Volume I Part 8 (1/2)
”Peace: have I not told thee already that the duel is forbidden under heavy penalties? I swear to thee, they shall be enforced, in all cases of disobedience, were it upon my own brother.--I tell thee again, I can advance thee to no service which will not make me the mark of slander.
There are fools about us, who, I know not why, have tortured anger into hatred, and will now interpret good-will into malignant treachery. But I care not for this: the tall tree catches the bolts that pa.s.s by the underwood,--the rock that rises above the sea, is lashed by breakers, while the grovellers at the bottom lie in tranquillity. It is thus with the condition of man;--peace abides with the lowly, envy shoots arrows at the high. Think of this, think of this, Juan Lerma, when thou hearest me maligned.”
”I shall not need,” said Juan. ”The more dangerous the duty, the more must I thank your excellency for your confidence. I beseech, therefore, that I may be permitted to undertake this present enterprise.”
”Wilt thou march them on foot, and with no better arms than thy Indian battle-axe and buckler?” demanded the general, gravely.
”I have heard,” said Juan, with hesitation, ”that your excellency has in charge certain horses and arms, which of right are mine, as being the gifts of a bountiful friend.”
”It is even so,” said Cortes, ”and the restoration of them, which thou canst justly claim, will cause some heart-burnings. I must crave your pardon for having presumed to bestow them away, as though they had been mine own property.”
”Under your favour,” said Juan, ”considering that they were the gifts of your excellency's ever honoured and beloved lady--”
”Ha!” cried Cortes, with a darkening visage, ”what fiend possessed thee with this impertinent conceit?”
”I beg your excellency's pardon for my presumption,” said Juan, ”which was indeed caused no more by rumour than by a belief that there was no other being in the world, who could thus far have befriended me.”
”Why then,” said Cortes, ”if thou knowest not the donor, it is the more remarkable; for n.o.body else does. Very strange! Two horses, the worst of which is worth full nine hundred crowns, and Bobadil almost priceless;--a suit of armour so well chosen to thy stature, that never a man of us all but is as loose in the cuira.s.s as a shrivelled walnut in the sh.e.l.l,--all very positively sent to _thee_ from Santiago,--for thee, senor, and for n.o.body else!”
”They are saint's gifts,” said Alvarado, devoutly: ”the young man has suffered much, and has found favour with heaven.”
”Senor,” said Juan, mildly, ”you are jesting with me. I will hope, by and by, to discover this benevolent patron. What I have to say now, is that my wants will be content with but one of the horses; the return of which will cause your excellency no trouble,--the same being in the hands of the senor Guzman, who has already signified his intention to restore him.”
”Ha! has he so, indeed? Why thy very enemies have become thy friends!”
”As for the armour, senor,” continued the youth, without thinking fit to notice the latter exclamation, ”I will make no claim to it, if you have bestowed it away. A simple morion and breastplate,--or indeed a good cap and doublet of escaupil, if iron be scarce,--will content me, provided I have but a good sword and steed.”
”Thou shalt have both,” said Cortes, ”and the plate-mail also; which being somewhat too gigantic for any cavalier, and too good for a common soldier, I have preserved, thinking some day to bestow it upon the Tlascalan Xicotencal.--Thou art not loath to undertake this business? I will give thee a day to think of it.”
”Not an hour, senor,” said Juan, ardently. ”Give me but time to exchange these heathen weeds and sandals for good armour and a warhorse, and I will depart instantly, with whatsoever force you may think fit to entrust to me.”
”Art thou really, then, so hot after danger?”
”G.o.d is my protection,” said Juan; ”I thank heaven, that this duty _is_ the most dangerous your excellency could charge me with: it is, for that reason, the most honourable.”
”Sayst thou so?” cried the Captain-General, quickly. ”There is _one_ duty, at least, I could impose upon thee, which thou wouldst not be so hasty to accept? No, faith; for the very name of it has caused the boldest soldier in the army to turn pale.--Get thee to the armory; rest and refresh thyself: to-morrow thou shalt to Tochtepec.”
”Senor, for your love I will do what others will not: I have years of benefaction to repay. I claim to be appointed to that task which is so dreadful to others.”
”By my conscience, no,” said Don Hernan: ”_this_ would be sending thee to execution indeed. And yet I know none so well fitted as thyself: Thou art fearless, cunning, discreet,--at least thou canst be so; and thou art a master of the barbarous language, I think?”
”Your excellency once commended the success with which I laboured to acquire it: my year's wanderings in the west have made it familiar to me almost as the tongue of Castile.”
”It is a good endowment,” said Cortes. ”What thinkest thou of an emba.s.sage to Tenocht.i.tlan?”
As he spoke, p.r.o.nouncing each word with deliberate emphasis, he bent his eyes searchingly on Juan, and a smile crept over his features, as he perceived the young man lose colour and start.
”The man that would do me _that_ duty,” he continued, gravely, ”would indeed deserve well, not only of myself, but of his majesty, the king of Spain. But think not I mean to overtask thee,--or that I seriously designed to try thee with this rack of probation.--There are bounds to the courage of us all.”
”Your excellency mistakes me,” said Juan, dispelling all emotion with a single effort, and speaking with a voice as firm as it was serious: ”if there be but one good can come of such an emba.s.sy--”