Montezuma Part 14

She thought there was naught to prevent her From her lavish of love on the Chieftain.

O the faith that is always faultless, That ever grows up toward Heaven, (To the center of love returning) Whence it sprang as seed from the G.o.dhead!

How its track is hounded by evil!

How its purity pants in the darkness!

How it flutters into the pitfalls!

And how its white wings are broken And its plumage stained and bedraggled!

But 'tis only the earth that despoils it, To teach it more earnest endeavor, To lift the wing higher in ether, And fix the eye firmer on Heaven.

But alas! for bonnie Malinche; Her faith had no heavenly fragrance, Except in its helpless dependence.

It knew not the way of the angels, But groped like the vine in the cavern, Always reaching out for the sunlight, Always tender and white of fiber.

And the worthy father, Olmedo, Taught the maid the lore of the ages; Taught of life, and death, and the Savior, And the beautiful boon, resurrection, And the story of Magdalene, Of much loving, and much forgiving; Yet he whispered naught of the Chieftain, And the maiden lived on in blindness, Though "Credos" and "Ave Marias"

Fell as pearls from the lips thus laden With the story of Jesu' and Mary.

And as Christ touched the lips of childhood And made them the text of his sermon, (The innocent sponsors of Heaven) Malinche, enrapt at the story, Shined out through her every action, Translating the life of the G.o.d-Son, To speak in behalf of her people.

She plead for the chiefs of Tlascala-- Las Casas had no abler ally When he struck the stone heart of Cortez-- And the stonier heart of Castile, In his earnest prayer for the Aztecs And the ill-starred King Moctheuzoma.

Her blood gave its ardent pet.i.tion In behalf of her race and her people, Her bronzed hand pressing the balance On the side of mercy and manhood.

When the light first shines in the cavern Damp and dark with moldering ages, It gathers each gleam of the crystals That cycles have h.o.a.rded in brilliance; So the heart, groping back to the sunlight, Over graves of its superst.i.tions, Throws its shoots through every crevice That promises health to its fibers.

Thus the virgin soul of Malinche (The image of G.o.d on its tablet) Made the glow of her first impressions The heart and the soul of the gospel.

But how cunningly clasp the fetters That fate has unconsciously molded; And yet, how they pinion our pa.s.sport On the trend of further indulgence-- The conquest was hardly completed, And the maid in the fullest enjoyment Of the treasure she aided to purchase When the island divulges its secret, And the wife of his early loving, And the wife of his after loathing, Appears at the door of the Chieftain.

O Malinche! brown-eyed Malinche!

The finger of fate is upon you; The wrongs of your conscienceless mother Were the scar and bane of your _childhood_.

The years with their velveted footfalls Have forced them far back in the shadows,-- But here comes a heart that is bleeding For the touch of its earliest treasure.

With an even right you have won it; Upon your warm bosom have worn it.

But another, unknown, has possessed it, And puts forth her hand to recover.

Will you strike at her just pet.i.tion?

Love is love; but hers is the older, And it has grown sharp with its longing; The hunger of years is upon it, And pleads all the patience of loving.

They met, the brown maid of Painnalla And the pale, blushing rose of the island,-- Malinche and sad Catalina.

The Dona gave voice to her murmur In words that were pungent and bitter, Reproaching the maid for the beauty That had stolen the heart of her husband.

But Malinche returned no reproaches When she heard the whole truth from the Dona; But her tears, as the dew of the morning, Which like diamonds filled her dark lashes, Smote the tender heart of the maiden:

"O maiden, most hard and unconscious!"

Cried Malinche, out of her sobbing, "Hear the bitter tale of my lifetime; And the Heavenly melting of pity Will fill all the place of your loathing."

Then she told her the whole sad story-- How her cruel mother betrayed her, How she fell a slave to the Chieftain, And was called upon to interpret.

"But the heart is easily broken, Fair maiden!" Malinche continued.

"And before I knew, I had fallen; And I hung on his matchless features, The wonderful glow of his prowess, And the liquid flow of his language, Till I could no longer resist him.

I thought I was free to embrace him, And I gave my whole life to his keeping.

How I thrilled to his first caressing, And panted to gather his kisses!

How I hung on the lips of the morning That shadowed his life with new danger!

Could I die for the love I bore him, I would pity the weight of the casket That gave such a featherlike measure; Could I stand in the breach of danger To shelter his form from the missile, I could mourn that the Father had given But only one heart for the arrow.

I loved him! I loved him! I loved him!

And this is my furtherest pleading."

And long ere Malinche had finished The Dona had mingled her weeping, And each held the hand of the other In truce of their worthless repining; And Malinche, as Magdalene, Would have washed the feet of her Master, But the Dona rather preferred her As companion and friend in pastime; So they pa.s.sed their time in the solace Of a friendship closely cemented.

But the beautiful flower of the island Fell a prey to the varying climate And the dormant love of the Chieftain.

She pointed her white hands to heaven, And she gave back to Mary Mother Her tired soul as white as the snowdrift.

The busy brown hands of Malinche Had never once tired of their office In smoothing her feverish pillows.

Her fresh, perfect faith pointing upward, Helped to pinion the soul for its pa.s.sage.

"Farewell to thee, fair Catalina!

Though you tore my heart with your coming, You have torn it worse with your going.

May the angels, shrouding your sorrow, Pour their multiple bliss in your welcome, And paradise pant with your beauty, And Heaven, as white as your goodness, Shine out through the doors for Malinche; For I envy your early pa.s.sage, And would gladly have gone before you.

I have found earth's love but a fetter To cripple the wing of our exit."

And after he humbled the Aztecs, The Chieftain soon turned to the southward, Still holding the hand of Malinche, As if the cold palm of the Dona Had never intruded its presence; His memory, cold as her pulses, Gave hardly a throb at departure, But Malinche wept o'er her ashes, And prayed that the blessing of Heaven Might comfort the soul of the Dona; Yet she held not her hand from the Chieftain, Though she chid with the love of the turtle; Yet her heart could not harrow its fallow Though a hundred-fold lay in the effort.

The ill-fated Chief Guatamozin (Who succeeded the great Moctheuzoma, And so stubbornly fought for his people) Had fared the same fate of the Monarch, Except that he gazed on the ashes, And saw the cold ghost of his nation Pa.s.s out through the gates of the sunset, And all just a little before him.

He attended Cortez on his journey, With other great men of his people; Never man was more loyal to master Than the throneless King to his Chieftain-- To the cavalcade came a rumor, That the life of Cortez was endangered By a plot of the Aztec attendants (Cortez was the stoniest master, To the Knights as well as the natives, And no wonder his life should be threatened.

The scar of a crime on our nature, With remembrance of wrong we inflicted, Puts a double watch on our victim; We are p.r.o.ne to measure in manner, Each soul in the pitiful bushel That holds the shrunk grains of _our_ manhood.) And Cortez turned his eyes for an answer, To the plot that was laid for his footsteps, On the staunch Aztec King, Guatamozin; He had fought a brave battle for Aztlan, And the Spaniards had felt his prowess In the hardly wrenched sword of their triumph; But when the despair of his nation Settled down on his heart as a mountain, No treachery lingered to poison The flow of his deeply drawn sadness.

Yet, the wrongs he had laid on the people, Stalked out as a ghost on the Chieftain.

And the sad eyes of poor Guatamozin, Were his guilty conscience' accuser; And though not a stain was upon him, Yet the Chief was condemned by Cortez.

Then Malinche's warm heart overflowing, When she saw how unjust was the sentence, Gave its plea with the beautiful pathos Of the life that is simple and loving.

Though she was baptized as a Christian, And was charmed with the life of the G.o.d-Son, Yet the water the priest sprinkled on her Purged not from her veins the warm Aztec Which, charged with a just indignation, Poured out on her Chieftain its measure:

"As a faithful G.o.d is my witness-- Not a throb of my heart has wasted Its pulse on the suit of another, Since you glittered my life with its purchase, I have loved you too well for my worship, Which has hardly a G.o.d, but my Chieftain; But I plead for my country and people-- You showed me a Christ that was loving, Whose life was a psalm of forgiveness, Who touched the hot lips of our anger With the tender finger of patience.

I was won by his great example, It warmed the cold stone of the Aztec With the radiant beams of the morning; It loosened the chains from the ankles That were swift on errands of mercy; It tore off the scales from the eyelids That were blinded with superst.i.tion; Gave freedom to innocent victims, From the fearful death of the itztli; And winged back the soul to its manor, From the desert and dust of the ages.

"But where is the Christ you were pleading-- The merciful G.o.d of your banner?

The nails of the cross are your sword points, And his pleadings the parent of carnage.

His merciful words are but marG.o.ds, To hurl on your host to the slaughter.

As I pleaded for Moctheuzoma That you spare him the shame of his prison, So I plead for the brave Guatamozin, Though he fought so hard for the Aztecs, I would balance my life on his honor.

The traitor is not of such metal, At your front--in your face--he may strike you; But he takes not the night for his helmlet, Nor is treachery ever his weapon.

Then spare him, my n.o.ble Hernando!"

But her prayers were in vain for the victim, The heart of Cortez was relentless; And another brave soul winged its pa.s.sage, To try if the gates of the city Still turn for the broken in spirit.

In time they drew near to Painnalla, And the tale of her childhood confronts her, Though she hardly can call up one feature To gaze on the face of another, And each say to each, "We are brothers"; Yet the story has lived with her living, And been fanned by the fervor of gossip; And Malinche's warm heart has been shaken, O'er the bitterest brink of a trial.

Her Chieftain, grown great with his conquest, Thrusts the knife of his pride to her heartstrings, In search of some n.o.ble alliance; And she must be weaned from his wooing.

As only _one_ G.o.d lighteth Heaven, She has held the _one_ place in his household, Than which has the earth none more sacred.

Yet the shade of the poor Catalina Has shown her how weak is the Chieftain, And the bolt is thus broken in falling; Still her whole heart presses the balance, And a sacred thing was her loving, For love is the latch-key to Heaven.

But she tries to force back her sorrow At the sacred shrine of her birthplace; And the angels are gentle that hover At the rustic shade of the hearthstone.

All the sorrow comes out of the shadow, All the bitterness bathes in the sunshine, The stubbornest pangs of resentment Are cooled to the calm of forgiveness; And charity cradles the armor That was harnessed in bristling anger.

Her mother is summoned with others At the call of Cortez to a.s.semble, And Malinche sees mother and brother Through the soul of an earnest hunger.

She (young in all things but her sorrow, And with only her nature to prompt her) Beholds, with the heart of a daughter, The mother that cruelly spurned her, In the fading Spring of her lifetime.

The mother, as ready responding To the tie that her crime would have broken, Sees her child, like the face of a spectre, Rising out of the grave to accuse her, And in terror would fly from her presence; But Malinche sprang forward to grasp her, And, forgetting all else but her mother, Poured out her full heart in caresses,

Saying, "Surely, my mother, you knew not When you sold me away to the traders; Surely, not with your voice could you sanction, Your words would have frozen together, And not with your heart you consented.

The blood would have whited to marble; Some artifice surely was practiced.

My mother was _always_ my mother; And though you unwittingly sold me, Malinche is free to forgive you.

Take back to your bosom your daughter, It is all for the best that we parted, For it gave me my sweet Mary Mother With her child, the immaculate G.o.d-Son; And better a slave and a Christian, Than a priest in the pay of the temple.

And, yet, how I longed for a mother, To show the clear trail for my footsteps,

And to hold the white hand of my childhood!

With no other mother but Mary (Sweet Mary, the soul of compa.s.sion), I have tried to grow up towards Heaven; But a mother on earth is the blessing That can never be held by another.