Volume I Part 23 (2/2)
”Mercy!” he cried, ”mercy! mercy! I will confess--I can save all your lives--Mercy! mercy!”
Of all the sights of horror and disgust, villany, transformed at the death-hour, into its natural character and original of cowardice, is among the most appalling. Villafana was as brave as a ruffian could be; but when imagination is linked in the same spirit with vice, courage expires almost at the same moment with hope. With a weapon in his hand, and that at liberty, Villafana, perhaps, would have manifested all the valour in which despair perceives the only hope, and died like a man. As it was, bound and grasped in the arms of strong men, entirely helpless and equally without hope, his death staring him in the face, he gave himself up at once to unmanly fears, and wept, screamed, and prayed, until the guards, at watch in the vestibule, sank upon their knees and conned over their beads, to divert their senses from cries so agonized and so horrible.
As he strove to prostrate himself before his inexorable judges, he was pulled up by the cavaliers, and among others by Don Francisco de Guzman, whose countenance he recognized.
”Save me, Guzman! save me!” he cried; ”for thou wert once of the party--Save me!”
”Peace, wolf--”
”Mercy! mercy! n.o.ble senor!” he continued, turning to Cortes: ”I am but one of many. Guzman is as false as I; I charge him with treason: he has abused your excellency's ear!--Listen, senores, and spare me my life: give me a day--give me but to-night, to pray and confess, and you shall have all. There are cavaliers among us--Mercy, for the love of heaven!--Camarga, the Dominican,--Don Palmerino de Castro,--Muertazo of Toledo, Carabo of Seville,--Artiaga, Santa-Rosa, Bravo, Aljaraz, and an hundred more--”
”Peace, lying villain!” cried the Captain-General--”What ho, the rope!
quick, the rope!”
”A moment to repent! a moment to repent!” shrieked the victim, struggling so violently to bring his hands before him, as if to clasp them in prayer, that the silken band crackled behind him, and his hands turned black with congested blood; ”a moment to repent! for I am a sinner. What! would you condemn my soul, too? Saints, hear me! angels, plead for me! A priest, for the love of heaven! I killed Artiaga of Cadiz; I scuttled the s.h.i.+p at Alonso, drowned the nuns, and stole the church-plate--Call Magdalena--Where's Magdalena?--You are murdering me!
Mercy! mercy! I killed Hilario, too--I poniarded him in the old wounds, inflicted by Juan Lerma--I have much to repent--A priest, for the love of G.o.d! A priest, oh, a priest!”
Thus raved the villain, stained with a thousand crimes; and if aught had been wanting to steel the hearts of his executioners, enough was divulged in the unavailing abandonment with which he accused himself of misdeeds, so many and so atrocious. While his neck was yet free from the rope, he struggled violently, but without any attempt to do a mischief to his unrelenting murderers; his resistance was, indeed, like that of a cur, under the chastis.e.m.e.nt of a cruel and brutal master, which howls and contends, and yet fears to employ its fangs against the tyrant. But when he found, at last, that the cavaliers were actually putting the hasty halter about his neck, his struggles were not greater to escape than to inflict injury. He shook and tossed his head in distraction, and Don Francisco de Guzman, endeavouring to seize him by the beard, he caught the hand of the cavalier betwixt his teeth, and held it with the gripe of a tiger.
”h.e.l.l confound thee, wolf!” cried Guzman, groaning with pain, and striking him over the face with the hilt of his sword, but in vain: ”Help me, cavaliers, or he will have my hand off!--Villain, unlock thy teeth.--”
”Stand aside--This will unloose thee,” said one, thrusting his rapier into the thigh of the vindictive wretch; who no sooner felt the cold steel penetrate his flesh, than he opened his mouth to utter a yell.
”Whip him up _now_.--So much for traitors!”
It was the last scream of the a.s.sa.s.sin. His lips uttered one more cry to heaven; the name of Magdalena was cut short, as the noose closed upon his throat, and ended in a hoa.r.s.e, rattling, gulphing whine, that did not itself prevail beyond the s.p.a.ce of a second. As he shot up to the top of the window, an intense glare of lightning flashed through the alabaster, and his figure, traced upon that l.u.s.trous and ghastly medium, was seen dangling and writhing in the death-agony. The next moment, the huge curtain was drawn over the dreadful spectacle: but those who paused a moment, to look back, could behold the convulsions of the dying miscreant giving motion, and sometimes protrusion, to the dark folds of the drapery.--When all was silent, in the darkness of the night, the watchmen in the vestibule could yet hear the pattering of blood-drops falling from his mangled limb, upon the sonorous wood of the platform.
But there were other scenes now occurring, which, for a time, drove from their thoughts the memory of Villafana.
CHAPTER XXI.
The scene of death in which they were engaged, had so employed the thoughts of the cavaliers, that they were, for a time, insensible to many tumultuous noises in the city, which, beginning at the moment when the struggles and outcries of Villafana were fiercest and loudest, increased every instant, until all was uproar.
At first, as they rushed in disorder to the doors, they thought the din was caused by a renewal of the storm, or rather the sudden outbursting of a tornado; which, overwhelming the houses of some of the poorer citizens, and burying them among the ruins, might account for the screams and yells, that were mingled with other noises. But they soon exchanged this fear for one more stirring, when, as they rushed into the air, they heard an alarum ringing from the chapel-bell on the top of the pyramid, drums beating to arms, arquebuses firing in several different quarters, and were made sensible that a conflict was raging in the town.
”Dios!” cried one; ”the conspirators are upon us! Let us back to the hall and defend ourselves!”
”My life upon it,” said Gaspar, ”the conspirators will not stir till Villafana opens his lips to them.--Heaven rest his soul!--Hark! these are the yells of Indians.”
”On, friends!” exclaimed Cortes, perceiving the garden full of soldiers, rus.h.i.+ng from various parts of the palace, as if to seek the fray. ”This is Tlascalan work--a knavery of Xicotencal. Hah! hark! see! 'tis an a.s.sault upon the prison! Ho, Castilians! ho, Christians! cavaliers and soldiers, to arms! haste, to arms!”
While the soldiers, collecting together at the well-known voice of the Captain-General, began to rush with him towards the prison, over which, besides hearing the shouting of the watchmen at the doors, they beheld three blazing arrows shot up into the air, their alarm was directed to another quarter, by a violent cannonade from the squadron, moored yet at the entrance of the little river; and looking that way, they perceived to their astonishment and fear, no less than four of the brigantines suddenly enveloped in flames.
”Guzman and Quinones!” cried Cortes, with instant determination, ”to the prison, with what force ye can pick up on the way. Shoot all fugitives, as well as all a.s.sailants. The rest follow me to the river; for I would mine arms should be burned, rather than my vessels.”
By this time, all the Spaniards who were capable of bearing arms, were in the open air, and following not less the shouts of Cortes than the crash of the falconets, ran hastily towards the fleet, which, it was now evident, was furiously beset by mult.i.tudes of Indians in canoes. The flash of the explosions and the flames bursting ruddily out from sails and cordage, revealed them cl.u.s.tering with impetuosity around the devoted vessels, whose crews, it was equally apparent, were making a gallant resistance. In this light, the houses bordering upon the water were seen covered with citizens, looking on with a tranquillity, which showed that their share in the unexpected hostilities, if indeed they had any, was entirely pa.s.sive. A more agreeable sight was disclosed to Cortes, as he ran onwards, in the appearance of many thousand Tlascalans, rus.h.i.+ng down the narrow meadows which bordered the ca.n.a.l, with such alacrity of speed and such furious cries of 'Tlascala!' and 'Castilla!' as convinced him of their fidelity and affection.
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