The extraordinary and exciting events which took place in the prison,
that night which Juan Lerma esteemed the last he should spend upon
earth, had reduced to exhaustion a body already enfeebled by inaction,
and a mind almost consumed by care. Hence, when, having struggled for a
time with the restlessness and delirium which, in such cases, usher in
sleep with a thousand phantasms--apparitions both of sight and
sound,--he at last fell asleep, his slumbers were profound and
dreamless. The loud alarms, which drove the executioners of Villafana
from the Hall of Audience, made no impression on his ear; and even the
yells, that accompanied the attack on his dreary abode, were equally
unheard. The guards were routed, the doors were forced, and he was
lifted to his feet by unknown hands, almost before he had opened his
eyes; and even voices, that, at another time, would have attracted his
attention, and words that would have inspired him with the joy of
deliverance, were all lost upon him. Nay, such was the stupor which
oppressed his mind, that he was dragged from the dungeon, and hurried
rapidly along through a host of infidels to the water-side, before he
was convinced that all was not really a dream. Then, indeed, the bustle,
the din of shrieks and Indian drums, mingled with the sounds of trumpets
and fire-arms, the howl of winds and the plash of waves, though they
recalled him to his wits, yet left him confounded, and, for a while,
incapable of understanding and appreciating his situation. In this
condition, he was deposited in a canoe of some magnitude, which
instantly putting off from the shore, under the impulse of thirty
paddles, he soon found himself darting over the lake at a speed which
promised soon to remove from his eyes, and perhaps for ever, the scene
of his late humiliation and suffering.
The darkness of the night was almost palpable, and, save the few torches
that could be seen hurrying through the alarmed city, no other light
illuminated the scene, until the moment when the four brigantines, fired
by the assailants, burst up in a ruddy blaze. At this sight, a shout of
triumph burst from his capturers, and altering the course of the canoe,
it seemed as if they were about to rush into the thick of the conflict.
As they approached the burning ships, Juan was able in the increasing
glare, to examine the figures of his companions, and beheld the dark
visages and half-naked bodies of thirty or more barbarians, each,
besides his paddle, having a weighty battle-axe dangling from his wrist,
and a broad buckler of some unknown material hung over his back. Two men
sat by him, one on each side, and he soon discovered that these, whom he
had thought mere guards for his safe-keeping, were no other than the
Ottomi Techeechee and the young prince of Mexico, the latter now freed
from his disguise.
"Guatimozin," said he, no longer doubting the purpose for which he had
been snatched from the prison, and resolved at once to express his
disapprobation, "dost thou think to make me a renegade to my countrymen?
I swear to thee--"
"Peace, and fear not," replied the royal chief. "Thou shalt have very
sweet vengeance."
"I ask it not, I seek it not; and surely I will not accept it, when it
makes me the traitor I have been so falsely called. Am I thy prisoner?"
"My friend," replied Guatimozin, quickly, starting up, seizing a paddle
from the hands of the nearest rower, and himself urging the canoe
towards the nearest vessel, which was, by this time, so close at hand,
that Juan could clearly perceive the figures, and almost the faces, of
the Spaniards on board, contending, and, as it seemed, not
unsuccessfully, both with the flames and the assailants. A great herd of
Mexicans was seen fighting hand to hand with the Christians; but it was
manifest, from the cheery cries, with which the latter responded to the
yells of the former, and from the frequent plunges in the water, as of
men leaping or cast overboard, that, in this brigantine at least, the
battle went not with the pagans. This Guatimozin remarked as clearly as
Juan, and as he struck the water more impetuously with his paddle, he
shouted aloud, "Be strong, men of Mexico, be strong!"
All this passed in the space of an instant. A loud cry, the rush of
other canoes against the ship, and the frantic exertions of the
combatants already on board to maintain their places, made it apparent
that the voice of the prince was not unknown or unregarded. Still, the
Spaniards fought well and fiercely, and their cries of "God and St.
James! Honour and Spain!" kindled its natural enthusiasm in the breast
of the young islander. Forgetting his late wrongs and oppressions, and
the mournful truth, that, at this moment, the Christians were more his
enemies than the Mexicans, he determined, if possible, to make his
escape. Watching his opportunity, and perceiving that many ropes,
sundered by the flames, were hanging over the sides of the vessel in the
water, he chose a moment, when the canoe was within but ten or twelve
fathoms of her, and but few of those savages who had leaped overboard
were swimming near, he rose to his feet, and shouting aloud, "Help for
an escaping captive! and good courage to all!" he plunged boldly into
the lake.
To one, who, like Juan, had rolled in his childhood among the breakers
on the northern coast of Cuba, and to whom it was as easy a diversion to
dive for conches in such depths as would have tried the wind of a
pearl-diver, as to gather limpets and periwinkles from the beach, it was
no great exploit to leap among the puny billows of Tezcuco, and swim to
an anchored vessel, even when the path was obstructed by enemies,
themselves not unfamiliar with the water. His escape was so sudden and
unexpected, and the prince, Techeechee, and the rowers, were so occupied
with the scene of combat into which they were hurrying, that it is
possible it would not have been noticed, had it not been for his
exclamation. Then, perceiving him in the water, all were seized with
confusion and fury, some striking at him with their paddles, some
leaping over in pursuit, and all so confounded and divided in action,
that the canoe was on the very point of being overset. In this period of
confusion, they soon lost sight of him; for it was not possible to
distinguish him among the mass of infidels that were swimming about in
all directions.
The cry of Juan was perhaps not heard by his fellow-Christians in the
brigantine; but there was one friend aboard, and that a brute one, whose
ears were far quicker to detect his call, and whose heart was much
prompter to obey. This was the dog Befo, who, having been taken from the
prison on the day of the trial, and afterwards been refused admission,
he so annoyed the guards by his whining and howling, and indeed all in
the palace, likewise, that they were glad to send him aboard a vessel,
to have him out of the way, until after the time of execution, when, it
was apprehended, from his remarkable affection for the prisoner, he
might give additional trouble. His services were turned to good account
by the sailors, during the attack; for, being instantly loosed, he
sprang upon barbarian after barbarian, tumbling them into the water, or
among the Spaniards, who despatched them. His appearance, fiercer than
that of the largest beasts of prey in Mexico, and his savage bark, not
less frightful than the yell of the jaguar or the puma, were perhaps
still more effectual than his fangs; for at the sight and sound, the
Mexicans, climbing over the bulwarks, recoiled, and with screams of
dismay, jumped into the water, and swam again to the nearest canoes.
In the midst of the conflict, Befo heard the cry of his master, and
loosing a barbarian whom he had caught by the throat, he sprang to the
side of the vessel, thrust his paws and nose over the gunwale, and
looked eagerly into the lake, whining all the time, and barking, as if
to attract Juan's notice. He then ran to the after-deck, where were
several sailors busily engaged in knotting a rope that seemed to pass to
the shore, or to another brigantine nearer to the lake-side; and
flinging himself over the railing here as before, he looked out and
whined loudly again. As he peered thus into the darkness, a faint groan,
as of one strangling in the water, came to his cars; and the next
moment, he sprang, with a wild howl, into the flood.
That groan came from Juan Lerma, who, that instant, was struck a violent
blow, he knew not by whom or with what, which, for a time, deprived him
of all sensation, and left him drowning in the lake.