After escaping from the company of Arroyo and his bandits, Don Cornelio
mechanically followed the guidance of Costal--who was now aiming to
reach the lake of Ostuta as soon as possible, in order that he might
commence his incantations before the rising of the moon.
Don Cornelio knew that it would be breath thrown away to attempt
persuading the Indian to abandon his absurd and superstitious design;
and to propose accompanying him, and becoming either actor or spectator
in the pagan ceremony, would be equally against the wishes of Costal.
After they had ridden for some distance towards the lake, the Captain
admonished his companions of his intention to stay behind and wait for
their return, after they should have accomplished their purpose, and had
their interview with Tlaloc and his wife Matlacuezc. Costal was only
too glad to agree to this proposition; and promised to find a proper
halting-place for Don Cornelio at some distance from the shores of the
lake. There was no house of any kind in the vicinity, not even the
meanest hut. This, Costal, from his perfect knowledge of the locality,
was aware of; but the night was a pleasant one, and a few hours might be
passed in the open air without any great inconvenience.
Shortly after, the cool freshness of the breeze proclaimed that the lake
was not far off; and a pleasant grove of shady palm-trees offered an
inviting shelter to Don Cornelio. It was the spot which Costal had
designed for his halting-place; and here, parting from the two acolytes,
the Captain dismounted, and prepared to make himself as comfortable as
possible during their absence. Meanwhile Costal and Clara kept on
towards the lake, and were soon lost to view under the shadows of the
forest.
Don Cornelio had not been long left to himself, ere he began to rue the
disposition thus made of him. It now occurred to him, and not without
reason, that the comrades of Gaspacho might fancy to avenge the
brigand's death, and for that purpose follow him and his two attendants
through the forest. Arroyo would now be absent from the hacienda; Don
Cornelio had heard him proclaim his intention of going in search of its
mistress; and his subalterns might pay less respect to the emissary of
Morelos than their chief.
These considerations influencing the spirit of Don Cornelio, produced
within him a certain degree of uneasiness--sufficient to make him
discontented with the position he had chosen.
Determined to get nearer to Costal--whom he looked upon almost as his
natural protector--he remounted his horse, and continued along the path
that had been taken by the other two.
After riding a few hundred yards, he discerned rising up before his face
a high hill crowned with mist; and shortly after, the woods becoming
more open, he was enabled to perceive that this hill was surrounded by a
large lake of dark, sombre aspect. Though he now looked upon both the
lake and mountain for the first time, he had no difficulty in
identifying them as the Lake Ostuta and the sacred mountain of
Monopostiac.
A belt of forest still lay between him and the lake, extending around
its southern end. Entering into the timber, he rode nearly across it,
until the reedy shore of the lake came in view through the openings
between the trees. Here he again halted, and after a moment's
reflection, dismounted.
Although the change of locality might make it more difficult for the
brigands of Arroyo to discover his retreat, he was still not so certain
of being free from danger. To render his situation more secure, he
determined upon climbing into a tree, and concealing himself among the
branches.
He had another motive for freeing himself. At a short distance from the
spot he saw the horses of Costal and Clara, standing tied to some
bushes; and he knew that their owners could not be far off. No doubt it
was there they intended to go through their absurd rites; and all at
once Don Cornelio had become inspired with a curiosity to witness them.
His Christian conscience slightly reproached him, for thus assisting, as
it were, at a pagan ceremony; but he ended by persuading himself that
there would be something meritorious in his being a witness to the
confusion of the infidel.
A tree near at hand offered him a favourable point of observation. From
its higher branches he could command a full view of the lake and its
shores to a considerable distance on each side of him, and also the
sacred mountain in its midst.
Securing his horse below, he ascended the tree, and seated himself among
its topmost branches. He had taken the precaution to carry up his
carbine along with him, which was hanging from his shoulders upon its
sling.
He had just fixed himself commodiously upon his perch, when the full
moon appeared, at once lighting up the waters of the lake with her most
brilliant beams.
He looked to discover the whereabouts of Costal and the negro; but for
some time he could see nothing of either. The enchanted hill,
glistening with a vitreous translucence under the white moonbeams,
presented a wild, weird aspect; and, from time to time, strange
unearthly sounds appeared to proceed from it, as also from the woods
around.
The nerves of the ex-student were at no time of the strongest; and he
had not long occupied his elevated post before he began to rue his
rashness, in having trusted himself alone in a place which seemed to be
the abode of the supernatural.
All at once a sound reached him, proceeding from the margin of the lake;
and, turning his eyes in that direction, he beheld the figure of a naked
man moving among the reeds. It was the same apparition that had caused
such alarm among the domestics of Don Mariano, who, although unseen by
the Captain, were at that moment only fifty paces distant, screened
behind the bushes that grew around the glade in which they had encamped.
The apparition, although it at first startled Don Cornelio, did not
frighten him so much as it had the domestics; for, by the light of the
moon, he was enabled to recognise the figure as that of his attendant,
Costal. The Captain, moreover, saw--what, from their position, was
invisible to the people in Don Mariano's camp--another human figure,
naked like the first, but differing from it in the colour of the skin,
which was black as ebony.
Both having passed through the reeds, plunged at once into the open
water of the lake; and, swimming off towards the enchanted mountain,
were soon lost to the eyes of Don Cornelio, as well as to those of the
affrighted attendants of Don Mariano.
While the latter remained under the full conviction that they had seen
the Indian who, for five hundred years, had been vainly searching for
his heart, Don Cornelio knew that the two adventurers were his own
followers, Costal and Clara.
From the direction they had taken through the water, he divined that it
was their object to reach the mountain island, there, no doubt, to
practise their superstitious ceremonial.
Although somewhat disappointed at being deprived of a spectacle he had
felt curious to witness, he still remained on his perch upon the tree.
His apprehension of being pursued by the bandits of Arroyo had not yet
forsaken him; and in such a contingency, he believed that he would be
safer among the branches than upon the ground. He could watch for
Costal and Clara coming back through the water, and then rejoin them as
they returned to take possession of their horses, which were still
visible to him upon his elevated post.
For a short time he remained in his position without hearing any noise
in particular, or seeing anything calculated to alarm him. Then a sound
reached his ears that came from a direction opposite to that in which
lay the lake. It was a booming sound, like the report of a cannon--
shortly after followed by another and another of precisely similar
intonation.
Don Cornelio had no suspicion that at that very moment the hacienda of
San Carlos was being attacked by the garrison of Del Valle, and that the
noise he heard was the report of the howitzer battering in the gates of
the building.
Although at first rendered uneasy by these inexplicable sounds, as they
soon after ceased to be repeated, Don Cornelio no longer troubled
himself to explain them. He had heard so many others, as mysterious as
they, that he despaired of finding an explanation. As time passed,
however, and neither Costal nor Clara showed themselves, the Captain
began to feel a strong desire to sleep, and his eyelids every moment
grew heavier, until at length he felt that he could no longer resist the
desire. Like Colonel Tres-Villas, on the preceding night, he took the
precaution, before committing himself to slumber, of making secure
against a fall; and for this purpose he attached himself with his sash
to one of the branches. In another minute he was in the land of dreams,
unconscious of the singularity of the couch on which he was reclining.