THE GLORIOUS TRIUMPH OF TLALCO
Tlalco the Toltec, one of the few survivors in Mexico of that
mysterious race to which Huetzin traced his own ancestry, had, like
Tlahuicol, been born in the land of the Mayans. Here he was educated
as a priest of that gentle religion of love and peace, whose gods were
the Four Winds, and other forces of nature, and the symbol of which was
a cross. It had at one time been the faith of all Anahuac; but, with
the coming of the conquering Aztecs, it was supplanted by the cruel
worship of Huitzil, the war-god, whose blood-stained priests demanded
the sacrifice of thousands of human victims every year.
The young Toltec first heard of these abominations with horror, but
not until his only brother, to whom he was passionately attached, was
captured by an Aztec war party and doomed to sacrifice in Tenochtitlan,
did he conceive the idea of devoting his life to conflict with the gods
who exacted them. His first act was to secretly enlist a number of
young men whose enthusiasm in the sacred cause was equal to his own.
Then, like a crusader of the old world, he entered Anahuac at the head
of his little band. Its members were distributed by twos, in various
places, from which they were to maintain a regular correspondence
with him. By this means he gained early information of all important
occurrences throughout the kingdom, and was able to lay his plans
accordingly. He established himself in Tenochtitlan. Here he bearded
the lion in its den, by entering the service of the temple, and
becoming a candidate for the priesthood of Huitzil. While thus engaged
he first heard of Tlahuicol.
Tlalco's nature was to plot and work by hidden means; but he could
rejoice in the downright blows of the warrior, who fought openly
against those of whom he was the secret enemy. Though he did not
meet Tlahuicol, nor even learn that he, too, was a Toltec, until the
very hour of the latter's death, he made himself familiar with every
event of the great warrior's career. He augmented the prestige of
the Tlascalan war-chief by originating, and spreading, the prophecy
that through Tlahuicol should Huitzil fall. It was this prophecy, a
knowledge of which had become general at the time the Tlascalan was
captured by his enemies, that caused Topil, the chief priest, to regard
him with such a bitter hatred, and demand his life of Montezuma.
After the death of Tlahuicol, and the startling discovery that he,
too, was a Toltec, Tlalco determined to protect the children of the
hero so far as lay in his power, and at the same time to use them in
furthering his own life-work. All his hopes of ultimate success now
centred in the mysterious white conquerors, who, bearing a cross as
their symbol of faith, had recently arrived on the coast. Therefore,
after rescuing Huetzin from the knife of sacrifice, he bade him seek
and join himself to them, thus, unwittingly, reiterating the last
instructions of Tlahuicol.
Tiata, he saved from Topil's vengeance, by causing the praises of her
beauty to be so artfully sounded within hearing of Cacama, Prince
of Tezcuco, that the latter demanded her in marriage of Montezuma.
By Tlalco's instructions the girl claimed the privilege of a year's
mourning for her parents, before becoming a bride. This was granted;
but in accordance with established custom, she was compelled to reside
at the Court of Tezcuco, in charge of a noble lady of the prince's
household. From here Tiata, who was now enlisted heart and soul in
the cause of the Toltec, for the overthrow of the hated religion to
which her parents had been sacrificed, constantly furnished Tlalco
with important information. Under the strict watch of her duenna, she
was permitted to visit Tenochtitlan, to witness the first entry of the
white conquerors, and her heart swelled with pride at the sight of her
brother leading his army of Tlascalans. No opportunity was allowed
her for communicating with him, ere he was spirited away through the
efforts of the chief priest.
When Tlalco learned that Huetzin was, for the second time, about to be
led to the altar of sacrifice, he was for a moment at a loss how to
act. Had the message sent to Sandoval been traced to him, his influence
with Montezuma, as an Aztec priest, would have been destroyed. Then he
remembered Tiata's presence in the palace, and sent the message through
her. That very evening, after her strange interview with Sandoval,
the Toltec maiden was compelled to return to Tezcuco, where, for many
weeks, she was so closely watched, that she could gain no intelligence
of her brother's fate.
At length, wearying of Cacama's unwelcome attentions, Tiata found means
of sending an appeal to Tlalco for aid in escaping them. At the same
time she informed him that the Tezcucan prince was secretly raising an
army with which he proposed to destroy the Spaniards, and usurp the
Aztec throne. Tlalco immediately caused this information to be conveyed
to Cortes, who as promptly effected the arrest of Cacama, whom he
afterward held as a captive in the Spanish quarters.
After the departure of Cortes to meet Narvaez, Tlalco found that,
by his constant intercourse with the king, upon whose superstitious
nature he had been able to exert a powerful influence, he was exciting
the jealousy and suspicions of Topil. Therefore, as a measure of
precaution, he suddenly ceased his visits to the captive monarch. At
the same time, in order that he might still be kept informed of all
that was taking place in the palace, he conceived and carried out the
plan of having Tiata, disguised as a youth, installed as a king's page.
Before she found an opportunity of communicating with her brother, she
heard that he was to take the dangerous task of conveying the news of
Alvarado's desperate situation to Cortes, and this was the first bit
of information that she sent to Tlalco. He, knowing only too well what
precautions were taken to prevent the escape of any such messenger, and
the terrible fate already suffered by those previously sent out, for a
moment believed the son of Tlahuicol to be lost. Then a high resolve
filled his breast.
Although not a warrior, he determined on a course of action from which
many a one entitled to the name might well have shrunk. He knew himself
to be an object of such suspicion to Topil, that the spies of the
chief priest were ever on his track, and that his every movement was
instantly reported to his arch enemy. He knew, too, that Topil, having
become superstitious through the prophecy concerning Tlahuicol, and the
two miraculous escapes of Tlahuicol's son from his clutches, thirsted
for the blood of the young Toltec, with an eagerness that would have
given anything short of life itself for his capture. Knowing all this,
Tlalco still watched for Huetzin's departure from the palace, followed
him to the place of his capture, allowed the guards to lead him for
some distance, thus withdrawing themselves from the causeway, and
then effected the prisoner's release by stepping forward, and, in his
capacity of priest, boldly denouncing their stupidity, and holding
their attention by his words, until Huetzin had slipped away and
disappeared.
Five minutes later, Tlalco was seized and dragged before Topil. "Ha,
false priest! Have I discovered thee at last?" cried the latter in a
voice well nigh choked with fury. "Long hast thou deceived me, but mine
eyes are at length opened, and now shalt thou experience the wrath of
the outraged gods, in a manner that will teach thee its possibilities
as thou hast not dreamed of them."
From that moment the body of Tlalco was racked by a system of the most
exquisite tortures that even the practiced ingenuity of Aztec priests
could invent. For two weeks these had been prolonged, until, at the
end of that time, the poor, agonized wreck of humanity lay where
Huetzin discovered it, still conscious, but with the brave spirit just
lingering on the threshold of its mortal home, before departing to the
realms of immortality.
Heart-sick and filled with horror, at thus finding his friend and
thrice preserver, the young Toltec knelt beside the hideous altar, and
said: "Tlalco, my father, dost thou know me?"
The face of the dying man was lit with a glow of recognition, and in a
whisper so feeble as to be barely heard, he answered:
"It is the son of Tlahuicol."
Then they severed the cruel bonds and lifted him tenderly into the open
air, where the sightless face instinctively turned toward the glowing
noonday sun. Here Huetzin moistened his blackened lips and bathed his
face with water that was at the same time mingled with his own scalding
tears of fierce indignation, love, and pity. While he was thus engaged,
his white comrades, filled with a furious rage, tore the grinning
war-god from his blood-soaked throne and rolled the senseless image out
on the broad arena which had but just been the scene of so terrible a
battle.
"The hour of the false God has come!" cried Huetzin in the Toltec
tongue: "The white conquerors are about to hurl him from his loftiest
temple! Now is thy victory gained, O Tlalco! for the power of Aztec
priesthood is broken forever! Oh, that my father could have lived
to see this day! Oh, that Tiata might have seen it! The gods of the
Toltecs, thy gods and my gods, O Tlalco, be praised that thou and I are
permitted to share in this their glorious triumph!"
As he uttered these words in a tongue understood only by the dying man,
the face of the youth was transfigured, the wrath of battle passed from
it and it shone with the light of an all-absorbing enthusiasm.
"Lift me in thy strong arms," whispered Tlalco, "and make for me the
holy sign."
As Huetzin lifted him and gently touched him on forehead, breast, and
each shoulder, there came an exultant shout from the soldiers, a sound
of crashing, splintering, and rending, as the ponderous image of the
god thundered down to the bottom of the vast pyramid and a great cry of
terror and consternation rose from the multitudes below. At the same
moment the tortured features of him whom Huetzin supported, became
radiant with the glory of the immortal gods, to whom his glad spirit
was already winging its triumphant flight.