The Romance of Golden Star ...
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George Chetwynd Griffith >> The Romance of Golden Star ...
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When the firing ceased there were none left in the square but those who
had declared for us. Hartness immediately formed these into two columns.
He led one of them, with one gun at the head, into the street past the
Church of the Jesuits, and I led the other with the second gun into the
other street leading to the Cuartel, and up these two streets we fought
our way into the Plaza Del Cabildo, in which we could hear more fighting
already going on.
When we at last gained the square we found a furious fight going on in
front of the Cuartel between one body of men who were defending the
building and another that was attacking it, but which of these were
friends or foes we did not know until Tupac, heedless of the flying
bullets, ran out shouting in Quichua that Vilcaroya had come. Shouts and
cheers from the Cuartel soon told us that our friends had got possession
of it, and after the city was won I learned that when the two columns
had started, leaving a third drawn up in the square before the Cuartel,
those who were for us, remembering what I had said about the gold that I
would give for the machine-guns and the ammunition, had broken their
ranks and made a rush for the doors to secure the three guns which were
in the courtyard, and so the fight had begun, they seeking to hold the
Cuartel against the others until help came.
As soon as I knew which were our enemies, by their bullets coming
singing about our ears, I had the gun trained on them, and gave the word
to fire. But no sooner had it begun to rain its tempest of death than we
heard the other one speak from the other end of the square, and such a
storm of bullets swept across the Plaza that before many moments had
passed there was not a man or beast left alive in it.
Then, when the firing ceased again, those who had held the Cuartel, and
had taken shelter in it as soon as the machine-guns began to play, threw
open the doors to us and came out to welcome us, and Francis Hartness
and I clasped hands as victors, and for the time being, at least,
masters of the ancient City of the Sun, for with the Cuartel we had
taken all the arms and ammunition stored up in Cuzco, including the
three Gatling guns and the two Maxims; and more than this, the whole of
the native population of the valley was in our favour.
The fighting was now over, save for conflicts that were going on in
different parts of the city between the Spaniards and the Indians, and I
at once had the Governor brought before me in the Cuartel and told him
by the lips of Hartness to write a proclamation surrendering the city to
us and ordering all the officials to come in and make their submission
before sundown, threatening fire and sack to every Spanish house if it
was not done. This he did, knowing well what would befall him if he
refused. At the same time Hartness made a proclamation in my name in
English and Spanish promising perfect freedom and security to all
foreign merchants in the region that was under our command.
It was then about mid-day, and when I had given Francis Hartness full
authority to act in my name as Governor of the city, which, speaking
fluent Spanish as he did, he could do better than I, I took a guard of
fifty men and went with Tupac back to the Rodadero, and took ten of the
men into the Hall of Gold and bade them carry out as much as they could,
so that I might keep my promise to the soldiers who had been faithful to
me, and while they were doing this I went with Tupac to Djama's cell and
found him wailing and crying like a little child, and beating his hands
on the golden wall of his prison and praying most piteously for a sight
of the daylight and a breath of the fresh air of heaven.
The Spaniard, when he heard us coming, began to shriek and scream, and I
bade Tupac tell him that I would gag him for a day and a night if he did
not cease his cries. But to Djama I told what had happened, and how
Cuzco was already mine, and promised I would let him out for a little
while the next day if he would keep silence for half-an-hour, and
hearing this, he ceased his cries, and I went on to the throne-room to
take the news of our victory to Ruth and Golden Star.
CHAPTER XII
QUEEN AND CROWN
I found them in the midst of an English lesson which Golden Star was
taking, sitting, still clad in her Inca costume, between the professor
and Joyful Star, who also was dressed in the same fashion. They all
three rose to meet me as I entered the throne-room, and Ruth coming
forward with both hands outstretched, as she had never done before,
said,--
'What have you been doing all this time, Vilcaroya, and why are you
looking so worn and haggard? Have--have you been fighting? And why have
you come back here alone?'
'Yes,' I answered, taking her hands into mine, and feeling all my blood
turn to flame as their gentle pressure thrilled along my nerves. 'Yes,
we have been fighting, and the Lord of Light has fought upon our side,
for we have gained the victory, and the city is ours.'
'Thank God for that!' she said; 'and that no harm has come to you--or to
Captain Hartness.'
'What! do you mean to say you have taken Cuzco already?' cried the
professor. 'How on earth did you manage that so quickly?'
'Because,' I replied, 'as I told you, my father the Sun fought on my
side and turned the hearts of his children towards me, and so Francis
Hartness led them to speedy victory, and the hearts of our enemies
fainted within them, and they have yielded. Now I have come to tell you
how it happened, and to take Joyful Star back to the city, where she
shall be hailed as queen.'
Then I sat down with them and told them all, from the taking of the
Governor and his officers prisoners by the Sayacusca to the capture of
the Cuartel and the making of Francis Hartness Governor of Cuzco. After
that I went and put on the imperial robes, which I had now a double
right to wear, and led them through the gates of bronze into the Hall of
Gold.
Now, in the joy of my triumph, and the greeting that Ruth had given me,
I had forgotten to bid her keep silence while going through the hall,
and when she saw the two cells in the corner built up with blocks of
gold she stopped and said,--
'Those were not here the other night. What have you had them built up
like that for?'
And before I could answer, Djama's voice, shrill and trembling, rose out
of the cell, crying,--
'Ruth, Ruth, I am here! This is my prison. It is a grave of gold. Curse
the gold! Save me, save me, Ruth, for I am going mad--and I am your
brother!'
She stopped and took hold of my arm with both her hands, and looked up
at me. Her face was very pale and her lips were trembling. Yet though
her voice was low, it was firm as she said to me,--
'I have no brother who is a liar and a traitor to his friends; but,
Vilcaroya, I had a brother once who was very good and kind to me, and
for the sake of his goodness and kindness I ask you to treat this--this
prisoner of yours more gently.'
'Joyful Star can ask nothing to-day that I could refuse,' I said. 'He
shall be taken out forthwith and lodged with all comfort, though I must
keep him safely.'
'No, no, not till I am gone!' she whispered, taking Golden Star by the
arm and leading her towards the passage. But, softly as she had spoken,
Djama heard her, and in his rage and despair at her words he cried,--
'You--you won't see me! But you will go with your lover, your Indian
master, who owes his life to me! You will sell yourself for his gold and
be his wife. Oh, my God!--my sister!'
And then he raved in the madness that came upon him, and his voice rang
horridly out of his cell and echoed shrilly through the hall and the
passages about it. I could feel no anger against a man who was helpless
and my prisoner, so I followed Ruth without speaking; and when we stood
once more in the sunlight she turned to me with a bright flush on her
cheeks and great tears in her eyes, and said very softly and sweetly,--
'He is mad, poor Laurens! he must be. That terrible gold has turned his
brain, or he could never speak to me like that. You will not treat him
more harshly for it, Vilcaroya, will you, for you know, after all, he
is--I mean he was my brother, and I loved him very much--once?'
'Yes, he is mad,' I said; 'and yet the lips of madness may speak truth,
for what am I but what he said?'
'Have you forgotten what you asked me, or what I answered when I kissed
Golden Star in the throne-room, that you can speak like that?' she said,
with one swift glance that told me I had not asked in vain.
What more she might have said I know not, but she had said enough to
set my heart dancing and my blood thrilling with a joy greater than I
had found in the speedy conquest of the city of my fathers, and just
then Tupac came to me and said that a sufficient quantity of gold had
been taken out, and that all was ready to return to the city. Then I
told him what he was to do with Djama and his fellow-prisoner, and
ordered Golden Star's litter and the horse for Ruth which we had brought
with us to be made ready, and also a mule for the professor, and when
Tupac had returned we set out along the road that leads to the Gate of
Sand, I riding in the midst of the troop, and Ruth on my left hand and
Golden Star in her litter on the right.
As we approached the streets, great crowds of my delivered people
thronged out to welcome us, and when they saw me riding on my black
horse, dressed in the imperial robes and with the Llautu on my brow,
they set up a shout of joy and welcome that went ringing along the
streets and through the squares and all over the city, and so I rode on
through the bareheaded throngs, who bowed themselves almost to the earth
before me.
As we were crossing the great Plaza, Ruth looked about her with bright
cheeks and shining eyes and said to me,--
'Is it not all like a dream, Vilcaroya? Only a few weeks ago you came
here poor and unknown, and now you are a king come back to your own
again. Is it not wonderful?'
'Yes,' I said, looking into her eyes with more courage than before; 'but
something more wonderful even than that has befallen me. Is it not so,
my queen?'
'Your queen is not crowned yet, your Majesty!' she said, looking down,
and yet not frowning, as I half feared she would.
'No,' I answered, 'nor shall she be till my work is done, and the whole
land that was my fathers' is mine to give her, and then all that power
and gold and love can give her shall be hers.'
'Give me the last and I shall ask no more,' she said softly, chasing
with that first sweet confession from my heart the last lingering doubt
of the great blessing that my Father the Sun had bestowed upon me.
Thus we came to the front of the Cuartel, where all the troops were
already drawn up to do us honour, and Hartness came out to greet us. He
stopped for an instant, and his cheeks paled a little as he saw Ruth
riding at my side, already dressed as she would be when she was my
queen. But then the goodness of his honest heart spoke from his lips,
and he said, as he held out his hand to me,--
'Welcome, your Majesty! Majesties, I might almost say, I suppose! The
city is ours and everything is quiet. Some of the officials have come in
and submitted; others I have had to put under arrest, and runners are
coming in every minute from the other towns in the valley to say that
our plans have been carried out perfectly. The rest of our work won't be
as easy as this has been, but we've made a very good beginning, and, at
anyrate, I think I can congratulate your Majesty on having made your two
most important captures.
He looked at Ruth as he said this, and though her fair face flushed
brightly and her eyes fell, yet she spoke steadily enough when she
answered him, saying,--
'You can hardly call me one of the spoils of war, I think, Captain
Hartness, though I confess that I have surrendered at discretion. Now
give me your hand and help me down, and don't look so disconsolate, for
you are not nearly as unfortunate as you think. There is an Inca
princess for you also, a real one, too. I have been teaching Golden Star
to say your name, and, do you know, she makes it sound just like music
with that sweet voice of hers. See, here she is, and you shall hear her
say it.'
I had dismounted meanwhile, and taken Golden Star from her litter, and
when the people saw her, her name ran swiftly from lip to lip, and a
great shout of delight rose up from thousands of throats to welcome her
back to life and the home of her long-dead fathers. Then I took her hand
and Hartness's, and put hers in his, and said to him,--
'My friend, what I have taken I can in some measure give back to you.
Here is Joyful Star's sister-soul and living likeness. I have seen her
newly-awakened soul look out of her eyes with love upon you, as in good
truth it well might, for you are a true son of the Sun, though not of
our blood. In the days to come you may learn to love her too, and then
all will be well.'
'Yes,' said Ruth, coming to his side, 'and better than it could have
been in any other way. The very Fates themselves seemed to have arranged
all this, so it is not for mortals to rebel, Captain Hartness.'
He looked at her almost sadly for a moment, and then he laughed a little
and said,--
'I should be more or less than mortal if I did, Miss Ruth. But mind, if
I am faithless, remember it is you who have done the most to make me
so.'
As he said this he took Golden Star's little hand in his own and kissed
it. As she felt the touch of his lips a new light sprang into her eyes
and shone and danced there, and she said to me,--
'Why does the Son of the Great People do that, and what have you said to
him about me, my brother?'
'He has kissed your hand in loving greeting,' I answered, 'and what I
have said he will no doubt tell you better some day when you can speak
together.'
The bright blood in her cheeks told me that she had understood me, and
she turned her head away, but she did not take her hand from Hartness's,
and so I gave my hand to Ruth and led her into the Cuartel, and Hartness
and Golden Star followed us hand in hand amidst the cheers of the
soldiers and the joyful shouts of the people.
That night there were such rejoicings in Cuzco as the City of the Sun
had not seen since the Spaniards came into the land. I distributed the
gold among the soldiers as I had promised, giving to each man a piece of
about two ounces in weight, and they, who had never possessed, even if
they had ever seen, gold before, kissed it and fondled it in their
delight, and swore that they would fight for me as long as one of them
was left alive; and then I spoke to them and told them that they had but
to be faithful and brave, and their English leader would lead them to
victory after victory, until the whole land should be ours.
Later on I sent Tupac with many men up to the fortress, and they
brought down the Golden Throne and the symbols of the Sun and great
quantities of gold and jewels, and they set the throne in the midst of
the terrace in front of the cathedral, with silver seats on either side
of it, on the spot where in the olden time stood the Palace of
Viracocha; and on the front of the cathedral, over the great doors, they
fixed the symbols of the Sun, and high above all, between the two
bell-towers, they placed a great flagstaff.
Before daybreak the next morning the square was thronged with people,
save for an open space which the soldiers kept before my throne. I took
my place amidst an utter silence. Ruth and Golden Star sat on my right
and on my left, and Francis Hartness, with a drawn sword in his hand,
stood by my throne to the right, and on the terrace behind me, and on
either side, stood the Men of the Blood, dressed in their ancient and
long-forbidden costumes, with which I had furnished them out of the
stores in the secret chambers of the fortress.
No word was spoken and no sound was heard over the whole city, and all
eyes were turned to the swiftly brightening eastern sky.
The blue changed to silver and the silver to crimson and gold. Then the
sun, the glorious image of the Lord of Life, uprose in all his sudden
splendour, and as his rays fell on the great golden jewel-rayed circle
on the cathedral front, the Rainbow Banner ran swiftly up to the head of
the flagstaff, and I, rising from my throne, bared my head and, turning
my face to the rising sun, bowed myself before it, and at the same
instant every head in the vast assembly was uncovered, and all, save the
soldiers, fell on their knees and stretched out their hands to heaven in
silent joy and thankfulness.
Then I lifted up my voice and spoke the ancient Invocation to the Sun
which generation after generation of my fathers had spoken from the same
spot at the beginning of the feast of Raymi, and when I had ended this
the Children of the Blood lifted up their voices after me and sang the
long-silenced and yet never-forgotten hymn to the Sun, and then,
standing before the kneeling multitude, I replaced the Llautu on my brow
and proclaimed myself Inca and supreme Lord of the Land of the Four
Regions in the name of my long-dead fathers, whose divine right to
lordship had been preserved in me.
And so I, Vilcaroya, son of Huayna-Capac, first fulfilled the prophecy
that had been spoken in the Days of Darkness, and so did I come, as had
been said, from one life into another through the shadow of death and
the silence of the grave, with her whose love, now changed, though no
less dear, had nerved me to face the ordeal of the strangest fate that
had ever befallen one born in mortal shape.
CHAPTER XIII
HOW DJAMA PAID HIS DEBT
It is one of the mysteries of this lower life of ours that men, meaning
to do good in all honesty of heart, may yet do evil in the doing of it,
and it was thus with me in the hour of my first triumph and rejoicing.
I had pondered long and deeply over the strange treachery of Djama, and
I had talked of it with Francis Hartness and the professor until I had
come to see that he was in truth sorely afflicted with that madness
which is born of the lust of gold, which, as they told me, is a disease
of the soul that makes timid men rash and mild ones fierce and cunning,
and may even turn the gentleness of woman into the pitiless rage of
beasts of prey.
It was through thinking of this that I came to see that I was by no
means blameless myself for his madness and the treachery that had come
from it.
In my own days and among my own people gold was held precious only for
its beauty and its usefulness. We had not learned the art of making it
into money and buying men's soul and bodies with it, but I had already
lived enough of my new life to see that now, save for the few, gold was
all and honour nothing; and knowing this, I should also have known what
I was doing when I showed Djama the treasures in the Hall of Gold. The
sight of them had made him mad, and, as my hand had shown them to him,
the blame of what he had done in his madness was in part mine.
All this I remembered in the hour when my soul was filled with joy and
my heart warm with love, and I thought how great a pleasure I should
give to her who had given me the better part of my own joy if I looked
upon Djama with pity and forgiveness and did an act of mercy as the
first deed of my new reign.
So, when the ceremonial of my crowning was over, I bade Tupac take some
of my body-guard and bring him before me from the place where he had
been lodged after his release from his golden cell, and at the same time
I quieted the fears of Joyful Star by telling her what was in my heart
concerning him.
They brought him unbound, but well guarded by soldiers with bayonets on
their rifles, up the broad avenue which the parted throng had made
across the square in front of my throne.
I saw him stare wildly about him as he came near, gazing at the splendid
sun-lit pageant like a man in a dream, or one just awakened into another
world, as I had been after my long death-sleep. But when he came near,
and saw me sitting in my royal state with Joyful Star on my right and
Golden Star on my left, both robed as princesses of the Ancient Blood,
his face grew dark with passion, and his eyes, losing their wonder,
gazed in fixed and furious hate at me--the man who was going to give him
his life, and much more that he had coveted besides.
They placed him between two soldiers before me at the foot of the
terrace steps above which my throne had been set, and I was about to
speak and greet him kindly, when his anger already got the better of
him, and, with a mocking smile on his lips, he said in a loud, rough
voice that was most unlike his own quiet, even tones,--
'Well, your Majesty, as I suppose you think yourself for the present, I
expected something like this--to be brought out into the midst of your
fellow-savages and sentenced like a felon before my own sister and the
woman who, like yourself, owes her life to me!'
Then he laughed one of his strange, joyless laughs, and went on before I
could reply,--
'Well, I suppose I mustn't grumble. You have won, and to the victor go
the spoils. Now that you have apparently bought the girl who was once my
sister with your gold, and I have given you your own sister-wife back,
you will be able to try an interesting experiment in your old form of
matrimony--'
I saw Joyful Star shrink back in her seat and turn her head away from
him with a little cry as he said these evil words, and they angered me
so, that--forgetting they were spoken by a man who stood helpless before
me--I cried,--
'Silence, liar and speaker of evil! or your next words shall be the last
that human ears shall hear you speak. Are you still mad, or have you
forgotten that you were once a man?'
He smiled such a smile as you may have seen on the lips of one who has
died in agony, and said with a swift change in his voice,--
'I beg your Majesty's pardon, and--and the ladies' too. It was a most
ungentlemanly thing to say, and one should not forget one's manners on
the threshold of the next world--if there is one. But come, your
Majesty, you are wasting your valuable time, and keeping all these
interesting savages of yours waiting. You'll find I shall take it
quietly enough. What do you propose that it shall be--something with
boiling oil or red-hot pincers in it?'
I knew that a man who could speak thus, believing that he was about to
die, must be in a pitiful plight, and so I answered him sternly, and yet
without anger,--
'Laurens Djama, I have not brought you here to jest with you, nor yet,
as you think, to condemn you to die, though your life is justly forfeit
to me and my people, whom you would have betrayed again to their
oppressors. Now, listen! You brought me back from death to life, and for
my life I will give you yours, and for Golden Star's I will pay you the
price agreed on and something more. It was by my foolish act that the
madness of the gold-hunger came upon you, and for that I will give you
your freedom; but not now, for that would not be safe for me or my
people, since you have betrayed us once, and, knowing what you do, might
do so again. You shall be taken hence to a pleasant and fertile valley,
where you shall have all freedom, save permission to leave it until this
war is over and I am undisputed lord of the land of my fathers. Then you
shall take the wealth that shall be yours and go to your own country,
or wherever you please, so long as you do not remain in mine, for here
there is no place for you, since my people do not forgive as easily as I
do. Now I have spoken; if there is anything more that you can ask, and I
can give with safety, ask it.'
Most men who had sinned as he had done would have very willingly taken
such forgiveness, and Laurens Djama might have taken it but for a
seemingly small thing. While I was speaking to him his eyes had wandered
from mine and were looking into Golden Star's. As I ceased I felt her
hands clasping my arm, and heard her voice say tremblingly in our own
tongue,--
'Save me, my lord and brother, save me! Evil Eyes is looking into my
heart and turning it cold!'
This Djama saw, though he did not understand her words, and the sight
brought the madness into his blood again. He shouted with a voice like
the cry of a wild beast in pain,--
'Curse you! I will have neither life nor liberty from you, but I'll have
your life for mine, and that will pay me better!'
As the last word left his lips he made a movement so quick that my eyes
could not follow it. The next instant he had wrenched the rifle from
the hands of the soldier on his right hand and levelled it at me. Even
as he did so Joyful Star flung herself with a scream upon my breast and
Hartness sprang forward from behind my throne-seat.
The rifle flashed. I heard a hissing sound close to my ear and a deep
groan and the fall of a body behind me. In the same moment Djama was
seized and flung to the ground, where he lay quite still and silent. I
rose to my feet, clasping Joyful Star for the first time in my arms, and
looked round. Hartness stood beside me unharmed, but old Ullullo, the
first friend that I had made in my new life among my own people, lay
dead behind my throne with a bullet through his forehead.
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