‘I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
And whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy. And behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.’
So he might have cried, so, indeed, he did cry in other words, for, as the painting of the skeletons and the three monarchs that is upon the north wall of the aisle of Ditchingham Church shows forth so aptly, kings have their fates and happiness is not to them more than to any other of the sons of men.
Indeed, it is not at all, as my benefactor Fonseca once said to me; true happiness is but a dream from which we awake continually to the sorrows of our short laborious day.
Then my thoughts flew to the vision of that most lovely maid, the princess Otomie, who, as I believed, had looked on me so kindly, and I found that vision sweet, for I was young, and the English Lily, my own love, was far away and lost to me for ever.
Was it then wonderful that I should find this Indian poppy fair?
Indeed, where is the man who would not have been overcome by her sweetness, her beauty, and that stamp of royal grace which comes with kingly blood and the daily exercise of power?
Like the rich wonders of the robe she wore, her very barbarism, of which now I saw but the better side, drew and dazzled my mind’s eye, giving her woman’s tenderness some new quality, sombre and strange, an eastern richness which is lacking in our well schooled English women, that at one and the same stroke touched both the imagination and the senses, and through them enthralled the heart.
For Otomie seemed such woman as men dream of but very rarely win, seeing that the world has few such natures and fewer nurseries where they can be reared.
At once pure and passionate, of royal blood and heart, rich natured and most womanly, yet brave as a man and beautiful as the night, with a mind athirst for knowledge and a spirit that no sorrows could avail to quell, ever changing in her outer moods, and yet most faithful and with the honour of a man, such was Otomie, Montezuma’s daughter, princess of the Otomie.
Was it wonderful then that I found her fair, or, when fate gave me her love, that at last I loved her in turn?
And yet there was that in her nature which should have held me back had I but known of it, for with all her charm, her beauty and her virtues, at heart she was still a savage, and strive as she would to hide it, at times her blood would master her.
But as I lay in the chamber of the palace of Chapoltepec, the tramp of the guards without my door reminded me that I had little now to do with love and other delights, I whose life hung from day to day upon a hair.
To-morrow the priests would decide my fate, and when the priests were judges, the prisoner might know the sentence before it was spoken.
I was a stranger and a white man, surely such a one would prove an offering more acceptable to the gods than that furnished by a thousand Indian hearts.
I had been snatched from the altars of Tobasco that I might grace the higher altars of Tenoctitlan, and that was all.
My fate would be to perish miserably far from my home, and in this world never to be heard of more.
Musing thus sadly at last I slept.
When I woke the sun was up.
Rising from my mat I went to the wood-barred window place and looked through.
The palace whence I gazed was placed on the crest of a rocky hill.
On one side this hill was bathed by the blue waters of Tezcuco, on the other, a mile or more away, rose the temple towers of Mexico.
Along the slopes of the hill, and in some directions for a mile from its base, grew huge cedar trees from the boughs of which hung a grey and ghostly-looking moss.
These trees are so large that the smallest of them is bigger than the best oak in this parish of Ditchingham, while the greatest measures twenty-two paces round the base.
Beyond and between these marvellous and ancient trees were the gardens of Montezuma, that with their strange and gorgeous flowers, their marble baths, their aviaries and wild beast dens, were, as I believe, the most wonderful in the whole world.*
‘At the least,’ I thought to myself, ‘even if I must die, it is something to have seen this country of Anahuac, its king, its customs, and its people.’ * The gardens of Montezuma have been long destroyed, but some of the cedars still flourish at Chapoltepec, though the Spaniards cut down many. One of them, which tradition says was a favourite tree of the great emperor’s, measures (according to a rough calculation the author of this book made upon the spot) about sixty feet round the bole. It is strange to think that a few ancient conifers should alone survive of all the glories of Montezuma’s wealth and state. —AUTHOR.
CHAPTER XVI
THOMAS BECOMES A GOD
Little did I, plain Thomas Wingfield, gentleman, know, when I rose that morning, that before sunset I should be a god, and after Montezuma the Emperor, the most honoured man, or rather god, in the city of Mexico.
It came about thus.
When I had breakfasted with the household of the prince Guatemoc, I was led to the hall of justice, which was named the ‘tribunal of god.’
Here on a golden throne sat Montezuma, administering justice in such pomp as I cannot describe.
About him were his counsellors and great lords, and before him was placed a human skull crowned with emeralds so large that a blaze of light went up from them.
In his hand also he held an arrow for a sceptre.
Certain chiefs or caciques were on their trial for treason, nor were they left long in doubt as to their fate.
For when some evidence had been heard they were asked what they had to say in their defence. Each of them told his tale in few words and short.
Then Montezuma, who till now had said and done nothing, took the painted scroll of their indictments and pricked it with the arrow in his hand where the picture of each prisoner appeared upon the scroll.
Then they were led away to death, but how they died I do not know.
When this trial was finished certain priests entered the hall clothed in sable robes, their matted hair hanging down their backs.
They were fierce, wild-eyed men of great dignity, and I shivered when I saw them.
I noticed also that they alone made small reverence to the majesty of Montezuma.
The counsellors and nobles having fallen back, these priests entered into talk with the emperor, and presently two of them came forward and taking me from the custody of the guards, led me forward before the throne.
Then of a sudden I was commanded to strip myself of my garments, and this I did with no little shame, till I stood naked before them all. Now the priests came forward and examined every part of me closely.
On my arms were the scars left by de Garcia’s sword, and on my breast the scarcely healed marks of the puma’s teeth and claws.
These wounds they scanned, asking how I had come by them.
I told them, and thereupon they carried on a discussion among themselves, and out of my hearing, which grew so warm that at length they appealed to the emperor to decide the point.
He thought a while, and I heard him say:
‘The blemishes do not come from within the body, nor were they upon it at birth, but have been inflicted by the violence of man and beast.’
Then the priests consulted together again, and presently their leader spoke some words into the ear of Montezuma.
He nodded, and rising from his throne, came towards me who stood naked and shivering before him, for the air of Mexico is keen.