The two subalterns now rejoined their companions, and passing them, as
they stood patiently to their arms, waiting for the dawn and the battle,
they crept through the sleepers towards the cannon, which were placed in
the rear, the cannoniers sleeping around them. Here, they found a
solitary individual of the watch they had relieved, leaning moodily
against one of the pieces, instead of sharing the slumber of his
comrades.
Bernal Diaz surveyed him for a moment, and then touched him on the
shoulder:
"Townsman," said he, "it is but a foolish thing of thee to stand upon
thy legs, watching, when thy guard duty is over. Sleep a little,
Gaspar--We shall have toilsome work to-morrow."
"Sleep thyself, Bernal," replied Gaspar Olea. "What care I for sleep?
Come, get thee into the mud, and I will take thy place. Thou shalt have
my cloak, too, if thou wilt, to keep the rain out--I can warm me by
walking."
"I will do no such thing," said Bernal, grasping the hand of his friend,
though Gaspar turned from him, and seemed desirous to continue the
conversation no longer; "if thou wilt wake, why well. I will talk thee
out of thy melancholy. Thou art very much changed, Gaspar. I know not
why thou shouldst grieve after this boy. Thou must now confess, he is
unworthy thy friendship."
Gaspar returned no answer, and Bernal continued to give consolation by
inflicting pain,--which is the common way.
"It is allowed by all, that he is a renegade; and doubtless, also, he
has become a worshipper of false gods; for he who will turn his sword
against his countrymen, is a rogue and a blasphemer--That is my opinion.
Gil Ortaga said--"
"The fiend seize Ortaga, and thee into the bargain!" said Gaspar,
angrily. "If a deer be wounded, and hide himself in a by-way, his
fellows will not hunt after him, to gore him!--Why shouldst thou have
less humanity than a deer?"
"Come, Gaspar, if I have offended thee, I ask thy pardon," said Bernal
Diaz; "for thou art my townsman and friend, though we have quarrelled
sometimes; and what I say, I say with a good meaning."
Gaspar looked over his shoulder, and finding that Najara had returned to
the front, he grasped Bernal's hand, and said earnestly,
"Let there be ill will and ill words between us no more; for who knows
what may come to us to-morrow? I know what is said of Juan Lerma. He is
with the infidels--but what drove him among them? He is a renegade,
too,--yet what made him so? He teaches the enemy to cut ditches and
throw up ramparts, to lay ambushes and attack ships, and a thousand
other feats and stratagems, not to be looked for among barbarians. This
they say,--all say; and some swear they have seen him, in a Mexican
cloak, fighting at the head of the pagans, and knew him by his stature
and voice. Let us believe all this--What then? Bernal, it is a thought
that preys upon me, remembering his honour, his goodness, and
truth,--and this it is,--that a damnable malice has driven him, against
his own will, into the den of perdition. Hark thee, here, in thine
ear--Thou rememberest the expedition to the South Sea? Before that, thou
knowest, I was in great favour with Cortes, whom I loved well, for he
had done me many good deeds in Cuba. About that time, Juan Lerma lost
favour, and no one knew why; for as to censuring the indignities offered
to Montezuma, that was a crime committed by some hundreds besides, who
were never punished. The cause, Bernal, the true cause,--I would I might
tell thee the true cause: but I swore an oath never to breathe it to
mortal man. But _this_ I may speak, (and thou must afterwards forget
it.) I see things more clearly than I did before; and methinks, this
night, mine eyes are further opened. I see very well, that we are all
deluded and abused, and Juan Lerma an innocent man. Hearken then to what
I say. One night, Cortes came to me, looking more like a demon than a
man, and he said to me, 'Gaspar Olea, thou must kill me a snake, that
has stung me upon the breast.' And with that he told me a thing, which I
cannot speak; but this followed--I agreed that I would kill Juan Lerma."
"Thou art beside thyself, Gaspar!" said Bernal, with the utmost
astonishment.
"I had good reason given to me," continued Olea; "and at that time I had
but little acquaintance with the young man, and no love; and I was bound
very strongly to Cortes. Understand me, Bernal: I did not consent to
play the part of an assassin, for that was no part for Gaspar Olea. But
being convinced the thing was just, and that the young man was a knave
deserving death, I agreed to exasperate him into a quarrel; wherein I
appeased my conscience, by thinking of the risk I ran, he being reckoned
very good at all weapons. But what dost thou think? The very next night
comes me Cortes again, with quite another story. 'Gaspar,' said he, 'the
thing I told thee was false, and I have done the young man a wrong.
Wherefore, quarrel with him not, and forget what I have told thee;'
adding many things which satisfied my mind, that the youth was an
innocent man, very basely slandered. This caused me to think well of
him; and I consented to go with him to the South Sea. There, Bernal, I
learned to love him, for he was brave, and noble, and good;--ay, by my
faith, I loved him better than ever I had loved the general. But 'What
then?' you will say; 'Whereto tends this?' To this--and it is damnable
to think upon: The General deceived me,--he repented having made me his
confidant; but he still longed for the blood of Juan Lerma. Hence the
South Sea scheme, devised for our destruction--(At this moment, I see it
plainly,)--for Juan's, because of the General's hate, and for _mine_,
Bernal, because he had confided to me a secret of which he was ashamed.
Ay, by my faith! he repented him that passion had made him so
indiscreet; and therefore designed to put me out of the way. The
soldiers have a story that he was angry with me for some freedom of
speech. This is false. He smiled on me to the last, and thus lulled my
fears. Neither Juan nor myself had any suspicion of evil intentions. He
made it appear, that the expedition was given to us, because of his
regard for our courage; and he deigned to tell me in secret, that his
chief reason for sending Lerma, was that he might be angered no longer
by his censures,--Juan being then very melancholy and peevish, in
consequence of the death of some old companion he had killed in
Espanola. But, Bernal, he deceived us both, as I can now see clearly. He
made it appear to the soldiers, that he was sorry to punish Juan--Nay
some said he shed tears, among the Indians, when he signed the
death-warrant. But this was hypocrisy. I know that he was rejoiced; for
he remembered the old cause, and abhorred him."
"Marry," said Bernal Diaz, "it cannot be doubted he did. But the cause,
Gaspar? I do not ask thee, what it was: but was it enough to excuse such
rancour?"
"If true, _yes_," replied Gaspar, with deep emphasis: "But it was not
true. Juan was innocent. I have probed his heart a thousand times, while
we were in the desert together, and when he knew not what I was doing.
He has not wronged Cortes--no, nor any other living creature. This I
told the General, when we returned to Tezcuco, after the campaign round
the lake. But what wouldst thou think? He averred that he had forgot the
thing;--that it was very foolish;--a groundless slander brought against
Juan by an enemy;--that he loved him as well as ever, and proceeded
against him only on account of broken laws and decrees;--that he durst
not pardon him, since his affection was well known, (his _affection_,
Bernal!) and the men would cry out against his favouritism. I knew he
spoke falsely, and so I told him. He hardened my heart; and then I ran
to Villafana, who had the power to save him, and promised to make him
our chief captain."
"Now that you speak of Villafana," said Bernal, "it reminds me of this:
Why, had Juan Lerma been a man of honour and a Christian, should he have
joined in the murderous plots of that detestable traitor?"
"Thou shouldst ask that of _me_," said Gaspar, fiercely. "But it matters
not. Who says that Juan Lerma joined him? Najara avers that he kept them
from speech together; and Luis Rafaga, who died of the wounds he got
among the piraguas, a week since, declared to his comrades as well as
the priest, (and being of the prison-guard, he knew all,) that Juan
fought in the prison with Villafana, about the list, the very night that
Villafana was hanged, and would have been killed, but for the coming of
La Monjonaza. I saw the traitor, myself, when he came among the
cavaliers; and he was hurt in the shoulder. Does this look like joining
him? Trust me, Bernal, we have done a great wrong to my young captain;
and I cannot die, without thinking that I leave behind me one man, at
least, to do him justice. This is what I say:--Not his crime, but the
general's secret malice, has driven him among the infidels. He is a
prisoner with them, or perhaps he has already died the death of
sacrifice. They lie, who say they have seen, or will see him in arms
against us. On this I will gage my life; and I pray heaven to take it,
the moment the pledge is forfeited! I swear it--Amen."
The worst point in the character of a dog, is that, in all the quarrels
betwixt others of his species, he always takes part against the feebler.
In this particular, he is sometimes aped by his master,--not, indeed, in
an absolute conflict between man and man; for ninety in a hundred will,
in such case, befriend the weaker party,--but in those combats which an
individual wages with an evil destiny. Ill thoughts naturally follow
upon ill luck; and it is the curse of misfortune to be followed by
ungenerous suspicion and still more odious crimination. As the whole
army were acquainted with the manner of Juan's flight, or rather
captivity, they did not hesitate to believe him up in arms against them;
and every repulse which they endured from the barbarians, they traced to
the malignance and activity of the exile's treason. Fear and invention
together clothed him with the vestments of a fallen angel; and if some
savage, more gigantic and ferocious than the rest, distinguished himself
in the front of battle, straightway a dozen voices invoked curses upon
the head of the unhappy Lerma. There were few who did not forget his
sorrows and wrongs, and speak of him only with execrations; and many had
already begun to anticipate, as the chief triumph of victory, and the
most delightful of all their hopes, the privilege of burning him alive
on the temple-top, or even sacrificing him to their vengeance, after the
equally horrific manner of the Mexicans.
While Bernal Diaz was thus conversing with the outcast's only friend,
there came from the distant gates of Xoloc, a suppressed hum, as of an
army arising from its slumbers. This was soon followed by the sound of
heavy bodies of men, approaching over the causeway; and it soon became
evident, that the morn was to be ushered in with the usual horrors of
contention.
"Up, knaves!" cried the voice of the hunchback, "ye grumbling, growling,
wallowing, swine, that call yourselves lions and tigers! up, and shake
the clay from your cloaks, before it is trodden off by the hoofs of the
horsemen!"
As he spoke, a cavalier galloped up to the party, and drawing in his
steed, while the men rose to their feet, he exclaimed,
"_Halon_, Najara, man! where art thou? Dost thou talk thus in thy
sleep?"
"Ay, may it please your excellency," said the hunchback, recognizing the
voice of Cortes; "for it is well, on such a post, that a soldier should
have the faculty of issuing commands asleep, as well as waking."
"Dost thou hear, Diaz?" muttered Gaspar in his companion's ear. "Wouldst
thou think now to what the devil has tempted me, ever since I have seen
clearly that of which I have spoken? I tell thee, man, I have sometimes
thought it were but a turn of good friendship, to kill the man who has
brought these things upon Juan Lerma!"
"Thou art mad!" said the historian in alarm. But his further
remonstrance was cut short by Cortes riding by, and even urging his
charger, though at a cautious pace, beyond the watchfire, as if to
reconnoitre with his own eyes, the situation of the foe.
"Fear me not," said Gaspar, bitterly. "You shall see me do what I have
done before at Xochimilco,--pluck him out of the jaws of the devourers,
if need be. I think I was then enchanted; for, when I saw the Indians
have him off his horse, I said to myself, 'If I let him die now, no harm
happens to Juan Lerma.' But come--let us follow after him. And bid some
of your dull sluggards along with us, lest the pagans should make a
sally from the rampart. Hark! he has ridden up, till their fire shines
on his armour, and they see him! He will have the villains upon us,
before the reinforcements arrive!"
The Captain-General did, indeed, advance so far that he was seen by the
pagan sentinels, who whistled out a shrill note of alarm, and then bent
their bows against him, till his corslet and the iron buckler which he
carried before his face, rattled under the crashing arrowheads. Thus
admonished, he rode a little back, and was joined by three or four other
cavaliers, who came galloping up from the causeway.
"What say ye, cavaliers?" he cried. "Methinks there is not even a duck
lying near the causey-side, much less a brace or two of my brigantines."
"If your excellency be looking for the ships," said Najara, "I can
satisfy your mind. There were some five or six here an hour since: I
heard the plunging of their anchors on both sides of the dike."
"Ah! I will set thine ears against mine eyes any dark morn,
Corcobado.--Fetch up the Indians, Quinones; and bid the horsemen follow
at their heels. And hark ye, Najara,--let your drowsy knaves take post
on the causey-sides, lest they be trampled to death under the feet of my
red pioneers. Wheel up the pieces some ninety or an hundred paces in
advance; and see that your matchsticks be dry and combustible. Where
didst thou hear the sound of the anchors?"
"But a little distance on the lake; and methinks I can see two of the
vessels on the left, betwixt us and the Indians.--His valour, Don Garci
Holguin, did but now take up the senor Guzman--"
"A pest upon Guzman!" said the general, sharply. "Get thee to thy men,
and move me the ordnance without delay."
"'A pest upon Guzman?'" muttered Gaspar. "I have a thought of him also;
but I know not that he has done Juan a wrong. At all events, methinks,
his case is like mine.--The general's secrets are unlucky."
With that, he retired, and took post among the soldiers.
In a few moments, a numerous body of Indian auxiliaries made their
appearance, bearing, besides their ordinary weapons, which were slung on
their backs, certain hoes and mattocks, called _coas_, some of stone,
others of copper, but most of them of some hard wood. It was the
business of these men to fill up the ditches, after the defenders had
been driven away by a fierce cannonade from the ships, and by incessant
discharges of stones and arrows from fleets of piraguas, manned by other
Indian confederates, which lay near the brigantines. And here it may be
observed, that the labour of filling a ditch was much inferior to that
of re-opening it; and the causeways being constructed of stones as well
as clay, it was not possible to remove the former to any great extent.
Hence, the gaps that had been once or twice filled, remained,
notwithstanding the toil of the besieged, so shallow, that they might,
at almost any period, be forded; though this, usually, was not done,
until they were filled above the level of the water.
Immediately after these pioneers, came a small body of horsemen, behind
whom were ranged the lancers and swordsmen; the musketeers and
cross-bowmen being chiefly distributed among the ships.
These arrangements having been made, and the Tlascalans halting within
the distance of two hundred paces from the ditch, and throwing
themselves flat upon their faces on the causeway, to guard against the
first volleys of the foe, all were directed to remain in repose, until
the coming daylight should give the signal for battle.
Nothing now broke the silence of the hour, save the dropping sound of
paddles from two numerous squadrons of canoes, filled with allies, which
were stationed on the flanks of the rear.