 | CHAPTER X. Centeola |  |
10. CHAPTER X.
Vain would be the attempt to describe the scene of
commotion and alarm that ensued among all ranks, both
of the magnates, and the people of the Imperial city, at
the fearful, and to them in a country where earthquakes
and volcanoes were unknown, incomprehensible phenomena
they had just witnessed. The dense and deeply agitated
living masses thronging the Sacred Enclosure, rushing
hither and thither in their overpowering consternation
and dismay, were seen everywhere swaying and surging
over and around the whole extended area, like the crosswaves
of the ocean in a suddenly smiting tempest, maddened
by the blind impulse to escape, and thus heedlessly
trampling hundreds to death beneath their feet; while
the mingling cries and groans of the wounded and dying,
the shrieks of affright, and the eagerly uttered prayers to
the Gods for deliverance from the something terrible at
hand, though they scarcely knew what, filled the air with
the wildest uproar and tumult.
The High Priest, though at first as much astonished and
dismayed as the rest, was yet not long in regaining
maddening thought of the life-or-death issue, which he
well knew he had now at stake, quickly restored him to
the full use of all his fiendish faculties. With the lifting
of the cloud of dust and smoke, that had filled the air, it
was his first care to peer forward to the spot recently occupied
by his intended victim and her party. And the
instant he discovered their escape, he hastily called several
of his swiftest runners to his side and promptly dispatched
them to close all the gates of the city, and to see
that they were securely guarded.
He then sent different bands of armed warriors to pursue,
intercept, and bring back the fugitives. And this
done, he arose and in a loud voice commanded the attention
of the people.
“Let no one be alarmed,” he said, schooling his features
and voice into looks and tones deemed best calculated
for effect. “It was but a clap of thunder coming
from you cloud,” he continued pointing to the dust and
smoke-cloud that had, by this time, risen above the
city. “Yes, only that; and yet it is a thing to be heeded.
It is to be taken as a token of displeasure of the
God. It was in fact the voice of the Great Mixitli
speaking to us. He had become impatient at our hesitation
and delay in rendering up for his altar the victim
that had been vowed to him. We have incurred a very
great peril in thus trifling with the God. But I have
Though, as you see, the perverse victim and her traitorous
band, as I am prepared to show them to be, have escaped
from the Sacred Enclosure, they have not escaped from
the city. Means have been taken to intercept them; and
they will soon be brought back. Peace, then, ye people!
The God shall be shortly avenged; and then He will again
smile on us, and save us from every danger.
We will now return to Centeola and her fugitive train.
For the first few furlongs, after clearing the Sacred Enclosure,
they found the great street so emptied in consequence
of the general rush of the people to the scene of
the sacrifices, that they encountered few obstacles to prevent
them from making their way with all desired rapidity
through the usually thronged street leading to the
western gate; and they began to congratulate themselves
on the prospect of an easy and speedy escape from what
they all now doubly felt to be, not only a hostile, but
Heaven doomed city. But as they proceeded, they soon
perceived that a crowd was beginning to gather around
them with looks and appearances indicative of any thing
but friendly intent. Large numbers came pouring in
from every cross street and avenue, through which they
had reached the vicinity, in obedience to orders from
headquarters, to impede the advance of the fugitives.
But the intrepid Tulozin, by his menacing attitude, and
the activity with which he swung his ponderous war-club,
crowd to give way before him; while the stout and fearless
Wampa, with a club in one hand and a long spear in
the other, found as little difficulty in protecting the rear
of the train from any dangerous intrusion. But as they
began to draw near the great gate, it grew more and more
doubtful whether the protection thus afforded could be
sufficiently maintained to ensure their escape from the
city; For the crowd were now not only rapidly concentrating
around them; but, pressing closer and closer on
every side, began to utter loud threats and exhibit other
demonstrations of meditated violence. With redoubled exertions,
however, Tulozin and Wampa still succeeded in
keeping the angry multitude at bay while the imperiled
party proceeded rapidly on their way, but not without
many an anxious glance to get sight of the gate, to which
they were anxiously looking as the goal of their deliverance.
That goal at length appeared; but to their dismay,
they at once perceived it to be securely closed: while before
it stood a grim array of armed warriors ready to dispute
their passage and drive them back to the Sacred
Enclosure, and these were flanked on either side by a
dense throng of the common citizens, who, keenly sympathizing
in this movement for their capture, were filling
the air with their shouts of exultation and defiance.
What should the persecuted fugitives do now? Their
means of escape were cut off at every point: For it was
through the ranks of those ferocious looking armed men,
and that heavy, and strongly barred gate, in front; while
in the rear, and on both sides of them, an angry and defiant
crowd completely blocked up the way and precluded
every chance of escape in either of those directions.
The besieged party, however, in despite of all these forbidding
appearances, continued to push their way forward
until they reached a point about fifty yards from the gate;
when they came to a halt for consultation.
“Fear not, my kind friends and protectors,” said Centeola,
looking round on her trusty and revering band,
“fear not — stand firm! My God, who has so signally
protected and guided us thus far, will not desert us now
in this new peril, but will surely again interpose for our
deliverance. Be calm! stand still, and witness His salvation.”
But the sublime faith of the pious and gifted maiden
was not, with the exception of Alcoan, perhaps fully
shared by her party. They could see no avenue for escape,
nor conceive of any way by which it could be
brought about. They consequently gave themselves up
in imagination as certain victims of speedy capture to be
followed, doubtless, by dungeons and death.
That faith however, was not destined to prove false or
delusive. The means of their deliverance were at hand,
as it was unexpected.
Two of the King's mastodons had been kept that day in
the south-eastern part of the city, and when the subterraneous
explosion, which we have described, occurred, these
huge animals, it would seem, at once took the alarm, broke
from their enclosure, and, to gain their native forests, instinctively
made their way in the direction of the western
gate, through which they had been accustomed to enter
the city. Having become bewildered, however, among the
narrow cross-streets abounding in that quarter, they had
been considerably delayed in reaching the point at which
they were aiming. But while thus rushing hither and
thither, and bearing down everything in their way in their
attempts to extricate themselves, they happened to catch
sight of some known object in the vicinity of the gate;
when instantly taking a fresh start, they came with tremendous
force thundering down a cross street which
opened into the main one directly between the besieged
party, and the force gathered before, and around the gate
to oppose and capture them. And the instant the maddened
brutes reached the great street, they turned short
to the left, and heedless of the throng in their way, they
made, side by side, a furious push for the well remembered
entrance, trampling scores of the completely surprised
and screeching guards and the abetting crowd, like
so many feeble worms, into the earth; and breaking
it down, as if it had been some cobweb, before them,
made their way into the open country, leaving a wide
path behind them thickly strewed with the dead and
wounded, the uninjured part of the crowd tumbling over
each other in their wild attempts to get out of the way,
or rushing off and fleeing in the utmost confusion and
affright from the strange, and as yet scarcely comprehended
scene.
“Centeola's God has prevailed!” exultingly shouted
Tulozin. “He has again interposed and again opened a
way for our escape. Let us instantly improve the favored
moment; and on through the gate-way before our discomfited
pursuers can rally from their confusion.”
So saying, he sprang eagerly forward and loudly called
on all the rest of the beleagured party to follow. And in
a moment more the whole company were rapidly threading
their way along the death-strewed pathway, and over
the ruins of the prostrate and nearly demolished gate. In
another, they had safely passed beyond the walls and
gained the little eminence in the vicinity, on which, as before
described, they had taken position before entering the
city on the previous evening; and all this was effected before
the guards and assisting throng, or those of them left
alive and uninjured from the stampede of the mastodons,
had sufficiently recovered from the terrible panic, into
which they had been thrown, to think of interposing any
city.
Here the escaped party supposed, after what had happened,
they would be no further molested, believing that
the signal displays of Heaven, in their repeated deliverances
which must have been noted by their foes, would
deter the latter from attempting any further pursuit. But
in this comforting conclusion they soon perceived they
were to be disappointed; For, in a few moments, a formidable
array of the rallied and freshly reinforced warriors
and guards, swelled by large numbers of the fierce
and determined crowd, all seemingly infuriated at the
strange and unexpected escape of those whom they had
looked upon as already within their grasp, were seen madly
rushing through the cumbered gateway; and, as they
caught sight of their intended victims unexpectedly halted
so near at hand, springing forward, with fresh outbursts
of wrath and exultation for their instant seizure. But
their career was destined to be a short one. At that critical
instant, the senses of all were assailed by the noise
of an explosion, bursting up from the heart of the city,
so loud and deafening as to make both pursuers and
pursued alike recoil aghast, stagger and reel before the
terrible concussion; while, everywhere around, the solid
earth began violently to shake, heave and oscillate, like
the waves of an agitated ocean. There was a brief and
ominous pause, and then, in quick succession, came crash
roar to the echoing vault of the shuddering heavens;
while, at the same time, the long lines of walls, towers,
temples and houses, were seen toppling and tumbling to
the earth, and laying the whole city in one wide, wild
mass of undistinguishable ruin. Again were the terrible
throes of the troubled elements hushed into momentary
silence, during which the mingled cries, shrieks and
groans of the tens of thousands of the mangled and dying
victims, rose in one long, loud wail of agony from
the extended scene of destruction and wo. Then quickly
succeeded another and still more terrific shock of the
volcanic earthquake, accompanied with the roar of ten
thousand thunders and concussions of the earth and heavens
so stunning, and awful, as to throw most of the fugitive
party from their feet, and so over-power their bewildered
senses, as to leave them only dimly conscious that the
ground on which they stood, with the whole adjoining
plain, was being bodily raised and thrown up into broken
swells, and ridges, fifty or a hundred feet above the former
level.
Partially rallying from their consternation, they eagerly
cast their eyes towards the spot where they last saw
their infuriated assailants rushing forward for their capture
or destruction. But those assailants were no where
to be seen. The ground, even, where they stood, together
with the whole line of the walls of the city, had thus
fearful black chasm, from which, with loud, hissing
sounds, convolving clouds of mingling smoke and steam
were fiercely mounting upward to the deeply shrouded
heavens. And in that dark and terrible abyss those
wrathful and blinded minions of superstition and wrong,
together with their whole city, with all its multitudinous
population, had gone down to the common grave forever.
It had been a scene too frightful for language to portray.
But the elements had not ceased their terrible commotion:
for next was heard, beneath the dark, impenetrable
cloud that hung, like a vast pall over the death-devoted
spot, the gushing, boiling sounds, mingled with the cataract
roar of suddenly breaking up fountains, and then all
seemed gradually subsiding into comparative silence. In
a short time that cloud slowly lifted; and, in the brisk
breeze that suddenly sprung up, rolled darkly away to
the south, disclosing a broad, deep, rock-walled chasm,
whose apparent bottom was overspread by the still agitated
and bubbling waters of a newly formed lake, extending
over the whole site of that proud and wicked city which
had so awfully, and mysteriously, just disappeared from
the face of the earth.
“Centeola,” said the young chief reverently approaching
the maiden, who had dismounted, and, with most of
her attendants, stood gazing with fear and wonder over
the dark watery grave of the doomed city; “beautiful
Great is His goodness, as we whom He has saved are the
living witnesses. And great and terrible is His power and
his wrath against the wicked, as the awful fate of yon lost
city so fearfully testifies. It was He who warned my father
in a dream that he might escape the coming doom. And
I bless Him that He has this day turned my heart to become
one of His humble worshippers.”
“The words of Tulozin shed the sunshine of joy over
the heart of Centeola,” responded the other with a gracious
smile. “Her favorable impression of his character,
and her confident predictions that he would soon become
one of the children of light, have all been confirmed.
His deeds, which are only true interpreters of the heart,
have shown him to be all, and more than all he now professes.
He has not only done a great and acceptable
service to the cause of our God, but been the means of
saving Centeola, her father and their party, from the malignant
designs of a wicked priest and his blinded followers.
What shall be his reward? Let him name it and it
shall be his.”
“The heart of Tulozin,” meekly and tremulously responded
the noble young chief, “the heart of Tulozin until
now has known but one wish, indulged but one hope.
But after the surprising revelations of to day, showing the
royal descent of Centeola, so much more illustrious than
naming it.”
“Centeola,” blushingly rejoined the maiden, “claims
nothing from the discovery, to which you allude. She
will feel no pride in having her name associated with those,
however high or regal they may have been, who have this
day so appallingly gone to their last account. She knows
no father, or guide, but the good Sage, Alcoan. Let him
be consulted; and what he may say and sanction, she will
not gainsay, or oppose.”
The old Sage, who had stood wistfully by, and, with
looks of satisfaction, noted all that had passed between
the lovers, now took the willing hand of Centeola, and
placing it in that of the gratified Tulozin, tenderly and
solemnly said to them —
“It is clearly the will of our God that this should be
so. The high wall, which Alcoan yesterday told the
young chief stood between him and Centeola, so long as
the opinions he then appeared to entertain remained unchanged,
has now been wholly removed, leaving, as he
has reason to know, only a genial community of sentiment
between, and a sweet atmosphere of love around
them. I therefore, in the right of a father, which she
has just signified her wish that I should still retain, give
her hand thus away, to one I believe well worthy of it.
And by my authority as chief noble of the tribe of the
Feathered Serpents, I here on this spot, pronounce the
and make thee good and wise rulers; for it must
now be understood, that, by the laws and customs of this
nation, Centeola is the rightful Queen, and Tulozin,
through this union, the rightful King to reign with her
over the seven tribes of our beloved Azatlan.”
“Hail Queen and King of the Seven Tribe of Azatlan!”
joyfully responded the whole company. “Live,
O Queen!” Live, O King! Live long and happily!
Live forever!”
“It is well,” rejoined the gratified Sage. “It is but
a just tribute and fitting salutation. May many a rolling
sun henceforth look down upon a happy, prosperous and
regenerated nation, well and wisely governed by Queen
Centeola and King Tulozin. But let us remain here no
longer looking down upon the dreadful gulf wherein the
wicked perished. The savage hords of the North will
soon be here. Let us hence to our own loved village of
the Feathered Serpents, where the marriage festival
shall be appropriately celebrated; and where, as soon as
the delegates from the other tribes can be assembled, the
noble pair we have just seen united, shall be formally
crowned and proclaimed the Queen and King of Azatlan.
And then, under the blessings of the Great and True
God, whom the people will now soon all cheerfully acknowledge
as such, we will prepare to defend the kingdom
against the common foe.”
The main interest of our brief, but eventful tale, now
ceases; and with that, all tales are expected to draw
rapidly to a close. We shall not, therefore, except in
the briefest summary of the leading events that marked
their subsequent careers, attempt to describe how the
different personages of our story, and the noted people
with whom they were connected, fulfilled the remarkable
destinies which Providence seems to have allotted
them in the near, and distant, future. How, in accordance
with the suggestions of the venerable Alcoan, the
marriage festival of Centeola and Tulozin was brilliantly
celebrated, together with that of Wampa and Mitla, who
were thereupon appointed heads of the household establishment
of their royal master and mistress. How, when
the deputies of the confederate tribes came together, the
noble, and heaven-favored pair were, amidst the joyful
acclamations of a disenthralled people, duly crowned at
the romantic and beautiful village of the Feathered Serpents,
which they henceforward made their royal home,
and the new Imperial city of the nation. How they, and
all the tribes, made the best possible defensive preparations
for the long and relentless war, which, in a short
period, was waged against them all by the dreaded barbarian
horde from the North, that, in countless numbers
began to swarm over the whole length and breadth of the
devoted land. How the brave Tulozin led the serried
lines of his gallant warriors forth to battle with the powerful
victory. How the heroic and heaven-inspired Centeola;
also joined her noble husband in the red fields of battle,
where, mounted on her splendidly caparisoned white
charger, with her snowy plumes streaming in the breeze,
she was seen dashing upon the foe at the head of her
chosen columns, filling the superstitious foe with dismay,
and causing them, everywhere, to give way before her
impetuous onsets. How, for the first five years of the
new reign, those outnumbering (robber) foes were kept at
bay by the many fierce and destructive sorties, that were
repeatedly made by the everywhere closely beleaguered
people, from the well-defended fortress mounds with
which they had studded the land; nor how, — when the
substance of the country at large was consumed by the
all-devouring barbarians, while the limits of safe cultivation
and the hunting ranges were constantly contracting,
so that the strongest positions gave no promise of being
tenable much longer, — the confederate Tribes, one after
another began their exodus to regions where they could
cultivate the land and range the forests for game, in peace,
and enjoy the fruits of their toils without fear or molestation.
How they made their first sojourn, for over six
decades of years, near the banks of the great river of the
West, five hundred miles south of their old home. How,
again beset, and at length driven away by their former
foes, who had been all the while gradually extending
farther distance, and made their second, and much longer,
sojourn in the genial clime of the palm trees. And how,
finally, removing thence, after having lost by death their
idolized Queen and King, they at length reached the
great Valley of Anahuac, where they founded the world-renowned
Aztec Empire, and enrolled the name of Tulozin
as among the best, and wisest, of the Kings of their
ancient dynasty; and, canonizing Centeola, placed her
on the roll of their most beneficent deities, and worshiped
her under the name of Centeotl, the Goddess of Earth
and Corn, and the expected deliverer of the people from
the slavery of false gods, and from the abominations of
human sacrifices.
| CHAPTER X. Centeola | |