conduct, I rapidly translated what he had said; and explained how
serious our situation appeared in the light of this new development.
"Well, it certainly _is_ cold weather for this Priest Captain fellow,"
Young commented, "if we've got hold of his boss miracle; and I guess
you're about right, Professor--he'll want t' take it out of our hides.
Just poke up th' Colonel t' telling all he knows about this old dodger.
Th' Colonel's got his tongue pretty well greased just now with his own
prime old Bourbon--pass me that jar, Rayburn, I don't mind if I have
another whack at it myself--and we may get something out of him that
will be useful. Try it on, Professor, any way. Here's luck, gentlemen."
That Young's tongue also was a little greased, as he put it, by this
very agreeable beverage was quite evident; but his wits were sharpened
rather than dulled by the drink, and his present suggestion evidently
was a very good one. As for Tizoc, his disposition towards us obviously
was most soft and friendly; and as his mind slowly absorbed the fact
that, somehow or another, the Priest Captain had made a fool of him with
a miracle that was not really a miracle at all, his choler rose in a
manner most favorable to our purposes. Yet this very feeling of
resentful anger--showing a growing irreverence of one to whom all the
traditions of his people gave reverence second only to that due to the
gods themselves--was startling evidence of the menace that our presence
was to the theocratic ruler's temporal and spiritual power. Therefore it
was with a keen curiosity that we listened--and Tizoc needed, to induce
him to talk freely, but little of the poking-up that Young had
suggested--to what was told us concerning the strange people among whom
we had come by ways so perilous, and of their chieftain, the Priest
Captain Itzacoatl--with whom, as no spirit of prophecy was needed to
tell us, we were destined soon to engage in a conflict that must be
fought out to the very death.
XIX.
THE SEEDS OF REVOLT.
For the sake of brevity I shall summarize here the statement that Tizoc
made to us, and for the sake of clearness I shall add to it some facts
of minor importance which came to our knowledge later--thus at once
exhibiting the whole of the troublous condition of affairs that stirred
dangerously the people dwelling in the Valley of Aztlan at the time of
our coming among them.
At this period the political situation, as I may term it, was
exceedingly critical. Three powerful factions were in existence; and
peace was preserved only by the generally diffused belief that open
revolt, on the part of either one, would be crushed instantly by a
temporary coalition of the other two. The beginning of this unpleasantly
volcanic condition of affairs dated back six cycles--that is to say, a
little more than three hundred years--and was the direct result of a
violation of the law set forth by the wise King Chaltzantzin when the
colony was founded, by which it was ordained that all among the
Aztlanecas who, on coming to maturity, were weaklings or cripples,
should be put to death.
Being once suggested, the repeal or the modification of this law found
many advocates. Naturally, the change was urged most strongly by all
those whose sons and daughters were sickly or malformed, and so were
doomed to die in the very blossom of their years. It was urged by the
nobles because the more astute among them perceived the possibility of
so manipulating it that it would result in the creation of a
distinctively servile class; and the priests urged it because they also
perceived a way by which it might be made to provide more victims for
sacrifice to the gods. And so it came to pass, through the influence of
these diverse elements operating together towards a common end, that the
law which Chaltzantzin had promulgated was set aside, and a law was made
that embodied the provisions demanded by the nobles and the priests,
whereby should be created a new social class; which class, because of
the infirmities of those composing it, received the name of
Tlahuicos--"men turned towards the earth." Thereafter, the sickly and
the crippled were not slain upon reaching maturity, but then passed out
from the class into which they were born and became servitors. And when
the first cycle was ended after the making of this new law, and
thenceforward every year, one in every ten among the Tlahuicos was taken
by lot to be sacrificed to the gods--for the priests craftily had gained
the barbarous concession that they demanded by placing the first
fulfilment of it at a time so far in the future that all concerned in
the granting of it would be dead in the course of nature before it
became operative. Yet to the end that those of noble birth might be
saved from the ignominy of servitude, it was provided that children
which by reason of natural infirmity were doomed to become slaves, might
be saved from that fate upon coming to maturity by being then
surrendered by their parents to the priests for sacrifice. Other grace
there was none. Excepting between death and slavery, there was no choice
for the weak or the malformed.
As time passed on, the Tlahuicos, marrying among themselves, had greatly
increased in numbers; and so far from remaining a weakling race, they had
become, by reason of their frugal mode of living and of the wholesome,
hearty labor in which they constantly were engaged, exceptionally hale
and strong; the weak and crippled among them being mainly those who each
year, because of such infirmities, were added to their number from the
higher ranks of the community. And thus was collected together material
as dangerous as it was inflammable; for the fresh additions to the
Tlahuicos kept constantly alive in the whole body a spirit of moody
discontent, that time and again, at the season when the lots were cast
by which one in every ten was doomed to death, was fanned into armed
mutiny. These revolts ever had as their single object escape from the
valley; which fact made evident enough the need for the elaborate system
of defensive works by which the outlet of the valley was barred.
From the Tlahuicos were drawn the house-servants of the rich; and by
those of this wretched class who were stout of body all the heavy labor
of the community was carried on--the tilling of the fields, the
quarrying of stone, the building of houses and bridges and roads, the
felling of timber, the carriage of all burdens, and the working of the
great gold-mine, concerning which I shall hereafter have more to tell.
And all of these people were held in absolute bondage, either as the
serfs of individual owners or as the property of the State; for each
year the new accessions to the class were sold publicly at an auction to
whoever would bid the most for them; and those which none would buy,
being too infirm to be useful as laborers, the State laid claim to--but
only that they might be kept alive until such time as they should be
needed by the priests for sacrifice.
Yet out of this custom of sale, that on the face of it was harsh and
barbarous, some slight mitigation of the cruelty of the system had come;
for the practice had grown up of permitting parents to buy back their
own children--nominally thereafter holding them as slaves--and so to
save them at a single stroke from both death and servitude. One strong
cause of the hatred of the Priest Captain Itzacoatl, Tizoc said (and we
wondered then at the trembling in his voice, and at the evidently deep
emotion that overcame him as he spoke), was that he had but lately
forbidden the continuance of this practice, by which only the letter of
the law was obeyed.
Until the promulgation by the Priest Captain of this decree, the
priesthood, the military aristocracy, and the mass of the army had
constituted, politically, one single class. The civil government was
vested in a body styled the Council of the Twenty Lords, the members of
which originally had been chosen by Chaltzantzin, and from him had
received authority, in perpetuity, to fill the vacancies which death
would cause among them by selecting the wisest of each new generation to
be Councillors. While the composition of this body was distinctively
aristocratic--for its members were either military nobles or priests of
a high grade--there was in it also an element of democracy; for both the
priesthood and the army were recruited from all classes of society
(saving only the servile class), and among the Twenty Lords there were
always men who had risen from obscurity to distinction solely by their
own merit. Over this body the Priest Captain presided; yet was his will
superior to that of the Council, for he was the visible representative
of the gods, and so centred in his own person their high authority and
dreadful power.
Until the time of Itzacoatl, each successive priest captain, in the long
line that here had ruled, had exercised so discreetly his theocratic
rights, and in all ways had shown such wisdom in his government, that no
conflict had arisen between the temporal and the spiritual powers. And
thus wisely had Itzacoatl governed in the early years of his reign. But
as age stole upon him--and he now was a very old man--his rule had grown
more and more tyrannical. He had drawn about him certain priests for
intimate advisers, and these constantly led him to run counter to the
will of the Twenty Lords, not only in matters about which divergent
opinions reasonably might be held, but in matters wherein the will of
the whole people was at one with the advice that the Council gave. Thus,
gradually, two parties were built up within the State: that of the
priests, which strongly seconded the disposition that Itzacoatl
manifested to make the spiritual power absolutely supreme, and that of
the nobles and people of the higher class, which sought to maintain the
Council's ancient rights in matters temporal. In regard to these two
factions, the affiliations of the army were so nicely balanced that
neither side ventured to resort to open violence--for each dreaded that
the other would turn the scale against it by invoking the aid of the
servile class. Thus it was that the despised Tlahuicos actually held the
balance of power. Yet of this fact, Tizoc declared--but I noticed that
just here there was a curious hesitancy about his speech, as though he
knew more than he was willing to disclose--the Tlahuicos were but dimly
conscious; while they did know certainly that in the present state of
affairs any attempt on their part to rise in mutiny would be met, as it
had been met many times in the past, by all the forces of both factions
of their superiors overwhelmingly united against them.
But the bond that was stronger than all others in holding together this
community, in which, beneath the surface, were working such potent
elements of disintegration, was the loyal resolve pervading it to
execute the mission to which its members were destined when they were
set apart from the remainder of their race a thousand years before.
Excepting only among the Tlahuicos--who, in the nature of things, could
have no share in it--there had ever been among all classes a fervent
longing for the summons that should call them forth to aid their
brethren in the battling with a foreign foe that Chaltzantzin had
prophesied. And by reason of this loyalty to a lofty purpose the open
rupture that assuredly otherwise would have come had been thus far
restrained. Honor forbade, Tizoc declared, that by falling to warring
among themselves they should put in jeopardy their power to respond
instantly to the summons that might at any instant come.
It was therefore with a profound and solemn interest--for the grave
import of it was plain to him--that Tizoc, having ended his own
statement, questioned us as to the full meaning of the words which we
had spoken when first we entered the valley: that the prophecy of
Chaltzantzin long since had been fulfilled, and that now, having in its
appointed time miscarried, the summons would never come.
With awe, and in sorrowful silence, he listened as Fray Antonio and I
told him how exactly the prophecy had been verified by the coming of the
Spaniards, and by their conquest and enslavement of the Mexicans; yet
was he cheered again as our narrative continued, and he learned of the
brave fight for freedom that his brethren had made, and of the happy
success that had crowned it in the end. Of the period between the
achievement of independence and recent years we said but little--it is
not a period of which those whose feeling towards the Mexicans is
friendly have much desire to talk--contenting ourselves with
emphasizing the fact that the race so long oppressed, having risen
successfully against its oppressors, remained independent under a ruler
of its own blood.
To that part of our narrative in which we told how we had gained
knowledge of the hidden city of Colhuacan, and possession of the token
of summons, Tizoc gave but little heed. It was evident that his mind was
engrossed with consideration of the more important matters of which we
had told him, and of the direct bearing that they had upon the troubled
condition of affairs in which his own people were involved. Seeing
which, we left him to his own thoughts while we talked of these same
matters among ourselves.
Rayburn, in his quick, clear-headed way, grasped the situation promptly
and accurately. "About the size of it is," he said, "that we've knocked
the false work right from under everything that these folks have been
building for the whole thousand years that they have been living here;
and what they've built isn't strong enough to stand alone. As Young
says, it's a cold day for the Priest Captain because we have got hold of
his boss miracle; but it's still colder weather for him because the news
that we have brought makes it all right for the crowd that wants to
fight him to go right ahead and do it; and I guess they will do it, too,
as soon as they get the fact fairly into their heads that there no
longer is a chance of their being called off in the middle of their row.
Unless I am very much mistaken, we shall see some pretty lively times in
this valley inside of the next thirty days."
"And unless _I'm_ mistaken," Young struck in, "th' Colonel here will be
about th' first man t' take off his coat--that is, th' thing that I
suppose he thinks is a coat--an' sail in. I don't know just what he's
got against th' Priest Captain, except that he seems t' be a sort of
pill on gen'ral principles, but I'm sure that he's down on him from th'
word go. From what th' Colonel says, I judge that his crowd has a pretty
good chance of comin' out on top--for th' other crowd seems t' be made
up for th' most part of parsons; an' parsons, as a rule, haven't much
fight in 'em. What we'd better do it t' tie t' th' Colonel, an' when
we've helped him an' his friends t' wallop th' other fellows they'll be
so much obliged to us that they'll let us bag all th' treasure we want
an' clear out. An' that reminds me, Professor--we haven't heard anything
about any treasure so far. Just ask th' Colonel if there really is one.
If there isn't, I vote for pullin' out before th' row begins. It's as
true of a fight as it is of a railroad--that runnin' it just for th'
operatin' expenses don't pay."
Tizoc answered my question on this head somewhat absently, for he
evidently was debating within himself some very serious matter; but his
answer was of a sort that Young found entirely satisfactory. In the
heart of the city, he said, was the Treasure-house that Chaltzantzin had
builded there; and within it the treasure remained that Chaltzantzin had
stored away. What it consisted of, nor the value of it, he could not
tell. The Treasure-house was also the Great Temple; and of the treasure
only the Priest Captain had accurate knowledge. In the Treasure-house,
Tizoc added, was stored the tribute that the people paid annually, and
the metal that was taken from the great mine. This metal was the most
precious of all their possessions, he said, for from it their arms were
made, and also their tools for tilling the earth, and for working wood
and stone. It had not always been of such value, for it naturally was
too soft to serve these useful purposes; but at a remote period, until
which time their implements had been made of stone, a wise man among
them had discovered a way by which it could be hardened, and from that
time onward the people dwelling in the valley had prospered greatly,
because they thus were enabled to practise all manner of useful arts.
"And what is this metal like?" I asked, with much interest, for my
archæological instinct instantly was aroused by hearing summed in these
few words a matter of such momentous importance as the transition of a
people to the age of metal from the age of stone.
"It is like this," Tizoc answered, simply, disengaging as he spoke a
heavy bracelet from his arm, "only this remains in its natural state of
softness. To be of great value it first must be made hard."
I had no doubt in my own mind as to what this metal was, but I knew that
Rayburn, who was an excellent metallurgist, could pronounce upon it
authoritatively.
"Is this gold?" I asked, handing him the bracelet.
"Certainly it is," he answered, in a moment--"and it seems to be
entirely without alloy."
"Then your guess about the bright, hard metal that has been such a
puzzle to us," I continued, "was the right one; it is hardened gold:"
and I repeated to him what Tizoc had told me.
Rayburn was deeply interested. "Scientifically, this is a big thing,
Professor," he said. "These fellows can give points to our
metallurgists. But for our purposes, of course, what they've caught on
to here has no practical value. Gold has got to come down a good deal,
or phosphor-bronze has got to go up a good deal, before it will pay us
to turn gold dollars into axle-bearings and cogs and pinions. But it's
mighty interesting, all the same. Fusing with silicium would give a
gold-silicide that might fill the bill for hardness; but I can't even
make a guess as to how they do the tempering. Ask the Colonel what the
whole process is, Professor. It will make a capital paper to read before
the Institute of Mining Engineers at their next meeting."
As I turned to Tizoc to ask this question, I perceived that his regard
was fixed upon something on the other side of the court-yard, and in his
look most tender love was blended with a deep melancholy. Following the
direction of his gaze, I saw that its object was a beautiful boy, a lad
of twelve or fourteen years old, who was half hidden behind some
flowering shrubs, and from this cover was peering at us curiously.
"It is my Maza--my little son," Tizoc said, as he turned and saw the
direction in which I looked. And then he called to the boy to come to
him. For a moment Maza hesitated, but when the call was repeated he came
out from behind the screen of flowers and so towards us across the
court-yard; and as he advanced I perceived that he was lame. In his face
was the look of wistfulness which cripples so often have, and there was
a rare sweetness and intelligence in the expression of his large brown
eyes. In a moment I understood why it was that Tizoc resented so
bitterly the abrogation by the Priest Captain of the custom that had
permitted parents to buy back their crippled children, and so to save
them from slavery; and a selfish feeling of gladness came into my heart
as this light dawned upon me--for I knew that when we faced the danger
that threatened us (a most real danger, for our coming into the valley
was nothing less than a deadly blow at Itzacoatl's supremacy) we surely
would find in Tizoc an ally and a friend.
XX.
THE PRIEST CAPTAIN'S SUMMONS.
There was so much meaning in my look as I turned towards Tizoc that I
had no need to speak; he knew that I had comprehended the situation, and
so answered my look in words.
"Do you wonder that I rejoice over your coming, and over the news which
you bring? The will of the gods no longer is that we shall do the work
for which our lord Chaltzantzin destined us; therefore are we free to
set aside the custom that he decreed by which our weak ones are
condemned to death, and with it the custom, yet more cruel, of our own
devising, by which they are saved from death only that they may be made
slaves. To my boy neither slavery nor death shall come. Through you the
gods have spoken, and he is saved. And now also is fulfilled the
prophecy that of ancient times was spoken, that with the coming into the
Valley of Aztlan of a four-footed beast, bearing upon its back a man,
the power of the Priest Captain should end."
Much more, doubtless, Tizoc would have said to us, for an exalted
emotion stirred him; but at that moment there was the sound of hurrying
feet in the outer enclosure, and then Tizoc's secretary came through the
narrow entrance into the court-yard, followed closely by a detachment of
the guards. The secretary spoke hurriedly to his master, apart from us,
and from his excited manner in speaking, and from the anxious look upon
his master's face as he listened, we inferred that some very stirring
matter was involved in the communication that he brought.
For a few moments Tizoc stood in silence, his head bowed, as though
engaged in earnest thought. Then he turned to us and spoke. "The Priest
Captain has sent his order that you shall be brought before him," he
said, "and that you must go hence without delay." And then he added,
taking me aside and speaking in a low voice: "There is great commotion
already in the city, for the soldiers have noised abroad the news which
you bring. The Council of the Twenty Lords has been called together, and
I am told that a messenger from the Council is on his way hither. That
my order to take you to the city in such haste, and directly to the
Priest Captain, is so stringent, I cannot but think is caused by his
desire to get you hence before the messenger from the Council shall
arrive. His purpose towards you surely is an evil one; but fear not--you
bring a message of freedom and deliverance that has only to be published
to raise around you a host of friends. And now we must go."
In a few moments we had quitted Tizoc's house, passed out through the
fortified gate-way in the heavy wall by which the little plateau on the
mountain side was defended; and so, by a broad road that descended
sharply, went downward towards the border of the lake. Our order of
march was the same as that adopted in bringing us from the Barred Pass:
before us and behind us were detachments of the guards, and Tizoc walked
with us. In accordance with his desire, that he expressed to me in a
cautious whisper, Pablo rode upon El Sabio's back. There was no need for
him to explain his motive in making this suggestion. It was his purpose,
evidently, to exhibit the fulfilment of the prophecy as conspicuously as
possible, and so to prepare the ground for the sowing of the seeds of
revolt.
I had an opportunity now to tell Rayburn and Young of what Tizoc had
been speaking at the moment when the summons from the Priest Captain
came; and also of the strong personal reason that he had for protecting
us, even to the extent of forwarding the outbreak of revolution, in his
desire to save from death or slavery the son whom he so well loved.