Part 16 (1/2)
When Roger approached, he bowed low, saluting in Mexican fas.h.i.+on. The king rose as he approached, looking with lively curiosity and interest at the strange visitor, of whom he had already received so many reports.
Roger, on his part, regarded the king with no less interest. He saw before him a young man of three or four and twenty, with a bright intelligent face. His figure showed signs of considerable strength as well as activity, and there was a certain martial air in his carriage that spoke of the soldier rather than of the king. The n.o.bles had endeavored to impress upon Roger the necessity for him to salute the king, by prostrating himself on the ground as they themselves did. But Roger had refused to comply with their request.
”King Hal, himself, would not expect me to go before him like a worm, if he gave me audience,” he said to himself; ”and I will not demean myself, as an Englishman, to bow as a slave before any other monarch. Besides, to do so would be to acknowledge that I was his humble subject, and would at once show that I have no pretension, whatever, to be the superior creature they seem to consider me. I will salute him as his n.o.bles saluted me--paying due deference to his rank, and no more.”
The king himself did not seem displeased at Roger's breach of the usual etiquette. He looked with admiration at the tall figure of this strange white man, and at the frank and honest expression of his pleasant face, his blue eyes, and sunny hair.
”Whoever he may be, he comes not as an enemy,” he said in a low voice to his sister, who was standing next to him. ”There is neither deceit nor treachery in that face.”
Then he said aloud to Roger:
”You are welcome, white stranger. We rejoice to see you in our courts. We have heard wonderful stories concerning you, and about the people in the distant lands from which you come; and shall gladly hear them from your lips, for we are told that you speak our tongue.”
”I thank you, King Cacama, and I am glad, indeed, that it is my good fortune to behold so great and magnificent a king. I have come, as you have heard, from a far country, towards the rising sun; so far that it takes many months to traverse the sea which divides it from you; but had the distance been far greater than it is, I should have been more than repaid for the journey by the sight of you, and of this great city over which you rule.”
”And is it true that your people move about the sea in floating castles, and that they fight with weapons that make a noise like thunder, and can batter down walls at a distance of two miles?”
”They can kill men at more than that distance, Sire, but for battering down walls they are used at shorter distances. The s.h.i.+ps are, as you say, floating castles, and will carry hundreds of men, with provisions and stores for many months, besides merchandise and goods. These castles are armed with weapons such as you speak of, some of them carrying twenty or more; besides which each man carries a weapon of the same kind, but small and light in make, so that it can be carried on the shoulders. These weapons also make a great noise, though not comparable with that of the large pieces, which are called cannon.”
”And they have animals on which they sit, and which carry them at a speed far greater than that at which a man can run?”
”That is so, Sire.”
”Of what color are they, and of what form?”
”They are all colors: some are black, and some white, others brown, or gray, or roan, or bay.”
This answer seemed to surprise the king more than any other he had heard. All the beasts and birds with which he was acquainted were of the particular color which appertained to their species, and that the animals of any one kind should thus differ in so extraordinary degree from each other struck him as remarkable, indeed.
Roger had always been fond of sketching, and had often whiled away dull hours on board s.h.i.+p with pencil and paintbrush; and his cousins at home had quite a collection of sketches that he made for them in, foreign parts. He now said:
”If your Majesty will order that gentleman, who is at present taking my likeness, to hand me a sheet of paper and his brushes, I will endeavor to draw for your Majesty an outline of the animal I speak of, and which we call a horse.”
At the king's order the scribe at once handed the necessary materials to Roger, who in three or four minutes dashed off a spirited sketch of a horse, with a rider upon his back. The king was greatly struck with the representation. The Aztecs possessed the art of copying objects with a fair amount of accuracy, but the figures were stiff and wooden, without the slightest life or animation. To the king, then, this little sketch appeared almost supernatural. Here was before him an animal which looked alive, as if already in movement. He pa.s.sed it to those next to him, and continued the conversation.
”And the men fight on the backs of those animals?”
”The n.o.bles and a certain portion of the troops fight on horseback, the rest of the army on foot.”
”And are not these animals frightened at the terrible noises made by the weapons you speak of?”
”They speedily become accustomed to them, Your Majesty, just as men do; and will carry their rider into the midst of the enemy, however great the noise. Some other time I will draw for your Majesty a representation of one of our knights, or captains, charging in full armor; which is, as you have perhaps heard, made of a metal that is not known here.”
”And these weapons that you speak of are made of the same metal?”
”They are mostly made of that metal, Sire, though sometimes they are made of a metal which we call bra.s.s, which is a compound of copper, and of another metal called tin, which adds greatly to its strength and hardness.”
”But how do they work? What machinery can be used to hurl a missile at so vast a distance?”