At nightfall Roger and his guide continued their journey, but now
moved with great caution, keeping but a short distance from the
road. Several times they saw fires burning, and had to take long
detours to avoid them. Consequently the moon had set when they were
still more than ten miles from the pass. Next morning they
continued their journey, avoiding as much as possible crossing
tracts of cultivated land; and when forced to do so, lying down and
crawling between the rows of the maize or yuccas.
"They are sure to have scouts, high up on the mountainside,"
Bathalda said; "and they thence can look down upon all these
fields; and although, as we cross them we are perfectly hidden from
people standing on the same level, they can see us clearly enough
from there."
"The distance is very great to make out a man."
"The air is very clear, my lord, in these mountains; and a figure
can be seen a vast distance off. However, we can do nothing but
what we are doing, and must take our chance."
"If we are attacked," Roger said, "we must make straight up the
mountains. Steep as they may be, there are few places where active
men cannot climb, and numbers would avail nothing if we once got up
among those heights."
They were now mounting rapidly towards the pass. The country was
still thickly wooded, but Bathalda said that in the narrowest part
of the pass there were no trees, and it was here that the danger
would be greatest.
As they neared the mouth of the gorge they moved with the greatest
care, keeping their eyes in every direction. Presently Bathalda
stopped, and held up his hand. Roger listened.
"They are coming behind us," Bathalda said. "They must have made us
out in the distance, and have sent a party down the road to enter
the wood behind us, and so prevent us from retreating."
"Then we had better bear away to the left, Bathalda. They are sure
to be in force in the pass; and since they are behind us, also, our
only hope is to try and scale the hill to the left."
Bathalda, without a word, moved forward in the direction indicated.
The trees grew thinner in front, and through them they could see
rocky ground rising steeply up. They issued out and began to climb,
when the sound of a horn rose loudly in the air, and a moment
afterwards a number of men were seen, running from the right along
the edge of the trees.
"They will not shoot," Roger said. "They want to take me alive.
Never mind their arrows, it is a question of legs, at present."
The rocks were extremely steep, and in many places they had to use
their hands, as well as their feet, in making the ascent. The
Aztecs, who had on first seeing them broken into loud cries, were
now silent, and were toiling up the hillside in pursuit.
"Now," Roger said, after a very severe piece of climbing, "we must
stop them."
He strung his bow and, placing an arrow to the string, shouted to
the Aztecs that he should shoot unless they desisted from pursuit.
They paid no attention, their officer shouting to them to press on.
They were now less than a hundred yards behind.
Roger drew his bow to the fullest, and the arrow whizzed through
the air. It struck the officer in the throat, and he fell prone. A
cry of astonishment broke from the soldiers; however they did not
hesitate a moment, but pushed on with loud shouts. Roger discharged
six arrows in rapid succession, and five of them flew true to the
mark.
The Aztecs paused, the distance to which the arrows were sent, and
the accuracy of the shooting struck them with consternation; and it
was evident to them that before they could climb the steep ascent,
the greater portion of them would be shot down. Some took shelter
behind rocks, and began to discharge their arrows. Others fell back
in haste.
"Now we will be moving on again, Bathalda," Roger said. "We have
taught them a lesson of caution."
They proceeded on their way, until they reached a shoulder which
led straight up the mountain. Just as they stopped to draw breath
there was a shout, and a party of twenty men, who had evidently
climbed straight up from the pass to cut them off, rushed at them.
Roger rapidly discharged five arrows into the midst of them, and
then slipped the string from the notch, and seized the bamboo as a
quarterstaff.
At the order of their leader, the Aztecs threw down their spears
and flung themselves on him, with the intention of dragging him to
the ground; but making his quarterstaff swing round his head, he
brought the ends down upon them with tremendous force, striking
them to the ground as if they had been ninepins. Bathalda seconded
him well, by guarding him from attack behind.
Finding that, in spite of his efforts, he could not keep back his
assailants, Roger threw down the quarterstaff and seized his ax.
Four more of them fell, cleft through the head; and then four of
them sprang upon him together, but Roger's practice in Devonshire
wrestling now stood him in good service; and although in a moment
the four were hanging upon him, they could neither get him off his
legs, nor hold his arms; and he beat three of them down with heavy
blows on their faces, while Bathalda freed him from one on his
back, by a thrust with his spear.
Roger again caught up the ax, which he had let fall to have the use
of both of his fists, but the fight was over. The five Aztecs still
remaining on their feet, appalled at the, to them, supernatural
strength of their gigantic foe, fled to join their comrades, who
had now nearly reached the crest on which the combat had taken
place.
"Come on, Bathalda," Roger exclaimed. "We have not a moment to
lose. They will shoot now, seeing that they have little chance of
taking me alive."
And they accordingly started up the steep ascent, as rapidly as
their breathless condition would allow. Their pursuers paused a
moment on gaining the brow to get their wind, and then followed;
but as soon as the ground again became too steep to allow of rapid
movement, Roger turned and, betaking himself to his bow and arrows,
speedily checked the pursuit; the Aztecs being unable to stand
against these terrible weapons, whose force and accuracy seemed to
them supernatural.
The sight, too, of the heap of their comrades lying on the slope
had greatly cooled their courage. Their officers had all fallen
under Roger's arrows, together with most of their bravest comrades;
and although the rest still continued the pursuit, it was at a
distance that showed that they had no intention, whatever, of
closing again.
Paying no further heed to them, Roger and his companion now
directed their whole attention to the work of climbing. At times
they came on perpendicular precipices, and had to make long detours
to surmount them. After some hours' labor they reached the snow.
They were now near a shoulder between two lofty peaks, and after an
hour's climbing stood on its crest. The Aztecs were now mere spots,
far behind them.
"They will be an hour before they are here," Roger said. "We need
fear no more trouble with them. It was a sharp fight while it
lasted, Bathalda."
These were the first words they had spoken, beyond a momentary
consultation, now and then, as to the best mode of surmounting
difficulties.
"My lord is wonderful," the hunter said. "Never did I see such
strength and skill. It was like a mountain tiger attacked by
jackals."
"You did your share, too, Bathalda. Your spear rid me of several of
them."
"I did what I could, my lord; but that was little enough. A few men
like you would defeat an army."
"Well, Bathalda, now we will be moving on again. We will keep
straight down this slope, until we are off the snow; for they can
follow our footsteps. Beyond that we must press on until we get
into the woods again, and there we can turn right or left, as we
please, and throw them off the scent altogether. We shall then be
safe until we leave the forest, and begin to descend into the hot
country."
Another hour, and they had left the snow behind them; and after two
more hours on the rocky hillside, they again entered a forest. As
soon as they were well among the trees, they turned to the right
again, and after traveling through the wood for two or three miles
they halted, secure now against any search on the part of their
pursuers.
Just before halting they had the good luck to come across a small
bear, which Roger wounded with an arrow, and his companion
dispatched with his spear. Bathalda speedily made a fire by rubbing
two sticks together, and after skinning the bear, cut it up; and
while Roger was superintending the roasting of some pieces over the
fire, Bathalda searched in the wood, and speedily returned with
some roots, which he placed in the ashes, and which turned out
excellent eating with the bear's flesh.
As it was now far on in the afternoon, and as they had already
performed a very fatiguing day's work, they resolved to wait where
they were until the morning.
"What do you think would be our best course, now?" Roger asked,
after they had eaten their meal, and were stretched close to the
fire for warmth--for at this elevation the cold was great.
Bathalda did not reply, but sat pouring out volumes of smoke from
the pipe he had just filled. At last Roger repeated the question.
"I am ready to go where my lord wills."
"Yes, Bathalda; but that is no answer to my question. You know the
ways of your people, and I do not. We have had a sharp fight with
them today. What is likely to come of it?"
Bathalda shook his head.
"The news will, long before this, have been sent by swift runners
to every town and village on this slope of the mountains. The
garrisons of Perote, Tlatlanquitepec, Xalapa, and Naulinco will all
be in movement. Naulinco is but some eight or ten miles away down
the pass; and not only the soldiers, but every man in the town will
be ordered out. They will be posted as thick as blades of grass at
the mouth of every valley leading down from the mountains.
"You have resisted the emperor's officers, and have killed numbers
of his soldiers. They will know that the wrath of Montezuma will be
terrible, if they fail to arrest you."
"Then you think that it will almost be impossible to make our way
through them?"
Bathalda nodded his head.
"And in time, I suppose, they will search these woods?"
"Every foot of them, wide though they are, my lord."
"Then what is your advice, Bathalda?"
"It depends whether my lord's mind is altogether set upon joining
the white men of the sea, at once."
Roger, in turn, was silent for a time. The Spaniards would have
learned the wealth of the land. It was not likely they would
speedily depart; but if they did, it would only be to return again,
in far greater force than at present. Other opportunities would
occur for rejoining them, and it would be folly to throw away his
life, and that of his companion, in an attempt that the latter
evidently felt to be desperate. He had already had proof of the
vigilance of the Aztec scouts, and doubtless that vigilance would
now be redoubled.
"No, Bathalda," he replied at last; "I should be content to remain
in hiding for a time, and to risk the departure of the white men."
"Then, my lord, my advice is, that we retrace our steps across to
the other side of the mountains. Then we will head north, avoiding
the towns, and take refuge for a time in the forests, that stretch
for many leagues over the mountains. There we can build a hut and
hunt. There are turkeys and other game in abundance. From time to
time I can go down to a town and gather news, and bring back such
things as may be necessary for you. Then, when the search for you
abates, we can strike down thence to the seacoast, if the white men
are still there. At any rate, we can live by hunting as long as you
may find it necessary to remain in concealment."
"That will be by far the best plan, Bathalda. I have no objection
to a few weeks of life in the woods, and you can teach me your
craft of a hunter. What do you say: shall we start back this
evening?"
"If my lord is not too wearied, it would be well if we could get
across the crest before morning. They will have sentries at every
point whence they can command a view of the hills; and our figures
could be made out, on the snow, at a great distance away."
"I should have preferred a night's rest, Bathalda; but it would be
foolish to lose a day, and no doubt parties will be searching the
woods in the morning. We have still four hours before the sun goes
down, and that should be enough to fit us for starting again."
The hunter was pleased at Roger's decision.
"Let my lord sleep at once," he said. "I will watch. I am
accustomed to long journeys, and to pass my nights in search of
game. It is nothing to me. I used dry sticks for the fire, and but
little smoke will have made its way through the trees. Still it may
possibly be noticed, and it were best one of us should remain on
watch."
Roger felt that he should never be able to make the ascent over the
crest of the hill, unless he had some rest; and therefore, without
argument, he wrapped himself in his cotton mantle, and lay down
before the fire.
It seemed to him that he had but just closed his eyes, when his
companion touched him.
"It is time that we should be moving, my lord. The sun has just
set."
"Why, it appears to me to be night already, Bathalda."
"It has been dark here for the last hour, my lord; but on the other
side of the mountains the sun has but now gone down. See, the full
moon has just risen in the east."
"That is so, Bathalda; and we shall have her light till morning.
Well, I am ready, though I could have slept on comfortably until
sunrise. Have you heard anything?"
"I have heard the sound of horns, far down the hillside; but
nothing near us save animals, disturbed by the voices below, and
passing up towards the rocks. I have cooked some more flesh. It is
always best to make a good meal when one can. We have a rough
journey before us, and the cold will be great. Fortunately, the air
is still. Were it blowing, I should say that there was less danger
in waiting here than in crossing the mountain."
The meal was quickly eaten. Bathalda slung a large piece of bear's
flesh over his shoulder, and they started. So bright was the
moonlight that they had no more difficulty in climbing than if it
had been day, and after six hours of severe toil they again came
down upon the forest, on the other side of the mountains.
They proceeded among the trees for some little distance, till they
came to some very thick undergrowth, where Bathalda thought it
would be perfectly safe to light a fire. This he accordingly did,
as Roger said he would rather run any danger than go without a
fire.
In spite of the exertions they had made, they were chilled to the
bone. Their clothes were stiff with the frozen moisture from their
bodies, and the cotton mantles offered but small protection against
the cold. A pleasant glow stole over them, as the fire burnt up.
"I will watch now, Bathalda, and you shall sleep."
"I do not think that there is any danger, my lord. They believe us
among the woods on the other side of the mountains, and it is not
at all likely there will be any vigilant watch kept upon this side.
We can both sleep without fear."
Roger was glad to hear his companion's opinion, and in a few
minutes was fast asleep.
When he awoke it was day. Bathalda was cooking some flesh over the
embers of the fire.
"You have been asleep, I hope, Bathalda?" Roger said, as he rose to
his feet and shook himself.
"I have slept, my lord," the hunter said, although in fact it was
not until morning began to break that he had relaxed his
watchfulness. "We will be off as soon as we have eaten. It is
possible that parties may, as soon as it is daybreak, go along by
the edge of the snow line, to assure themselves that we are still
on the other side of the mountain; and if so, they will probably
come across our footsteps--therefore we had best be moving, at
once."
Two long days' marches took them deep into the woods lying north of
Tlatlanquitepec. Here they set to work to construct a rough hut of
boughs, near a mountain spring; and when this was completed, they
set to work hunting.
Turkeys abounded. These they generally obtained by shooting them at
night, as they roosted in the trees; but they sometimes hunted them
by day, Bathalda imitating their call so accurately that they came
up within easy shot of them, without the least suspicion of danger.
They killed several small bears, which were useful, not only for
their flesh, but for the warmth of their skins at night. Once or
twice they shot deer, and obtained other game in abundance.
At night they frequently heard the roar of the mountain tiger. Once
or twice, when the sounds approached too close to their hut, they
left it and took refuge in trees, as the hunter said that even
Roger's arrows would scarcely slay these fierce beasts at once; and
that, when wounded, they were terrible enemies.
Roger enjoyed the life much. The air was fresh and bracing, the
forest magnificent in its varied foliage, and the abundance of game
so great that it needed no special exertion to keep themselves well
supplied with food. Two or three times, at intervals of a week or
ten days, Bathalda went down to Tlatlanquitepec, with a load of
turkeys and other game slung on a pole over his shoulder, and
returned with maize, flour, chocolate, and pulque, and other
articles of food; and--which was of much greater importance to
Roger--news of the white strangers.
The first time he learned that they had arrived in several floating
castles, and had landed at once. The natives had received them with
kindness, and the chief of that district, Teuhtlile, had on the
following day had an interview with their chief. Presents had been
exchanged. Five days later an embassy, with many very rich gifts
from the emperor, arrived at the camp. They were the bearers of
friendly messages from Montezuma; who, however, had declined to
allow them to proceed into the country, and had requested them to
leave the coast at once. The white men had sent back a message to
Montezuma praying him to alter his determination, and showed no
signs of obeying his orders, and re-embarking on board their ships.
By the orders of Montezuma's envoys, the people had now abstained
from visiting the camp, or bringing in supplies.
Three weeks after, Bathalda returned from the town with the news
that another embassy from Montezuma had visited the white camp,
with another great store of valuable presents; but that Montezuma
positively prohibited them advancing towards the capital. Two days
later they were visited by envoys from Cempoalla, the chief town of
the Totonacs, who had been lately conquered by the Aztecs, and had
invited the white men to visit their city. They had accordingly
marched there, and were now dwelling in this town. It was said that
the Aztecs were extremely indignant at the action of the Totonacs,
and that dire vengeance would be taken upon them, for daring to act
in this manner without the permission of Montezuma.
The next news was, that the white men had marched farther north to
Chiahuitztla, that they were founding a city there, and that they
had actually seized and imprisoned a party of Aztec envoys. The
white men had visited other towns, and at Cempoalla had insulted
the gods, rolled the idols down from the tops of the temples, and
had erected altars to their own gods there.
This act had created a profound impression throughout the country;
and the greatest astonishment was felt that Montezuma did not, at
once, put his armies in motion to crush these profane and insolent
strangers. A still greater sensation had been caused by the news
that the Spaniards had destroyed all their floating castles, and
that it was therefore evident that they intended to remain,
permanently, in the land.
This news greatly surprised Roger. The reports were unanimous that
there were, at the utmost, but three or four hundred of the Whites;
and that the Spaniards should dream of matching themselves against
the whole force of Mexico, seemed almost incredible.
"How do the white men communicate with the natives?" Roger asked.
"They have with them some slaves, whom they obtained at Tabasco.
Among them was one who was a Mexican by race. They say that the
white men speak to another white man who understands the language
of Tabasco, and that he speaks to this young woman, who speaks in
Mexican what she is told. She is treated with great honor by the
white men."
"What is her name--did you hear?"
"The natives say she is called Malinche, but the white men call her
Marina."
"That is good news, indeed, Bathalda," Roger said; "for when I was
at Tabasco, I knew a Mexican slave girl of that name, and if it is
the same she will befriend us."
It was nearly three weeks before Roger again obtained news.
Bathalda had injured his leg in a fall down a precipice, while
stalking a deer; and was obliged to lie up in the hut for more than
a fortnight. As soon as he was well enough to get about again, he
joined Roger in a turkey hunt, and started the next day for the
city.
He returned with surprising news. The white men had marched from
the coast through Naulinco and the Pass of Obispo. They had been
everywhere well received by the natives, who all belonged to the
Totonac tribe. They had gone to Yxtacamaxtitlan, a great city,
where they had stayed three days. They had then marched on towards
Tlascala, the republic that had so long resisted the strength of
all Mexico.
They were said to number four hundred foot and fifteen strange
creatures, who were partly man and partly some fleet animal; and
they had seven great black tubes that made thunder. Thirteen
hundred Totonac fighting men accompanied them, and a thousand
porters to drag the tubes and carry their baggage. They had sent
embassies to the Tlascalans, but the latter had chosen war, and
there had been some terrible battles fought. But the white men were
invincible, and had defeated the Tlascalans with great slaughter;
and the news had arrived, only that morning, that they had captured
the city.
The sensation throughout the country was that of stupefaction. It
seemed absolutely incredible that a state which had successfully
defied the armies of Montezuma and his predecessors should, after
four or five days of fighting, be overthrown by this handful of
white strangers. There seemed but one comfort. It was said that
several of the Whites had been killed, and this showed, at least,
that they were not superhuman creatures, and that it might yet be
possible to destroy them.
No sooner did Roger hear the news than he determined to start, at
once, to join the Spaniards, who were already far to the west.
Accordingly, the next morning at daybreak, he started with
Bathalda, and late on the following afternoon arrived in sight of
Tlascala. They thought it better not to enter the city until the
following morning, and therefore passed the night in a clump of
bushes.
The next day they boldly entered the town. The city was a large
one, divided into four quarters separated by lofty walls, and each
ruled over by one of the four great chiefs of the republic. Its
population was very large, and the town was strongly and solidly
built.
At ordinary times the appearance of two seeming Aztecs in the
streets would have been the signal for their instant destruction,
but at the present time the people were solely occupied with the
presence of their white conquerors; with whom, as Roger soon
learned, they had made treaties of friendship, and whom they now
viewed as friends and allies.
The whole of the Spaniards were lodged in one of the palaces. The
crowd of people proceeding in that direction was a sufficient index
to its position; and Roger and his companion, joining the throng,
were soon in front of the palace. Some Spanish soldiers were
standing as sentries at its gate, but none came out or mixed with
the people--Cortez having given the strictest orders that they
should remain in their quarters, as he feared that, did they go
abroad, some brawl might arise between them and the inhabitants,
and so break the newly-formed alliance, which was of the most
extreme importance to them.
Presently some Spanish officers, and several richly dressed chiefs,
came out from the palace. The people raised a shout, and it was
evident to Roger that, in spite of the terrible losses suffered by
their troops in the attacks upon the white men, their admiration
for their visitors far outweighed any animosity for the defeats
inflicted upon them.
Near the officer, whom Roger judged to be the leader of the
expedition, were an elderly man and a young woman. The Spaniard
addressed the old man, who spoke to the girl, and she translated it
to the chiefs.
Roger recognized her at once--it was certainly his friend, the
slave girl of Tabasco. In the eight months since he had seen her,
she had grown to complete womanhood; and now--richly attired as she
was, and evidently regarded as a person of great importance, both
by the Spaniards and the native chiefs--carried herself with an air
of confidence and pride; and was, Roger thought, the most beautiful
woman he had seen in Mexico.
As the party moved down the steps of the palace, and along the
street, evidently discoursing on some important business, Roger
followed them closely. He waited until Malinche happened, for a
moment, to be at the outside of the party, then he pressed forward
and said to her:
"Malinche, do you remember your white friend?"
She looked up, and would have cried out with astonishment, had he
not touched his lips.
"I want to speak to you alone, first. Where can I meet you?"
"In an hour I shall be able to slip away from their meal," she
said; "be near the palace gate."
Roger at once fell back into the crowd, and soon took an
opportunity to extricate himself from it, and to go down a side
street. He and Bathalda then ascended to the top of the wall, where
they were likely to be undisturbed, and waited there for an hour.
They then went back to the palace.
The square in the front of it was almost deserted now; for the
Spaniards had retired, half an hour before, and were not likely to
appear again until the evening; especially as it was known that, at
noon, there was to be a great council held in the palace.
Ten minutes later Malinche appeared at the entrance. As soon as her
eyes fell on Roger she raised her hand and, leaving Bathalda, he at
once went up to her. The two sentinels looked with some surprise at
this tall native, but as they saw that he was known to Malinche,
they offered no opposition to his entering the palace with her.
She led him down some corridors and then out into a garden. As soon
as she saw that they were in a spot where they could not be
overlooked, she turned and seized his hands; and would have pressed
them to her forehead, had not Roger prevented her doing so, and put
her hands to his lips.
"Ah!" she exclaimed. "How happy you have made me, today! I have
wondered so much how it has fared with you, and have dreamed at
night, so often, that you were being sacrificed on the altars of
the gods."
"I have thought of you very often, also, Malinche; and I was
surprised, indeed, when I heard that you--for I felt sure that it
was you--were with the Spaniards, and were not only an interpreter,
but in high honor with them."
"But why do you not join them?" she asked. "Why do you come to me
first? What can I do for you? I will take you at once to Cortez,
and when I tell him that you were my friend, and were so kind and
good to the slave girl, he will welcome you most warmly."
"Yes, Malinche; but that is why I wanted to see you first alone.
You remember that I told you all about the Spaniards, and how they
owned the islands, and would some day surely come to Mexico; but
that I belong to another white people, who are forbidden by the
Spaniards, under pain of death, to come to these parts. They must
not know that I am not of their nation.
"You see, I cannot speak their tongue. I see that you have learned
it fast, for I saw Cortez speaking to you."
"What are we to do, then?" the girl asked, with a puzzled look.
"When they find that you cannot speak their language, they will, of
course, see that you are not of their people."
"Yes, Malinche; but they might think that I had forgotten it. That
is just where I want you to help me. If you take me to Cortez, and
tell him that, years ago, a ship was wrecked on the coast of
Tabasco, and that all were drowned except a little white boy; and
that he was brought up at Tabasco, and that you were great friends
with him, until he was sold to some Mexican traders--they will
think that I have altogether forgotten my native language. They are
not likely to ask you how many years ago it is, or how big I was
then, and will imagine that I was quite a child, and that I
belonged to a Spanish ship, for they will not dream of an English
vessel having been in these parts. When you introduce me to Cortez,
you must tell him that I have quite forgotten the language, save a
few words--for I picked up a few sentences when in their ports."
"They will easily believe that you may have been wrecked," said
Malinche; "for they rescued a man who had been living many years
among a tribe at Yucatan, to the west of Tabasco. There were other
white men living among them, though these they could not recover.
You saw him by me this morning--he is an old man, a priest; and he
translates from the Spanish into the Yucatan dialect, which is so
like that of Tabasco that I can understand it, and then I tell the
people in Mexican.
"There will be no difficulty at all. Cortez and the Spaniards know
that I love them, and they trust me altogether, and I am able to do
good to my country people, and to intercede with them sometimes
with Cortez. Now tell me what has happened since I last saw you."
Roger gave her a sketch of what had happened in Mexico, and how he
had escaped, by flight, from being sacrificed.
"It is terrible--these sacrifices," Malinche said, shuddering. "I
did not think so in the old days, but I have learned better from
the Spaniards and from their priests; and I rejoice that the white
men will destroy these horrible idols, and will teach the people to
worship the great God and His Son. They will suffer--my heart
bleeds to think how they will suffer--but it will be good for them
in the end, and put a stop to rivers of blood that flow, every
year, at their altars."
Although Roger was not imbued with the passion for conversion which
animated the Spaniards, and led them to believe that it was the
most glorious of all duties to force their religion upon the
natives, he had been so filled with horror at the wholesale
sacrifices of human victims, and the cannibal feasts that followed
them, that he was in no way disposed to question the methods which
the Spaniards adopted to put a stop to such abominations. But for
the friendship of Cacama he would himself, assuredly, have been a
victim to these sanguinary gods.
He and his father had--like the Beggs, and many other of his
friends at Plymouth--been secretly followers of Wycliffe, but they
were still Catholics. They believed that there were many and deep
abuses in the Church, but had no thought of abandoning it
altogether. The doings of the Inquisition in Spain were regarded by
all Englishmen with horror, but these excesses were as nothing to
the wholesale horrors of the Mexican religion.
He talked for some time with Malinche, and saw that she was
completely devoted to the Spaniards, and regarded Cortez as a hero,
almost more than mortal; and was in no slight degree relieved at
observing that, although ready to be friendly in every way, and
evidently still much attached to him, the warmer feeling which she
had testified at their parting no longer existed, but had been
transferred to her present friends and protectors.
"Come with me," she said at last. "The meal will be over, now. I
will take you to an apartment near the banqueting hall, and will
leave you there while I tell Cortez about you, and will then lead
you to him."
Seeing how confident Malinche was as to the reception she could
procure for him, Roger awaited her return, to the chamber where she
had placed him, with little anxiety. In a quarter of an hour she
returned, and beckoned him to follow.
"I have told him," she said. "It did not seem to him strange that
some vessel should have been driven by the storms and wrecked here.
He asked no questions as to how many years ago it was. I told him
you were a young boy at the time, and have forgotten all but a few
words of the language; and how, when you grew to be a man, you were
sold to some Mexican merchants, and would have been sacrificed to
the gods had you not made your escape. As I had told him, before,
that there had been a white man living at Tabasco, who had been
very good to me, he was not surprised at the story."
She took Roger to an apartment in which Cortez, and several of his
principal officers, were standing. As Malinche had told them that
he was painted, and disguised as a native, they were not surprised
at his appearance; although his height, which was far beyond that
attained by Spaniards, somewhat astonished them.
Roger approached the group, and at once fell on one knee before
Cortez, took his hand and kissed it. Cortez raised him, and
embraced him warmly.
"I am delighted to find another of my countrymen," he said; "and
all the more, since Marina tells me that she knows you well, and
that you were most kind and good to her."
"Senor," Roger said, in broken Spanish, "I do not understand. I
have forgotten."
"You will soon recover it," Cortez said.
"Tell him, Aquilar, that he will soon learn to speak his native
language again."
The interpreter repeated the words to Roger in the Yucatan dialect,
adding that he himself had been a prisoner for eight years among
the natives; and that, although a man when captured by them, had
with difficulty spoken Spanish when restored to his friends; but it
had now quite come back to him.
"You were but a boy when you were wrecked, Marina tells me?" Cortez
said.
"Only a boy," Roger repeated, when Marina translated this to him.
"Do you remember anything of Spain?" Cortez asked.
Roger shut his eyes, as if considering.
"I seem to have a remembrance," he said, "of a place with many
great ships. It was a city built on a rock rising from the sea. It
had high walls with great guns upon them, which fired sometimes,
with a terrible noise, when vessels came in and out."
When this was translated by Aquilar, Cortez said:
"It was Cadiz, of course. Doubtless the ship he was wrecked in
sailed from that port."
A murmur of assent passed round the other Spaniards.
"Show him a cross, Aquilar. See if he remembers his religion."
Aquilar took out a cross from under his doublet, and held it out
towards Roger, who, after looking at it for a moment, fell on his
knees and kissed it.
"He remembers much, you see," Cortez said. "Father Aquilar, you
will succeed soon in making a good Catholic of him, again.
"Well, gentlemen, I think we may congratulate ourselves upon this
new companion. Every arm is of assistance; and if he is as brave as
he is big and strong, he will prove a doughty comrade. Besides, he
will be able to tell us something of Mexico; although, as Marina
says, he was only once at the capital.
"Question him, Aquilar, and find out from him whether its
magnificence is as great as we hear."
Roger told all he knew of the capital, and said that, although he
himself could not say more than that it was a great city, he had
heard that its population was nearly three hundred thousand; and
that it certainly seemed to him fully three times as large as that
of Tezcuco, where he said there were one hundred thousand people.
"And it stands on an island in a lake?" Cortez asked.
"There are three causeways leading to the land, each wide enough
for six horsemen to ride abreast," Roger replied; "but it would be
a difficult thing to force an entrance, by these, in the face of
Montezuma's army."
"Well, gentlemen," Cortez said, "it is time for us to be going to
the council.
"Marina, do you take your friend to my private apartment, and bid
Juan furnish him with a suit of clothes; and with armor, from that
belonging to our friends who fell in the fights the other day. We
will soon make a true cavalier of him."
As soon as Roger was equipped, he went out to the steps of the
palace, and presently descried Bathalda in the crowd. He beckoned
to him and, taking him into the garden, had a long talk with him.
He would have rewarded him largely for his services, but Bathalda
refused to accept anything.
"I came at my lord's orders," he said; "and am rejoiced to have
been of service to one who is at once so kind, so strong, and so
valiant."
"As you will. We shall have further opportunities of meeting,
Bathalda. Do you now make your way back to Tezcuco. Tell your lord
all that has happened, and that I am with the Spaniards, and shall
accompany them if, as I believe, they go forward to Mexico; that I
hope to see all my friends again, before long; and that I always
think of their kindness to me."