THE SACK OF SANTIAGO.
Leon's first care on reaching Santiago had been to inquire after the
residence of Don Henriquez de Castago, and to inform him of the visit
which General Soto-Mayor intended to pay him. At the same time he told
him of the purpose of his own journey. Don Henriquez eagerly placed
his house at the smuggler's disposal, and told him of the perilous
mission which was being attempted at that very moment by General Don
Pedro, and his cousin, Colonel Don Juan, in going to the toqui of the
Araucanos to make him proposals of peace. It was then that Leon, after
quartering his men, set out in all haste for the camp, in order to
obtain news of Inez, and at the same time help the two officers if they
were in danger. We know what occurred in consequence of this exploit.
Two days after these events, General Don Juan de Soto-Mayor and his
daughter Maria arrived at the capital of Chili. Thanks to the numerous
precautions which the surgeon had taken, the old gentleman had suffered
but little through the journey, and the state of his health was more
satisfactory than might have been supposed. So soon as he reached the
house of senator Don Castago, he was put to bed, and Leon took upon
himself to inform him of the release of Inez, the outrages of which the
poor girl had been the victim, and the madness which had resulted from
them. The general begged her to be brought to him, and when she was in
his presence he embraced her, and covered her with tears.
Inez could not at all understand her father's grief, whom she did not
at all recognise; but struck by the old man's suffering appearance, she
at once installed herself by his bedside, and would not quit it again.
Her madness was gentle and melancholy; she spent long hours without
breathing a syllable, or sang to strange tunes snatches of songs which
she had formerly known.
On her side, Maria, attentive and devoted even to self-denial, lavished
on Don Juan the most affectionate care, and the old man discovered at
each moment in his daughter the germs of the noblest qualities of the
heart. Leon's name was never pronounced by the general without arousing
in her thoughts of joy and happiness; but, understanding what kindness
and gentleness her father had displayed in not spurning the smuggler's
love for her, she silently awaited the moment when she would be able to
yield entirely to the happiness of belonging to the man whom her heart
had selected.
The general, as we may suppose, had been beyond all expression
surprised on hearing the community of feeling between the captain and
Maria; but penetrated with gratitude for the eminent services which the
young man had rendered him, he heartily desired that an opportunity
might offer itself to fill up the distance that separated Leon's rank
from his. But it was no easy matter.
In the meanwhile, the position of the Chilians shut up in Santiago
was beginning to grow serious. The Indian lines were being gradually
drawn closer round the town, intercepting the communications with the
exterior, and preventing news from being received. The provisions would
soon run short; want was already being felt in the poorer districts,
and wretched people, with worn and haggard faces, might be seen
wandering about the streets and loudly demanding bread.
General Sallazar had succeeded, it is true, in crossing the Masincho
after a glorious battle with the Indians, and entered Santiago; but
it was far more difficult to drive away the besiegers who surrounded
the city. Situated in the heart of the Chilian republic, the capital
is at a great distance from the frontier; and as it had no reason
to apprehend foreign attacks, owing to the impassable deserts that
separate the states, it had not been fortified.
Attempts had been made hastily to throw up a few breastworks, but
workmen were wanting. Discouragement seized on the population, and the
inhabitants, terrified at the sight of the Indians, filled the churches
with their lamentations, and offered up vows and novenas, instead
of combating their enemies energetically, and dying courageously in
defence of their homes.
Eight days passed thus, and during this period Leon distinguished
himself greatly by making daring sorties at the head of his men,
in which he captured herds of cattle or flocks of sheep, which
revictualled the town and restored a little courage to the population.
One evening, after carefully visiting all the posts with Don
Juan, General Sallazar, Leon was preparing to take a few hours of
indispensable rest after a fatiguing day, when suddenly the bells
of all the churches began pealing, shrieks were heard, and soldiers
galloped through the town, shouting, "To arms! to arms!"
The Indians were beginning the assault by attacking the town on all
sides simultaneously. The danger was imminent, and there was no time
for hesitation. The salvation of the whole population was at stake.
The three gentlemen shook hands silently, and rushed in different
directions.
The night was dark and rainy; the west wind howled furiously in the
hills near the town, and from time to time a dazzling flash rent the
horizon, and preluded the rolling of the thunder which was blended with
the sharp sinister crash of the musketry fire. The drums beat, and
bugles brayed; the churches were crowded with women and children, who,
piously kneeling on the slabs, prayed God, the Virgin, and the saints
to come to their assistance.
The tumult was frightful. The cries of the wounded, the hurrahs of the
combatants, and above all, the war yells of the Indians, who bounded
like panthers upon the last defenders of the town. All this formed a
din rendered more horrible still by the sight of the fire which was
beginning to tinge the sky with a red and ill-omened glare.
Tahi-Mari, naked to the waist, his hair in disorder, and his features
contrasted by the thirst for carnage and destruction, held an axe in
one hand and a torch in the other. He was seen rushing at the head of a
band of veteran redskins into the thickest of the Spanish battalions,
cleaving a bloody track for himself--felling and pitilessly massacring
all those who dared to oppose his fury. Santiago was one immense
crater--the fire embraced the whole city; its devouring flames had
dissipated the darkness, and spread around a light which allowed the
dark outlines of the combatants to be seen as they struggled with the
sublime energy of despair.
A countless swarm of Indians had invaded the town, and fighting was
going on on all sides. The Spaniards disputed the ground inch by inch,
and the streets, the squares, and the houses were the scene of a
horrible massacre. Tahi-Mari, ever in the first rank of the Indians,
excited his soldiers by his shouts and example. All was lost, and the
Chilian capital had at length fallen into the power of the Araucanos.
The burning buildings fell in with a crash, burying beneath their ruins
assailants and assailed. The churches were given up to pillage, while
the women and girls, torn half naked from their houses or from the
foot of the altar, endured the last violence which their cruel victors
inflicted upon them.
All hope of flight or rescue seemed annihilated; the redskins, drunk
with carnage and spirits, rushed furiously upon the relics of the
despairing population. It was at this moment that the President of the
Republic, followed by a few devoted soldiers, formed a hollow square on
the Plaza de la Merced, in the centre of which he placed all the aged
persons, women, and children, who had escaped the fury of the Indians.
Suddenly loud shouts were heard, and three heavy bodies of men,
commanded by Don Juan, General Pedro Sallazar, and Leon Delbès,
debouched from three different streets. In the centre of the one
commanded by Leon, was old Don Juan carried on a litter, with Maria
and Inez by her side. Leon placed the persons whom he had saved in the
centre of the square formed by the President, and called on Don Juan
and Don Pedro's detachments.
"Now," he cried to the President of the Republic, "fall back, while we
support you."
"Do so," he answered.
And the square fell back with all those whom it contained. "Forward!"
Leon shouted, "kill! kill!"
And the three bands, facing the startled Indians, threw themselves upon
them and commenced a frightful butchery. The square De la Merced was
literally encumbered with combatants. The Moluchos, incessantly pushed
forward by their comrades, who arrived to their help, fell impassively
beneath the lances and sabres of the Spaniards, who protected the
flight of the President as he retired and took in his charge all those
persons incapable of bearing, arms. The fugitives soon reached the city
gates.
The contest had lasted more than an hour. A countless number of
corpses covered the ground and formed a rampart for the Spaniards,
who redoubled their energy. At this moment Tahi-Mari appeared in
the square. At a glance he judged the position, and rushed upon the
Spaniards. The shock was terrible. Don Pedro and Don Juan recognised
their common enemy, and cutting their way through the dead and wounded,
both attacked him at once.
"Ah!" Diego shouted, "we meet at last, then."
"Yes," Don Pedro retorted, as he aimed a sabre cut at him, "and for the
last time, I hope."
"You have told the truth," said Diego, as he parried with the handle of
his axe the blow aimed at him; "die, then!"
And he cleft his head open. The unfortunate Don Pedro stretched out
his arms, rolled his eyes wildly, and fell from his horse, murmuring
the name of Inez. The Spaniards uttered a cry of grief, to which the
Indians responded by a shout of triumph.
"It is now our turn," Tahi-Mari exclaimed, as he dashed towards Don
Juan.
"Yes," the young man replied, "our long standing quarrel will be at
length decided."
The two enemies rushed upon each other with clenched lips and bloodshot
eyes, fighting furiously, caring little about dying, provided that one
killed the other. But at each instant a crowd of Indians or Spaniards,
drawn by the moving incidents of the fight, came between them and
separated them. When this happened they made extraordinary efforts to
come together again, overthrowing the obstacles that were in their way,
and constantly seeking each other, only one thought occupied them--that
of satiating their vengeance; every other consideration was effaced
from their minds, and forgetting the sacred interests which they had
to defend, they only thought of their personal hatred. Ere long those
who separated them fell back, and they found themselves once more face
to face.
"Defend yourself, Tahi-Mari," Don Juan shouted, as he dashed at the
Indian chief.
"Here I am," the latter shouted, "and you are about to die."
Suddenly leaping from his horse, he cut the sinews of the colonel's
horse with a blow of his axe. But Don Juan probably expected this
attack, for when his horse fell uttering a long snort of pain, he was
standing with his feet freed from the stirrups. Then began, between
these two men, a combat impossible to describe, in which rage and
fury took the place of skill. Tahi-Mari wielded his terrible axe with
unparalleled dexterity; Don Juan had his sabre welded to his wrist, and
followed the slightest movements of the other.
Each observed the other, and calculated the value of his blows. Eye
on eye, chest against chest, panting, with foreheads streaming with
perspiration, and their features violently contracted by hatred, they
watched for the decisive moment. Don Juan was bleeding from two deep
wounds; he felt his strength becoming exhausted, and felt as if he
could no longer hold his sword. Tahi-Mari had also received several
wounds, not dangerous, it is true, but which were, for all that,
visible on his face and movements.
All at once, the half-breed, profiting by the fact that his enemy,
who had constantly been on guard, left himself uncovered, aimed a
blow at him with his axe. Don Juan raised his sword, but only parried
imperfectly, and the axe was buried deeply in his shoulder. Collecting
all his strength, he had to keep his feet; but tottering involuntarily,
he fell to the ground, heaving a deep sigh. Diego burst into a yell of
triumph, and rushed upon the young man.
"At last," he said.
At the same moment he received a violent blow, and he fell back
blaspheming. He rose with lightning speed, and saw Leon Delbès before
him, who had rolled him in the dust by dashing his horse's chest at him.
"Oh!" the Indian exclaimed, as he let his axe fall, "always he between
this family and me!"
"Yes, I! Tahi-Mari--I, whom you must kill before you can reach your
enemies--I, who have sworn to tear your victims from you: attack me.
What are you waiting for?"
A combat seemed to be going on in Diego's mind, and then he remarked,
as if speaking to himself:--
"No, no; not he, not he! the only man who ever loved me on this earth.
Now, for the other," he added, as he looked furiously around him, "he
can never have enough of Spanish blood."
And slipping on one side, he rushed back into the thick of the fight.
"What!" cried Wilhelm, who had just stationed himself by Leon's side,
"will you let that hyena escape, captain?"
"Yes!" Leon answered, as he shook his head sadly, "my hands shall not
be dyed with that man's blood; his life is sacred to me."
"That is possible," the German grunted, "but it is not so to me! And
then, again, the opportunity is too fine, and it is doing a service to
humanity."
And before Leon could prevent his design, he raised his rifle to his
shoulder, and fired. Diego made an enormous leap, turned half round,
stretched out his arms, and fell with his face on the ground. The
captain rushed towards him and had to raise him; the Indian looked at
him for a moment, his eyes were fixed on his with an expression of
ineffable tenderness, and pressing his hand forcibly, he said in a low
voice--
"Thanks, thanks, brother, but it is useless; I feel that I am going to
die."
Suddenly, by a supreme effort of will, and aided by the smuggler, he
succeeded in gaining his feet again. Then, his black eyes flashed with
pride and triumph.
"Look!" he exclaimed, "they are flying, those cowardly Spaniards are
flying! I die; but I am the victor, and almost avenged."
And he found sufficient strength within him to utter his terrible
war cry. Suddenly, a jet of black blood rose to his lips; his body
stiffened with a horrible convulsion, and he fell dead. Still, his eyes
were open, and his lips, curled by a smile of bitter irony, seemed to
defy his conquered foes, even after he had drawn his last breath.
"Back, der Teufel! back, or we are lost!" Wilhelm exclaimed, as he
seized the bridle of Leon's horse and pulled it back.
"Oh!" the smuggler said, as he wiped away a tear, "that man was made of
iron."
"Stuff, why pity him?" Wilhelm said, carelessly; "he died like a
soldier."
The fall of Tahi-Mari, which was not known to the Indians for some
minutes, did not at once check the order of the battle. Leon's band,
which had advanced too far, had extraordinary difficulties in
effecting a retreat, and joining the debris of the army marching on
Valparaíso.
* * * * *
The Moluchos, deprived of the man of genius, who had conceived the
plan of this daring campaign, and who was alone capable of bringing it
to a satisfactory conclusion, henceforth were a body without a soul.
Dissensions broke out among them, each chief claiming to succeed the
great Tahi-Mari, and they could not come to any understanding. The
league of the twelve nations was; broken; the Ulmens no longer acted
harmoniously, and soon undertook isolated expeditions, which had
disastrous results.
The Indians were for nine days masters of Santiago; at the end of that
time, the Spaniards, who had vigorously assumed the offensive, expelled
them from the capital, and pursued them even beyond their frontier
line. Of the 200,000 men who had invaded the Chilian territory, 40,000
at the most succeeded in regaining the inaccessible llanos which serve
as their retreat. The others found death in the land which they had
for a moment hoped to conquer. Such was, through the imbecility of the
chiefs, the result of this enterprise, which, if better conducted,
might have changed the fate of South America.
Six months after these events Leon Delbès was married at the church of
La Merced to Doña Maria de Soto-Mayor. The old general and his son,
Don Juan, who had both recovered from their wounds, were present at
the ceremony, offering up vows for the happiness of the young couple.
Inez lived for a year without regaining her reason, but her madness
had become a sort of gloomy and taciturn melancholy, which nothing
in the world could remove. She expired one day without pain, for her
death-agony was a pallid smile, in the midst of which her soul fled
away.
As for the secondary characters of the story, we will mention their
fate in a few words. The band of smugglers was broken so soon as Leon
left to go and live with the general. Wilhelm, for his splendid conduct
on the night of the capture of Santiago, was given a commission as
lieutenant in the Chilian army. The worthy abbess of the Convent of
the Purísima Concepción continued to sell her aqua milagrosa at the
fairest price. And one fine day, Master Crevel, tired of the annoyance
the police inflicted on him, placed the ocean between them and him by
returning to France.
THE END.