As the secretary anticipated, the tracks of the reinforcement were
plainly discernible over the sandy downs and by the margins of the
pestilent fens, which gave an air of desolation to this part of the
Mexican coast, not much relieved by an occasional clump of palms, nor by
the spectacle, here and there disclosed, of the broad ocean blackening
among the low islets; though the hazy and verdant ramparts which
stretched between these burning deserts and the imagined paradises of
the interior, ever presented a field of refreshment and interest to the
eyes of the travellers. The novelty of their situation, felt more or
less intensely by all, was exciting: and many a dream of barbaric
monarchs reposing on thrones of gold and emeralds, and canopied by
flowers and feathers,--of dusky armies deploying among green valleys and
on the borders of fair lakes,--and perhaps of themselves doing the work
of heroes among these mystic multitudes,--wandered through their
over-troubled fancies.
Such visions flitted over the brain of Amador, but mingled with others,
with which the past had more to do than the present; for, despite the
eager longing with which he looked forward to a meeting with his good
knight and kinsman, and, notwithstanding his impatient ardour to gaze
with his own eyes upon those scenes which were filling the minds of men
with wonder, he looked back from a sand-hill to the distant ships, and
sighed, as, in an instant of time, his soul was borne from them, over
the broad surges to the pleasant hills of Spain.
But with the view of the squadron vanished his memory and his
melancholy: the narrow belt of sand-hills along the coast had been
exchanged for the first zone of vegetation; the mimosa afforded its
shade; the breeze and the paroquet chattered together on its top; and
when he came, at last, to journey among the shadows of a forest rich in
magnificent and unknown trees and plants, with here a lagoon fringed
with stately ceibas (the cotton-wood trees of Mexico) and gigantic
canes, and there a water-course murmuring among palms and other tropical
trees, he gave himself up to a complacent rapture. He remarked with
satisfaction the bright plumage of water-fowl,--the egret, the pelican,
the heron, and sometimes the flamingo, sporting among the pools; gazed
with wonder after the little _picaflor_, or humming-bird, darting, like
a sunbeam, from flower to flower; with still greater admiration listened
to the song of the calandra and the cardinal, and to the magical
_centzontli_,--the hundred-tongued,--as it caught and repeated, as if
with a thousand voices, the thousand roundelays of other songsters
scattered among the boughs; and it was not until the notes of a
trumpet, swelling suddenly in the distance, invaded his reveries, that
he roused from the voluptuous intoxication of such a scene.
"It is the trumpet of the soldiers, senor!" cried the secretary,
joyously; "and it rejoices me much, for I know not how much longer I
could have followed their obscure tracks through this forest. And
besides, I find, as I must in honesty confess, I have in me so little of
the skill of a leader, that I would gladly submit to be led myself,
especially by your worship, though it were to follow you to battle as an
humble esquire."
"I must commend your spirit, senor Lorenzo Fabueno," (for so the
secretary had called himself,) "though I must needs believe your
inexperience in all matters of war might render such an attempt
exceedingly difficult, if not altogether impossible."
"Senor," said the secretary, eagerly, "I have the wish, and doubtless
the ability, in course of time, to learn all the duties, and to acquire
some of the skill, of a soldier; and under so noble a leader as your
favour, I am sure I should advance much faster than ever I did in the
learning of a clerk. And, in addition to the little service I might
render with my sword, I have such skill with the pen as might be of good
use to your honour."
"I have no certain assurance," said Amador, "that I shall have any
occasion to use my own sword; it is utterly beyond my imagination to
discover to what use I could put the inkhorn of a secretary; and
finally, I know not how the course of events in these deserts may
require me to add to the number of my associates. Nevertheless, senor
Lorenzo, if it be the wish of his excellency the admiral, that his
secretary should be transformed into a soldier, I see not how I can
refuse to give my assistance to the conversion."
"I know not why I should be dungeoned in a ship's cabin," said Lorenzo,
with a sort of petulance, "when other youths are roaming at liberty
among these brave hills; and gnawing a quill with disgust, when all my
old schoolmates are carving out reputation with more manly implements. I
am sure I was not born to slave forever at the desk."
"This may be all true, as, in my opinion, it is both natural and
reasonable," said Amador, with gravity; "for, it seems to me, man was
brought into the world for a nobler purpose than to scribble on paper.
Yet you have not made it apparent that the admiral's wishes are in this
matter consonant with your own."
"I know not that they are," replied the secretary, "but, as I now feel
myself at liberty, with both horse and sword, I cannot help feeling that
they ought to be. How I can ever have the heart to return to my bondage
again, is more than I can tell; and I am confident, if it were your
favour's desire he should grant me permission to follow you through this
land, he would make no opposition, the more particularly that your
favour is his kinsman."
"I doubt whether the consent would not be wrung from his courtesy; and I
cannot well agree to rob him of one who may be a valuable servant.
Neither, under such circumstances, can I think of encouraging you in
your ardour, or recommending you, at present, to change your pursuits,
for which you are better fitted than for mine. Nay," said the cavalier
good-naturedly, observing the chagrin of the youth, "if you are
resolutely bent on your purpose, it is my advice you make your petitions
to his excellency; and when he has granted them, as doubtless he will,
you can, with a free mind, seek the patronage of some cavalier engaged
in these armies of invasion.--Hark! the trumpet sounds louder and
nearer, and by my faith, I see on yonder rising ground the bodies of men
and the glimmer of weapons! Spur thy horse a little; (and, I pr'ythee,
fling thy shoulders a jot backwards, sitting erect and at ease; for I
promise thee, this manner of riding, as if thou wouldst presently be
hugging at thy nag's neck, is neither becoming nor advantageous;)--spur
me up a little, and we will join company with them."
The long and straggling train with which the travellers caught up, just
as it issued from the forest upon an open tract of low sandy hills and
plains, was composed of motley materials. A few mounted men, who, by
their armour and bustling activity, seemed the leaders and commanders,
were scattered among a horde of footmen, a portion of whom were armed
and ranked as a company of military, but the greater part being the
ordinary native labourers, who served the office of mules, and bore on
their backs the burdens of the invaders. Some five or six score of these
swarthy creatures, followed by a dozen Castilian crossbowmen and a
single horseman, brought up the rear. They stalked in a line one after
another, each bending to his burden; and in their uniformity of
equipment, gait, muscular figures, and solemn visages, added not a
little to the singularity of the spectacle. A narrow strip of some
vegetable texture, so rude and coarse that it seemed rather a mat than a
cloth, was wrapped round the loins of each, leaving their strong and
tawny bodies otherwise naked. No sandal protected their soles from the
heated soil; and no covering, save only the long and matted locks
swinging about their countenances, defended their heads from the
scorching sun. A huge basket of cane, the _petlacalli_, or _petaca_ of
the Spaniards, carelessly covered with matting, and evidently well
charged with military stores and provision, weighed upon the shoulders
of each, while it was connected by a broad strap to the forehead. Thus
burthened, however, and thus exposed to a temperature which, as the day
advanced, seemed, in the open plains, nearly intolerable to their
Christian companions, they strode on with a slow but vigorous step, each
bearing a knot of gay flowers or of brilliant feathers, wherewith he
defended his face from insects, and perhaps, occasionally, his eyes from
the dazzling reflection of the soil. These were the _Tlameme_, or
carriers of Mexico.
The eye of Amador, though at first attracted by this singular train,
dwelt with more surprise and curiosity on the crossbowmen, who were
sweltering, in common with nearly every Christian of the party, under
the thick and uncouth investment of the _escaupil_, a sort of armour
which the invaders of Mexico had not disdained to borrow from their
despised enemies. This consisted of nothing more than garments of
woollen or cotton cloth, cut as much after the fashions of Spain as was
possible, quilted so thickly with cotton as to be able to resist the
arrow heads and lance-points of the Indians; which virtue, added to the
facility with which it could be obtained and adapted to every part of
the body, gave the escaupil a decided preference over the few pieces of
iron mail which the poverty of the combatants denied them the power of
extending to the whole frame. In truth, so common had become this
armour, that there were few among the cavaliers of the conquest, except
those leaders who despised so unknightly and so unsightly an attire, who
were provided with any other. Nevertheless many distinguished captains
concealed garments of this material under their iron armour; and the
common soldiers of Cortes, after long experience, had fallen upon the
plan of quilting it in pieces imitative of morions and breast-plates,
which were far from being uncouth or unwieldy. But its efficacy, though
strongly explained and urged by the secretary Fabueno, could not blind
Don Amador to its ungainliness, as seen in the fashions of raw recruits;
and even the solemn gravity of Baltasar was changed to a grin of
ineffable derision, and the good-humoured vivacity of Lazaro to a laugh
of contempt, when the secretary advised the cavalier to provide his
followers with such coats of mail.
"What thinkest thou, Lazaro, rogue?" said Don Amador, merrily. "Thou
wert but a bitter groaner over the only cut it was ever thy good hap to
meet: and that was by a fair and courteous pistol-shot, which hath
something of an oily way about it: whereas these infidel flints and
hard woods gash as painfully as an oyster-shell. What sayest thou? Shall
I give thee an escaupil, to save thee from new lamentation?"
"May your honour live a thousand years!" said the serving-man. "The
tortoise to his shell, the Turk to his turban: heaven never thrust a
hornet into the cocoon of a caterpillar, nor a lion into a sheep's skin.
Wherefore I will keep my sting and my claws free from the cotton bags;
the only merit of which is, that when a man is wounded in them, he has
lint ever ready at his fingers."
"For my part," said Baltasar, "I am, in this matter, much of Lazaro's
way of thinking. Howsoever, please your favour, when I see these
lubberly lumps fight more courageously than myself in my iron trifles, I
will straightway change my mind on the subject."
"Hold thy tongue, then," said the cavalier, "lest thou give offence to
some of these worthy cotton-coats, who have, in no manner, furnished
thee with cause for a quarrel."
The cavalier rode on, followed closely by his attendants, courteously
returning the salutations which were everywhere rendered to his apparent
rank and martial appearance by the Spanish portion of the train; though
not even the glitter of his mail, the proud tramp of his war-horse, nor
the stout appearance of his followers, drew a glance from the Tlameme.
The dull apathy which the oppression of ages has flung over the spirits
of Mexicans at the present epoch, had already been instilled into the
hearts of this class of natives, which with some others, under the
prevalence of the common feudalism of barbarians, were little better
than bondmen. He rode slowly by them, admiring the sinewy bulk of their
limbs, and the ease with which they moved under their heavy burdens.
The van of the train was formed by a score of footmen, all arrayed in
the escaupil, and all, with the exception of some five or six, who bore
firelocks, armed with sword and spear. A cavalier of goodly presence,
and well mounted, rode at their head; and Amador, thinking he perceived
in him the tokens of gentle blood and manners, pressed forward to salute
him. The ringing of Fogoso's heels arrested the attention of the leader,
who, turning round and beholding the gallant array of the stranger,
instantly returned upon his path, and met him with many courteous
expressions. At the very moment of meeting, Amador's eye was attracted
by a figure, which, in making way for the steed of the leader, had
well-nigh been trodden under the hoofs of his own; and in which, when
removed from this peril, he instantly remarked the spare person and
haggard countenance of the Moor. Holding fast to the hand of the
Almogavar, and indeed, for an instant, while the danger lasted, wrapped
anxiously in his arms, was a boy, whose youth and terror might have won
a second notice, had not the salutation of the officer immediately
occupied his attention.
"The senor Amador de Leste," said he--"Thou varlet of an infidel, I will
strike thee with my lance!" (This menacing objurgation was addressed to
the Moor, at the moment when, most endangered, he wavered with his boy
between the horses.) "The senor Amador de Leste," he continued, as the
Moor, recovering himself, cowered away, "will not be surprised to find
his coming expected, and his presence welcomed, by the general Narvaez,
or by his excellency's humble friend and captain, Juan Salvatierra."
"Senor Salvatierra, I give you good thanks," replied Amador; "and
although I know not what avant-courier has proclaimed the approach of so
obscure an individual as myself, I will not, for that reason, receive
your courtesy less gratefully."
"I have with me here," said Salvatierra, with a stately condescension,
"several of your fellow-voyagers of the caravel; among whom it would
have been strange indeed if any had forgotten the name of so honourable
a companion."
"Those cavaliers of the caravel," said Amador, dryly, "who condescend to
claim me as a companion, do me thereby a greater honour than I am
desirous to do myself. Sly companions are, as you may see, my two
men-at-arms; to which we will at present add the young senor Fabueno,
whom, as the secretary of his excellency the admiral Cavallero, I am not
indisposed to acknowledge."
There was something in the tone of the haughty and even arrogant
neophyte, that might have nettled his new friend; but its only effect,
beside bringing a little colour upon his rather pallid cheeks, was to
rob his suavity of somewhat of its loftiness.
"It is for hidalgos and cavaliers of knightly orders," he said, "and not
for ignoble adventurers, to aspire to the fellowship of a valiant knight
of San Juan."
"I am no knight of San Juan," said Amador, "but a simple novice, who may
one day claim admission to the illustrious order (by right of birth,) or
not, as it may please the destinies and mine own humour. Nevertheless I
have much pleasure to speak of the order and its valiant brothers, at
every opportunity, and at the present moment I am moved to ask your
favour, as relying much on your knowledge, what tidings have been last
had of the good knight Calavar, an eminent branch of that most lordly,
though thunder-stricken, stock."
"Concerning the knight of Calavar," said Salvatierra blandly, "it is my
grief to assure you that his madness----"
"Call it his melancholy! or his humour!" said Amador, sternly; "and let
it be some mitigation to your surprise, if my correction sound like a
rebuke, to know that I am his kinsman."
Again did the colour mount into the cheeks of the cavalier, and again
did his courtesy, or his discretion, get the better of the impulse that
raised it.
"The kinsman of that valiant and renowned gentleman," he said politely,
"shall command me to any epithet he chooses. The senor De Leste will
doubtless lament to hear that his kinsman, with an eccentricity scarce
worthy his high birth and knightly dignity, still stoops to be the
follower of an inferior and rebel, the outcast and proclaimed outlaw,
Hernan Cortes."
"As far as my own judgment is concerned in this matter, senor
caballero," said Amador coolly, "I very much doubt whether I shall
lament that circumstance at all. The knight Calavar will not disparage
his dignity or his profession, by choosing to serve where a
little-minded man might covet to command. Such a condescension in him,
besides being a new proof of magnanimity and fidelity to his vows,
whereby he is sworn never to make peace with the infidel, is only an
evidence to me that the cavalier Cortes, whom you call a rebel and
outlaw, must be a man worthy of much more respectful appellations; as
indeed, methinks, your own reflections should show you must be the due
of any associate of the knight of Calavar."
The unaffected surprise, and even consternation, with which the follower
of Narvaez heard the neophyte thus speak of his leader's enemy, might
perhaps have urged Amador to the utterance of commendations still more
unequivocal, had not his eye at that moment been caught by the shadow on
the sand of a man striding nearer to the flanks of Fogoso than he had
supposed any footman to be. His own position was near the side of the
company of musketeers and spearmen mentioned before; his followers, not
being willing to obtrude upon the privacy of the cavaliers, had fallen a
little back; and the Morisco, as he took it for granted, was lagging
some distance behind. His surprise was therefore not a little excited,
when looking round, he beheld the Almogavar so close at his side as to
be able to overhear all that was said, and drinking his words with an
expression of the intensest interest.
"Son of a dog!" cried Salvatierra, who beheld him at the same time, and
who was not unwilling to vent some of the gall that Amador had raised
in his bosom, upon so legitimate an object,--"I will see if I cannot
teach thee how to thrust thyself among soldiers and hidalgos!"
"Softly, senor Caballero!" cried Amador, observing the captain raising
his lance; "strike not Abdalla; for I have it in my power to inform you,
that, although in some sense your prisoner, and, to the eye of a
stranger, a most helpless and wretched varlet, he has shown himself to
be possessed of a spirit so worthy of respect, that you will do yourself
foul shame to strike him."
The lance of the cavalier was turned away from the shrinking Moor.
"Don Amador de Leste shall command my weapon, whether it be to smite or
to spare," said Salvatierra, smothering the rage which every word and
action of the neophyte seemed fated to inspire, and advancing to the
head of the train.
"Hark'ee, Sidi Abdalla," continued Amador, beckoning complacently to the
retiring Morisco, "it is not in my nature to see indignity of any kind
heaped upon a man who hath not the power of vengeance, and especially a
man who hath in him the virtue of courage, without raising a hand in his
defence."
"My lord speaks the truth," said Abdoul, with a subdued voice; "the
Almogavar hath not the power of vengeance:--The strong man may strike
him, the proud may trample, and he cannot resist; the cavalier may wound
with the lance, the soldier may smite with the unthonged bow.--It is all
one;--his head is bare, his breast open, his hand empty:--he can neither
resist nor avenge."
"By St. John of Jerusalem," said the cavalier warmly, moved to a
stronger feeling for the friendless Morisco, "I remember, as was
confessed by that beast of a Canary captain, that when thine enemies
were on thy decks, and thy friends fled from thy side, (for which they
deserved to sink to the bottom, as they did;) thou hadst the courage to
discharge thy mangonneau into the victorious trader; for which reason
chiefly, but partly because thou hast avowed thyself a Christian
proselyte, I will take it upon me, as far as it may be in my power, to
be thy protector and champion."
"My lord is good," said the Moor, bending his head low on his breast;
"and in the day of my death I will not forget his benevolence. The
Almogavar was born to grief; trouble came at his first hour; his first
breath was the sigh of Granada, his first cry was mingled with the
groans of his enslaved people, his first look was on the tears of his
father. Sorrow came in youth, anguish in manhood, and misery is in the
footsteps of years. My lord is great and powerful; he protects me from
the blow of a spear.--He can save me from a grief that strikes deeper
than a thousand spears!"
"As I am a true gentleman and Christian," said Amador, "I will hold to
my word, to give thee protection and aid, as far as my power lies."
"The feeble boy that totters over these scorching sands!" said the Moor,
raising his eyes wistfully to the cavalier, and turning them for an
instant with a look of unspeakable wildness to his son.--The cavalier
looked back, in that momentary pause, and beheld the young Morisco. He
seemed a boy of not more than twelve years. The soldier judged only from
his stature, for a garment of escaupil of unusual thickness completely
invested and concealed his figure; while his face drooping, as if from
weariness, on his breast, was hidden by a cap slouching in disorder, and
by long ringlets that fell in childish profusion over his shoulders.
"The boy!" continued Abdalla, turning again to the neophyte, and raising
his clasped hands as if in supplication. "Is it fit his tender years
should be passed among the horrors of a camp? among the dangers of a
wild war? among the vices and contaminations of a brutal soldiery? If it
were possible,"--and here the voice of the Almogavar trembled with
eagerness;--"if it were possible that boy could be sent to
Granada,--nay, to Barbary,--anywhere, where, for his father's sake, he
should be granted a refuge and asylum; then might the curse be uttered,
the blow struck, and Abdoul, receiving it as the payment of his debt,
would not call upon his lord for vengeance."
"Thou heardest from the admiral," said Amador, "how impossible would be
the gratification of such a wish; since, even were he parted from this
shore, it rests with another, who, I can, upon mine own knowledge,
assure thee, is not likely to help him on his way, whether he shall not
waste his days among the planters of the islands; who, according to
common report, are not a whit less wild and debauched than their friends
here in Mexico."
"God is just!" cried the Moor, clasping his hands in despair.
"Nevertheless," continued Amador, "I will not fail to make thy petition,
backed with my own request, to the senor Narvaez; and at the worst, it
is not improbable some good cavalier may be found who will consent to
receive him as a page, and treat him with kindness."
"God is just!" reiterated the Moor, with a gloomy sorrow; "and the arrow
of the savage may save him from the wrong of the Christian."
"I tell thee again," said Amador, "I will not forget to do my best for
his welfare, at the first opportunity. But tell me, Abdalla"--The
Morisco was dropping behind: he returned.--"I had forgotten to ask thee
a question for which I first called thee. I was speaking to this
hot-tempered captain of the knight Calavar--By heaven! it was thus I saw
thine eyes sparkle before! Is there any magic in the name, that it
should move thee to such emotion?"
"The knight Calavar," said the Morisco, "was among the conquerors of the
Alpujarras; and how can I hear his name, and not bethink me of the black
day of my country? His name is in our Moorish ballads; and when the
orphan sings them, he mourns over the fate of his father."
"That the knight Calavar did good service among those rebellious
mountaineers, I can well believe," said the cavalier, hastily; "but that
he did not temper his valour with mercy, is an assertion which no man
can make to me with perfect safety. As to those ballads of which you
speak, I am not certain if they be not the invention of some devilish
magician, opposed to honourable war and glory; since it is their sole
purpose to keep one thinking of certain sorrowful particulars, that may
be a consequence of victory and conquest, such as tearful widows and
destitute orphans; and I must declare, for mine own part, such is the
mischievous tendency of these madrigals, that sometimes, after hearing
them, I have had my imagination so enchanted, as to look with disgust at
war, and almost to lament that I ever had struck at the life of a human
being. I shall like well to have thy boy sing to me; but, as I will tell
him beforehand, it must be of lovelorn knights, and of knights going to
battle, and never a word about widows and orphans."