Meanwhile, a scene of still more tragical character was on the point of
being represented within the walls of the palace.
It was a tempestuous night. The clouds, which had all day enveloped the
pagan metropolis, were, at last, gathered over Tezcuco. The wind blew in
gusts, with frequent rain; and as the distant thunderbolts rolled with a
rumbling cadence over Mexico, vast sheets of lightning shot up in the
west, illuminating sky, lake, and mountain, with a cadaverous glare.
Some five or six of the principal cavaliers were assembled with Cortes,
in the great Hall of Audience, engaged in earnest and anxious debate. It
happened, by accident, that the huge curtain, which, at night, was
usually drawn over the window of alabaster, had been, this evening,
neglected by the attendants; so that it remained, drooping in gigantic
festoons from the great beam, carved into a serpent's head, which held
it at the top, down to the lesser ornaments that supported it on the
sides, of the casement. The strong cords, by which it could be dragged
into its place, hung over the central beam, flapping occasionally
against the alabaster wall, as the gust, puffing in through the great
door, whirled the smoke and flame of the lamps and torches, from the
walls and pillars, to which they were attached.
Thus, though the alabaster slabs were too thick to transmit any ordinary
ray, the brighter flashes of lightning made their way through, and
added, at times, a ghastly glare to the light of the lamps; in which the
countenances of the cavaliers, perturbed as they were, assumed such an
unnatural hue as might have beseemed the ghosts of dead heroes, rising
to earth, to meddle again in the sport of slaughter.
The visage of the Captain-General betrayed greater anxiety, mingled with
sterner wrath, than appeared on any other; and when he spoke, it was in
accents brief and low, and exceedingly emphatic.
"I tell you, cavaliers," he cried, "the mystery that shrouds this
treason is more frightful than the treason itself. We are at fault,
senores, we are at fault. We behold enough to show us that the devils
are at work about us, but not to discover in what mode they are toiling.
It is clear enough that Villafana is a dog, and one day he shall hang;
but I know not, in what manner, nor at what time, he will bite. This is
certain: he has suffered one of the Mexicans to leave his cell, and
communicate with Xicotencal: it is certain, also, that this cur of
Tlascala will leave the camp before day-dawn; and how many of his
warriors will follow after him, that I leave you to conjecture. This I
have from a true mouth. He is incensed, first, on account of Juan Lerma;
and, secondly, I doubt not, the Mexican has made the most of his
growling temper and present discontent. What sayst thou, Sandoval? What
hinders thee to lie in wait, and, following at his heels, so do with
him, that his Tlascalans who desert afterwards, may be frightened on the
path, and so return to us? There are good trees on the wayside!"
"Ay," replied Don Gonzalo, grimly, "when there is any executioner's work
towards, I am sure to play jack-ketch. I am loath to deal with a man
that hath been so valiant; but if he be a traitor, it is right he should
die. What if I give him the bastinado, Turk-wise? Methinks that would
bring him into a sounder temper."
"It would but inflame the choler of his proud people," said the shrewder
general; "whereas his sudden death, dealt upon him in the act of
desertion, will strike them with fear. Take thou a rope with thee, my
son, and fear not to use it."
The young cavalier nodded assent; and the general went on:
"Concerning the ambassadors, thus secretly treating with a traitor,
methinks they have forfeited all claim to protection?"
"Ay," said Alvarado; "and the bastinado, of which Sandoval spake, may
serve the good purpose of opening their lips, and thereby revealing, not
only the depth of the Tlascalan defection, but the length to which
Villafana and his curs have gone with them. Let us send for them, and
try the experiment. Or stay--here are cords enough on the curtain. One
of these, twisted round the brow with a sword-hilt, I have known to
bring out a man's tongue as far as his eyes."
The cavaliers turned to the window; and the bitter smile of the
Captain-General was made deathlike, by a flash, brighter than usual,
shooting through the wall.
"A good thought," he said; "but we will not be precipitate. We have them
secured; and however Villafana may permit them to speak with others, he
is somewhat too wise to set them free. We will have this thing
considered in the morning."
At this moment, Don Francisco de Guzman made his appearance in the
chamber, his visage disfigured by a black patch, and somewhat pale. But
this, as it was soon discovered, was caused rather by care than
sickness.
"Senor," he exclaimed, "I have been to seek the ambassadors--They have
escaped!"
"Escaped!" echoed Cortes. "Thou art beside thyself! And the villain
Alguazil, has he fled with them? I will tear his flesh with pincers!
What! release the infidels, under my eye?"
"So please you," said Guzman, "this, I think, was no resolved treachery,
but an effect of infatuation. The wine that came to us to-day, was too
strong for the watchmen: where they got it, I know not; but I found them
sound asleep at the open door."
"They shall be scourged, till they drop more blood than they have drunk
wine," said Don Hernan, furiously. "And the prison-guards also? Hah? The
prisoner has escaped?"
"Not so," said the cavalier: "all's well there, save--"
"And Villafana? Speak me the word--Has he fled?"
"Senor mio, no: he is in the prison, carousing with Juan Lerma, as the
guards say. I heard his voice through the door."
"Carousing? does Juan Lerma take his death so merrily? By'r lady, devil
as he is, it is a sin to slay him!"
"As to the prisoner," said Guzman, "I know not whether he be merry or
not; but I myself (for I had mine ear to the door,) heard Villafana
smack his lips, and vow he 'would drink no more, this being no time to
be thick-witted.' But every one knows Villafana: his bibbing once
brought him to the strappado."
"Ay; and it shall bring him to the gallows.--It is the fate of the
can-clinker--all spoken in three words--drunk, whipped, and
gibbeted!--Didst thou worm naught from the guards? They were of his own
appointing."
"Not a syllable," replied Guzman: "I do believe they have been too much
frightened, and are now penitent men."
"It may be," said Cortes, "it may be; but I would I could look into the
dreams of Villafana. If I punish him for the flight of the ambassadors,
it may be that I disperse an imposthume before it comes to a head; or it
may prove, that I drive the matter into the more vital organs of this
body politic, till all be corrupted and consumed. What say ye to a
little torture inflicted on Villafana himself? Yet he is a bold dog, and
may not speak. They say he winced not under the lash. I swear to you, my
friends, I am in a strait."
While Cortes thus admitted the difficulty in which he felt himself
pressed, and the cavaliers were divided in their counsels, they
perceived a common soldier intrude himself into the chamber, and boldly
approach them.
"Hah!" cried Alvarado, ever hot of temper, "who art thou, Sir
Gallows-bird, that bringest thy knave's pate among cavaliers in
council?"
"Hold! touch him not; 'tis the Barba-Roxa!" exclaimed Don Hernan. "What
impertinence is this, sirrah? Who bade thee hitherward?"
"God and my good saint," said Gaspar, flinging himself on his knees, and
adding, with the greatest impetuosity, "Pardon, senor! pardon for two
unhappy men! Or if that cannot be, why pardon then for _one_; and I care
not how soon you hang up the others."
"What means the fool? Art thou distracted?"
"Senor!" cried the soldier, wringing his hands, "I am a knave and
traitor. Grant me the life of Juan Lerma, who meant you no wrong, and I
will give you, for the rope and sword, two hundred and forty such
traitors as the world never saw, and myself among them; for I have
signed my name with knife and arrow, and sworn myself to brotherhood,
under the pains of hell, which I care not how soon may came upon me."
"Let some one of you look to the door," said Cortes, quickly: "and see
that the sentinels keep their eyes open.--How now, Gaspar! what is this
thou sayst? Art thou indeed a villain? I should have struck on the mouth
any soldier that had said it of thee."
"I am what I said," replied Gaspar; "your excellency refused to listen
to me, when I pleaded for Juan Lerma; and I was incensed. I said to
myself, senor, 'I have saved your life, and yet you deny me the life of
my friend, who, in ignorance, broke a decree, yet knew no malice.'
Besides, senor, you called me a dog,--'an officious, presuming dog;'
whereas I was not a dog _then_, but _now_. Well, senor, while I was in a
passion, the devil came to me, and tempted me, and I signed my name to
my perdition."
"What!" said Alvarado, recoiling with devout horror, "hast thou really
signed over thy soul to Satan? We will burn thee, thou devil's penitent,
in a hot fire!"
"Speak on," said Cortes. "What meanest thou by this mummery? What devil
is this? for, though Satan be walking now among us, yet, I think, it
could not be he."
"It was Villafana," replied Gaspar; "and heaven pardon me, for I think
it must be Apollyon in his likeness!"
At this communication, the cavaliers all stared at one another, and
Cortes exclaimed,
"Two hundred and forty men! What! are there so many knaves of his
party?"
"Ay, and many more, who will help, but will not put down their names
upon paper," replied Gaspar. "But your excellency says nothing of Juan
Lerma. If you will pardon him, your excellency shall hear all."
"How, sirrah!" cried Cortes, sternly, "Do you avow yourself a sworn
traitor, and yet dictate to me terms of mercy? Speak, or you shall have
that to your brows, which will bring out words with screams."
Gaspar sprang to his feet,--boldly, fearlessly, and even insolently,
returning the look of the Captain-General:
"Your excellency has no heart, and I have," he cried. "Do your will upon
us both; and reckon my death to your conscience, as you do that of Juan
Lerma. You shall not have a word more. Here are my arms.--What cavalier
will demean himself to tie them? I will meet your excellency at the
judgment-seat."
"Thou art but a fool," said Cortes, moderating his anger,--or, at least,
mollifying the severity of his accents; for his countenance yet gleamed
with wrath. "Thou knowest, that, having saved my life at Xochimilco, I
can, in no case, take thine."
"But I leave that to the laws, without asking any mercy," said the Red
Beard, obstinately: "I ask the life of Juan Lerma, condemned without
law."
"Dost thou impugn my justice, fellow?" cried the ferocious De Olid. "I
swear to thee, when thou art brought to be judged, I will give thee a
double quantity, for this very reason."
While the cavalier gave utterance to so excellent a proof of his equity,
Alvarado, with whom Gaspar had been a favourite, whispered in his ear,
"Speak out, and fear not. It stands not with the captain's honour to
barter men's lives for knave's confessions; yet he shall pardon the
young man, thy friend, as I am thy guarantee."
"What say ye, cavaliers?" cried Cortes: "does it become me, to remit a
sentence of death, at such mutinous intercession?"
Before any of the officers could reply, Gaspar, confiding in the promise
of Alvarado, threw himself again at the general's feet, crying,
"Senor, I am not a mutineer, but a penitent. I am mad to think that
one,--so good a friend, so valiant a soldier, so true a follower, (for
there is no falsehood in Juan Lerma,) should die for a small
matter,--saving Don Francisco's presence,--when there are so many rogues
about us, that go unpunished. But I leave him to your excellency's
mercy, trusting that your excellency will reconsider the judgment, and
release him. Therefore I will speak, in this trust; and I pray heaven to
remember the act, be it merciful or be it cruel.--This is what I have to
say: In my passion, I betook me to Villafana; who, promising to save
Lerma's life, I signed with him; though the first act of guilt was to
take your excellency's life. Holy mother of heaven! pardon me; but I was
very much incensed. Well, senor, I found on the paper the names of two
hundred and forty men, and I will tell you such as I remember; but if
you will send to the prison, and suddenly seize the Alguazil, you will
find the list in his bosom.--"
"Quinones, see thou to this," said Cortes, turning to the master of the
armory, who made one of the council. "Take with thee none but hidalgos,
and be sudden, making no noise and shedding no blood--Yet stay: this
will not do, neither. Hark thee, Gaspar, man, when shall this precious
earthquake rumble into the upper air?"
"To-morrow," replied the soldier; and then, to the horror and
astonishment of all present, he divulged the whole scheme of
assassination, as Villafana had himself spoken it in the prison.
"With a letter from my father, too!" cried Cortes, apparently more
struck with the heartless barbarity of the stratagem, than with anything
else in Gaspar's communication: "This is indeed the Judas-kiss,
the--Faugh! these were the words of Magdalena!"
While he muttered these words to himself, he was roused by a sudden
voice at the great door, and heard distinctly the unexpected voice of
Villafana, saying, as he wrangled with the guards,
"Oh, 'slid, you take upon you too much. I come at the order of the
general."
"Admit Villafana," said Cortes, in tones that penetrated loudly to the
farthest limits of the room, for the cavaliers were stricken into a
boding silence at the accents of the Alguazil: "Admit my trusty
Villafana." And Villafana entered.
He was evidently flushed with wine, and it was for that reason,
doubtless, that he did not seem to observe the presence of his forsworn
associate, nor the suspicious act of two cavaliers, who stole from the
group, and took possession of the door by which he had entered. He
approached with a reckless and confident, though somewhat stupid, air,
exclaiming, after divers humble scrapes and salaams,
"I come at your excellency's bidding, according to appointment. This was
the hour, please your excellency--But 'tis a scurvy night, with much
thunder and lightning."
"Ay, truly," said Cortes, with a mild voice, while all the rest stood in
the silence of death; "but, being so observant, Villafana, how comes it
you have not remarked that you are here without the Indian Techeechee,
whom I commanded you to bring hither at this hour?"
"Senor," said the Alguazil, a little confused, "that old Ottomi is a sly
dog, and, I doubt me, not over-honest."
"I doubt me so, too," said Cortes, in the same encouraging tones; "yet,
honest or false, sly or simple, methinks thou shouldst not have suffered
him to escape."
"Escape! what, Techeechee escape!" cried Villafana with unaffected
surprise: "Ho, no! I did but give the gray infidel a sop of wine, and
straightway he hid himself in a corner, to sleep off his drunkenness.
And,--and,--" continued he, with instinctive though clumsy
cunning,--"and I thought it would be unbeseemly to bring him to your
excellency, in that condition. I beg your excellency's pardon for making
him acquainted with such Christian liquor; but it was out of pity,
together with some little hope of converting him to the faith; and,
besides, I knew not his head was so weak. I will fetch him to your
excellency in the morning."
"Why, this is well," said the Captain-General, with such insinuating
gentleness as characterizes the snake, when closing softly on his prey;
"and I doubt not thou canst give me as good an account of the
ambassadors. It is said to me, that they also have escaped."
"Good God!" cried Villafana, startled not only out of his confidence,
but, in great measure, out of his intoxication, by such an announcement;
"the ambassadors escaped? It cannot be!"
"Pho, they have hurt thee more than I thought,--even to the point of
destroying thy memory," rejoined the Captain-General, with the
blandishment of a smile. "There is blood upon thy shoulder: I doubt not,
thou wert severely hurt, while attempting to prevent their flight. No
one ever questioned the courage of Villafana."
"Yes, senor, yes--no--yes; that is,--I mean to say--Saints of
heaven!"--And here the Alguazil paused, completely sobered,--that is,
restored to his senses, but not to his wits; for he perceived himself in
a difficulty, and his invention pointed out no means of escape. He
rolled his eyes, haggard at once with debauch and alarm, over the
cavaliers, and, though the lofty figure of Alvarado concealed Gaspar
from his view, he beheld enough in the extraordinary sedateness of all
present, to fill him with the most racking suspicions. He turned again
to Cortes, and commanding his fears as much as he could, went on, with
an appearance of boldness,
"Alas, noble senor, if the ambassadors _be_ escaped, I am a lost
man,--for I trusted too much to the vigilance of others, and I should
not have done so. Alas, senor," he continued with more energy, as his
mind began to work more clearly, "I have committed a great offence in
this negligence; but I vow to heaven, it was owing to my fears of Juan
Lerma, who made many efforts to escape, and had strong friends to help
him. Your excellency may see the necessity I was under, to give all my
thoughts to him; for, some one having furnished him with a dagger, he
foully attacked me, not on my guard, giving me this wound; and had it
not been for the sudden rushing in of the guard, I should certainly have
been killed."
Thus spoke the Alguazil, with returning craft, mingling together fiction
and fact with an address which astonished even himself:
"Yes, senor," he continued, satisfied with the strength of his argument,
and now elated with a prospect of providing against the effects of his
imprudent disclosures in the prison; "yes, senor, and the young man,
besides thus wounding me, swore he would have me hanged for a
conspiracy; stating roundly, as the guards will witness, (I am certain
that Esteban, the Left-Handed, heard him,) that, being a notorious
grumbler, any such fiction would be believed of me. As if this would
make me a conspirator! whereas, your excellency knows, according to the
proverb, Barking dogs are no biters." And the audacious ruffian,
relapsing into security, attested his innocence by a gentle laugh and
the sweetest of his smiles.
"Again I say, thou speakest well," said Cortes, carelessly descending
from the platform, on which he had mounted at the approach of Villafana.
"Thine arguments have even satisfied me of the folly of certain charges,
brought against thee by this mad fellow, here, at thy elbow."
As he spoke, Alvarado, taking his instructions rather from a
consentaneous feeling of propriety than from any hint of Don Hernan's,
moved aside, and Villafana's eyes fell upon the figure of Gaspar.
"Think of it, good fellow," said Cortes, laying his hand upon
Villafana's shoulder, as if to support himself a little; "the things he
said of thee are innumerable, and excessively preposterous. He averred,
for instance, that thou wert peevishly offended, because I had not
invited thy presence to the festivities of the morning banquet, and wert
resolved to come, whether I would or not, and that with a letter from my
father in one hand, and a dagger in the other. Eh! is not this
outrageous? He said, besides,--But, o' my life, thou hast bled too much
from this wound! Juan Lerma strikes deep, when the fit is on him. I hope
thou art not faint, man!"
To these benevolent expressions, the Alguazil replied by turning upon
the general a countenance so bloodless, and an eye filled with such
ecstacy of despair, (for if the poniards of all had been at his throat,
he could not have been more perfectly apprized of his coming fate,) that
Cortes must have been struck with some feeling of commiseration, had not
his nature been somewhat akin to that of a cat, which delights less to
kill than to sport with the agonies of a dying victim. As it was, he
continued to torment the abandoned wretch, by adding, pleasantly,
"And what thinkest thou of this, too, my Villafana? Two hundred and
forty conspirators, to rush in when the blow was struck!--doubtless to
carve their dinners from the ribs of my cavaliers!--Ah, Villafana,
Villafana! thou shouldst have a care of thy friends. Our enemies are
harmless, but our friends are always dangerous.--What dost thou say to
all this, Villafana?--Knave! hadst thou twenty daggers in thy jerkin,
thou wert still but an unfanged reptile!"
While he spoke, in this jestful mood, he was sensible that Villafana,
(doubtless with an instinctive motion, of which he was himself
unconscious, being apparently turned to stone,) was stealing his hand up
towards his bosom, as if to grasp a weapon. The moment the member had
reached the opening of his garment, Cortes caught him by the throat, and
giving utterance to his last words with a voice of thunder, and
employing a strength irresistible by such a man as Villafana, he hurled
him to the floor, at the same instant placing his foot on his throat.
Then stooping down, and thrusting his hand into the traitor's bosom, he
plucked out, at a single grasp, a poniard, a letter, and the fatal list
of conspirators. He pushed the first aside, read the superscription of
the second with a laugh, and casting his eye upon the third, devoured
its contents with an avidity that left him unconscious of the murmurs of
the fierce cavaliers, and the groans of the wretched Alguazil,
strangling under his foot.
"What, senor! will you rob the gallows of its prey?" cried Alvarado,
pointing his sword at the prostrate traitor, as, indeed, did all the
rest, (having drawn them at the moment when Cortes seized him by the
throat:) "His crime is manifest to all: what need of trial? Every man
his steel through the dog!"
"Hold!" cried the Captain-General; "this were a death for an hidalgo.
Up, cur! up, and meet thy fate! Up!" And he spurned the wretch with his
foot.
The Alguazil rose up, his face black with blood, which, not perfectly
dispersing even at release from strangulation, remained in leopard-like
blotches over his visage, ghastfully contrasted with the ashy hues that
gathered between them. As he rose, his arms were seized by two or three
cavaliers; and Sandoval, as quick in action as he was sluggish in
speech, snatching the rich sword-sash of samite from his own shoulders,
instantly secured them behind his back.
"For the love of God, senores!" cried Villafana, finding speech at last,
"what do you mean? what do you design? You will not kill an innocent
man? Will you judge me at the charge of a liar? Gaspar is my sworn foe.
I will make all clear.--Senor, I have been drinking, and my mind is
confused: take me not at this disadvantage. Oh, for God's sake, what do
you mean?--The list? what, the list? 'Tis for a merry-making--a
rejoicing for my birthday. I will explain all to your excellencies.--I
am an innocent man.--Gaspar is a forsworn caitiff--a caitiff, senores, a
caitiff!--I claim trial by the civil judges."--
"Gag him," cried one.
"Strike him on the mouth," said another. And Villafana, gasping for
breath, uttered, for a moment, nothing but inarticulate murmurs.
"De Olid, Marin, De Ircio," cried Cortes, rapidly, and with
inexpressible decision, "ye are judges of life and death; Sandoval and
Alvarado, by right of office, ye can sit in judgment; Quinones, Guzman,
and the rest, I make you, in the king's name, special associates of the
others.--Why, here is a court, not martial, but civil; and the dog shall
have judgment to his content! He stands charged of treason.--Guilty,
senores? or not guilty?"
"Guilty!" cried all with one voice: and De Olid added, "Let us take him
into the garden, and hang him to the cedar-tree."
"To the window," said Cortes, pointing with his sword to the stout
cords, hanging so invitingly from the serpent's-head; and in an instant
the victim was dragged upon the platform.
Up to this moment, his fears had been uttered rather in vehement
complaints than in outcries; but now, when he perceived that he was
condemned by a mockery of trial, doomed without the respite of a
minute's space to pray, the rope dangling before his eyes, and already
in the hands of a cavalier, who was bending it into a noose, he uttered
a piercing scream, and endeavoured to throw himself on his knees.
"Mercy!" he cried, "mercy! mercy! I will confess--I can save all your
lives--Mercy! mercy!"
Of all the sights of horror and disgust, villany, transformed at the
death-hour, into its natural character and original of cowardice, is
among the most appalling. Villafana was as brave as a ruffian could be;
but when imagination is linked in the same spirit with vice, courage
expires almost at the same moment with hope. With a weapon in his hand,
and that at liberty, Villafana, perhaps, would have manifested all the
valour in which despair perceives the only hope, and died like a man. As
it was, bound and grasped in the arms of strong men, entirely helpless
and equally without hope, his death staring him in the face, he gave
himself up at once to unmanly fears, and wept, screamed, and prayed,
until the guards, at watch in the vestibule, sank upon their knees and
conned over their beads, to divert their senses from cries so agonized
and so horrible.
As he strove to prostrate himself before his inexorable judges, he was
pulled up by the cavaliers, and among others by Don Francisco de Guzman,
whose countenance he recognized.
"Save me, Guzman! save me!" he cried; "for thou wert once of the
party--Save me!"
"Peace, wolf--"
"Mercy! mercy! noble senor!" he continued, turning to Cortes: "I am but
one of many. Guzman is as false as I; I charge him with treason: he has
abused your excellency's ear!--Listen, senores, and spare me my life:
give me a day--give me but to-night, to pray and confess, and you shall
have all. There are cavaliers among us--Mercy, for the love of
heaven!--Camarga, the Dominican,--Don Palmerino de Castro,--Muertazo of
Toledo, Carabo of Seville,--Artiaga, Santa-Rosa, Bravo, Aljaraz, and an
hundred more--"
"Peace, lying villain!" cried the Captain-General--"What ho, the rope!
quick, the rope!"
"A moment to repent! a moment to repent!" shrieked the victim,
struggling so violently to bring his hands before him, as if to clasp
them in prayer, that the silken band crackled behind him, and his hands
turned black with congested blood; "a moment to repent! for I am a
sinner. What! would you condemn my soul, too? Saints, hear me! angels,
plead for me! A priest, for the love of heaven! I killed Artiaga of
Cadiz; I scuttled the ship at Alonso, drowned the nuns, and stole the
church-plate--Call Magdalena--Where's Magdalena?--You are murdering me!
Mercy! mercy! I killed Hilario, too--I poniarded him in the old wounds,
inflicted by Juan Lerma--I have much to repent--A priest, for the love
of God! A priest, oh, a priest!"
Thus raved the villain, stained with a thousand crimes; and if aught had
been wanting to steel the hearts of his executioners, enough was
divulged in the unavailing abandonment with which he accused himself of
misdeeds, so many and so atrocious. While his neck was yet free from the
rope, he struggled violently, but without any attempt to do a mischief
to his unrelenting murderers; his resistance was, indeed, like that of a
cur, under the chastisement of a cruel and brutal master, which howls
and contends, and yet fears to employ its fangs against the tyrant. But
when he found, at last, that the cavaliers were actually putting the
hasty halter about his neck, his struggles were not greater to escape
than to inflict injury. He shook and tossed his head in distraction, and
Don Francisco de Guzman, endeavouring to seize him by the beard, he
caught the hand of the cavalier betwixt his teeth, and held it with the
gripe of a tiger.
"Hell confound thee, wolf!" cried Guzman, groaning with pain, and
striking him over the face with the hilt of his sword, but in vain:
"Help me, cavaliers, or he will have my hand off!--Villain, unlock thy
teeth.--"
"Stand aside--This will unloose thee," said one, thrusting his rapier
into the thigh of the vindictive wretch; who no sooner felt the cold
steel penetrate his flesh, than he opened his mouth to utter a yell.
"Whip him up _now_.--So much for traitors!"
It was the last scream of the assassin. His lips uttered one more cry to
heaven; the name of Magdalena was cut short, as the noose closed upon
his throat, and ended in a hoarse, rattling, gulphing whine, that did
not itself prevail beyond the space of a second. As he shot up to the
top of the window, an intense glare of lightning flashed through the
alabaster, and his figure, traced upon that lustrous and ghastly medium,
was seen dangling and writhing in the death-agony. The next moment, the
huge curtain was drawn over the dreadful spectacle: but those who paused
a moment, to look back, could behold the convulsions of the dying
miscreant giving motion, and sometimes protrusion, to the dark folds of
the drapery.--When all was silent, in the darkness of the night, the
watchmen in the vestibule could yet hear the pattering of blood-drops
falling from his mangled limb, upon the sonorous wood of the platform.
But there were other scenes now occurring, which, for a time, drove from
their thoughts the memory of Villafana.