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THE duty Hualpa had been charged with by the 'tzin
was not difficult of performance; for the bridges of
the capital, even those along the beautiful street, were much
simpler structures than they appeared. When he had seen
the balustrades and flooring and the great timbers that
spanned the canal — the first one south of the old palace —
torn from their places, and hauled off by the canoemen whom
he had collected for the purpose, he returned to the temple
to rejoin his master.

The assault upon the palace, when he reached that point,
was more furious than at any previous time. The companies
in the street were fighting with marvellous courage, while the
missiles from the azoteas and westward terraces of the temple,
and all the houses around, literally darkened the air.
Amidst the clamor Hualpa caught at intervals the cry, —
“The 'tzin, the 'tzin!” He listened, and all the loyal thousands
seemed shouting, “The 'tzin, the 'tzin! Al-a-lala!”

“Has anything befallen the 'tzin?” he asked of an acquaintance.

“Yes, thanks to Huitzil'! He has broken one of Malinche's
towers to pieces, and killed everybody in it.”

Hualpa's love quickened suddenly. “Blessed be all the
gods!” he cried, and, passing on, ascended to the azoteas.
It may have been the battle, full of invocations, as battles
always are; or it may have been that Io', in full enjoyment
of his command, and so earnest in its performance, stimulated
his ambition; or it may have been the influence of his

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peculiar sorrow, the haunting memories of his love, and she, its
star, separated from him by so little, — something made him
restless and feverish. He talked with the caciques and
priests; he clomb the turret, and watched the smoke go
softly up, and hide itself in the deeper blue of the sky; with
Io', he stood on the temple's verge, and witnessed the fight,
at times using bow and sling; but nothing brought him relief.
The opportunity he had so long desired was here calling
him, and passing away. O for an hour of liberty to
enact himself!

Unable to endure the excitement, he started in search of
the 'tzin, knowing that, wherever he was, there was action,
if not opportunity. At that moment he saw a cacique in
the street plant a ladder against the wall of the palace not
far from the main gate. The Tlascalans defending at that
point tried to throw it off, but a shower of stones from
the terrace of the temple deluged them, and they disappeared.
Up went the cacique, up went his followers;
they gained the crest; then the conflict passed from
Hualpa's view.

“Io',” he said, “when the 'tzin comes back, tell him I have
gone to make a way for him through yon wall.”

“Have a care, comrade; have a care!”

Hualpa put an arm around him, and replied, smiling,
“There is one over the wall now: if he fears not, shall I?
And then,” — he whispered low, — “Nenetzin will despise
me if I come not soon.”

A dawning fell upon Io', and from that time he knew the
power of love.

“The gods go with you! Farewell.”

Hualpa set about his purpose deliberately. Near the door
of the presence-chamber there was a pile of trophies, shields,
arms, and armor of men and horses; he made some selections
from the heap, and carried them into the chamber.

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When he came out, under his panache there was a steel cap,
and under his mantle a cuirass; and to some dead Spaniard
he was further beholden for a shield and battle-axe, — the
latter so called, notwithstanding it had a head like a hammer,
and a handle of steel pointed at the end and more than
a yard in length.

Thus prepared, he went down into the street, and forced
his way to the ladder planted near the gate; thence to the
crest of the wall. A hundred arrows splintered against his
shield, as he looked down upon the combat yet maintained
by the brave cacique at the foot of the banquette.

The wall, as I think I have elsewhere said, was built of
blocks of wrought stone, laid in cement only a little less
hard than the stone, and consequently impervious to any
battery against its base; at the same time, taken piece by
piece from the top, its demolition was easy. Hualpa paused
not; between the blocks he drove the pointed handle of his
axe: a moment, and down fell the capping-stone; another
followed, and another. Alike indifferent to the arrows of
the garrison and the acclamations of the witnesses outside,
looking neither here nor there, bending every faculty to the
task, he did in a few minutes what seemed impossible:
through a breach wide enough for the passage of a double
sedan, foemen within and without the wall saw each other.

And there was hastening thither of detachments. Up the
ladder and over the wall leaped the devoted infidels, nothing
deterred by waiting swords and lances; striking or
dying, they shouted, “The 'tzin, the 'tzin! Al-a-lala!”
Live or die, they strove to cover the steadfast workman in
the breach.

De Olid, at the time in charge of the palace, drew nigh,
attracted by the increasing uproar.

“Ye fools! Out on ye! See ye not that the dog is hiding
behind a Christian shield! Run, fly, bring a brace of

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arquebusiers! Bring the reserve guns! Upon them, gentlemen!
Swords and axes! The Mother for us all! Christo,
Christo!”

And on foot, and in full armor, he pushed into the press;
for, true to his training, he saw that the laborer behind the
shining shield was more worthy instant notice than the
hordes clambering over the wall.

Still the breach widened and deepened, and every rock
that tumbled from its place contributed to the roadway forming
on both sides of the wall to facilitate the attack. But
now the guns were coming, and the arquebusiers made haste
to plant their pieces, against which the good shield might
not defend. Suddenly Hualpa stood up, his surcoat whitened
with the dust of the mortar; without a word he descended
to the street: the work was done, — a way for the
'tzin was ready! Scarcely had he touched the pavement
before the guns opened; scarcely had the guns opened
before the gorge was crowded with infidels rushing in. The
palace, wanting the column absent with Cortes, was in danger.
To the one point every Christian was withdrawn;
even the sick and wounded staggered from the hospital to
repel the attack. With all his gallantry, De Olid was beaten
slowly back to the house. Cursed he the infidels, prayed
he the return of Cortes, — still he went back. In the midst
of his perplexity, a messenger came to tell him the enemy was
breaking through the wall of the western front.

Hualpa had not only made another breach, — De Olid
found him inside the enclosure, with a support already too
strong for the Tlascalans.

The fight the good captain was called to witness was that
of native against native; and, had the peril been less demanding,
he would have enjoyed its novelties. An astonishing
rattle of shields and spears, mixed with the clash of
maquahuitls, and a deafening outcry from the contending

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tribes saluted him. Over the fighting lines the air was thick
with stones and flying javelins and tossing banners. Quarter
was not once asked. The grim combatants engaged each
other to conquer or die. Hither and thither danced the
priests, heedless of the danger, now cursing the laggards,
now blessing the brave. And at times so shrilly blew the
conchs that where they were nothing might be heard but the
shriller medley of war-cry answering war-cry.

I doubt if the captain took other note of the fight than
its menace to the palace; and if he prayed the return of
Cortes a little more fervently than before, it was not from
fear, or confusion of mind; for straightway he appealed to
that arm which had been the last and saving resort of the
Christians in many a former strait. Soon every disengaged
gun was in position before the western door of the palace,
loaded full of stones not larger than bird's-eggs, and trained,
through the crowd, upon the breach, — and afterwards there
were those who charged that the captain did not wait for all
his Tlascalans to get out of the way. The guns opened with
united voices; palace and paved earth trembled; and the
smoke, returning upon the pieces, enveloped everything, insomuch
that the door of the house was not to be seen, nor
was friend distinguishable from enemy.

If my reader has been in battle, he knows the effect of
that fire too well to require description of me; he can hear
the cries of the wounded, and see the ghastly wrecks on the
pavement; he can see, too, the recoil of the Aztecs, and the
rush of the Tlascalans, savagely eager to follow up their advantage.
I leave the scene to his fancy, and choose rather
to go with a warrior who, availing himself of the shrouding
of the smoke, pushed through the throng behind the guns,
and passed into the palace. His steps were hurried, and he
looked neither to the right nor left; those whom he brushed
out of the way had but time to see him pass, or to catch an

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instant's view of a figure of motely appurtenances, — a Christian
shield and battle-axe, a close cap of steel, and the gleam
of a corselet under the colorless tatters of a surcoat of feather-work, —
a figure impossible to identify as friend or foe. The
reader, however, will recognize Hualpa coming out of the
depths of the battle, but going — whither?

Once before, as may be remembered, he had been in the ancient
house, — the time when, in a fit of shame and remorse,
he had come to lay his lordship and castle at the king's feet;
then he had entered by the eastern portal, and passed to the
royal presence under guidance: this time his entry was from
the west, and he was alone, and unacquainted with the vast
interior, its halls, passages, courts, and chambers. In his first
visit, moreover, peace had been the rule, and he could not
go amiss for friends: now the palace was a leaguered citadel,
and he could hardly go amiss for enemies.

Whatever his purpose, he held boldly on. It is possible
he counted on the necessities of the battle requiring, as in
fact they did, the presence of every serviceable man of the
garrison. The few he met passed him in haste, and without
question. He avoided the courts and occupied rooms. In
the heart of the building he was sensible that the walls and
very air vibrated to the roar without; and as the guns in
the eastern front answered those in the western, he was advised
momentarily of the direction in which he was proceeding,
and that his friends still maintained the combat.

Directly three men passed clad in nequen; they were talking
earnestly, and scarcely noticed him; after them came
another, very old, and distinguished by a green maxtlatl over
his white tunic, — one of the king's councillors.

“Stay, uncle,” said Hualpa, “stay; I have a question
to ask you.”

The old man seemed startled.

“Who are you?” he inquired.

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Hualpa did not appear to hear him, but asked, “Is not the
princess Nenetzin with the king, her father?”

“Follow this hall to its end,” replied the ancient, coldly.
“She is there, but not with the king, her father. Who is
he,” he continued, after a pause, — “who is he that asks for
the false princess?”

With a groan Hualpa passed on.

The hall ended in a small patio, which, at sight, declared
itself a retreat for love. The walls were finished with a confusion
of arabesque moulding, brilliantly and variously
colored; the tracery around the open doors and windows was
a marvel of the art; there were flowers on the floor, and in
curious stands, urns, and swinging baskets; there were also
delicate vines, and tropical trees dwarfed for the place,
amongst which one full grown banana lifted its long branches
of velvet green, and seemed to temper the light with dewy
coolness; in the centre, there was a dead fountain. Indeed,
the patio could have been but for the one purpose. Here,
walled in from the cares of empire, where only the day was
bold enough to come unbidden, the wise Axaya' and his less
fortunate successors, Tecociatzin and Avizotl, forgot their
state, and drank their cups of love, and were as other men.

All the beauty of the place, however, was lost on Hualpa.
He saw only Nenetzin. She was sitting, at the time, in a
low sedilium, her white garments faintly tinted by the scarlet
stripes of a canopy extended high overhead, to protect her
from the too ardent sun.

At the sound of his sandals, she started; and as he approached
her, she arose in alarm. In sooth, his toilette was
not that most affected for the wooing of women; he brought
with him the odor of battle; and as he knelt but a little way
from her, she saw there was blood upon his hands, and upon
the axe and shield he laid beside him.

“Who are you?” she asked.

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He took off the steel cap and shapeless panache, and looked
up in her face.

“The lord Hualpa!” she exclaimed. Then a thought
flashed upon her mind, and with terror in every feature, she
cried, “Ah, you have taken the palace! And the Tonatiah?”—
she clasped her hands despairingly, — “dead? a captive?
Where is he? I will save him. Take me to him.”

At these words, the uncertain expression with which he
had looked up to her upon baring his head changed to utter
hopelessness. The hurried sentences tore his heart, like
talons. For this he had come to her through so much
peril! For this he was then braving death at her feet! His
head sunk upon his breast, and he said, —

“The palace is not ours. The Tonatiah yet lives, and is
free.”

With a sigh of relief, she resumed her seat, asking, —

“How came you here?”

He answered without raising his eyes, “The keepers of the
palace are strong; they can stay the thousands, but they
could not keep me out.”

The face of the listener softened; she saw his love, and
all his heroism, but said, coldly, —

“I have heard that wise men do such things only of
necessity.”

“I do not pretend to wisdom,” he replied. “Had I been
wise, I would not have loved you. Since our parting at
Chapultepec, where I was so happy, I have thought you
might be a prisoner here, and in my dreams I have heard
you call me. And a little while ago, on the temple, I
said to Io', `Nenetzin will despise me, if I come not soon.'
Tell me, O Nenetzin, that you are a prisoner, and I will take
you away. Tell me that the stories told of you on the
streets are not true, and —”

“What stories?” she asked.

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