Montezuma's DaughterHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Montezuma's Daughter
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540 -- Fiction
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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