CHAPTER XXV
THE BURYING OF MONTEZUMA'S TREASURE
Cuitlahua was crowned Emperor of the Aztecs in succession to his
brother Montezuma, while I lay sick with the wound given me by the
sword of de Garcia, and also with that which I had received on the
altar of sacrifice. This hurt had found no time to heal, and in
the fierce fighting on the Night of Fear it burst open and bled
much. Indeed it gave me trouble for years, and to this hour I feel
it in the autumn season. Otomie, who nursed me tenderly, and so
strange is the heart of woman, even seemed to be consoled in her
sorrow at the loss of her father and nearest kin, because I had
escaped the slaughter and won fame, told me of the ceremony of the
crowning, which was splendid enough. Indeed the Aztecs were almost
mad with rejoicing because the Teules had gone at last. They
forgot, or seemed to forget, the loss of thousands of their bravest
warriors and of the flower of their rank, and as yet, at any rate,
they did not look forward to the future. From house to house and
street to street ran troops of young men and maidens garlanded with
flowers, crying, 'The Teules are gone, rejoice with us; the Teules
are fled!' and woe to them who were not merry, ay, even though
their houses were desolate with death. Also the statues of the
gods were set up again on the great pyramid and their temples
rebuilt, the holy crucifix that the Spaniards had placed there
being served as the idols Huitzel and Tezcat had been served, and
tumbled down the sides of the teocalli, and that after sacrifice of
some Spanish prisoners had been offered in its presence. It was
Guatemoc himself who told me of this sacrilege, but not with any
exultation, for I had taught him something of our faith, and though
he was too sturdy a heathen to change his creed, in secret he
believed that the God of the Christians was a true and mighty God.
Moreover, though he was obliged to countenance them, because of the
power of the priests, like Otomie, Guatemoc never loved the horrid
rites of human sacrifice.
Now when I heard this tale my anger overcame my reason, and I spoke
fiercely, saying:
'I am sworn to your cause, Guatemoc, my brother, and I am married
to your blood, but I tell you that from this hour it is an accursed
cause; because of your bloodstained idols and your priests, it is
accursed. That God whom you have desecrated, and those who serve
Him shall come back in power, and He shall sit where your idols sat
and none shall stir Him for ever.'
Thus I spoke, and my words were true, though I do not know what put
them into my heart, since I spoke at random in my wrath. For to-
day Christ's Church stands upon the site of the place of sacrifice
in Mexico, a sign and a token of His triumph over devils, and there
it shall stand while the world endures.
'You speak rashly, my brother,' Guatemoc answered, proudly enough,
though I saw him quail at the evil omen of my words. 'I say you
speak rashly, and were you overheard there are those,
notwithstanding the rank we have given you, the honour which you
have won in war and council, and that you have passed the stone of
sacrifice, who might force you to look again upon the faces of the
beings you blaspheme. What worse thing has been done to your
Christian God than has been done again and again to our gods by
your white kindred? But let us talk no more of this matter, and I
pray you, my brother, do not utter such ill-omened words to me
again, lest it should strain our love. Do you then believe that
the Teules will return?'
'Ay, Guatemoc, so surely as to-morrow's sun shall rise. When you
held Cortes in your hand you let him go, and since then he has won
a victory at Otompan. Is he a man, think you, to sheathe the sword
that he has once drawn, and go down into darkness and dishonour?
Before a year is past the Spaniards will be back at the gates of
Tenoctitlan.'
'You are no comforter to-night, my brother,' said Guatemoc, 'and
yet I fear that your words are true. Well, if we must fight, let
us strive to win. Now, at least, there is no Montezuma to take the
viper to his breast and nurse it till it stings him.' Then he rose
and went in silence, and I saw that his heart was heavy.
On the morrow of this talk I could leave my bed, and within a week
I was almost well. Now it was that Guatemoc came to me again,
saying that he had been bidden by Cuitlahua the emperor, to command
me to accompany him, Guatemoc, on a service of trust and secrecy.
And indeed the nature of the service showed how great a confidence
the leaders of the Aztecs now placed in me, for it was none other
than the hiding away of the treasure that had been recaptured from
the Spaniards on the Night of Fear, and with it much more from the
secret stores of the empire.
At the fall of darkness we started, some of the great lords,
Guatemoc and I, and coming to the water's edge, we found ten large
canoes, each laden with something that was hidden by cotton cloths.
Into these canoes we entered secretly, thinking that none saw us,
three to a canoe, for there were thirty of us in all, and led by
Guatemoc, we paddled for two hours or more across the Lake Tezcuco,
till we reached the further shore at a spot where this prince had a
fair estate. Here we landed, and the cloths were withdrawn from
the cargoes of the canoes, which were great jars and sacks of gold
and jewels, besides many other precious objects, among them a
likeness of the head of Montezuma, fashioned in solid gold, which
was so heavy that it was as much as Guatemoc and I could do to lift
it between us. As for the jars, of which, if my memory serves me,
there were seventeen, six men must carry each of them by the help
of paddles lashed on either side, and then the task was not light.
All this priceless stuff we bore in several journeys to the crest
of a rise some six hundred paces distant from the water, setting it
down by the mouth of a shaft behind the shelter of a mound of
earth. When everything was brought up from the boats, Guatemoc
touched me and another man, a great Aztec noble, born of a
Tlascalan mother, on the shoulder, asking us if we were willing to
descend with him into the hole, and there to dispose of the
treasure.
'Gladly,' I answered, for I was curious to see the place, but the
noble hesitated awhile, though in the end he came with us, to his
ill-fortune.
Then Guatemoc took torches in his hand, and was lowered into the
shaft by a rope. Next came my turn, and down I went, hanging to
the cord like a spider to its thread, and the hole was very deep.
At length I found myself standing by the side of Guatemoc at the
foot of the shaft, round which, as I saw by the light of the torch
he carried, an edging of dried bricks was built up to the height of
a man above our heads. Resting on this edging and against the wall
of the shaft, was a massive block of stone sculptured with the
picture writing of the Aztecs. I glanced at the writing, which I
could now read well, and saw that it recorded the burying of the
treasure in the first year of Cuitlahua, Emperor of Mexico, and
also a most fearful curse on him who should dare to steal it.
Beyond us and at right angles to the shaft ran another passage, ten
paces in length and high enough for a man to walk in, which led to
a chamber hollowed in the earth, as large as that wherein I write
to-day at Ditchingham. By the mouth of this chamber were placed
piles of adobe bricks and mortar, much as the blocks of hewn stone
had been placed in that underground vault at Seville where Isabella
de Siguenza was bricked up living.
'Who dug this place?' I asked.
'Those who knew not what they dug,' answered Guatemoc. 'But see,
here is our companion. Now, my brother, I charge you be surprised
at nothing which comes to pass, and be assured I have good reason
for anything that I may do.'
Before I could speak again the Aztec noble was at our side. Then
those above began to lower the jars and sacks of treasure, and as
they reached us one by one, Guatemoc loosed the ropes and checked
them, while the Aztec and I rolled them down the passage into the
chamber, as here in England men roll a cask of ale. For two hours
and more we worked, till at length all were down and the tale was
complete. The last parcel to be lowered was a sack of jewels that
burst open as it came, and descended upon us in a glittering rain
of gems. As it chanced, a great necklace of emeralds of surpassing
size and beauty fell over my head and hung upon my shoulders.
'Keep it, brother,' laughed Guatemoc, 'in memory of this night,'
and nothing loth, I hid the bauble in my breast. That necklace I
have yet, and it was a stone of it--the smallest save one--that I
gave to our gracious Queen Elizabeth. Otomie wore it for many
years, and for this reason it shall be buried with me, though its
value is priceless, so say those who are skilled in gems. But
priceless or no, it is doomed to lie in the mould of Ditchingham
churchyard, and may that same curse which is graved upon the stone
that hides the treasure of the Aztecs fall upon him who steals it
from my bones.
Now, leaving the chamber, we three entered the tunnel and began the
work of building the adobe wall. When it was of a height of
between two and three feet, Guatemoc paused from his labour and
bade me hold a torch aloft. I obeyed wondering what he wished to
see. Then he drew back some three paces into the tunnel and spoke
to the Aztec noble, our companion, by name.
'What is the fate of discovered traitors, friend?' he said in a
voice that, quiet though it was, sounded very terrible; and, as he
spoke, he loosed from his side the war club set with spikes of
glass that hung there by a thong.
Now the Aztec turned grey beneath his dusky skin and trembled in
his fear.
'What mean you, lord?' he gasped.
'You know well what I mean,' answered Guatemoc in the same terrible
voice, and lifted the club.
Then the doomed man fell upon his knees crying for mercy, and his
wailing sounded so awful in that deep and lonely place that in my
horror I went near to letting the torch fall.
'To a foe I can give mercy--to a traitor, none,' answered Guatemoc,
and whirling the club aloft, he rushed upon the noble and killed
him with a blow. Then, seizing the body in his strong embrace, he
cast it into the chamber with the treasure, and there it lay still
and dreadful among the gems and gold, the arms, as it chanced,
being wound about two of the great jars as though the dead man
would clasp them to his heart.
Now I looked at Guatemoc who had slain him, wondering if my hour
was at hand also, for I knew well that when princes bury their
wealth they hold that few should share the secret.
'Fear not, my brother,' said Guatemoc. 'Listen: this man was a
thief, a dastard, and a traitor. As we know now, he strove twice
to betray us to the Teules. More, it was his plan to show this
nest of wealth to them, should they return again, and to share the
spoil. All this we learned from a woman whom he thought his love,
but who was in truth a spy set to worm herself into the secrets of
his wicked heart. Now let him take his fill of gold; look how he
grips it even in death, a white man could not hug the stuff more
closely to his breast. Ah! Teule, would that the soil of Anahuac
bore naught but corn for bread and flint and copper for the points
of spears and arrows, then had her sons been free for ever. Curses
on yonder dross, for it is the bait that sets these sea sharks
tearing at our throats. Curses on it, I say; may it never glitter
more in the sunshine, may it be lost for ever!' And he fell
fiercely to the work of building up the wall.
Soon it was almost done; but before we set the last bricks, which
were shaped in squares like the clay lump that we use for the
building of farmeries and hinds' houses in Norfolk, I thrust a
torch through the opening and looked for the last time at the
treasure chamber that was also a dead-house. There lay the
glittering gems; there, stood upon a jar, gleamed the golden head
of Montezuma, of which the emerald eyes seemed to glare at me, and
there, his back resting against this same jar, and his arms
encircling two others to the right and left, was the dead man. But
he was no longer dead, or so it seemed to me; at the least his eyes
that were shut had opened, and they stared at me like the emerald
eyes of the golden statue above him, only more fearfully.
Very hastily I withdrew the torch, and we finished in silence.
When it was done we withdrew to the end of the passage and looked
up the shaft, and I for one was glad to see the stars shining in
heaven above me. Then we made a double loop in the rope, and at a
signal were hauled up till we hung over the ledge where the black
mass of marble rested, the tombstone of Montezuma's treasure, and
of him who sleeps among it.
This stone, that was nicely balanced, we pushed with our hands and
feet till presently it fell forward with a heavy sound, and
catching on the ridge of brick which had been prepared to receive
it, shut the treasure shaft in such a fashion that those who would
enter it again must take powder with them.
Then we were dragged up, and came to the surface of the earth in
safety.
Now one asked of the Aztec noble who had gone down with us and
returned no more.
'He has chosen to stay and watch the treasure, like a good and
loyal man, till such time as his king needs it,' answered Guatemoc
grimly, and the listeners nodded, understanding all.
Then they fell to and filled up the narrow shaft with the earth
that lay ready, working without cease, and the dawn broke before
the task was finished. When at length the hole was full, one of
our companions took seeds from a bag and scattered them on the
naked earth, also he set two young trees that he had brought with
him in the soil of the shaft, though why he did this I do not know,
unless it was to mark the spot. All being done we gathered up the
ropes and tools, and embarking in the canoes, came back to Mexico
in the morning, leaving the canoes at a landing-place outside the
city, and finding our way to our homes by ones and twos, as we
thought unnoticed of any.
Thus it was that I helped in the burying of Montezuma's treasure,
for the sake of which I was destined to suffer torture in days to
come. Whether any will help to unbury it I do not know, but till I
left the land of Anahuac the secret had been kept, and I think that
then, except myself, all those were dead who laboured with me at
this task. It chanced that I passed the spot as I came down to
Mexico for the last time, and knew it again by the two trees that
were growing tall and strong, and as I went by with Spaniards at my
side, I swore in my heart that they should never finger the gold by
my help. It is for this reason that even now I do not write of the
exact bearings of the place where it lies buried with the bones of
the traitor, though I know them well enough, seeing that in days to
come what I set down here might fall into the hands of one of their
nation.
And now, before I go on to speak of the siege of Mexico, I must
tell of one more matter, namely of how I and Otomie my wife went up
among the people of the Otomie, and won a great number of them back
to their allegiance to the Aztec crown. It must be known, if my
tale has not made this clear already, that the Aztec power was not
of one people, but built up of several, and that surrounding it
were many other tribes, some of whom were in alliance with it or
subject to it, and some of whom were its deadly enemies. Such for
instance were the Tlascalans, a small but warlike people living
between Mexico and the coast, by whose help Cortes overcame
Montezuma and Guatemoc. Beyond the Tlascalans and to the west, the
great Otomie race lived or lives among its mountains. They are a
braver nation than the Aztecs, speaking another language, of a
different blood, and made up of many clans. Sometimes they were
subject to the great Aztec empire, sometimes in alliance, and
sometimes at open war with it and in close friendship with the
Tlascalans. It was to draw the tie closer between the Aztecs and
the Otomies, who were to the inhabitants of Anahuac much what the
Scottish clans are to the people of England, that Montezuma took to
wife the daughter and sole legitimate issue of their great chief or
king. This lady died in childbirth, and her child was Otomie my
wife, hereditary princess of the Otomie. But though her rank was
so great among her mother's people, as yet Otomie had visited them
but twice, and then as a child. Still, she was well skilled in
their language and customs, having been brought up by nurses and
tutors of the tribes, from which she drew a great revenue every
year and over whom she exercised many rights of royalty that were
rendered to her far more freely than they had been to Montezuma her
father.
Now as has been said, some of these Otomie clans had joined the
Tlascalans, and as their allies had taken part in the war on the
side of the Spaniards, therefore it was decided at a solemn council
that Otomie and I her husband should go on an embassy to the chief
town of the nation, that was known as the City of Pines, and strive
to win it back to the Aztec standard.
Accordingly, heralds having been sent before us, we started upon
our journey, not knowing how we should be received at the end of
it. For eight days we travelled in great pomp and with an ever-
increasing escort, for when the tribes of the Otomie learned that
their princess was come to visit them in person, bringing with her
her husband, a man of the Teules who had espoused the Aztec cause,
they flocked in vast numbers to swell her retinue, so that it came
to pass that before we reached the City of Pines we were
accompanied by an army of at least ten thousand mountaineers, great
men and wild, who made a savage music as we marched. But with them
and with their chiefs as yet we held no converse except by way of
formal greeting, though every morning when we started on our
journey, Otomie in a litter and I on a horse that had been captured
from the Spaniards, they set up shouts of salutation and made the
mountains ring. Ever as we went the land like its people grew
wilder and more beautiful, for now we were passing through forests
clad with oak and pine and with many a lovely plant and fern.
Sometimes we crossed great and sparkling rivers and sometimes we
wended through gorges and passes of the mountains, but every hour
we mounted higher, till at length the climate became like that of
England, only far more bright. At last on the eighth day we passed
through a gorge riven in the red rock, which was so narrow in
places that three horsemen could scarcely have ridden there
abreast. This gorge, that is five miles long, is the high road to
the City of Pines, to which there was no other access except by
secret paths across the mountains, and on either side of it are
sheer and towering cliffs that rise to heights of between one and
two thousand feet.
'Here is a place where a hundred men might hold an army at bay,' I
said to Otomie, little knowing that it would be my task to do so in
a day to come.
Presently the gorge took a turn and I reined up amazed, for before
me was the City of Pines in all its beauty. The city lay in a
wheelshaped plain that may measure twelve miles across, and all
around this plain are mountains clad to their summits with forests
of oak and cedar trees. At the back of the city and in the centre
of the ring of mountains is one, however, that is not green with
foliage but black with lava, and above the lava white with snow,
over which again hangs a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of
fire by night. This was the volcan Xaca, or the Queen, and though
it is not so lofty as its sisters Orizaba, Popo, and Ixtac, to my
mind it is the loveliest of them all, both because of its perfect
shape, and of the colours, purple and blue, of the fires that it
sends forth at night or when its heart is troubled. The Otomies
worshipped this mountain as a god, offering human sacrifice to it,
which was not wonderful, for once the lava pouring from its bowels
cut a path through the City of Pines. Also they think it holy and
haunted, so that none dare set foot upon its loftier snows.
Nevertheless I was destined to climb them--I and one other.
Now in the lap of this ring of mountains and watched over by the
mighty Xaca, clad in its robe of snow, its cap of smoke, and its
crown of fire, lies, or rather lay the City of Pines, for now it is
a ruin, or so I left it. As to the city itself, it was not so
large as some others that I have seen in Anahuac, having only a
population of some five and thirty thousand souls, since the
Otomie, being a race of mountaineers, did not desire to dwell in
cities. But if it was not great, it was the most beautiful of
Indian towns, being laid out in straight streets that met at the
square in its centre. All along these streets were houses each
standing in a garden, and for the most part built of blocks of lava
and roofed with a cement of white lime. In the midst of the square
stood the teocalli or pyramid of worship, crowned with temples that
were garnished with ropes of skulls, while beyond the pyramid and
facing it, was the palace, the home of Otomie's forefathers, a
long, low, and very ancient building having many courts, and
sculptured everywhere with snakes and grinning gods. Both the
palace and the pyramid were cased with a fine white stone that
shone like silver in the sunlight, and contrasted strangely with
the dark-hued houses that were built of lava.
Such was the City of Pines when I saw it first. When I saw it last
it was but a smoking ruin, and now doubtless it is the home of bats
and jackals; now it is 'a court for owls,' now 'the line of
confusion is stretched out upon it and the stones of emptiness fill
its streets.'
Passing from the mouth of the gorge we travelled some miles across
the plain, every foot of which was cultivated with corn, maguey or
aloe, and other crops, till we came to one of the four gates of the
city. Entering it we found the flat roofs on either side of the
wide street crowded with hundreds of women and children who threw
flowers on us as we passed, and cried, 'Welcome, princess!
Welcome, Otomie, princess of the Otomie!' And when at length we
reached the great square, it seemed as though all the men in
Anahuac were gathered there, and they too took up the cry of
'Welcome, Otomie, princess of the Otomie!' till the earth shook
with the sound. Me also they saluted as I passed, by touching the
earth with their right hands and then holding the hand above the
head, but I think that the horse I rode caused them more wonder
than I did, for the most of them had never seen a horse and looked
on it as a monster or a demon. So we went on through the shouting
mass, followed and preceded by thousands of warriors, many of them
decked in glittering feather mail and bearing broidered banners,
till we had passed the pyramid, where I saw the priests at their
cruel work above us, and were come to the palace gates. And here
in a strange chamber sculptured with grinning demons we found rest
for a while.
On the morrow in the great hall of the palace was held a council of
the chiefs and head men of the Otomie clans, to the number of a
hundred or more. When all were gathered, dressed as an Aztec noble
of the first rank, I came out with Otomie, who wore royal robes and
looked most beautiful in them, and the council rose to greet us.
Otomie bade them be seated and addressed them thus:
'Hear me, you chiefs and captains of my mother's race, who am your
princess by right of blood, the last of your ancient rulers, and
who am moreover the daughter of Montezuma, Emperor of Anahuac, now
dead to us but living evermore in the Mansions of the Sun. First I
present to you this my husband, the lord Teule, to whom I was given
in marriage when he held the spirit of the god Tezcat, and whom,
when he had passed the altar of the god, being chosen by heaven to
aid us in our war, I wedded anew after the fashion of the earth,
and by the will of my royal brethren. Know, chiefs and captains,
that this lord, my husband, is not of our Indian blood, nor is he
altogether of the blood of the Teules with whom we are at war, but
rather of that of the true children of Quetzal, the dwellers in a
far off northern sea who are foes to the Teules. And as they are
foes, so this my lord is their foe, and as doubtless you have
heard, of all the deeds of arms that were wrought upon the night of
the slaying of the Teules, none were greater than his, and it was
he who first discovered their retreat.
'Chiefs and captains of the great and ancient people of the Otomie,
I your princess have been sent to you by Cuitlahua, my king and
yours, together with my lord, to plead with you on a certain
matter. Our king has heard, and I also have heard with shame, that
many of the warriors of our blood have joined the Tlascalans, who
were ever foes to the Aztecs, in their unholy alliance with the
Teules. Now for a while the white men are beaten back, but they
have touched the gold they covet, and they will return again like
bees to a half-drained flower. They will return, yet of themselves
they can do nothing against the glory of Tenoctitlan. But how
shall it go if with them come thousands and tens of thousands of
the Indian peoples? I know well that now in this time of trouble,
when kingdoms crumble, when the air is full of portents, and the
very gods seem impotent, there are many who would seize the moment
and turn it to their profit. There are many men and tribes who
remember ancient wars and wrongs, and who cry, "Now is the hour of
vengeance, now we will think on the widows that the Aztec spears
have made, on the tribute which they have wrung from our poverty to
swell their wealth, and on the captives who have decked the altars
of their sacrifice!"
'Is it not so? Ay, it is so, and I cannot wonder at it. Yet I ask
you to remember this, that the yoke you would help to set upon the
neck of the queen of cities will fit your neck also. O foolish
men, do you think that you shall be spared when by your aid
Tenoctitlan is a ruin and the Aztecs are no more a people? I say
to you never. The sticks that the Teules use to beat out the life
of Tenoctitlan shall by them be broken one by one and cast into the
fire to burn. If the Aztecs fall, then early or late every tribe
within this wide land shall fall. They shall be slain, their
cities shall be stamped flat, their wealth shall be wrung from
them, and their children shall eat the bread of slavery and drink
the water of affliction. Choose, ye people of the Otomie. Will
you stand by the men of your own customs and country, though they
have been your foes at times, or will you throw in your lot with
the stranger? Choose, ye people of the Otomie, and know this, that
on your choice and that of the other men of Anahuac, depends the
fate of Anahuac. I am your princess, and you should obey me, but
to-day I issue no command. I say choose between the alliance of
the Aztec and the yoke of the Teule, and may the god above the
gods, the almighty, the invisible god, direct your choice.'
Otomie ceased and a murmur of applause went round the hall. Alas,
I can do no justice to the fire of her words, any more than I can
describe the dignity and loveliness of her person as it seemed in
that hour. But they went to the hearts of the rude chieftains who
listened. Many of them despised the Aztecs as a womanish people of
the plains and the lakes, a people of commerce. Many had blood
feuds against them dating back for generations. But still they
knew that their princess spoke truth, and that the triumph of the
Teule in Tenoctitlan would mean his triumph over every city
throughout the land. So then and there they chose, though in after
days, in the stress of defeat and trouble, many went back upon
their choice as is the fashion of men.
'Otomie,' cried their spokesman, after they had taken counsel
together, 'we have chosen. Princess, your words have conquered us.
We throw in our lot with the Aztecs and will fight to the last for
freedom from the Teule.'
'Now I see that you are indeed my people, and I am indeed your
ruler,' answered Otomie. 'So the great lords who are gone, my
forefathers, your chieftains, would have spoken in a like case.
May you never regret this choice, my brethren, Men of the Otomie.'
And so it came to pass that when we left the City of Pines we took
from it to Cuitlahua the emperor, a promise of an army of twenty
thousand men vowed to serve him to the death in his war against the
Spaniard.
