Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard (open ebook TXT) 📗
- Author: H. Rider Haggard
Book online «Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard (open ebook TXT) 📗». Author H. Rider Haggard
“Hush,” I said, “hush. Have we food?”
“In plenty. A woman brought it from Marina.”
“Give me to eat, Otomie.”
Now for a while she fed me and the deadly sickness passed from me, though my poor flesh burned with a hundred agonies.
“Listen, Otomie: have you seen de Garcia?”
“No, husband. Two days since I was separated from my sister Tecuichpo and the other ladies, but I have been well treated and have seen no Spaniard except the soldiers who led me here, telling me that you were sick. Alas! I knew not from what cause,” and again she began to weep.
“Still some have seen you and it is reported that you are my wife.”
“It is likely enough,” she answered, “for it was known throughout the Aztec hosts, and such secrets cannot be kept. But why have they treated you thus? Because you fought against them?”
“Are we alone?” I asked.
“The guard is without, but there are none else in the chamber.”
“Then bend down your head and I will tell you,” and I told her all.
When I had done so she sprang up with flashing eyes and her hand pressed upon her breast, and said:
“Oh! if I loved you before, now I love you more if that is possible, who could suffer thus horribly and yet be faithful to the fallen and your oath. Blessed be the day when first I looked upon your face, O my husband, most true of men. But they who could do this—what of them? Still it is done with and I will nurse you back to health. Surely it is done with, or they had not suffered me to come to you?”
“Alas! Otomie, I must tell all—it is not done with,” and with faltering voice I went on with the tale, yes, and since I must, I told her for what purpose she had been brought here. She listened without a word, though her lips turned pale.
“Truly,” she said when I had done, “these Teules far surpass the pabas of our people, for if the priests torture and sacrifice, it is to the gods and not for gold and secret hate. Now, husband, what is your counsel? Surely you have some counsel.”
“I have none that I dare offer, wife,” I groaned.
“You are timid as a girl who will not utter the love she burns to tell,” Otomie answered with a proud and bitter laugh. “Well, I will speak it for you. It is in your mind that we must die to-night.”
“It is,” I said; “death now, or shame and agony to-morrow and then death at last, that is our choice. Since God will not protect us, we must protect ourselves if we can find the means.”
“God! there is no God. At times I have doubted the gods of my people and turned to yours; now I renounce and reject Him. If there were a God of mercy such as you cling to, could He suffer that such things be? You are my god, husband, to you and for you I pray, and you alone. Let us have done now with pleading to those who are not, or who, if they live, are deaf to our cries and blind to our misery, and befriend ourselves. Yonder lies rope, that window has bars, very soon we can be beyond the sun and the cruelty of Teules, or sound asleep. But there is time yet; let us talk a while, they will scarcely begin their torments before the dawn, and ere dawn we shall be far.”
So we talked as well as my sufferings would allow. We talked of how we first had met, of how Otomie had been vowed to me as the wife of Tezcat, Soul of the World, of that day when we had lain side by side upon the stone of sacrifice, of our true marriage thereafter, of the siege of Tenoctitlan and the death of our first-born. Thus we talked till midnight was two hours gone. Then there came a silence.
“Husband,” said Otomie at last in a hushed and solemn voice, “you are worn with suffering, and I am weary. It is time to do that which must be done. Sad is our fate, but at least rest is before us. I thank you, husband, for your gentleness, I thank you more for your faithfulness to my house and people. Shall I make ready for our last journey?”
“Make ready!” I answered.
Then she rose and soon was busy with the ropes. At length all was prepared and the moment of death was at hand.
“You must aid me, Otomie,” I said; “I cannot walk by myself.”
She came and lifted me with her strong and tender arms, till I stood upon a stool beneath the window bars. There she placed the rope about my throat, then taking her stand by me she fitted the second rope upon her own. Now we kissed in solemn silence, for there was nothing more to say. Yet Otomie said something, asking:
“Of whom do you think in this moment, husband? Of me and of my dead child, or of that lady who lives far across the sea? Nay, I will not ask. I have been happy in my love, it is enough. Now love and life must end together, and it is well for me, but for you I grieve. Say, shall I thrust away the stool?”
“Yes, Otomie, since there is no hope but death. I cannot break my faith with Guatemoc, nor can I live to see you shamed and tortured.”
“Then kiss me first and for the last time.”
We kissed again and then, as she was in the very act of pushing the stool from beneath us, the door opened and shut, and a veiled woman stood before us, bearing a torch in one hand and a bundle in the other. She looked, and seeing us and our dreadful purpose, ran to us.
“What do you?” she cried, and I knew the voice for that of Marina. “Are you then mad, Teule?”
“Who is this who knows you so well, husband, and will not even suffer that we die in peace?” asked Otomie.
“I am Marina,” answered the veiled woman, “and I come to save you if I can.”
THE ESCAPE
Now Otomie put the rope off her neck, and descending from the stool, stood before Marina.
“You are Marina,” she said coldly and proudly, “and you come to save us, you who have brought ruin on the land that bore you, and have given thousands of her children to death, and shame, and torment. Now, if I had my way, I would have none of your salvation, nay, I would rather save myself as I was about to do.”
Thus Otomie spoke, and never had she looked more royal than in this moment, when she risked her last chance of life that she might pour out her scorn upon one whom she deemed a traitress, no, one who was a traitress, for had it not been for Marina’s wit and aid, Cortes would never have conquered Anahuac. I trembled as I heard her angry words, for, all I suffered notwithstanding, life still seemed sweet to me, who, ten seconds ago, had stood upon the verge of death. Surely Marina would depart and leave us to our doom. But it was not so. Indeed, she shrank and trembled before Otomie’s contempt. They were a strange contrast in their different loveliness as they stood face to face in the torture den, and it was strange also to see the spirit of the lady of royal blood, threatened as she was with a shameful death, or still more shameful life, triumph over the Indian girl whom to-day fortune had set as far above her as the stars.
“Say, royal lady,” asked Marina in her gentle voice, “for what cause did you, if tales are true, lie by the side of yonder white man upon the stone of sacrifice?”
“Because I love him, Marina.”
“And for this same cause have I, Marina, laid my honour upon a different altar, for this same cause I have striven against the children of my people, because I love another such as he. It is for love of Cortes that I have aided Cortes, therefore despise me not, but let your love plead for mine, seeing that, to us women, love is all. I have sinned, I know, but doubtless in its season my sin shall find a fitting punishment.”
“It had need be sharp,” answered Otomie. “My love has harmed none, see before you but one grain of the countless harvest of your own. In yonder chair Guatemoc your king was this day tortured by your master Cortes, who swore to treat him with all honour. By his side sat Teule, my husband and your friend; him Cortes gave over to his private enemy, de Garcia, whom you name Sarceda. See how he has left him. Nay, do not shudder, gentle lady; look now at his wounds! Consider to what a pass we are driven when you find us about to die thus like dogs, he, my husband, that he may not live to see me handled as he has been, and I with him, because a princess of the Otomie and of Montezuma’s blood cannot submit to such a shame while death has one door through which to creep. It is but a single grain of your harvest, outcast and traitress, the harvest of misery and death that is stored yonder in the ruins of Tenoctitlan. Had I my will, I tell you that I had sooner die a score of times than take help from a hand so stained with the blood of my people and of yours—I—”
“Oh! cease, lady, cease,” groaned Marina, covering her eyes with her hand, as though the sight of Otomie were dreadful to her. “What is done is done; do not add to my remorse. What did you say, that you, the lady Otomie, were brought here to be tortured?”
“Even so, and before my husband’s eyes. Why should Montezuma’s daughter and the princess of the Otomie escape the fate of the emperor of the Aztecs? If her womanhood does not protect her, has she anything to hope of her lost rank?”
“Cortes knows nothing of this, I swear it,” said Marina. “To the rest he has been driven by the clamour of the soldiers, who taunt him with stealing treasure that he has never found. But of this last wickedness he is innocent.”
“Then let him ask his tool Sarceda of it.”
“As for Sarceda, I promise you, princess, that if I can I will avenge this threat upon him. But time is short, I am come here with the knowledge of Cortes, to see if I can win the secret of the treasure from Teule, your husband, and for my friendship’s sake I am about to betray my trust and help him and you to fly. Do you refuse my aid?”
Otomie said nothing, but I spoke for the first time.
“Nay, Marina, I have no love for this thief’s fate if I can escape it, but how is it to be done?”
“The chance is poor enough, Teule, but I bethought me that once out of this prison you might slip away disguised. Few will be stirring at dawn, and of them the most will not be keen to notice men or things. See, I have brought you the dress of a Spanish soldier; your skin is dark, and in the half light you might pass as one; and for the princess your wife, I have brought another dress, indeed I am ashamed to offer it, but it is the only one that will not be noted at this hour; also, Teule, I bring you a sword, that which was taken from you, though I think that once it had another owner.”
Now while she spoke Marina undid her bundle, and there in it were the dresses and the sword, the same that I had taken from the Spaniard Diaz in the massacre of the noche triste. First she drew out the woman’s robe and handed it to Otomie, and I saw that it was such a robe as among the Indians is worn by the women who follow camps, a robe with red and yellow in it. Otomie saw it also and drew back.
“Surely, girl, you have brought a garment of your own in error,” she said quietly, but in such a fashion as showed more of the savage heart that is native to her race than she often suffered to be seen; “at the least I cannot wear such robes.”
“It seems that I must bear too much,” answered Marina, growing wroth at last, and striving to keep back the tears that started to her eyes. “I will
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