Montezuma's DaughterHaggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
History
Montezuma's Daughter
Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)
Mexico -- History -- Conquest, 1519-1540 -- Fiction
I looked upon him and wondered. I looked again and knew. Suddenly there
rose before my mind a vision of that gloomy vault in Seville, of a
woman, young and lovely, draped in cerements, and of a thin-faced
black-robed friar who smote her upon the lips with his ivory crucifix
and cursed her for a blaspheming heretic. There before me was the man.
Isabella de Siguenza had prayed that a fate like to her own fate should
befall him, and it was upon him now. Nor indeed, remembering all that
had been, was I minded to avert it, even if it had been in my power to
do so. I stood by and let the victim pass, but as he passed I spoke to
him in Spanish, saying:
“Remember that which it may well be you have forgotten, holy father,
remember now the dying prayer of Isabella de Siguenza whom many years
ago you did to death in Seville.”
The man heard me; he turned livid beneath his bronzed skin and
staggered until I thought that he would have fallen. He stared upon me,
with terror in his eye, to see as he believed a common sight enough,
that of an Indian chief rejoicing at the death of one of his
oppressors.
“What devil are you,” he said hoarsely, “sent from hell to torment me
at the last?”
“Remember the dying prayer of Isabella de Siguenza, whom you struck and
cursed,” I answered mocking. “Seek not to know whence I am, but
remember this only, now and for ever.”
For a moment he stood still, heedless of the urgings of his tormentors.
Then his courage came to him again, and he cried with a great voice:
“Get thee behind me, Satan, what have I to fear from thee? I remember
that dead sinner well—may her soul have peace—and her curse has fallen
upon me. I rejoice that it should be so, for on the further side of
yonder stone the gates of heaven open to my sight. Get thee behind me,
Satan, what have I to fear from thee?”
Crying thus he staggered forward saying, “O God, into Thy hand I
commend my spirit!” May his soul have peace also, for if he was cruel,
at least he was brave, and did not shrink beneath those torments which
he had inflicted on many others.
Now this was a little matter, but its results were large. Had I saved
Father Pedro from the hands of the _pabas_ of the Otomie, it is likely
enough that I should not to-day be writing this history here in the
valley of the Waveney. I do not know if I could have saved him, I only
know that I did not try, and that because of his death great sorrows
came upon me. Whether I was right or wrong, who can say? Those who
judge my story may think that in this as in other matters I was wrong;
had they seen Isabella de Siguenza die within her living tomb,
certainly they would hold that I was right. But for good or ill,
matters came about as I have written.
And it came about also, that the new viceroy sent from Spain was
stirred to anger at the murder of the friar by the rebellious and
heathen people of the Otomie, and set himself to take vengeance on the
tribe that wrought the deed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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