Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 63, No. 392, June, 1848

"And yet thou canst remember it, Oneiza?"

"Ay, for it was so very terrible. Let me rest my head upon thy bosom, and I will tell thee all. Methought I was lying yonder, under the broad palm-trees by the lake, watching the young alligators as they chased each other in innocent sport among the reeds, and scared from their resting-place swarms of the golden butterfly. All of a sudden there came a hush, as though the great heart of nature were thrilled to its centre. The scaly creatures of the lake sank noiselessly into its silver depths, and disappeared. A fawn that had come out of the thicket to drink, gazed round in terror and retired. The lizard crept into the hollow trunk, and the voices of the birds were silenced. I looked towards the city, and, behold, a dark cloud had gathered over it! Its spires and domes no longer flashed in fervent radiance to the sun: the face of heaven was obscured with a cold and leaden hue. I looked to the colossal statue of our mighty deity, the sun. Its face no longer wore that deep smile of unearthly beauty, but was distorted with an expression of unutterable and agonising woe. Presently, methought, the figure was endowed with superhuman life. I saw it rise from its pedestal, Manco, – I saw it stretch out its arm towards the east, and a dismal voice proclaimed these words – 'Peru is given to the stranger!' But thou dost not speak, Manco!"

"Go on, Oneiza! I listen."

"I looked towards the mountains, and lo! Ilaxlipacpl, from its stupendous peak, was vomiting forth flames to the sky. Huge seams of liquid lava were bursting through its sides. The solid rocks seemed to be bursting every where; and, as I gazed in awe and terror on the hideous sight, the glowing element took shape and form, and I could read, in characters of fire, that awful sentence – 'Peru is given to the stranger!'"

"Was this all, Oneiza?"

"Oh, not all! for while I looked, methought the earth began to tremble, and strange noises, as of brazen instruments and the clash of iron, arose. I heard shouting and the voices of men, but they spoke in a language which I understood not, and it sounded harsh and uncouth to my ear. And by-and-by there passed such terrible forms, Manco, towards the city! Surely they could not be human. The upper part resembled the shape of man, but they were covered with bright steel, and carried long javelins in their hands. The rest of their figure was that of a strong beast, its hoofs armed with metal, and the ground shook as they came on. Methought one of them stooped to seize me, and I uttered a scream and awoke, and, behold, thou wert lying by my side, and the moonbeam was shining upon thy brow."

"Hast thou spoken of this to thy father, Oneiza?"

"Not yet. Are not the earliest of my thoughts for thee?"

"Dear one! This is a warning from the gods. Let us hasten to the city, and warn the Emperor ere it be too late. Thy dream, combined with the aspect of the heavens, may well make the bravest tremble."

They arose and hastened together, hand in hand, along the margin of the lake towards the town. But, ere they reached it, it became evident that some unexpected events had occurred. Torches were glittering through the streets, a vast pyre sent up its column of flame from the mighty altar of the sun, and the clanging of the cymbals was heard.

"What is this, Ilazopli?" cried Manco Capl to a young Peruvian, whose countenance bore token of strong excitement; "what means this sudden uproar?"

"The gods have descended in a human shape, and the Emperor has asked them to a banquet!"

"Peace, impious!" said Manco sternly. "Art thou beside thyself?"

"It is a fact, and there's no denying it!" replied the other. "I have seen them myself. Such grand heroic figures, all clothed in shining steel, with beards like the tail of a llama! By Beersheba!" exclaimed the young man – for the Peruvians had not yet altogether forgotten the traditions of their ancestors, – "by Beersheba! you should see the creatures that brought them hither! their snorting is like that of a he-alligator: when they toss their heads the foam flies out like flakes of the cotton-tree in autumn, and the smite of their iron hoofs is heavy as the fall of a stone from heaven! Huzza for the new deities!"

"Blasphemer!" cried Manco, "what knowest thou of the gods? are there not demons who can take their form?"

"I never saw any," replied Ilazopli. "I am no priest, Inca, but I can tell you that Axtloxcl is quite delighted with them, and says that they have come down from the sun on purpose."

"Axtloxcl! my father!" cried Oneiza.

"Hush, dearest!" said her husband. "Let us hope the best. It may be that he has received a revelation from above, and that the omens and thy dreams were false."

"Oh never – never!" said Oneiza. "The sun and the stars do not lie. Are not these the very shapes, the same terrible phantoms I beheld in slumber, when the voice from the unknown world proclaimed the downfall of Peru? Hast not thou, too, read the signs of its downfall in the heavens? and can the coming of those new deities – if deities they are – bring us good?"

"Well!" said Ilazopli, "tastes differ. For my own part I prefer deities who can walk about, and talk, to our old images of the sun, who never say so much as thank ye in return for all our offerings. But I must away – there is a great feast going on at the palace, and the Emperor expects all the Incas. You, Manco Capl, will be looked for."

"Away, then!" said the young Inea, "I will follow betimes. Insensate fool!" continued he, as he watched the departing footsteps of the other, "thou art like all thy race, who welcome destruction when it comes beneath a glittering guise! But why should I blame thee more than the rest, when wiser and older men have yielded to the fatal lure? Hearken, my Oneiza; my soul is sad within me, but it is for thee chiefly that I fear. Thou hast not been long with me, Oneiza, but were I to lose thee, the light of my life were gone. Promise me, then, that whatever may befall our unhappy country, we never shall be separated – that in death as in life we may be together – and sweet, oh unutterably sweet, would that death which should find me clasped in thy arms!"

"Oh Manco, Manco! canst thou doubt?"

"No; I never doubted. But my heart misgives me as to the issue. See, Oneiza, – this plain is not all the world. Beyond these mountains are valleys and broad savannahs where the foot of the invader can never come. I have seen them as I hunted the fierce jaguar on the hills; and even amidst all the magnificence of our own stately city, I have sighed for a hut by the side of some lonely stream, with thee for my sole companion. If the day should come when ruin bursts upon us, wouldst thou, Oneiza, tender nurtured as thou art, be prepared to leave all, and follow thy husband into the depths of the unknown wilderness? There are dangers, Oneiza, but love will watch over us!"

"Were this Eden, my husband, and the valley of Hinnom lay beyond, I am thine – thine – thine for ever!"

"Oh say no more, my darling, my love, my own, my sweet! Were all the world my kingdom, I'd lay it at thy feet. What treasure could I offer to buy a heart like thine? My soul is strong within me like a giant's stirred with wine! I boast the blood of him who met and smote the Philistine! Come on then, dearest – dearest, come! together let us go. The lights are flashing from the towers, the evening star is low!"

Along with the foregoing MS. I received the following note from the Spaniard. "I don't relish your chapter much. It is palpable cribbage in many parts, and those absurd patriotic prejudices of yours have brought you into a scrape. I've met with a character very much like your mercenary Scot before. I should have brought him into this chapter, only I don't comprehend the northern gibberish, and you have forgotten to nominate your heathen. I shall say nothing about mine, except this, that it is eminently touching, pathetic, and original. Match it if you can."

"Original, indeed!" said I. "Does he think I never read the Wondrous Tale of Alroy? Tender! What can be easier than to write a dialogue of unmitigated maudlin? Touching! Why, it is half rhyme, and very skimble-skamble versification too. I wish he would give his Peruvians pronounceable names, for never in my life before have I seen such a ruthless dislocation of the alphabet! However, I must follow the lead. The next chapter, I calculate, will be a stunner."

CHAPTER IV

THE HALL OF FIRE

That night there was a scene of revelry in the imperial palace of Caxamalca. Innocent and confiding as an infant, the chief Inca, Atahualpa, had welcomed the coming of the Spaniards as messengers of the gods, if not as actual deities; and, with true barbaric vanity, had set forth a display of his costliest treasures. Atahualpa himself was in the prime of life, beautiful as a pard, and with a native port of majesty which well might have been envied by the haughtiest monarch of Christendom. And indeed his costume, borrowed, though but remotely, from the Oriental model, was far more noble and magnificent than that which European habit has rigorously assigned to our modern kings. Over his clustering hair he wore a carcanet of diamonds, surmounted by the precious plumage of the bird of Paradise. His surcoat and vest were curiously inlaid with the brilliant feathers of the humming bird, alternating with rows of the rarest gems, and the triple necklace of rubies around his neck was worth the ransom of Hindostan. At his feet lay a tamed jaguar, which fawned like a dog upon its master; and in his right hand he held an ivory sceptre, surmounted by a single pearl, of which the world did not contain the equal. Such was Atahualpa, the supreme autocrat of Peru.

Around him were gathered his princely Incas, scarce inferior in magnificence to their sovereign. The table was heaped with vessels and flagons of the purest gold, which gave a still richer colour to the sparkling juice of the grape – for the art of manufacturing wine had still been retained by the undoubted descendants of Noah. The strangers, as they sate at the feast, gazed around them with greedy eyes, astonished at the amount of plunder which was so speedily to become their own.

"Ye have gold enough here, Inca," said Pizarro, who was seated at the right hand of Atahualpa; "ye have gold enough and to spare. By the bones of Christopher Columbus! it is a shame to see this red metal so vilely used!"

"Ye may say that," cried the Scot, whose head was half-buried in a flagon; "it is downright wastrife in thae bodies to make pats and pans out of as gude gold as was ever coined into bonnet-pieces. We could not afford that at the Leadhills, though the district there is no far short o' Ophir."

"Run me through the body," muttered Herrera the dragoon, "if the temptation of handling those dear delightful platters is not too much for the patience of any Christian cavalier. I wonder when our general will give the order to begin the sack?"

"Peace, son!" said the famous monk, Vincent Valverde, who was opposite to the sergeant. "Why shouldst thou seek to hasten the work? Are they not given unto us utterly for a spoil? Wherefore, tarry thou in patience."

"Yon's no a bad-looking lass!" cried the Scot, as Manco Capl led Oneiza into the hall; "though, certes, if she had nae mair tocher than her claes, she is like to bring bare eneuch luck to her gudeman."

"Och, by the powers!" said an Irish trooper, of the name of O'Rafferty, "but she's a jewel! I wonder if that spalpeen keeps her company. He's mighty like a young Jew that diddled me at the fair of Limerick!"

"Ho, Inca!" cried Pizarro, "why art thou silent? Hearest thou not what I ask? Hast more such gear as this?"

"Doth my lord inquire after the household stuff?" replied Atahualpa. "We reck not of it. Let him take whatever pleaseth him."

"That's eneuch for me!" cried the Scot, appropriating an enormous flagon; "fient ane o' me ever yet looked a gift-horse in the mouth!"

"And the diamonds, Inca – the diamonds?" said Pizarro, casting a covetous glance at the superb garniture of his host; "are they, too, offerings to the guests whom the gods have sent hither?"

"They are the heir-looms of the sun," replied the Inca, "and they may not be gifted away. But what seekest thou, noble stranger? Is it hospitality? Our palaces are open to you. Are you hungry? We will feed you. Would you till the land? We can give you valleys. Tarry with us, and become the adopted children of the sun."

"Ha! wretched infidel!" shouted Valverde; "wouldst thou tempt us to deny our faith? Noble Pizarro! it needed but this to complete the measure of their iniquity. Up! and let the sword of the true Church attest the might of her crozier."

"Patience, holy father!" cried Pizarro. "Know, Inca, that we have a direct mission from heaven; and I am sent to reclaim from thee those jewels which thou and thine ancestors have worn."

"Let the gods, then, who gave them, come and take them," said the Inca, calmly.

"Thou wilt not yield them?" said Pizarro; "then, by Santiago! I will seize on them as my lawful prey."

So saying, the ruffian snatched at the chain of rubies which encircled the neck of the Inca. But ere the subordinate Peruvian chiefs, who hardly understood the import of the scene, could interfere, a powerful defender rose before Atahualpa. No sooner had the hand of the Spaniard been laid upon the sacred person of his master, than the jaguar leaped up with a tremendous roar, and sprang at the throat of Pizarro. Well was it for the marauder that on that day he was sheathed in the tempered armour of Castile, else the fangs of the wild beast would have avenged this atrocious insult. As it was, the buccaneer was borne backwards upon the floor, where he lay struggling in the gripe of the infuriated monster.

Herrera the dragoon unsheathed his broadsword.

"Let me get a blow at the brute!" he cried. "I will sliver it in twain like a kitten."

But Manco Capl stepped before him.