The Crimson Conquest: A Romance of Pizarro and PeruHudson, Charles B. (Charles Bradford)
History
The Crimson Conquest: A Romance of Pizarro and Peru
Hudson, Charles B. (Charles Bradford)
Peru -- History -- Conquest, 1522-1548 -- Fiction
A cloak, or poncho, and a pouch to be hung from the belt, equally rich
in design and color with the tunic, completed the apparel for the body.
A pair of sandals, or buskins, with broad straps highly ornate, and
provided with protecting toe-pieces and side-pieces, were beside the
chair. These laced half-way up to the knees. The costume was
picturesque, thoroughly graceful and masculine, and revealed his
strength of arm and symmetry of leg; but as he glanced downward his eyes
rested upon his bare knees and half-bare calves.
"Oh, the fighting saint!" he exclaimed, in dismay. "My knees! Stark,
gleaming, barefaced, preëminent knees! Gods! I’m _all_ knees! O, San
Miguel, clap thine eyes upon them! Didst ever see so many knees, and
knees so braggart in their nakedness? Name of a fiend!"
He tugged at the kilt to bring it lower, but vainly, and he sat down.
"A thousand curses!" he groaned, as he contemplated them. "Thrice more
flagrant in repose!" He rose and moved about, watching them narrowly.
"Flashing like the beacons of Tarragona when I walk! Ah, Blessed
Mother, can I ever lug their effrontery into the gaze of women’s eyes?
Oh, would that I were Pedro! then this immodesty were reduced by half.
Blood and Misery!"
He was standing helpless when Markumi entered with his breakfast.
Cristoval eyed him closely, but the boy observed nothing unusual, merely
announcing as he set to work to arrange the table that the man would
come presently to trim his hair. His knees were bare too, of course,
and Cristoval envied their brown. _Bien_! He would sun his own
assiduously—and he sat down with a gradually returning feeling of
composure.
By the time he had breakfasted the barber arrived. Cristoval hoped to be
shaved; but learning that the Peruvians used only tweezers, gave it up,
forced to be content with the closest possible trimming. Even this he
would have forgone but for Rava, who disliked, and more than half
feared, the Viracocha beard. An hour later, with head and face reduced
to order, Cristoval strolled out in search of his hostess.
The court in the rear, as he had observed the night before, was open
toward the lake and guarded on that side by a low parapet from which
steps descended to a broad avenue through the trees, from terrace to
terrace to the shore, a few hundred yards distant. In the middle of the
patio was the usual fountain, and on each side a parterre, at one of
which a venerable servant was at work on the budding plants. Before
Cristoval could prevent, the old man prostrated himself; on being asked
for the Palla, he rose painfully and led Cristoval to the steps, saying,
"She walked toward the lake a moment ago, Viracocha, with two young
friends. No doubt you will find her on the shore."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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