CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
I was alone with my host in the apartment I had hitherto occupied. Thefemales had retired to another part of the house; and I noticed thatSeguin, on entering, had looked to the door, turning the bolt.
What terrible proof was he going to exact of my faith, of my love? Washe about to take my life, or bind me by some fearful oath, this man ofcruel deeds? Dark suspicions shot across my mind, and I sat silent, butnot without emotions of fear.
A bottle of wine was placed between us, and Seguin, pouring out twoglasses, asked me to drink. This courtesy assured me. "But how if thewine be poi--?" He swallowed his own glass before the thought hadfairly shaped itself.
"I am wronging him," thought I. "This man, with all, is incapable of anact of treachery like that."
I drank up the wine. It made me feel more composed and tranquil.
After a moment's silence he opened the conversation with the abruptinterrogatory, "What do you know of me?"
"Your name and calling; nothing more."
"More than is guessed at here;" and he pointed significantly to thedoor. "Who told you thus much of me?"
"A friend, whom you saw at Santa Fe."
"Ah! Saint Vrain; a brave, bold man. I met him once in Chihuahua. Didhe tell you no more of me than this?"
"No. He promised to enter into particulars concerning you, but thesubject was forgotten, the caravan moved on, and we were separated."
"You heard, then, that I was Seguin the Scalp-hunter? That I wasemployed by the citizens of El Paso to hunt the Apache and Navajo, andthat I was paid a stated sum for every Indian scalp I could hang upontheir gates? You heard all this?"
"I did."
"It is true."
I remained silent.
"Now, sir," he continued, after a pause, "would you marry my daughter,the child of a wholesale murderer?"
"Your crimes are not hers. She is innocent even of the knowledge ofthem, as you have said. You may be a demon; she is an angel."
There was a sad expression on his countenance as I said this.
"Crimes! demon!" he muttered, half in soliloquy. "Ay, you may wellthink this; so judges the world. You have heard the stories of themountain men in all their red exaggeration. You have heard that, duringa treaty, I invited a village of the Apaches to a banquet, and poisonedthe viands--poisoned the guests, man, woman, and child, and then scalpedthem! You have heard that I induced to pull upon the drag rope of acannon two hundred savages, who know not its use; and then fired thepiece, loaded with grape, mowing down the row of unsuspecting wretches!These, and other inhuman acts, you have no doubt heard of?"
"It is true. I have heard these stories among the mountain hunters; butI knew not whether to believe them."
"Monsieur, they are false; all false and unfounded."
"I am glad to hear you say this. I could not now believe you capable ofsuch barbarities."
"And yet, if they were true in all their horrid details, they would fallfar short of the cruelties that have been dealt out by the savage foe tothe inhabitants of this defenceless frontier. If you knew the historyof this land for the last ten years; its massacres and its murders; itstears and its burnings; its spoliations; whole provinces depopulated;villages given to the flames; men butchered on their own hearths; women,beautiful women, carried into captivity by the desert robber! Oh, God!and I too have shared wrongs that will acquit me in your eyes, perhapsin the eyes of Heaven!"
The speaker buried his face in his hands, and leant forward upon thetable. He was evidently suffering from some painful recollection.After a moment he resumed--"I would have you listen to a short historyof my life." I signified my assent; and after filling and drinkinganother glass of wine, he proceeded.
"I am not a Frenchman, as men suppose. I am a Creole, a native of NewOrleans. My parents were refugees from Saint Domingo, where, after theblack revolution, the bulk of their fortune was confiscated by thebloody Christophe.
"I was educated for a civil engineer; and, in this capacity, I wasbrought out to the mines of Mexico, by the owner of one of them, whoknew my father. I was young at the time, and I spent several yearsemployed in the mines of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi.
"I had saved some money out of my pay, and I began to think of openingupon my own account.
"Rumours had long been current that rich veins of gold existed upon theGila and its tributaries. The washings had been seen and gathered inthese rivers; and the mother of gold, the milky quartz rock, cropped outeverywhere in the desert mountains of this wild region.
"I started for this country with a select party; and, after traversingit for weeks, in the Mimbres mountains, near the head waters of theGila, I found the precious ore in its bed. I established a mine, and infive years was a rich man.
"I remembered the companion of my youth, the gentle, the beautifulcousin who had shared my confidence, and inspired me with my firstpassion. With me it was first and last; it was not, as is often thecase under similar circumstances, a transient thing. Through all mywanderings I had remembered and loved her. Had she been as true to me?
"I determined to assure myself; and leaving my affairs in the hands ofmy mayoral, I set out for my native city.
"Adele had been true; and I returned, bringing her with me.
"I built a house in Valverde, the nearest inhabited district to my mine.
"Valverde was then a thriving place; it is now a ruin, which you mayhave seen in your journey down.
"In this place we lived for years, in the enjoyment of wealth andhappiness. I look back upon those days as so many ages of bliss. Ourlove was mutual and ardent; and we were blessed with two children, bothgirls. The youngest resembled her mother; the other, I have been told,was more like myself. We doted, I fear, too much on these pledges. Wewere too happy in their possession.
"At this time a new Governor was sent to Santa Fe, a man who, by hiswantonness and tyranny, has since then ruined the province. There hasbeen no act too vile, no crime too dark, for this human monster.
"He offered fair enough at first, and was feasted in the houses of thericos through the valley. As I was classed among these, I was honouredwith his visits, and frequently. He resided principally at Albuquerque;and grand fetes were given at his palace, to which my wife and I wereinvited as special guests. He in return often came to our house inValverde, under pretence of visiting the different parts of theprovince.
"I discovered, at length, that his visits were solely intended for mywife, to whom he had paid some flattering attentions.
"I will not dwell on the beauty of Adele, at this time. You may imaginethat for yourself; and, monsieur, you may assist your imagination byallowing it to dwell on those graces you appear to have discovered inher daughter, for the little Zoe is a type of what her mother was.
"At the time I speak of she was still in the bloom of her beauty. Thefame of that beauty was on every tongue, and had piqued the vanity ofthe wanton tyrant. For this reason I became the object of his friendlyassiduities.
"I had divined this; but confiding in the virtue of my wife, I took nonotice of his conduct. No overt act of insult as yet claimed myattention.
"Returning on one occasion from a long absence at the mines, Adeleinformed me what, through delicacy, she had hitherto concealed--ofinsults received from his excellency at various times, but particularlyin a visit he had paid her during my absence.
"This was enough for Creole blood. I repaired to Albuquerque; and onthe public plaza, in presence of the multitude, I chastised theinsulter.
"I was seized and thrown into a prison, where I lay for several weeks.When I was freed, and sought my home again, it was plundered anddesolate. The wild Navajo had been there; my household gods werescattered and broken, and my child, oh, God! my little Adele, wascarried captive to the mountains!"
"And your wife? your other child?" I inquired, eager to know the rest.
"They had escaped. In the t
errible conflict--for my poor peons battledbravely--my wife, with Zoe in her arms, had rushed out and hidden in acave that was in the garden. I found them in the ranche of a vaquero inthe woods, whither they had wandered."
"And your daughter Adele--have you heard aught of her since?"
"Yes, yes, I will come to that in a moment.
"My mine, at the same time, was plundered and destroyed; many of theworkmen were slaughtered before they could escape; and the work itself,with my fortune, became a ruin.
"With some of the miners, who had fled, and others of Valverde, who,like me, had suffered, I organised a band, and followed the savage foe;but our pursuit was vain, and we turned back, many of us broken inhealth and heart.
"Oh, monsieur, you cannot know what it is to have thus lost a favouritechild! you cannot understand the agony of the bereaved father!"
The speaker pressed his head between his hands, and remained for amoment silent. His countenance bore the indications of heartrendingsorrow.
"My story will soon be told--up to the present time. Who knows the end?
"For years I hung upon the frontiers of the Indian country, hunting formy child. I was aided by a small band, most of them unfortunates likemyself, who had lost wife or daughter in a similar manner. But ourmeans became exhausted, and despair wore us out. The sympathies of mycompanions grew old and cold. One after another gave up. The Governorof New Mexico offered us no aid. On the contrary, it was suspectedthen--it is now known--that the Governor himself was in secret leaguewith the Navajo chiefs. He had engaged to leave them unmolested; whilethey, on their side, promised to plunder only his enemies!
"On learning this terrible secret, I saw the hand that had dealt me theblow. Stung by the disgrace I had put upon him, as well as by my wife'sscorn, the villain was not slow to avenge himself.
"Since then his life has been twice in my power, but the taking of itwould, most probably, have forfeited my own, and I had objects for whichto live. I may yet find a reckoning day for him.
"I have said that my band melted away. Sick at heart, and conscious ofdanger in New Mexico, I left the province, and crossed the Jornada to ElPaso. Here for a while I lived, grieving for my lost child.
"I was not long inactive. The frequent forays made by the Apaches intoSonora and Chihuahua had rendered the government more energetic in thedefence of the frontier. The presidios were repaired and garrisonedwith more efficient troops, and a band of rangers organised, whose paywas proportioned to the number of scalps they might send back to thesettlements.
"I was offered the command of this strange guerilla; and in the hopethat I might yet recover my child, I accepted it--I became ascalp-hunter.
"It was a terrible commission; and had revenge alone been my object, itwould long since have been gratified. Many a deed of blood have weenacted; many a scene of retaliatory vengeance have we passed through.
"I knew that my captive daughter was in the hands of the Navajoes. Ihad heard so at various times from prisoners whom I had taken; but I wasalways crippled for want of strength in men and means. Revolution afterrevolution kept the states in poverty and civil warfare, and ourinterests were neglected or forgotten. With all my exertions, I couldnever raise a force sufficient to penetrate that desert country north ofthe Gila, in which lie the towns of the savage Navajoes."
"And you think--"
"Patience! I shall soon finish. My band is now stronger than ever. Ihave received certain information, by one just escaped from a captivityamong the Navajoes, that the warriors of both tribes are about toproceed southward. They are mustering all their strength, with theintention of making a grand foray; even, as we have heard, to the gatesof Durango. It is my design, then, to enter their country while theyare absent, and search for my daughter."
"And you think she still lives?"
"I know it. The same man who brought me this news, and who, poorfellow, has left his scalp and ears behind him, saw her often. She isgrown up, and is, he says, a sort of queen among them, possessed ofstrange powers and privileges. Yes, she still lives; and if it be myfortune to recover her, then will this tragic scene be at an end. Iwill go far hence."
I had listened with deep attention to the strange recital. All thedisgust with which my previous knowledge of this man's character hadinspired me vanished from my mind, and I felt for him compassion--ay,admiration. He had suffered much. Suffering atones for crime, and inmy sight he was justified. Perhaps I was too lenient in my judgment.It was natural I should be so.
When the revelation was ended, I was filled with emotions of pleasure.I felt a vivid joy to know that she was not the offspring of the demon Ihad deemed him.
He seemed to divine my thoughts; for there was a smile of satisfaction,I might say triumph, on his countenance, as he leaned across the tableto refill the wine.
"Monsieur, my story must have wearied you. Drink!"
There was a moment's silence as we emptied the glasses.
"And now, sir, you know the father of your betrothed, at least somewhatbetter than before. Are you still in the mind to marry her?"
"Oh, sir! she is now, more than ever, to me a sacred object."
"But you must win her, as I have said, from me."
"Then, sir, tell me how. I am ready for any sacrifice that may bewithin my power to make."
"You must help me to recover her sister."
"Willingly."
"You must go with me to the desert."
"I will."
"Enough. We start to-morrow." And he rose, and began to pace the room.
"At an early hour?" I inquired, half fearing that I was about to bedenied an interview with her whom I now more than ever longed toembrace.
"By daybreak," he replied, not seeming to heed my anxious manner.
"I must look to my horse and arms," said I, rising, and going towardsthe door, in hopes of meeting her without.
"They have been attended to; Gode is there. Come, boy! She is not inthe hall. Stay where you are. I will get the arms you want. Adele!Zoe! Oh, doctor, you are returned with your weeds! It is well. Wejourney to-morrow. Adele, some coffee, love! and then let us have somemusic. Your guest leaves you to-morrow."
The bright form rushed between us with a scream.
"No, no, no, no!" she exclaimed, turning from one to the other, with thewild appeal of a passionate heart.
"Come, little dove!" said the father, taking her by the hands; "do notbe so easily fluttered. It is but for a short time. He will returnagain."
"How long, papa? How long, Enrique?"
"But a very short while. It will be longer to me than to you, Zoe."
"Oh! no, no; an hour will be a long time. How many hours do you think,Enrique?"
"Oh! we shall be gone days, I fear."
"Days! Oh, papa! Oh, Enrique! Days!"
"Come, little chit; they will soon pass. Go! Help your mamma to makethe coffee."
"Oh, papa! Days; long days. They will not soon pass when I am alone."
"But you will not be alone. Your mamma will be with you."
"Ah!"
And with a sigh, and an air of abstraction, she departed to obey thecommand of her father. As she passed out at the door, she again sighedaudibly.
The doctor was a silent and wondering spectator of this last scene; andas her figure vanished into the hall, I could hear him muttering tohimself--
"Oh ja! Poor leetle fraulein! I thought as mosh."