Part 53 (1/2)
”The holy baptism thou hast just received, benighted woman,” he said, sternly, ”is healthful, or not, as it is improved. Thou hast just made such a demand, as already loadeth thy soul with a fresh load of sin, and the time for repentance is short. No Christian can have two wives at the same time, and G.o.d knoweth no higher or lower, no first or last, between those whom his church hath united. Thou canst not be a second wife, the first still living.”
”No would be to Caonabo--to Luis, yes. Fifty, hundred wife to dear Luis!
No possible?”
”Self-deluded and miserable girl, I tell thee no.
No--no--no--never--never--never. There is such a taint of sin in the very question, as profaneth this holy chapel, and the symbols of religion by which it is filled. Ay, kiss and embrace thy cross, and bow down thy very soul in despair, for”--
”Lord Archbishop,” interrupted the Marchioness of Moya, with a sharpness of manner that denoted how much her ancient spirit was aroused, ”there is enough of this. The ear thou wouldst wound, at such a moment, is already deaf, and the pure spirit hath gone to the tribunal of another, and, as I trust, a milder judge. Ozema is dead!”
It was, indeed, true. Startled by the manner of the prelate--bewildered with the confusion of ideas that had grown up between the dogmas that had been crowded on her mind, of late, and those in which she had been early taught; and physically paralyzed by the certainty that her last hope of a union with Luis was gone, the spirit of the Indian girl had deserted its beautiful tenement, leaving on the countenance of the corpse a lovely impression of the emotions that had prevailed during the last moments of its earthly residence.
Thus fled the first of those souls that the great discovery was to rescue from the perdition of the heathen. Casuists may refine, the learned dilate, and the pious ponder, on its probable fate in the unknown existence that awaited it: but the meek and submissive will hope all from the beneficence of a merciful G.o.d. As for Isabella, she received a shock from the blow that temporarily checked her triumph at the success of her zeal and efforts. Little, however, did she foresee, that the event was but a type of the manner in which the religion of the cross was to be abused and misunderstood; a sort of practical prognostic of the defeat of most of her own pious and gentle hopes and wishes.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER x.x.xI.
”A perfect woman, n.o.bly planned To warn, to comfort, and command; And yet a spirit still, and bright, With something of an angel light.”
Wordsworth.
The l.u.s.tre that was thrown around the voyage of Columbus, brought the seas into favor. It was no longer deemed an inferior occupation, or unsuited to n.o.bles to engage in enterprises on its bosom; and that very propensity of our hero, which had so often been mentioned to his prejudice in former years, was now frequently named to his credit.
Though his real connection with Columbus is published, for the first time, in these pages, the circ.u.mstance having escaped the superficial investigations of the historians, it was an advantage to him to be known as having manifested what might be termed a maritime disposition, in an age when most of his rank and expectations were satisfied with the adventures of the land. A sort of fas.h.i.+on was got up on behalf of the ocean; and the cavalier who had gazed upon its vast and unbroken expanse, beyond the view of his mother earth, regarded him who had not, much as he who had won his spurs looked down upon him who had suffered the proper period of life to pa.s.s without making the effort. Many of the n.o.bles whose estates touched the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, fitted out small coasters--the yachts of the fifteenth century--and were met following the sinuosities of the glorious coasts of that part of the world, endeavoring to derive a satisfaction from a pursuit that it seemed meritorious to emulate. That all succeeded who attempted thus to transfer the habits of courts and castles to the narrow limits of xebecs and feluccas, it would be hazarding too much to a.s.sert; but there is little doubt that the spirit of the period was sustained by the experiments, and that men were ashamed to condemn that, which it was equally the policy and the affectation of the day to extol. The rivalry between Spain and Portugal, too, contributed to the feeling of the times; and there was soon greater danger of the youth who had never quitted his native sh.o.r.es, being pointed out for his want of spirit, than that the adventurer should be marked for his eccentric and vagrant instability.
In the meanwhile, the seasons advanced, and events followed, in their usual course, from cause to effect. About the close of the month of September, the ocean, just without that narrow and romantic pa.s.s that separates Europe from Africa, while it connects the transcendent Mediterranean with the broader wastes of the Atlantic, was glittering with the rays of the rising sun, which, at the same time, was gilding the objects that rose above the surface of the blue waters. The latter were not numerous, though a dozen different sails were moving slowly on their several courses, impelled by the soft breezes of the season. Of these, our business is with one alone, which it may be well to describe in a few general terms.
The rig of the vessel in question was latine, perhaps the most picturesque of all that the ingenuity of man has invented as the accessory of a view, whether given to the eye by means of the canvas, or in its real dimensions and substance. Its position, too, was precisely that which a painter would have chosen as the most favorable to his pencil, the little felucca running before the wind, with one of its high pointed sails extended on each side, resembling the pinions of some enormous bird that was contracting its wings as it settled toward its nest. Unusual symmetry was apparent in the spars and rigging; while the hull, which was distinguished by lines of the fairest proportions, had a neatness and finish that denoted the yacht of a n.o.ble.
The name of this vessel was the ”Ozema,” and she carried the Count of Llera with his youthful bride. Luis, who had acquired much of the mariner's skill, in his many voyages, directed the movements in person, though Sancho Mundo strutted around her decks with an air of authority, being the t.i.tular, if not the real patron of the craft.
”Ay--ay--good Bartolemeo, lash that anchor well,” said the last, as he inspected the forecastle, in his hourly rounds; ”for fair as may be the breezes, and mild as is the season, no one can know what humor the Atlantic may be in, when it fairly waketh up. In the great voyage to Cathay, nothing could have been more propitious than our outward pa.s.sage, and nothing savor more of devils incarnate, than the homeward.
Dona Mercedes maketh an excellent sailor, as ye all may see; and no one can tell which way, or how far, the humor of the conde may carry him, when he hath once taken his departure. I tell ye, fellows, that glory and gold may alight upon ye all, any minute, in the service of such a n.o.ble; and I hope none of ye have forgotten to come provided with hawk's-bells, which are as remarkable for a.s.sembling doblas, as the bells of the Seville cathedral are for a.s.sembling Christians.”
”Master Mundo,” called out our hero, from the quarter-deck, ”let there be a man sent to the extremity of the fore-yard, and bid him look along the sea to the north and east of us.”
This command interrupted one of Sancho's self-glorifying discourses, and compelled him to see the order executed. When the seaman who was sent aloft, had ”s.h.i.+nned” his way to the airy and seemingly perilous position he had been told to occupy, an inquiry went up from the deck, to demand what he beheld.
”Senor Conde,” answered the fellow, ”the ocean is studded with sails, in the quarter your Excellency hath named, looking like the mouth of the Tagus, at the first of a westerly wind.”
”Canst thou tell them, and let me know their numbers?” called out Luis.
”By the ma.s.s, Senor,” returned the man, after taking time to make his count, ”I see no less than sixteen--nay, now I see another, a smaller just opening from behind a carrack of size--seventeen, I make them in all.”
”Then are we in season, love!” exclaimed Luis, turning toward Mercedes with delight--”once more shall I grasp the hand of the admiral, ere he quitteth us again for Cathay. Thou seemest glad as myself, that our effort hath not failed.”
”That which gladdeneth thee, Luis, is sure to gladden me,” returned the bride; ”where there is but one interest, there ought to be but one wish.”