SANDOVAL PLIGHTS HIS TROTH
When Sandoval returned with the others to the Spanish quarters, after
leaving the temple, he urged Marina to find out who had sent the
message that had despatched him on so fruitless an errand to Huitzil's
shrine, and, if possible, what it meant. This Marina was only too glad
to undertake; for she, as well as the young Spaniard, was anxious and
unhappy concerning the fate of him who had been her patient in Tlascala.
In the meantime Sandoval, visiting the Tlascalan quarters, found the
fierce warriors very angry, and inclined to quarrel with some one, on
account of the loss of their well-liked young chief. They could form
no idea of what had become of him, but declared that if he were not
restored to them soon, and in safety, the city that had swallowed him
should be made to feel their vengeance. The matter was becoming so
serious that it must be reported to Cortes. Upon hearing of it, the
Spanish leader declared his intention of immediately visiting the king,
and demanding any information he might possess upon the subject. To
this end, he summoned Marina to accompany him as interpreter.
The Indian girl had but just discovered the page who had brought her
the message, and gained from him the information that it had been sent
by one of the court ladies, who was even now walking in the king's
gardens, and to whom he would willingly conduct her. As Marina must
attend the Conqueror in his audience with the king, she turned the page
over to Sandoval, with instructions to lead the young cavalier to the
gardens instead of herself, and point the lady out to him.
Then the same party, that had made a tour of the city that morning,
set forth for Montezuma's palace. After they had entered its grounds,
Sandoval, keeping a tight hold of his page, managed to slip away
unnoticed. He was pleasantly conscious that at length he, like other
young men whom he had known, was setting forth in search of a romantic
adventure. The feeling was an entirely novel one; for the plain-faced
young soldier, though expert in the art of war, was awkward of speech,
and so diffident that, since his childhood, he had hardly exchanged a
dozen words with any woman. Marina was, of course, excepted, but he
regarded her more in the light of a fellow-soldier than as a member of
the dreaded sex.
He wondered if the woman he was about to see would be old or young,
attractive or otherwise. He finally decided that she would be
middle-aged, as dark-skinned as were most of the Indian women he had
seen, and that she was probably the wife of some court noble, who
had let drop a chance expression concerning Don Juan, which she had
misunderstood. While thus cogitating, Sandoval was led through a maze
of shaded alleys and perfumed shrubberies until he was as bewildered as
one without a compass in mid-ocean.
At length, after a long search, he and the page detected the sound of
voices; and, as they emerged from behind a dense thicket of laurel, the
latter pointed, with a triumphant air, to two female figures pacing
slowly along the borders of a miniature lake, and engaged in earnest
conversation. One was dark, middle-aged, and stately. She answered so
well Sandoval's mental picture of the woman he wished to discover, that
he accepted her as such without a question. The other woman appeared to
be younger, but he could not see her face.
[Illustration: SANDOVAL MEETS TIATA.]
Unobserved, they walked toward the two women, and Sandoval had already
lifted his steel bonnet, preparatory to addressing the elder, when the
page, pulling at his arm, pointed to the other, thus intimating that it
was she who had sent the morning's message. At that moment, startled by
the sound of their footsteps, the younger woman turned upon the young
soldier a face more gloriously beautiful than any he had ever seen
or dreamed of. It was that of a girl just entering womanhood, and
was fair almost to whiteness, but with a dash of carmine glowing on
cheeks and lips. The little head bore a wealth of hair that was dark
brown, instead of jetty black, as was the case with most Aztec maidens.
It was poised like that of a princess, but the great brown eyes were
fixed upon Sandoval with a startled, pleading expression that, as he
afterward said, pierced him like the keenest of Toledo blades.
So taken aback was he by this sudden apparition of youthful beauty,
that the steel bonnet, with which he was prepared to make an elaborate
bow, slipped from his hand and fell, with a loud clatter to the marble
pavement. It would have rolled into the water had not the page captured
and returned it to its owner. At this mishap the girl laughed, just a
little rippling laugh, the elder woman bit her lip, and poor Sandoval,
the picture of despairing mortification, looked as though about to hide
his confusion in flight.
At this juncture the girl put some question to the page. At his answer
she became very grave, and again looked appealingly at Sandoval.
He, realizing that the time had come when he must either speak or
ignominiously retreat, and so become a fit subject for mirth throughout
all Mexico, opened his mouth and, after several abortive attempts,
blurted out:
"I----that is, señorita, you----! I believe my brother, Don Juan----!
You have exhibited an interest---- May I ask----? I mean, did you----?"
Here he paused, recalled by the expression of bewilderment on the
girl's face, to the fact that she could not understand a word of what
he was saying. She answered him, for all that, speaking so earnestly
and with such musical accents, that poor Sandoval was completely
bewitched, and, in spite of his ignorance of her meaning, would
willingly have undertaken to listen to that sweet voice forever.
As she ended the words whose melody would linger in the ears of the
embarrassed and shame-faced young soldier to his dying hour, there came
a sound of other and harsher voices. Hearing them, the elder woman
caught her companion by the arm and led her hastily away. Ere they
disappeared, the girl looked back with a ravishing smile that said, as
plainly as words of purest Castilian:
"I do not think you plain or awkward, or ill-favored, for I know you to
be as true and brave a knight as ever plighted his troth to a maiden,"
and, from that moment, in his heart of hearts, was Sandoval's troth
pledged.
Now he looked for the page on whom he relied to lead him from this
enchanted wilderness. The boy had disappeared, and in his place stood
two grinning dwarfs, with huge heads, grotesquely misshapen bodies,
and thin, little legs that seemed illy calculated to support them. As
Sandoval stared at them they returned his stare with interest, at the
same time making diabolical faces and winking maliciously.
When he sternly demanded that they should lead him to the palace, they
broke forth with a harsh cackle of laughter and danced about him like
hobgoblins. Finally, tormented beyond endurance, he drew his sword
as though about to attack them, whereupon they retreated beyond his
reach with the lightness of thistledowns, and a speed that showed how
little chance he had of capturing them. For an hour or so they amused
themselves with impish torments of this young giant. When they at
length disappeared, Sandoval found himself, flushed and breathless,
standing before a cage of solemn-looking apes, whose appearance was so
like that of his recent tormentors, that he could not help laughing in
spite of his disgust. Fortunately, he was here discovered by some of
the king's animal-keepers, who conducted him to a place from which he
could see the Spanish quarters.
While Sandoval was undergoing these various and unique experiences
in the royal gardens, Cortes and his companions were admitted to the
presence of the king. Not having any reason to expect a visit from them
at this hour, he was engaged in giving audience to many distinguished
personages; ambassadors from other countries of the Western World,
princes of tributary provinces or cities, caciques of recently
conquered tribes, generals of his army, and the like, who had petitions
to prefer or business to transact that required his personal attention.
Each of these was conducted into the throne-room by young nobles, who
acted as ushers, and each, no matter how exalted his rank, was obliged
to cover his gorgeous raiment with a robe of coarse nequen, and enter
the presence barefooted. Approaching the king with many obeisances, and
finally making the sign of servitude by touching first the ground and
then his head with his right hand, the petitioner stood with downcast
eyes waiting to be addressed before daring to speak. Each, as he was
dismissed, retreated backward, and continued to make humble obeisances
until he had passed from the room.
After watching this scene for some time with great interest, Cortes
stepped forward, and, through his fair interpreter, abruptly demanded
what had become of his young chief of Tlascalans.
"He is dead," answered Montezuma, simply, at which Marina staggered
as though struck a heavy blow, and was scarcely able to translate the
reply to Cortes.
"By whose hand?" demanded the Spanish leader, hotly.
"By the hand of no man, but by that of the gods."
"Where is his body?"
"No trace of it remains. If it were to be found I would deliver it to
thee. If he had been slain by mortals they should be given to thee for
punishment," replied the king, solemnly.
Nothing more was to be elicited; and, filled with rage, Cortes and his
companions hastily departed, to consult as to what mode of revenge they
should take, and upon whom.
They were followed, a few minutes later, by Sandoval, who, as he neared
the Spanish quarters, was startled by seeing a man running toward him,
hotly pursued by a crowd of priests and citizens brandishing weapons,
and evidently intent upon taking his life. As he gazed curiously on
this scene the young soldier was horror-stricken to recognize, in the
well-nigh exhausted fugitive, his adopted brother, Huetzin the Toltec.
Drawing his sword and springing forward with a loud cry, he succeeded
in checking the pursuit long enough to enable the pursued to dart
through a gateway of the old palace. As the rescuer quickly followed it
was violently closed in the faces of the angry throng, whose prey was
thus snatched from their very grasp.