 | CHAPTER VII. Centeola |  |
7. CHAPTER VII.
The next morning's sun, as it seemingly rose in blood,
looked down upon a deeply disquieted city. For besides
the omens of evil, which the earth and heavens combined,
in their view, to exhibit, the people had more immediate
and tangible cause of alarm. The startling news of the
past night, had by this time, spread from mouth to mouth,
till the whole population had become apprized of the full
extent of the apprehended danger; and great, in consequence,
was the commotion which now prevailed through
every part of the crowded city. Men, with anxious and
troubled countenances, were seen hurrying through the
streets in all directions; while at every corner small
groups of people were gathered, now discussing, in visible
agitation, the fearful tidings they had heard, and now
speculating on the boding appearance of the heavens,
seeming to take it for granted, that all was referable to
one cause, and that all conspired to portend some great
and terrible calamity at hand.
But at length came the news, that the council, on
whom centred the hopes of all for some important and
which were sure to avert the impending evils; when their
feelings all seemed to undergo a sudden revulsion, and
hope and joy took the place of despondency and fear in
every countenance. And when they understood that
those measures consisted in propitiating the God of war,
who had been discovered to be deeply offended by the
irreverence and meditated desecrations of certain persons
or parties supposed to be now in the city, by the early
sacrifice of the virgins that morning, they became clamorously
impatient for the ceremonies to commence, and
went about vowing vengeance on all those, if they could
be discovered, who by their heresies and impious opposition,
had thus offended and estranged the protecting God
of the endangered city.
But where, in the meantime, was the young chief Tulozin;
and how felt he in view of all that had been transpiring
around him? He had been no idle observer of
what had been passing the preceding night. He had been
to the Council, listened to the discussions and witnessed
what he could no longer conceal from himself was the
worse than impotent result, and having there learned, to
his great surprise and concern, the circumstances of the
bold outrage attempted to be committed on Centeola, he
had left no means untried to trace out and identify the
would be perpetrator, and the discoveries he made about
that transaction and other scarcely less questionable affairs,
grief and amazement. He became convinced that hitherto
he had seen only the surface of society in the Imperial
City, while beneath was concealed all manner of vice and
corruption, and to such an extent, he greatly feared as but
too well to warrant the condemnation which the Sage
and his daughter had bestowed on the city. And yet for
all his doubts and misgivings, he could not yet decide
what part he should take in the coming events of the day.
He well knew it was expected of him to sustain his rulers
in all the measures they had adopted for the public safety,
and at the same time, he knew that should he do so, he
must relinquish all hopes of his idolized Centeola. Could
he do that? His heart told him no. And still if he did
not so sustain these measures, as wrong and futile as he
now began to look upon them, what would be the consequences
to himself? What, too probably, but to make
him an outcast from the high social and political circle,
in which he had been so ambitious to move, and cause him
to be branded as a traitor. Such were the questions
which passed through his troubled mind, while love was
pleading on one side and ambition on the other, and both
combining to make him the complete prey of conflicting
emotions.
While thus disturbed by these distracting reflections,
Tulozin, who had been abroad in the city to gather news
and learn the state of public feeling, reached his father's
of Centeola, to make one effort more to induce her to
forego her purpose of publicly declaring her mission before
the King and council, which he had now become convinced
would not only be utterly useless, but would involve
her personal safety to a far more dangerous extent than
he had at first apprehended. But when he reached her
home, a new and unexpected incident occurred, which but
added to his doubts and perplexities. The old chief, his
father, who had latterly remained mostly at home, taking
no part in public affairs, had risen that morning in unusual
perturbation and alarm. He had been warned, he said,
in a dream to depart from the city that morning, as the only
way to escape some great evil which was about to befal;
and he had resolved to obey the Heavenly vision.
Finding that no arguments could avail in deterring the old
chief from the immediate execution of his purpose, Tulozin
accompanied him through the western gate of the city,
and left him, with a couple of trusty attendants, to set
forth, at once, on his journey to his old home among the
people of his tribe. Having performed this act of filial
courtesy, Tulozin returned, and, deeply pondering on
what he had just heard and seen, which when coupled
with the views and predictions of Alcoan and Centeola,
gave a new turn to his thoughts, and at the same time
filled him with the most painful forebodings, directed his
steps, as he had previously purposed, to the quarters of
the latter.
“Tulozin, what of the past night?” anxiously asked
the Sage, as the former now made his appearance.
“The news of the past night but too well confirms the
words of the Sage Alcoan, when we first met yesterday,
and when he predicted that the march of the dread invaders
would not be stayed. The alarming tidings, indeed,
comes, that they are pressing rapidly on directly towards
the city, which, it is feared, they may reach and assault
before another day's sun shall roll over us.”
“But what of the King and Council? What measures
do they depend on now to save their city?”
“On the sacrifices — still wholly on the appointed sacrifices,
the time for which in the pressing emergency
they have changed, so that they may take place at the
opening of the ceremonies of the Festival this morning;
and all are impatient for their rites to commence, that Mixitli
who is reported to be very angry, may be the sooner appeased
and take sides with us in the impending struggle.”
“And wist they not that, by the butcheries they call
sacrifices, the wrath of the Great God of all may be
kindled to a consuming fire against them?” Wist they
not in the blindness of their vain and wicked idolatry of
their false God, that they are thus but hastening the very
doom they are trying to escape? Will they listen to no
words of true wisdom? Will they heed none of the
warnings which heaven and earth are combining to give
them?”
“None, good Alcoan, none, and so intent are they on
carrying out what they deem their great saving measure,
that they will not even hear the wisdom or expediency of
the measure called in question by any; while any words
of opposition to its execution will surely bring evil on the
heads of those who venture to offer them.”
“They will, nevertheless, hear such words from Alcoan
and Centeola before their wicked and impious designs are
consumated. Tulozin, we shall surely this day appear
before them.”
“Your life may be the forfeit. O, do not go, good Alcoan,
and especially do not allow Centeola to go. Evil eyes are
already upon her, and spies have been watching for you
both.”
“I go; and let them harm the gray-haired old Sage if
they deem it will help their cause. He will speak; for
he has this day more than one duty to perform. Yes, he
will go, but will only answer for one. Centeola can speak
for herself. We will summon her to appear.”
The Sage then rapped several times with his staff on
the table; and in obedience to the well understood summons,
the maiden promptly made her appearance in the
room.
“Tulozin is welcome” she said with a sweet smile and
in tones of respectful tenderness, “and all the more cordially
does Centeola thus greet him, because she is well
aware of all the kind offices he performed in her behalf
during the troublous scenes of the past night.”
“If Centeola knows that, she may also be aware, perhaps
of the snares that are set for her on every side in
this, to her, dangerous city, and she further may well believe
that the object of her coming here, and that of Alcoan
and their train, is more than suspected; and that it
is the secret determination of some of the most influential
of those in power and the official instruments of their
will, to thwart their purposes, and to punish those, I
greatly fear, who shall attempt to execute them.”
“From what she has heard and noted, the past night,
Centeola is not wholly unprepared for Tulozin's announcement.”
“O, why, then, will she not listen to his voice and be
warned not to appear in public as she proposes, and brave
those who have the power to bring her and her father to
much harm?”
“Tulozin, do you believe in the controling power of
one God, the great and good Spirit of heaven and earth?”
“Your words, fair Centeola, and the wise teachings of
your father, yesterday, have filled my mind with new
thoughts. I feel as one bewildered in coming suddenly
from some dark place into a bright and dazzling light.
Let me once be made to feel that the light, which has
thus flashed over my mind, is not some false light, I then
will not only believe, but embrace.”
“Tulozin, look at yon glorious sun now mounting along
it in its place? Who made the starry host of heaven and
keeps them moving in their allotted circuits? Were all
these created and kept moving in such beautiful harmony
by one God, or two or more Gods.
“I suppose by one, and a supreme God; for complete
harmony among the countless orbs of heaven could only
be ensured by one controling, master hand — the hand that
created them. It must be so; — yes, fair and gifted one
it must be so.”
“It is so. Tulozin reasons rightly. But is that Supreme
God a good and consistent deity, or a malign and
inconsistent one?”
“I should think a good and consistent one.”
“Would he, then, destroy or mar what he has created,
whether it be the orbs of heaven or the children of men?”
“Nay, he would not, he could not consistently. Both
alike must therefore receive his constant care and regard.”
“It is so. Tulozin is still right; for his desire to be
right, and his clear mind, will not permit him to reason
otherwise than he does. But if the God, of whom we
speak, is supreme and benevolent, as Tulozin now admits,
will he suffer, with impunity, the earthly children of his
care and regard to be put to death to please an inferior
deity, if, as you seem to have supposed, such a deity
exists in your so called God of war, and even will he hold
remonstrance of such murderous proceedings?”
The young chief stood mute; for he disdained to answer
evasively; and he plainly perceived that to answer
as he might reasonably be expected after the admissions
he had made, would imply the duty, on his part, to take
an open stand in opposition to the decrees of the Council,
a step which he yet greatly hesitated about taking, and
the Sage readily comprehending the cause of his hesitation,
interposed to take up the discourse.
“Tulozin does not answer, because he cannot yet bring
himself to fear men less than Him who created them, and
moulds them to his will — because he does not fully comprehend
the providence of that great and good Being —
because he does not see, that if God would protect the
good among his earthly children, he must punish the bad,
or those who commit wrongs and outrages upon them; and
finally because he does not yet fully know and realize the
manifold wickedness of this city, and that its crowning
abomination is the sacrifice of innocent human beings to
the false gods it has set up for its vain and abhorrent worship.
For years, Tulozin, I have watched the growing
sins of this place, and the foul wrongs which the exacting
and luxurious rulers, and the corrupt nobles have been
heaping on the people of the seven tribes. Whenever they
heard of a young man who, from his capacities and influence,
system of oppression, they would tempt, bribe or in some
way corrupt him till he should become their willing instrument
and take up his residence among them, and if
these means failed, he would be secretly slain, or cast into
one of the deep dungeons under the Great Temple, where
he would be heard of no more. Many of the fairest of
our virgins have been tempted or stolen away from their
homes, and brought here to be corrupted and made to minister
to the base passions of the rulers and nobles, and to
support those rulers and nobles in their luxury and idleness,
tribute upon tribute is yearly wrung from all the
tribes till they have become an impoverished and discouraged
people; while spies have been sent swarming over
the land, to report the names of those found uttering
complaints, and mark them for punishment. Now does
Tulozin believe that a sin-hating and just God will long
suffer such a city to go unpunished without thorough repentance
and reformation?”
I hardly know what to believe, good Alcoan. But I
will confess, that, even as little as I have been admitted
to a knowledge of the secret doings of those who control
here, I have seen many things which have filled me with
pain and surprise, and these, with the still more painful
discoveries of the past night, lead me to fear, that too
much of what Alcoan has said cannot be easily gainsayed
of the evil repent and change their ways? I am too
young and new here to be heeded; and all my endeavors
to that end, would probably only result in causing those
whom I should oppose, to combine against me and make
me an outcast.”
“To be made an outcast from the dens of the wicked,
Tulozin, would be thy greatest honor, and thy surest pasport
to the favor of the Great Spirit.”
“It may be as thou sayest, good Alcoan, and it may be
that there are duties for me, which I shall soon see my
way clear to perform. I would act the wise and good
part; but what wouldst thou have me do?”
“I will tell thee what we would have thee do, Tulozin,”
here warmly interposed Centeola. “We would
have thee follow the guidance of the inner light, which I
know is beginning to illume thy conscientious and truth-desiring
mind. We would have thee do what that teaches
thee is right, and leave the result to the wise ordering
of the Great Spirit, who can and will protect thee in the
honest course, and at the same time grant thee the favor
which is worth more than all that king or council can
ever bestow. Then join us — O join us, Tulozin, in trying
to prevent these wicked sacrifices. This city, reeking
as it is with crimes, has enough to answer for without
these doubly flagitious abominations. If they can be prevented,
it may be that our God will yet pardon, take the
and stay the bolt which, otherwise. I feel will soon fall on
this devoted city.”
“Centeola,” rejoined the Sage “has uttered the words
of truth, the words of prophecy, the words of salvation,
or the words of doom. She and Alcoan will this day appear
before the king and council, protest against the
bloody rites they are contemplating, and warn them of
the consequence of a blind persistence in their unhallowed
designs.”
Instead of responding directly, the young chief after a
thoughtful pause, related the singular circumstances attending
the departure of his father, the old chief of the
Buffalos, early that morning, of which the solemn asseverations
of Centeola and the Sage appeared to remind
him, and concluded by proposing that they should all abstain
from attending the festival, and following the example
of the old chief, immediately leave the city together.
“Nay, it may not be, Tulozin,” replied the maiden
kindly but firmly.” Fear not for me. He, who prompted
my mission here, will never forsake me in my endeavors
to accomplish it. We may not recede from our righteous
purpose now. We must go and face the danger, if danger
there be, fearlessly.”
“If Centeola goes, then Tulozin goes with her and her
train,” promptly responded the young chief. “His heart
is true, and his arm, if need be, will be strong in her defence.
to summon the people to assemble in the second enclosure
to witness the rites and ceremonies of the festival.
I must away to my house to make my few preparations,
and join thy train on the way. May thy God protect
thee Centeola, and be the prompter and guide of thee
and thy father in the hour of trial.”
| CHAPTER VII. Centeola | |