THE KING OF DARKNESS.
Don Tadeo de León had manoeuvred with the greatest skill and
promptitude: supporting his left upon the sea, and pivoting upon
Arauca, the capital of the confederation, he had extended his right
along the mountains, so as to cut off the communications of the enemy,
who, by his junction with General Fuentes, found themselves placed
between two fires.
Antinahuel, deceived by the false message found on Don Ramón, had
committed the unpardonable fault of raising his camp of the Bio Bio,
and thus leaving a free passage for General Fuentes. General Bustamente
had viewed with despair the faults his ally had committed, faults which
the latter would not allow till it was too late to remedy.
Doña Maria, the woman who had been his evil genius, abandoned him now.
The Linda, faithful to her hatred, only thought of one thing--to make
Doña Rosario suffer as much as she could.
Antinahuel had endeavoured to throw himself into the mountains, but all
his efforts had been in vain, and he had only obtained the result he
wished to avoid--that is to say, he had placed himself between three
_corps d'armée_, which, by degrees, closed round him, and had ended by
placing him in the annoying obligation of fighting upon ground which it
pleased the enemy to choose instead of in his own country, Don Gregorio
Peralta closed up his passage towards the sea; Don Tadeo de León on the
side of the Arauca; whilst General Fuentes defended the approach to the
mountains.
All the marches and counter-marches which led to this result had
lasted a fortnight. Don Tadeo was anxious to strike a great blow, and
terminate the war in a single battle. On the day with which we resume
the course of our narrative, the Araucanos and Chilians were at length
in presence: Don Tadeo de León, shut up in his tent with Don Gregorio,
General Fuentes, and several other superior officers of his staff, was
giving them his last orders, when a summons of trumpets was heard from
without. The Chilians immediately replied; an aide-de-camp entered the
tent, and announced that the Grand Toqui of the Araucanos demanded an
interview.
"Do not go, Don Tadeo," said General Fuentes; "it is nothing but some
villainy these demons have planned."
"I am not of your opinion, general," the dictator replied. "I ought, as
leader, to seek every means of preventing the effusion of blood; that
is my duty, and nothing will make me fail in it."
"Caspita!" said Don Gregorio, "you wish to prevent our taking them in
spite of you."
The place chosen for the conference was a small eminence, situated
between the two camps. A Chilian flag and an Araucanian flag were
planted at twenty paces from each other; at the foot of these flags
forty Aucas lancers on the one side, and a similar number of Chilian
soldiers placed themselves. When these diverse precautions were taken,
Don Tadeo, followed by two aides-de-camp advanced toward Antinahuel,
who came to meet him with two Ulmens. When they arrived near their
respective soldiers, the two leaders ordered their officers to wait for
them, and met in the space left free for them. Antinahuel was the first
to break the silence.
"The Aucas know and venerate my father," he said, bowing courteously;
"they know that he is good, and loves his Indian children. A cloud has
arisen between him and his sons; is it impossible to dissipate it?"
"Chief," said Don Tadeo, "the whites have always protected the Indians.
Often have they given them arms to defend themselves with, corn to feed
them, and warm clothing to cover them in winter. But the Araucanos are
ungrateful--when the evil is past they forget the service rendered.
Why have they today taken up arms against the whites? Let the chief
reply in his turn; I am ready to hear all he can advance in his
defence."
"The chief will not defend himself," Antinahuel said, deferentially;
"he acknowledges his errors; he is convinced of them; he is ready to
accept the conditions it shall please his white father to impose."
"Tell me, in the first place, what conditions you offer, chief; I shall
see if they are just."
Antinahuel hesitated, and then said--
"My father knows that his Indian sons are ignorant. A great chief
of the whites presented himself to them; he offered them immense
territories, much pillage, and fair women if the Araucanos would
consent to defend his interests. The Indians are children; they allowed
themselves to be seduced by this man who deceived them."
"Very well," said Don Tadeo.
"The Indians," Antinahuel continued, "are ready, if my father desires
it, to give up to him this man."
"Chief," replied Don Tadeo, with indignation, "are these the proposals
you have to make me? What! Do you pretend to expiate one treachery by
committing one still greater and more odious? The Araucanian people
are a chivalrous people, unacquainted with treachery: not one of your
companions can have possibly suggested anything so infamous; you alone,
chief, you alone must have conceived it!"
Antinahuel knitted his brows; but quickly resuming his Indian
impassiveness, he said--
"I have been wrong; my father will pardon me: I wait to hear the
condition he will impose."
"The conditions are these: the Araucanian army will lay down their
arms, the two women who are in their camp will be placed this very day
in my hands, the Grand Toqui, and twelve of the principal Apo-Ulmens,
shall remain as hostages at Santiago, until I think proper to send them
back."
A smile, of disdain curled the thin lips of Antinahuel.
"Will my father not impose less harsh conditions?"
"No," Don Tadeo answered, firmly.
The Toqui drew himself up proudly.
"We are ten thousand warriors resolved to die; my father must not drive
us to despair," he said.
"Tomorrow that army will have fallen under the blows of my soldiers,
like corn beneath the sickle of the reaper."
"Listen, you who impose such arrogant conditions upon me," the chief
replied; "do you know who I am--I who have humbled myself before you?"
"Of what consequence is it to me? I will retire."
"One instant more! I am the great-grandson of the Toqui Cadegual; a
hereditary hatred divides us; I have sworn to kill you, dog! rabbit!
thief!"
And, with a movement as quick as thought, he drew out his hand, and
struck Don Tadeo with a dagger full in the breast. But the arm of the
assassin was seized and dislocated by the iron-muscled hand of the King
of Darkness, and the weapon was broken like glass against the cuirass
which he had put on under his clothes, to guard against treachery.
"Do not fire!" he said to the soldiers; "the wretch is sufficiently
punished, since his execrable project has failed. Go back, assassin!"
he added, contemptuously; "return and hide your shame among your
warriors. Begone, unclean dog!"
Without saying a word more, Don Tadeo turned his back and regained his
camp.
"Oh!" Antinahuel said, stamping with rage, "all is not ended yet!
Tomorrow I shall have my turn."
"Well," Don Pancho asked, as soon as he saw him, "what have you
obtained?"
Antinahuel gave him an ironical glance.
"What have I obtained?" he replied; "that man has baffled me."
"Tomorrow we will fight," said the general. "Who knows? All is not lost
yet."
"Who knows?" the chief exclaimed, violently; "Tomorrow, if it costs me
all my warriors, that man shall be in my power!"
Without condescending to give any further explanation, the Toqui shut
himself up in his toldo with some of his chiefs.
Don Tadeo returned to his tent.
"Well!" cried General Fuentes, "I told you to beware of treachery!"
"You are right, general," the dictator replied, with a smile. "But the
wretch is punished."
"No," the old soldier retorted, somewhat angrily; "when we meet with a
viper in our path, we crush it without mercy beneath the heel of our
boot; if we did not, it would rise and bite the imprudent man who had
spared it or disdained it."
"Come, come, general!" Don Tadeo said, gaily; "you are a bird of
ill-omen. Think no more about the wretch, other cares call upon us."
The general shook his head with an air of doubt, and went to visit the
outposts.