Part 15 (1/2)
”English, are you indeed? I thought you must be so.”
”Yes, Senor, I am an Englishman at your service,” I said; for I had agreed with Pedro that it would be better to give a correct account of ourselves, than to attempt any deception.
There is an old saying--”Tell the truth and shame the devil.” Now, although there can be no doubt that there are occasions when concealment is excusable, yet these are very rare exceptions, which occur but seldom in most men's lives; and as a general rule a strict adherence to the truth is the only just and safe course, even though it may apparently lead one into a difficulty. There is something degrading in a falsehood or prevarication, which must injure the self-respect of a man of proper feeling. It is a sin! There is no disguising it. People often tell falsehoods to conceal what they have done wrong, but that does not make the sin less; it is only adding one sin to another. I say--and I know that am right--Tell truth, and stand the consequences.
I therefore told the officer my true history. How my father's house had been taken possession of by the Spanish troops; how the Indians had attacked and burned it; and how they had carried me off desperately wounded. Then I described how I had been nursed by an Indian and his wife among the mountains till I had recovered, when the dreadful report reached me of the destruction of my family; and how the Indian had allowed me to set out for the purpose of discovering what had really been their fate, when, in the course of my search, we had been captured by Catari and his followers. The officer seemed much interested by the account I gave him, and to feel real compa.s.sion for my loss.
”And the youth with you, who is he?” he asked.
I told him, a Spaniard, who in his childhood had been carried off by the Indians, and educated by the good priest of their village.
”It is a very strange story you tell me,” he remarked. ”However, I believe you, for your face a.s.sures me that you speak the truth. You both must now accompany me to the place where I am ordered to wait with my men for the return of the rest of the troops. I hear the bugles sounding the recall, and they probably have by this time completely dispersed all the Indians who remained together; but their orders were not to venture beyond the defile, lest the brigands should rea.s.semble and cut them off. We must march at once, for the colonel commanding our force will soon be there.”
I was very well satisfied with his manner of speaking, and felt certain that we should be kindly treated. Fortunately for us, our mules had managed to get out of the way of the troops as they pa.s.sed by. With much sagacity they had, when we jumped off their backs, crept into a wide crevice in the cliffs, and we found them close to the spot feeding on the leaves of some shrubs which grew among the rocks. On our claiming them as our property, the officer allowed us to mount them; and he invited us to ride by his side at the head of his men. His questions were sometimes very puzzling, for I resolved not to give him any information which might prove injurious to the Indians. I could not, however, deny that I had seen a large Indian force collected very different to that of Catari; and I warned him, that should the Spaniards ever meet it, they would find a victory far more difficult than the one they had just achieved.
”Do you think you could lead us to the place where this army you speak of is encamped?” he asked suddenly, after a considerable silence.
”Senor,” I replied, with a look of indignation, ”has anything I have said induced you to believe that I could be capable of so dishonourable and ungrateful an action! The Indians treated me with mercy and kindness. Is such the return you would expect an honest man to make?”
He shrugged his shoulders. ”Why, no,” he replied; ”to confess the truth, I should not expect you to do so willingly, and I would myself rather not be asked to do such a thing; but I am sorry to tell you that there are others, my superiors, who are not so likely to pay respect to your scruples; and I am afraid that they will insist on your acting as our guide if it is thought expedient to march against the new made Inca.”
”But surely I have the power to refuse to do any such thing,” I exclaimed indignantly.
”But you might be compelled to do it,” he urged. ”It would be dangerous for you to refuse. Our generals are not in a mood to be trifled with.”
”I trust that no power could compel me to act so treacherous a part,” I replied calmly. ”You, Senor, I am sure, would not so advise me.”
He seemed to be a man imbued with the old chivalrous spirit of the Castilians; and my appeal to his honourable sentiments pleased him.
”You are a brave youth, and I will do my best to serve you,” he replied.
”I am in duty bound to tell my colonel what I know, but you can a.s.sure him that you could not find your way back, which I think you probably would not be able to do.”
This conversation caused me much anxiety, though I resolved at all hazards not to betray my friends. I could not also but regret that I had been so incautious as to have allowed myself to confess that I had seen the army of the Inca. I should have been more on my guard; and, without departing from the truth, I might have declined answering any questions which could draw the information from me. The frankness and kind manner of the officer threw me off it, however; and I found myself placed in a position I had not at all contemplated. I received a lesson which I hope may be useful to any of my readers who may be placed in similar circ.u.mstances. The officer, whose name I found was Don Eduardo da Vila, and a captain of the regiment with which he was serving, was only doing his duty in cross-questioning me; and I believe that he was very sorry that the information he had obtained was likely to prove injurious to me.
We soon reached the spot he had spoken of, where we were to wait for his colonel. It was a rocky height with precipitous sides, of which a portion of only one was accessible, so that it was a complete natural fortress. It commanded the entrance to the ravine; and had the Indians possessed any knowledge of warfare, they would have taken another route, however circuitous, rather than have attempted to pa.s.s so formidable a position without first ascertaining that it was not occupied by an enemy. It was nearly dusk, and the chief body of the Spanish troops had not yet returned from their work of bloodshed. Don Eduardo began to be uneasy.
”Can the rebels have rallied and attacked them?” I heard him say to one of his inferiors. ”I thought I heard the bugles sounding as we left the ravine.”
”There can be no doubt about it. If they had been attacked, the sound of the firing would have reached us,” was the answer.
”They have probably pursued the enemy further than they intended,” said Don Eduardo, walking a short distance off from where we stood. He was evidently becoming anxious on the subject.
”What do you think about it?” I asked Pedro, who had overheard what had been said.
”It is possible that the Indians may have rallied and cut off the Spaniards,” he answered. ”Yet I do not think that they will have had the courage to do so. At first I was almost hoping it, as I thought we might have a better chance of escaping, but then I remembered that though many of the Indians might have been my friends, the Spaniards are my countrymen. I trust no disaster has befallen them.”
Don Eduardo and his lieutenant returned after the consultation; and the latter, with a sergeant's party, was ordered to proceed along the ravine, to ascertain what had become of the main body. We watched the lieutenant and his men enter the ravine and advance, till they were hid by a turn of the cliffs. Don Eduardo then called us to him, and asked us our opinion as to what was likely to have occurred. We both a.s.sured him that we did not think the Indians would have rallied. What we said appeared somewhat to relieve his mind, and sitting down on a rock, he lighted a cigar, and offered some to us, which we declined, as neither Pedro nor I smoked. The men meantime had piled their arms, and lighted fires to boil their cocoa and to cook their provisions. Some were thus employed, others were smoking, and others had thrown themselves on the ground to rest after the fatigues of the day. We learned that they had received notice of the march of Catari's army from an Indian spy, many of whom were in the pay of the Spaniards. They had watched for them for several days, and at last the colonel commanding the force had resolved to occupy the post where he attacked them, till they should attempt to pa.s.s. The view around the spot we occupied was very picturesque. It was also a very strong natural position, while its picturesqueness was increased by the horses and baggage mules picqueted under the trees, the gay costumes of their drivers, the camp-fires, the piles of arms, and the groups of soldiers, in varied att.i.tudes, scattered here and there.
The sun had set and the short twilight had come to an end, when the tramp of men's feet at a distance reached our ears. We listened anxiously. It was that of trained soldiers; and in a short time we saw them looming through the gloom of the evening. As they drew near, the advanced guard uttered a shout to warn us of their approach, which was responded to by the party on the hill. Soon afterwards they appeared on the summit, and as they marched into the centre of the s.p.a.ce, they piled their arms, and joined their comrades round the fires. Each man came laden with the spoils they had retaken from the Indians.