CHAPTER XXIX.
THE GLORIOUS TRIUMPH OF TLALCO
Tlalco the Toltec, one of the few survivors in Mexico of thatmysterious race to which Huetzin traced his own ancestry, had, likeTlahuicol, been born in the land of the Mayans. Here he was educatedas a priest of that gentle religion of love and peace, whose gods werethe Four Winds, and other forces of nature, and the symbol of which wasa cross. It had at one time been the faith of all Anahuac; but, withthe coming of the conquering Aztecs, it was supplanted by the cruelworship of Huitzil, the war-god, whose blood-stained priests demandedthe sacrifice of thousands of human victims every year.
The young Toltec first heard of these abominations with horror, butnot until his only brother, to whom he was passionately attached, wascaptured by an Aztec war party and doomed to sacrifice in Tenochtitlan,did he conceive the idea of devoting his life to conflict with the godswho exacted them. His first act was to secretly enlist a number ofyoung men whose enthusiasm in the sacred cause was equal to his own.Then, like a crusader of the old world, he entered Anahuac at the headof his little band. Its members were distributed by twos, in variousplaces, from which they were to maintain a regular correspondencewith him. By this means he gained early information of all importantoccurrences throughout the kingdom, and was able to lay his plansaccordingly. He established himself in Tenochtitlan. Here he beardedthe lion in its den, by entering the service of the temple, andbecoming a candidate for the priesthood of Huitzil. While thus engagedhe first heard of Tlahuicol.
Tlalco's nature was to plot and work by hidden means; but he couldrejoice in the downright blows of the warrior, who fought openlyagainst those of whom he was the secret enemy. Though he did notmeet Tlahuicol, nor even learn that he, too, was a Toltec, until thevery hour of the latter's death, he made himself familiar with everyevent of the great warrior's career. He augmented the prestige ofthe Tlascalan war-chief by originating, and spreading, the prophecythat through Tlahuicol should Huitzil fall. It was this prophecy, aknowledge of which had become general at the time the Tlascalan wascaptured by his enemies, that caused Topil, the chief priest, to regardhim with such a bitter hatred, and demand his life of Montezuma.
After the death of Tlahuicol, and the startling discovery that he,too, was a Toltec, Tlalco determined to protect the children of thehero so far as lay in his power, and at the same time to use them infurthering his own life-work. All his hopes of ultimate success nowcentred in the mysterious white conquerors, who, bearing a cross astheir symbol of faith, had recently arrived on the coast. Therefore,after rescuing Huetzin from the knife of sacrifice, he bade him seekand join himself to them, thus, unwittingly, reiterating the lastinstructions of Tlahuicol.
Tiata, he saved from Topil's vengeance, by causing the praises of herbeauty to be so artfully sounded within hearing of Cacama, Princeof Tezcuco, that the latter demanded her in marriage of Montezuma.By Tlalco's instructions the girl claimed the privilege of a year'smourning for her parents, before becoming a bride. This was granted;but in accordance with established custom, she was compelled to resideat the Court of Tezcuco, in charge of a noble lady of the prince'shousehold. From here Tiata, who was now enlisted heart and soul inthe cause of the Toltec, for the overthrow of the hated religion towhich her parents had been sacrificed, constantly furnished Tlalcowith important information. Under the strict watch of her duenna, shewas permitted to visit Tenochtitlan, to witness the first entry of thewhite conquerors, and her heart swelled with pride at the sight of herbrother leading his army of Tlascalans. No opportunity was allowedher for communicating with him, ere he was spirited away through theefforts of the chief priest.
When Tlalco learned that Huetzin was, for the second time, about to beled to the altar of sacrifice, he was for a moment at a loss how toact. Had the message sent to Sandoval been traced to him, his influencewith Montezuma, as an Aztec priest, would have been destroyed. Then heremembered Tiata's presence in the palace, and sent the message throughher. That very evening, after her strange interview with Sandoval,the Toltec maiden was compelled to return to Tezcuco, where, for manyweeks, she was so closely watched, that she could gain no intelligenceof her brother's fate.
At length, wearying of Cacama's unwelcome attentions, Tiata found meansof sending an appeal to Tlalco for aid in escaping them. At the sametime she informed him that the Tezcucan prince was secretly raising anarmy with which he proposed to destroy the Spaniards, and usurp theAztec throne. Tlalco immediately caused this information to be conveyedto Cortes, who as promptly effected the arrest of Cacama, whom heafterward held as a captive in the Spanish quarters.
After the departure of Cortes to meet Narvaez, Tlalco found that,by his constant intercourse with the king, upon whose superstitiousnature he had been able to exert a powerful influence, he was excitingthe jealousy and suspicions of Topil. Therefore, as a measure ofprecaution, he suddenly ceased his visits to the captive monarch. Atthe same time, in order that he might still be kept informed of allthat was taking place in the palace, he conceived and carried out theplan of having Tiata, disguised as a youth, installed as a king's page.Before she found an opportunity of communicating with her brother, sheheard that he was to take the dangerous task of conveying the news ofAlvarado's desperate situation to Cortes, and this was the first bitof information that she sent to Tlalco. He, knowing only too well whatprecautions were taken to prevent the escape of any such messenger, andthe terrible fate already suffered by those previously sent out, for amoment believed the son of Tlahuicol to be lost. Then a high resolvefilled his breast.
Although not a warrior, he determined on a course of action from whichmany a one entitled to the name might well have shrunk. He knew himselfto be an object of such suspicion to Topil, that the spies of thechief priest were ever on his track, and that his every movement wasinstantly reported to his arch enemy. He knew, too, that Topil, havingbecome superstitious through the prophecy concerning Tlahuicol, and thetwo miraculous escapes of Tlahuicol's son from his clutches, thirstedfor the blood of the young Toltec, with an eagerness that would havegiven anything short of life itself for his capture. Knowing all this,Tlalco still watched for Huetzin's departure from the palace, followedhim to the place of his capture, allowed the guards to lead him forsome distance, thus withdrawing themselves from the causeway, andthen effected the prisoner's release by stepping forward, and, in hiscapacity of priest, boldly denouncing their stupidity, and holdingtheir attention by his words, until Huetzin had slipped away anddisappeared.
Five minutes later, Tlalco was seized and dragged before Topil. "Ha,false priest! Have I discovered thee at last?" cried the latter in avoice well nigh choked with fury. "Long hast thou deceived me, but mineeyes are at length opened, and now shalt thou experience the wrath ofthe outraged gods, in a manner that will teach thee its possibilitiesas thou hast not dreamed of them."
From that moment the body of Tlalco was racked by a system of the mostexquisite tortures that even the practiced ingenuity of Aztec priestscould invent. For two weeks these had been prolonged, until, at theend of that time, the poor, agonized wreck of humanity lay whereHuetzin discovered it, still conscious, but with the brave spirit justlingering on the threshold of its mortal home, before departing to therealms of immortality.
Heart-sick and filled with horror, at thus finding his friend andthrice preserver, the young Toltec knelt beside the hideous altar, andsaid: "Tlalco, my father, dost thou know me?"
The face of the dying man was lit with a glow of recognition, and in awhisper so feeble as to be barely heard, he answered:
"It is the son of Tlahuicol."
Then they severed the cruel bonds and lifted him tenderly into the openair, where the sightless face instinctively turned toward the glowingnoonday sun. Here Huetzin moistened his blackened lips and bathed hisface with water that was at the same time mingled with his own scaldingtears of fierce indignation, love, and pity. While he was thus engaged,his white comrades, filled with a furious rage, tore the grinningwar-god from his blood-soaked t
hrone and rolled the senseless image outon the broad arena which had but just been the scene of so terrible abattle.
"The hour of the false God has come!" cried Huetzin in the Toltectongue: "The white conquerors are about to hurl him from his loftiesttemple! Now is thy victory gained, O Tlalco! for the power of Aztecpriesthood is broken forever! Oh, that my father could have livedto see this day! Oh, that Tiata might have seen it! The gods of theToltecs, thy gods and my gods, O Tlalco, be praised that thou and I arepermitted to share in this their glorious triumph!"
As he uttered these words in a tongue understood only by the dying man,the face of the youth was transfigured, the wrath of battle passed fromit and it shone with the light of an all-absorbing enthusiasm.
"Lift me in thy strong arms," whispered Tlalco, "and make for me theholy sign."
As Huetzin lifted him and gently touched him on forehead, breast, andeach shoulder, there came an exultant shout from the soldiers, a soundof crashing, splintering, and rending, as the ponderous image of thegod thundered down to the bottom of the vast pyramid and a great cry ofterror and consternation rose from the multitudes below. At the samemoment the tortured features of him whom Huetzin supported, becameradiant with the glory of the immortal gods, to whom his glad spiritwas already winging its triumphant flight.