AN INDIAN'S LOVE.
The Linda rejoined Antinahuel, who, knowing what torture she was
preparing to inflict on the young girl, had stopped at a short distance
from the spot where he had left her.
When they reached the toldería, the horsemen dismounted and the maiden
was untied and transported, half dead, into the same cuarto where, an
hour before, she had, for the first time, found herself in the presence
of the courtesan.
The appearance of Rosario was really frightful, and would have excited
pity in anybody but the tigress whose delight it was to treat her so
cruelly. Her long hair hung in loose disorder upon her half-naked
shoulders, and at various spots adhered to her face through the blood
which had flowed from her wound; her face, soiled with blood and dirt,
wore a greenish cast, and her half-closed lips showed that her teeth
were tightly clenched. Her wrists and ankles, to which still hung
strips of the thick cord by which she had been fastened to the horse,
were frightfully bruised and discoloured. Her delicate frame was
convulsed with nervous quiverings, and her faint breathing painfully
issued from her heaving chest.
"Poor girl!" the chief murmured.
"Why, chief!" said the Linda, with a sardonic smile. "I scarcely know
you! Good Heavens! how love can change a man! What, you, intrepid
warrior, pity the fate of this poor maudlin chit! I really believe you
will weep over her like a woman, next!"
"Yes," the chief said; "my sister speaks truly, I scarcely know myself!
Oh!" he added, bitterly, "is it possible that I, Antinahuel, to whom
the Huincas have done so much wrong, can be so? This woman is of an
accursed race; she is in my power, I could avenge myself upon her,
satisfy the hatred that devours me, make her endure the must atrocious
injuries!--and, I dare not!--no, I dare not!"
"Does my brother, then, love this woman so much?" the Linda asked, in a
soft, insinuating tone.
Antinahuel looked at her as if she had awakened him suddenly from his
sleep; he fixed his dull eyes upon her, and exclaimed--
"Do I love her?--love her!--let my sister listen. Before dying, and
going to hunt in the blessed prairies with the just warriors, my father
called me to him, and placing his mouth to my ear--'My son, he said,
thou art the last of our race; Don Tadeo de León is also the last of
his; since the coming of the palefaces, the family of that man has been
always fatally opposed to ours, everywhere and under all circumstances.
Swear to kill that man whom it has never been in my power to reach!'
I swore to do it. Good!' he said, Pillian loves children who obey
their father; let my son mount his best horse, and go in search of his
enemy. Then, with a sigh, my father bade me depart. Without replying,
I saddled, as he had commanded me, my best horse, and went to the city
called Santiago, resolved to kill my enemy."
"Well?" the Linda asked, seeing him stop short.
"Well!" he resumed, "I saw this woman, and my enemy still lives." The
Linda cast upon him a look of disdain; but Antinahuel did not remark
it--he continued--
"One day this woman found me dying, pierced with wounds; she made her
peons bear me to a stone toldo, where for three months she watched over
me, driving back the death which had hung over me."
"And when my brother was cured?" the Linda asked eagerly.
"When I was cured," he resumed, passionately, "I fled away like a
wounded tiger, bearing in my heart an incurable wound! Two suns ago,
when I was quitting my toldería, my mother, whom I loved and venerated,
wished to oppose my departure; she knew that it was love that attracted
me from her, that it was to see this woman I left her. Well, my
mother----"
"Your mother?" the courtesan said, breathlessly.
"As she persisted in not allowing me to depart, I trampled her, without
pity, beneath the hoofs of my horse!" he cried, in almost a shriek.
"Oh!" exclaimed the Linda, recoiling.
"Yes! it is horrible, is it not, to kill one's mother? Now!" he added,
with a frightful mocking laugh, "will my sister ask again if I love
this woman? For her sake, to see her, to hear her address to me one of
those sweet words which she used to speak near me, or only to see her
smile, I would joyfully sacrifice the most sacred interests. I would
wade through the blood of my dearest friends--nothing should stop me!"
The Linda, as she listened to him and observed him, reflected deeply,
and as soon as he ceased she said--
"I see that my brother really loves this woman. I was deceived, I must
repair my fault."
"What does my sister mean?"
"I mean, that if I had known, I should not have inflicted so severe a
chastisement."
"Poor girl!" he sighed.
The Linda smiled ironically to herself. "But my brother does not know
what palefaced women are," she continued; "they are vipers, which you
endeavour in vain to crush, and which always rise up again to sting the
heel of him who places his foot upon them. It is of no use to argue
with passion, were it not so I would say to my brother, 'Be thankful to
me, for in killing this woman I preserve you from atrocious sorrow.'"
Antinahuel moved uneasily.
"But," she continued, "my brother loves, and I will restore this woman
to him; within an hour I will give her up to him."
"Oh! if my sister does that," Antinahuel exclaimed, intoxicated with
joy, "I will be her slave!"
Doña Maria smiled with an undefinable expression.
"I will do it," she said, "but time presses, we cannot stay here any
longer--my brother doubtless forgets."
Antinahuel darted a suspicious glance at her.
"I forget nothing," he replied; "the friend of my sister shall be
released."
"Good! my brother will succeed."
"Still, I will not depart till the blue-eyed maiden has recovered her
senses."
"Let my brother hasten to give orders for our departure in ten minutes."
"It is good!" said Antinahuel; "in ten minutes I shall be here."
He left the cuarto with a hasty step. As soon as he was gone, the
Linda knelt down by the young girl, removed the cords that still cut
her flesh, washed her face with cold water, fastened up her hair, and
carefully bandaged the wound on her forehead.
"Oh!" she thought, "through this woman I hold you, demon!"
She softly raised the maiden, placed her in a high-backed chair,
remedied, as well as she was able, the disorder in her dress, and then
applied a phial of powerful salts to her nostrils.
These salts were not long in producing their effect; she breathed a
deep sigh, and opened her eyes, casting round vague and languid looks.
But suddenly her eye fell upon the woman who was lavishing her cares
upon her; a fresh pallor covered the features, which had begun to be
slightly tinged with red, she closed her eyes, and was on the point of
fainting again. The Linda shrugged her shoulders, took a second phial
from her bosom, and opening the poor girls mouth introduced a few drops
of cordial between her livid lips. At that moment Antinahuel returned.
"Everything is ready," he said; "we can depart immediately."
"When you please," Doña Maria replied.
"What is to be done with this girl?"
"She will remain here: I have arranged everything."
"Let us be gone, then!" and turning towards Rosario, she said, with a
malignant smile. "Farewell, till we meet again, señorita!"
Doña Rosario rose, and said in an earnest tone, "I do not curse you;
but God grant, if you ever have children, that they may never be
exposed to the tortures you have condemned me to endure."
On hearing this speech, which seared her heart like a red-hot iron, the
Linda uttered a cry of terror; a cold perspiration beaded on her pale
forehead, and she staggered out of the apartment.
"My mother! my mother!" cried Rosario; "if you still live, where are
you? Why do you not come to the help of your daughter?"