined city, which I could see
- 2:33Speaker 1: beneath me, for I had no home left. Now I
- 2:38Speaker 1: must descend the ice cap, and this was found less
- 2:41Speaker 1: easy than climbing it had been. For my vengeance being accomplished,
- 2:46Speaker 1: I became as other men are, and a sad and
- 2:50Speaker 1: weary one at that, so sad indeed, that I should
- 2:54Speaker 1: not have sorrowed greatly if I had made a false
- 2:57Speaker 1: step upon the ice. But I made none, and at
- 3:03Speaker 1: length I came to the snow where the traveling was easy,
- 3:08Speaker 1: my oath was fulfilled, and my vengeance was accomplished. But
- 3:13Speaker 1: as I went I reckoned up the cost I had
- 3:18Speaker 1: lost my betrothed, the love of my youth. For twenty
- 3:23Speaker 1: years I had lived a savage chief among savages, and
- 3:27Speaker 1: made acquaintance with every hardship. Wedded to a woman, although
- 3:32Speaker 1: she loved me dearly and did not lack nobility of mine,
- 3:37Speaker 1: as she had shown the other day, was still at
- 3:40Speaker 1: heart a savage, or at least a thrall of demon gods.
- 3:48Speaker 1: The tribe that I ruled was conquered. The beautiful city
- 3:53Speaker 1: where I dwelt was a ruin. I was homeless and
- 3:58Speaker 1: a beggar, and my four tune would be great if
- 4:01Speaker 1: in the issue I escaped death or slavery. All this
- 4:08Speaker 1: I could have borne, for I had borne the like before.
- 4:13Speaker 1: But the cruel end of my last surviving son, the
- 4:17Speaker 1: one true joy of my desolate life, I could not bear.
- 4:26Speaker 1: The love of those children had become the passion of
- 4:29Speaker 1: my middle age. And as I loved them, so they
- 4:33Speaker 1: had loved me. I had trained them from babyhood till
- 4:38Speaker 1: their hearts were English and not Aztec, as were their
- 4:42Speaker 1: speech and faith, and Thus they were not only my
- 4:45Speaker 1: dear children, but companions of my own race, the only
- 4:51Speaker 1: ones I had. And now by accident, by sickness and
- 4:57Speaker 1: by sword, they were dead, the three of them, and
- 5:04Speaker 1: I was desolate. Ah, we think much of the sorrows
- 5:11Speaker 1: of our youth, and should a sweetheart give us the
- 5:16Speaker 1: go by, we fill the world with moans and swear
- 5:20Speaker 1: that it holds no comfort for us. But when we
- 5:24Speaker 1: bend our heads before the shrouded shape of some lost child,
- 5:29Speaker 1: then it is for that first time we learn how
- 5:34Speaker 1: terrible grief can be. Time, they tell us, will bring
- 5:39Speaker 1: us consolation. But it is false, for such sorrow's time
- 5:45Speaker 1: has no salves. I say, who am old as they are,
- 5:51Speaker 1: so they shall be. There is no hope but faith.
- 5:57Speaker 1: There is no comfort save in the truth that love
- 6:01Speaker 1: which might have withered on the earth grows fast as
- 6:04Speaker 1: in the tomb, to flower gloriously in heaven. That no love, indeed,
- 6:12Speaker 1: can be perfect till God sanctifies and completes it with
- 6:17Speaker 1: his seal of death. I threw myself down there upon
- 6:23Speaker 1: the desolate snows of Jaka that none had trod before,
- 6:29Speaker 1: and wept such tears as a man may weep but
- 6:33Speaker 1: once in his life days O my son Absalom, my son,
- 6:42Speaker 1: my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee
- 6:47Speaker 1: O Absalom, my son, my son. I cried with the
- 6:54Speaker 1: ancient king, I, whose grief was greater than his, for
- 6:58Speaker 1: had I not lost three sons within as many years. Then,
- 7:03Speaker 1: remembering that as this king had gone to join his
- 7:06Speaker 1: son long centuries ago, so I must one day go
- 7:11Speaker 1: to join mine. And taking such comfort from the thought
- 7:16Speaker 1: as may be found in it, I rose and crept
- 7:21Speaker 1: back to the ruined city of Pines. It was near
- 7:27Speaker 1: sunset when I came thither, for the road was long,
- 7:32Speaker 1: and I grew weak. By the palace, I met the
- 7:37Speaker 1: Captain Diaz and some of his company, and they lifted
- 7:42Speaker 1: their bonnets to me as I went by, for they
- 7:44Speaker 1: had respect for my sorrows. Only Diaz spoke, saying, here's
- 7:51Speaker 1: the murderer dead. I nodded and went on. I went
- 8:00Speaker 1: on to our chamber, for there I thought that I
- 8:03Speaker 1: should find Ottomy. She sat in it alone, cold and beautiful,
- 8:09Speaker 1: as though she had been fashioned in marble. I have
- 8:14Speaker 1: buried him with the bones of his brethren and his forefathers,
- 8:18Speaker 1: she said answer in the question that my eyes asked.
- 8:24Speaker 1: It seemed best that you should see him no more
- 8:27Speaker 1: lest your heart should break. It is well, I answered,
- 8:33Speaker 1: But my heart is broken already. Is the murderer dead?
- 8:41Speaker 1: She said, presently, in the very words of Diaz, Oh
- 8:47Speaker 1: he is dead, how I told her in a few words,
- 8:57Speaker 1: you should have slain him yourself. A son's blood is
- 9:01Speaker 1: not avenged. I should have slain him. But in that
- 9:06Speaker 1: hour I did not seek vengeance. I watched it fall
- 9:10Speaker 1: from heaven and was content. Perchance it is best so
- 9:18Speaker 1: the seeking of vengeance had brought on all my sorrows
- 9:21Speaker 1: upon me. Vengeance belongs to God, not to man, as
- 9:27Speaker 1: I have learned too late, I do not think, so
- 9:34Speaker 1: said out to me. And the look upon her face
- 9:37Speaker 1: was that look which I had seen when she smoked
- 9:40Speaker 1: the Tlascan, when she taunted Maria, and when she danced
- 9:45Speaker 1: upon the pyramid, the leader of the sacrifice. Had I
- 9:49Speaker 1: been in your place, I would have killed him by inches.
- 9:53Speaker 1: When I had done with him, then the devils might begin,
- 9:56Speaker 1: but not before. But it of no account. Everything is
- 10:03Speaker 1: done with all Ah dead, and my heart with them.
- 10:10Speaker 1: Now eat, for you are weary, So I ate, and
- 10:17Speaker 1: afterwards I cast myself upon the bed and slept in
- 10:24Speaker 1: the darkness. I heard the voice of Otomy that said, awake,
- 10:30Speaker 1: I would speak with you. And there was that about
- 10:33Speaker 1: a voice which stirred me from my heavy sleep. Speak on,
- 10:39Speaker 1: I said, where are you Outomy? Seated at your side?
- 10:47Speaker 1: I cannot rest, so I am seated here. Now. Listen,
- 10:53Speaker 1: many many years ago we met when you were brought
- 10:57Speaker 1: to Guttamac from Tabasco. Oh, well do I remember the
- 11:02Speaker 1: first sight of you the tulee in the court of
- 11:05Speaker 1: my father, Montezuma, at your Paltepec. I loved you then
- 11:10Speaker 1: as I have loved you ever since. At least I
- 11:14Speaker 1: have never gone astray after strange gods. And she laughed bitterly.
- 11:20Speaker 1: Why do you talk of these things are to me?
- 11:23Speaker 1: I asked, because it is my fancy to do so.
- 11:28Speaker 1: Cannot you spare me one hour from your sleep? Who
- 11:31Speaker 1: have spared you so many? You remember how you scorned me? Oh?
- 11:38Speaker 1: I thought I should have died of shame when after
- 11:41Speaker 1: I had caused myself to be given to you as wife,
- 11:44Speaker 1: the wife of Tscat, you told me of the maid
- 11:48Speaker 1: across the seas, that lily maid whose token is still
- 11:52Speaker 1: set upon your finger, but I live through it, and
- 11:56Speaker 1: I loved you the better for your honesty. And then
- 12:00Speaker 1: you know the rest. I won you because I was
- 12:05Speaker 1: brave and lay at your side upon the stone of sacrifice,
- 12:10Speaker 1: where you kissed me and told me that you loved me.
- 12:14Speaker 1: But you never loved me, not truly, Oh theo while
- 12:19Speaker 1: you were thinking of the lily maid. I knew it
- 12:23Speaker 1: then as I know it now. Though I tried to
- 12:26Speaker 1: deceive myself, I was beautiful in those days, and this
- 12:33Speaker 1: is something with a man. I was faithful, and that
- 12:37Speaker 1: is more. And once or twice you thought that you
- 12:40Speaker 1: loved me. Now I wished that those tulees had come
- 12:45Speaker 1: an hour later and we had died together upon the stone.
- 12:51Speaker 1: That is, I wish it for my own sake, not yours.
- 12:56Speaker 1: Then we escaped, and the great struggle came. I told
- 13:01Speaker 1: you then that I understood it all. You had kissed
- 13:05Speaker 1: me on the stone of Sacrifice, but in that moment
- 13:09Speaker 1: you were as one dead. When you came back to life,
- 13:14Speaker 1: it was otherwise. But fortune took the game out of
- 13:19Speaker 1: your hands, and you married me and swore and oathed me,
- 13:25Speaker 1: and this oath you have kept faithfully. You married me,
- 13:30Speaker 1: but you did not know whom you married. You thought
- 13:34Speaker 1: me beautiful and sweet and true, and all these things
- 13:38Speaker 1: I was, But you did not understand that I was
- 13:43Speaker 1: far apart from you, that I was still as savage
- 13:49Speaker 1: as my forefathers had been. You thought that I had
- 13:54Speaker 1: learned your ways. Perchance, even you thought that I reverenced
- 13:59Speaker 1: your God, as for your sake I have striven to do.
- 14:06Speaker 1: But all the while I have followed the ways on
- 14:09Speaker 1: my own people, and I could not quite forget my
- 14:13Speaker 1: own gods, or at the least they would not suffer
- 14:17Speaker 1: me their servant to escape them. For years and years
- 14:24Speaker 1: I put them from me. But at least they were avenged,
- 14:27Speaker 1: and my heart mastered me, or rather they mastered me,
- 14:34Speaker 1: for I knew nothing of what I did. Some few
- 14:37Speaker 1: nights since when I celebrated the sacrifice of Whitsul, and
- 14:42Speaker 1: you saw me at the ancient rites. All these years
- 14:49Speaker 1: you have been true to me, and I've had borne
- 14:51Speaker 1: you children whom you loved, But you loved them for
- 14:56Speaker 1: their own sake, not for mine. Indeed, that heart you
- 15:00Speaker 1: hated the Indian blood that was mixed in their veins
- 15:03Speaker 1: with yours. Me also loved in a certain fashion, and
- 15:09Speaker 1: this half love of yours drove me well nigh mad,
- 15:14Speaker 1: such as it was. It died when you saw me
- 15:18Speaker 1: distraught and celebrating the rites of my forefathers on the
- 15:22Speaker 1: Teochley Yonder, and you knew me for what I am,
- 15:29Speaker 1: a savage. And now the children who linked us together
- 15:36Speaker 1: are dead, one by one. They died in this way,
- 15:41Speaker 1: and that for the curse which follows My blood descended
- 15:46Speaker 1: upon them, and your love for me is dead with them.
- 15:52Speaker 1: I alone remained alive, a monument of past days. And
- 15:59Speaker 1: I die also. Nay, nay, be silent. Listen to me,
- 16:06Speaker 1: for my time is short. When you bade me call
- 16:11Speaker 1: you husband no longer, then I knew it was finished.
- 16:18Speaker 1: I obey you. I put you from me. You are
- 16:23Speaker 1: no more my husband, and soon I shall cease to
- 16:28Speaker 1: be your wife. Still I pray you listen to me. Now.
- 16:34Speaker 1: It seems to you, in your sorrow that your days
- 16:37Speaker 1: are done and there is no happiness left for you.
- 16:41Speaker 1: This is not so. You are still but a man
- 16:46Speaker 1: in the beginning of middle age, and you are yet strong.
- 16:51Speaker 1: You will escape from this ruined land, And when you
- 16:56Speaker 1: shake the dust of it off your feet, its curse
- 16:59Speaker 1: shall fall from you. You will return to your own place,
- 17:06Speaker 1: and there you will find who awaited your coming for
- 17:09Speaker 1: many years. There, the savage woman whom you mated with,
- 17:17Speaker 1: the princess of a fallen house will become but a
- 17:22Speaker 1: fantastic memory to you, and all these strange, eventful years
- 17:28Speaker 1: will be as a midnight dream. Only your love for
- 17:33Speaker 1: the dead children will always remain. These you must always
- 17:37Speaker 1: love by day and by night, And the desire of them,
- 17:43Speaker 1: that desire for the dead, than which there is nothing
- 17:46Speaker 1: more terrible, shall follow you to your grave. And I
- 17:52Speaker 1: am glad that it should be so, for I was
- 17:55Speaker 1: their mother, and some thought of me must go with
- 17:59Speaker 1: them this alone. The lily Maid has left me, and
- 18:06Speaker 1: there only I shall prevail against her, For tew no
- 18:13Speaker 1: child of hers shall live to rob your heart of
- 18:16Speaker 1: the memory of those I gave you. Oh, I have
- 18:24Speaker 1: watched you day by day and by night. I have
- 18:29Speaker 1: seen the longing in your eyes for a face which
- 18:31Speaker 1: you have lost, and for a land of your youth.
- 18:36Speaker 1: Be happy you shall gain both, for the struggle is ended,
- 18:42Speaker 1: and the lily Maid has been too strong for me.
- 18:46Speaker 1: I grew weak, and I have little more to say.
- 18:51Speaker 1: We part, and perhaps for ever, for what is there
- 18:56Speaker 1: between us save the souls of those dead sons of ours,
- 19:00Speaker 1: since you desire me no more, that I may make
- 19:03Speaker 1: our severance perfect. Now, in the hour of my death,
- 19:10Speaker 1: I renounce your gods and I seek my own. Though
- 19:17Speaker 1: I think that I love yours and hate those of
- 19:20Speaker 1: my people? Is there any communion between them? We part
- 19:29Speaker 1: and perchance for ever? Yet I pray of you to
- 19:33Speaker 1: think of me kindly, for I have loved you, and
- 19:38Speaker 1: I love you. I was the mother of your children, whom,
- 19:45Speaker 1: being Christian, you will meet again. I love you now
- 19:51Speaker 1: and for always. I am glad you have lived, because
- 19:58Speaker 1: you kissed me on the stone of sacrific eyes, and
- 20:01Speaker 1: afterwards I bore your sons. They are ours and not mine.
- 20:06Speaker 1: It seems to me now that I only cared for
- 20:09Speaker 1: them because they were yours, and they loved you and
- 20:13Speaker 1: not me. Take them, take their spirits, as you have
- 20:19Speaker 1: taken everything. You swore that death alone should sever us,
- 20:26Speaker 1: and you have kept your oath to the letter and
- 20:29Speaker 1: in the thought. But now I go to the houses
- 20:37Speaker 1: of the sun to seek my own people, and to
- 20:44Speaker 1: you too, with whom I have lived many years and
- 20:49Speaker 1: seen much sorrow, but whom I will no longer call husband,
- 20:57Speaker 1: since you forbade me so to do, I say, make
- 21:02Speaker 1: no mock of me. To the lily maid, speak of
- 21:09Speaker 1: her as little as you may, be happy and farewell.
- 21:27Speaker 1: Now as she spoke ever more faintly, and I listened bewildered.
- 21:32Speaker 1: The light of dawn grew slowly in the chamber. It
- 21:37Speaker 1: gathered on the white shape of otomy, seated in a
- 21:40Speaker 1: chair hard by the bed, and I saw that her
- 21:45Speaker 1: arms hung down, and that her head was resting on
- 21:48Speaker 1: the back of the chair. Now I sprang up and
- 21:53Speaker 1: peered into her face. It was white and cold, and
- 21:59Speaker 1: I could feel no breath upon her lips. I seized
- 22:02Speaker 1: her hand, that also was cold. I spoke into her ear.
- 22:09Speaker 1: I kissed her brow, but she did not move nor answer.
- 22:15Speaker 1: The light grew quickly, and now I saw all Artemi
- 22:22Speaker 1: was dead by her own act. This was the manner
- 22:31Speaker 1: of her death. She had drunk a poison of which
- 22:34Speaker 1: the Indians have the secret, a poison that worked slowly
- 22:38Speaker 1: and without pain, leaving the mind unclouded to the end.
- 22:44Speaker 1: It was while her life was fading from her that
- 22:47Speaker 1: she had spoken to me. Thus sadly and bitterly. I
- 22:53Speaker 1: sat upon the bed and gazed at her. I did
- 22:58Speaker 1: not weep, for my tears were done, and as I
- 23:03Speaker 1: have said, whatever I might feel, nothing could break my
- 23:08Speaker 1: calm any more. And as I gazed, a great tenderness
- 23:16Speaker 1: and sorrow took hold of me. And I loved otomy
- 23:20Speaker 1: better now that she was dead before me, than ever
- 23:23Speaker 1: I had done in her days of life. And this
- 23:28Speaker 1: is saying much. I remembered her in the glory of
- 23:34Speaker 1: her youth, as she was in the court of her
- 23:37Speaker 1: royal father. I remembered the look which she had given
- 23:41Speaker 1: me when she stepped to my side upon the stone
- 23:43Speaker 1: of sacrifice, and that other look when she defied quit Loahar,
- 23:48Speaker 1: the emperor who would have slain me. Once more. I
- 23:55Speaker 1: seemed to hear the cry of bitter sorrow as she
- 23:59Speaker 1: uncovered the body of the dead babe, our first born,
- 24:05Speaker 1: and to see her soward in hand standing over the tlasquon. Oh,
- 24:13Speaker 1: many things came back to me in that sad hour
- 24:16Speaker 1: of dawn while I watched by the corpse of Ottomi.
- 24:21Speaker 1: There was truth in her words. I had never forgotten
- 24:24Speaker 1: my first love, and often I desired to see her face.
- 24:29Speaker 1: But it was not true to say that I had
- 24:31Speaker 1: no love for Otemy. I loved her well, and I
- 24:35Speaker 1: was faithful in my oath to her. Indeed, not until
- 24:39Speaker 1: she was dead did I know how dear she had
- 24:41Speaker 1: grown to me. It is true that there was a
- 24:46Speaker 1: great gulf between us which widened with the years, the
- 24:50Speaker 1: gulf of blood and faith. For I knew well that
- 24:54Speaker 1: she could not altogether put away her old beliefs. And
- 24:59Speaker 1: it is true that when I saw her leading the
- 25:02Speaker 1: death chant, a great horror took me, and for a
- 25:06Speaker 1: while I loathed her. But these things I might have
- 25:11Speaker 1: lived to forgive, for they were part of her blood
- 25:15Speaker 1: and nature. Moreover, the last and worst of them was
- 25:20Speaker 1: not done by her own will, And when they were
- 25:27Speaker 1: set aside, there remained much that I could honor and
- 25:30Speaker 1: love in the memory of this most royal and beautiful woman, who,
- 25:34Speaker 1: for so many years was my faithful wife. So I
- 25:40Speaker 1: thought in that hour, and so I think to this day.
- 25:47Speaker 1: She said that we parted forever. But I trust and
- 25:51Speaker 1: I believe that this is not so. Surely, there is
- 25:56Speaker 1: forgiveness for us all, and a place where those who
- 26:00Speaker 1: were near and dear to each other on the earth
- 26:03Speaker 1: may once more renew their fellowship. At last, I rose
- 26:11Speaker 1: with a sigh to seek help. And as I rose,
- 26:15Speaker 1: I felt there was something about my neck. It was
- 26:18Speaker 1: the collar of great emeralds, which Guatemalac had given me,
- 26:23Speaker 1: and that I had given to otomy. She had set
- 26:26Speaker 1: it there while I slept, and with it a lock
- 26:30Speaker 1: of her long hair. Both shall be buried with me.
- 26:39Speaker 1: I laid her in the ancient sepulcher amid the bones
- 26:43Speaker 1: of her forefathers, and by the bodies of her children.
- 26:49Speaker 1: And two days later I rode to Mexico in the
- 26:52Speaker 1: train of Bernald Diaz. At the mouth of the pass,
- 26:56Speaker 1: I turned and looked back upon the ruins of the
- 26:59Speaker 1: city of Pine, where I had lived so many years,
- 27:03Speaker 1: and where all I loved were buried long and earnestly.
- 27:09Speaker 1: I gazed, as in his hour of death a man
- 27:14Speaker 1: looks back upon his past life. Till at length Diaz
- 27:19Speaker 1: laid his hand upon my shoulder. You are a lonely
- 27:23Speaker 1: man now, comrade, He said, what plans have you for
- 27:28Speaker 1: the future? None, I answered, except to die. Oh, never talk,
- 27:37Speaker 1: so he said, why you are scarcely forty, and I,
- 27:42Speaker 1: who am fifty and more, do not speak of dying. Listen,
- 27:47Speaker 1: you have friends in your own country England. I had
- 27:53Speaker 1: folk live long in those quiet lands. Go seek them.
- 27:58Speaker 1: I will find you a passage to Spain. I will
- 28:02Speaker 1: think of it, I answered. In time, we came to Mexico,
- 28:10Speaker 1: a new and strange city to me, for coarters had
- 28:14Speaker 1: rebuilt it, and where the Tiochli had stood up, which
- 28:18Speaker 1: I was led to sacrifice, a cathedral was building, whereof
- 28:23Speaker 1: the foundations were fitly laid with the hideous idols of
- 28:27Speaker 1: the Aztecs. The place was well enough, but it is
- 28:31Speaker 1: not so beautiful as the Tenocticun of Montezumer, nor ever
- 28:36Speaker 1: will be. The people, too, were changed. Then they were
- 28:42Speaker 1: warriors and free, now they are slaves. In Mexico, Diaz
- 28:50Speaker 1: found me a lodging. None molested me there, for the
- 28:55Speaker 1: pardon that I had received was respected. Also, I was
- 28:59Speaker 1: a ruin in man, no longer to be feared. The
- 29:03Speaker 1: part that I had played in the nostrist and in
- 29:06Speaker 1: the defense of the city was forgotten, and the tale
- 29:09Speaker 1: of my sorrows won me pity even from the Spaniards.
- 29:14Speaker 1: I abode in Mexico ten days, wandering sadly about the
- 29:20Speaker 1: city and up to the hill of Chapaltepec, where Montezuma's
- 29:24Speaker 1: Pleasure House had been, and where I had met outter me,
- 29:29Speaker 1: nothing was left of its glories except some of the
- 29:33Speaker 1: ancient cedar trees. On the eighth day of my stay,
- 29:38Speaker 1: an Indian stopped me in the street, saying that an
- 29:42Speaker 1: old friend had charged him to say that she wished
- 29:45Speaker 1: to see me. I followed the Indian, wondering who the
- 29:50Speaker 1: friend might be, for I had no friends, and he
- 29:53Speaker 1: led me to a fine stone house in a new street.
- 29:57Speaker 1: Here I was seated in a dark chamber and waited
- 30:01Speaker 1: there awhile till suddenly a sad and sweet voice that
- 30:06Speaker 1: seemed familiar to me addressed me in the Aztec tongue, saying, well, come, Choul.
- 30:15Speaker 1: I looked, and there before me, dressed in a Spanish fashion,
- 30:19Speaker 1: stood a lady, an Indian, still beautiful, but very feeble
- 30:25Speaker 1: and much worn, as though with sickness and sorrow. Though
- 30:31Speaker 1: you not know Marina Tule, she said again, But before
- 30:37Speaker 1: the words had left her lips, I knew her. Well.
- 30:44Speaker 1: I will say this that I should scarcely have known you, Tul.
- 30:50Speaker 1: Trouble and time have done their work with both of us.
- 30:56Speaker 1: I took her hand and kissed it where then, is
- 31:02Speaker 1: courtes I asked, Now, a great trembling seized her. Courtez
- 31:09Speaker 1: is in Spain, pleading his suit. He has wed a
- 31:14Speaker 1: new wife, their Tulee. Many years ago he put me away,
- 31:20Speaker 1: giving me in marriage to Don Juan Jarmilo, who took
- 31:24Speaker 1: me because of my possessions. Oh, court has dealt liberally
- 31:30Speaker 1: with me, his discarded mistress, and she began to weep. Then,
- 31:38Speaker 1: by degrees I learned the story, but I will not
- 31:41Speaker 1: write it here, for it is known to the world.
- 31:44Speaker 1: When Marina had served his turn and her wit was
- 31:48Speaker 1: of no more service to him, the conqueror discarded her,
- 31:53Speaker 1: leaving her to wither of a broken heart. She told
- 31:58Speaker 1: me all the tale of her anguish when she learned
- 32:01Speaker 1: the truth, and of how she had cried to him
- 32:04Speaker 1: that henceforth he would never prosper, nor indeed did he
- 32:09Speaker 1: ever do so. For two hours or more we talked,
- 32:14Speaker 1: and when I had heard her story, I told her mine,
- 32:18Speaker 1: and she wept for me, since with all her faults,
- 32:22Speaker 1: Marina's heart was ever gentle. Then we parted, never to
- 32:26Speaker 1: meet again. Before I went, she pressed a gift of
- 32:33Speaker 1: money on me, and I was not ashamed to take
- 32:37Speaker 1: it who had none. This, then, was the story of Marina,
- 32:45Speaker 1: who betrayed her country for her love's sake, And this
- 32:49Speaker 1: the reward of her treason and her love. But I
- 32:53Speaker 1: shall always hold her memory sacred, for she was a
- 32:56Speaker 1: good friend to me, and twice she saved my life.
- 33:01Speaker 1: Nor would she desert me, even when OTOMY taunted her
- 33:05Speaker 1: so cruelly. End of Chapter thirty eight. Recording by Patrick
- 33:16Speaker 1: seventy nine