Chapter XXXIV: An Indian Girl-Champion

The ancient and populous city of Cholula was reputed of great antiquity by the Aztecs, even when they themselves conquered it from the descendants of its ancient founders. It was the chief seat of the religion of the empire and of its commerce, and was held in the most profound veneration by the Aztecs generally, as the chosen abode for twenty years of their wonderful, benevolent, and wise white god Quetzalcoatl, whose descendants they took the unknown Spaniards to be when they first landed on their coasts.

Poor creatures! they were soon undeceived. These new gods taught them plenty of lessons, truly--such lessons as human nature learns but too readily. But they taught none of the lessons their wise ancestor and so-called god had taught of the arts of peace, and civilization, and wise-living.

But whatever might be the merits or demerits of Cholula and the Cholulans, the Tlascalan Caciques showed such anxiety that the Spaniards should give them a wide berth, that at length Cortes somewhat impatiently exclaimed,--

"Methought the Republicans of Tlascala were reputed a brave nation; but I see now that there are some they fear, and they are the people of Cholula."

The eyes of the younger chieftains flashed indignantly at the imputation, but the grand old centenarian Xicotencatl signed to them to keep silence. He called to him a young Indian maiden, his granddaughter, and in low, impressive tones spoke a few words to her.

As the girl listened the crimson deepened in her cheeks, her chest heaved, and the pair of brilliant dark eyes, she turned upon the Spanish General, were flashing as proudly as any of those belonging to the warriors of her country.

Leaving the apartment for a few moments, she quickly returned with a long leather thong, which she carried to Cortes, and then placing her small, dark-hued wrists together, she made signs to him that he should bind them with it thus.

Hernando Cortes was ever gentle with women, and he looked at the rough leather strap, and at the delicate wrists from which the gaily-embroidered robe had been thrown back, and met the girl's signs with smiling shakings of the head for denial. But it was no good. The young Indian flung back the hair from her low, broad forehead angrily, and stamped her foot. Then pressing her wrists against each other more tightly than before, she again held them up to Cortes with an air of resolution, mingled with something of wistful entreaty he could no longer resist.

"Best see, Captain," said Cabrera, inquisitively; "best let us see what the wilful lassie will be at."

"Ay, indeed," agreed Velasquez readily. "I would fain see what rebuke for your taunt of cowardice, Captain, the ancient white-locks yonder hath devised, and yon maiden is so eager to carry out."

Even Montoro looked curious enough to see what small play was to be performed for their edification. Neither he nor any of them thought it could be anything very desperate, with that slight young girl chosen for the heroine and only actor.

Accordingly, thus urged, and with the small, gold-sandalled foot still tapping restlessly before him on the floor, Hernando Cortes at last set himself to the singular task accorded him, and was not let off, by his small monitress, before he had really bound her wrists together too tightly for her to move them as much as a leaf's thickness apart.

Then she walked with erect head and firm steps back to the old Cacique, where he sat, even that hot day, beside a brazier of burning coals. Old age had chilled the physical nature, although the brave spirit still glowed with the generous warmth of youth.

As his granddaughter stood before him he stooped for a moment over the copper pan of fire. The Spaniards stood at the other end of the apartment still and silent, waiting for what was to come. With all their guessing they had not guessed rightly the nature of the lesson to be taught them.

At the expiration of a few instants the Indian maiden returned back towards them, walking with calm, slow dignity as before--her head erect, her full, crimson lips lying lightly and softly together, and her two bound arms stretched out steadily before her.

At first the Spaniards looked only at her face, and were greatly puzzled. What had been done to her, or what had she done in that short interval to prove the courage of her nation? They could not tell the riddle.

Suddenly the eyes of Montoro fell to her arms, and he uttered a low, pained cry. But he did no more. He seemed as though he could not move; for once his readiness forsook him. His friends looked at him, saw the direction of his eyes, and in their turn they also glanced down at the girl's arms, and in their turn they also uttered startled cries as they did so.

There upon the soft, tender young arms lay a glowing coal, eating its fiery way into the bare flesh. And there came the young and delicate owner of those agonized arms pacing along slowly, with a calm and noble bearing and a proudly-smiling face, the champion of her nation's dauntlessness.

Pedro de Alvarado sprang forward, an unwonted dimness in his eyes, and snatching away the burning fragment with his fingers, he flung it out into the courtyard, and then with hasty gentleness unbound the tortured, swelling wrists, whilst the girl looked up in his face with a pleased, half-smiling wonder at his pity.

The old Cacique turned to Cortes.

"Will the white-face chieftain or his brothers any longer doubt the courage of the warriors of Tlascala? They have seen the courage of our maidens."

"Ay, indeed!" ejaculated Cabrera. "And if the courage of the maidens of ancient times were anything of a match to it I, for my part, feel little wonder that in those days there was a race of Amazons. Little use would there be in trying to keep a wife, after that pattern, in order with a threat of fisticuffs."

Montoro turned a laughing face round from the young Indian girl, whose wounds he was examining.

"Is that the way you try to rule your Cempoallan bride, my Juan? I had scarcely thought it from her looks."

"Ah," was the calm reply, "thou seest, friend Montoro, thou knowest nought of women and their natures. Sour looks and savage ways always put the merry light in their eyes, and the laughter on their lips. I have taught thee a useful lesson, see that it proves profitable."

"When the opportunity shall come," came the answer, but more in earnest now than in jest, "I will surely try to profit by thy teaching, but the teaching of thy ways and not thy words."

And then, summoning one of the young maiden's attendants to accompany them, Montoro went with his docile and grateful patient away to a quieter apartment.

The girl-heroine had been quite willing to bear the agonizing pain with uncomplaining fortitude, but she was by no means loth to have the scorched and blistered sores dressed with a skill and tenderness to which she had been hitherto a stranger. Doña Marina stood by the while, gaining a useful lesson, and acting as interpreter.

As the dressing drew to a close the girl said with a sudden tone of animation,--

"The good white-face seems to think I have done something deserving praise; will he let me take him to see what my brothers, and their companions, bear ere they can enter the noble rank of knighthood?"

Her eyes looked so bright and eager that Montoro would have scarcely cared to refuse the request, even had it been an unwelcome one; but as it happened to agree most thoroughly with his own desires to see, and learn, everything that was possible of these wonderful new-found countries before he quitted them, his assent was almost as eager as the offer; and a few minutes hence Montoro, accompanied by his faithful interpreter, and the Cacique's granddaughter, accompanied, as befitted her rank, by half-a-dozen attendants and Doña Marina, set forth on an expedition to one of the neighbouring temples.