Les fils de la tortue. English

by Gustave Aimard

  CHAPTER XIV.

  THE RUPTURE.

  They travelled the whole day without any incidents: the heat which hadso incommoded them all during the first few days, had been succeededby a temperature which hourly became colder. The foliage of the treesassumed a deeper tinge of green; the singing birds of the llanos,whose sweet notes ravished the ear, had been succeeded by the eagles,vultures, and other birds of prey, which formed immense circles inspace while uttering the hoarse and strange cries peculiar to them.

  The sky, which had hitherto been of such a pure blue, was beginninghere and there to assume greyish tones and coppery reflections, whichformed a contrast with the dull whiteness of the water of the torrentswhich fell in cascades from the snowy peaks of the mountains, downwhose flanks they dragged with a dull roar masses of rock and enormousfirs which they uprooted in their passage.

  A wild llama or vicuna might be seen balanced on a point of granite,and at times in the openings of the thick wood which bordered the road,the flashing eyes of a puma, or the black muzzle of a bee hunting bear,could be seen stretched out over a branch. All, in a word, announcedthe vicinity of the Cordillera of the Andes.

  When night set in, the caravan had reached a narrow plateau, situatedin what is called the temperate region, the last station of travellersbefore entering the vast and gloomy solitudes of the Andes, which areas yet very little known or explored, owing to the difficulty of meansof transport, and the absence of a sedentary population.

  The camp was made by the side of the road, under an immense naturalarch, formed by means of rock, which overhung the road for more thantwo hundred yards, and formed a shelter for travellers by beinghollowed out at its base. The fires were lighted, one in the centre ofthe camp, and the other at each corner, in order to keep off the wildbeasts whose attacks were beginning to be apprehended with reason.

  When supper was ended, sentries were posted, and each prepared hiscouch in order to spend his night in the enjoyment of that sleep whichrestores the strength. If the expression we have just used, that eachprepared his couch, were to be taken literally, it would be a greatmistake, if this performance were at all supposed to be like what isdone in Europe in similar cases.

  In fact, with a European a bed generally consists of at least onemattress, or something analogous to take its place, a bolster, apillow, sheets, blankets, &c.; but in Chili things are very different.Although luxury and comfort are things well known in towns, beds atall like ours are only found in the houses of rich people, and then,great heavens! what beds. As for the one which the Chilians employ whentravelling, it is most convenient and ingenious, since it serves themas a saddle by day, as we shall proceed to show.

  The horse's equipment consists, in the first place, of three ponchos,folded square, and laid one upon the other on the back of the horse; inthese ponchos are laid four sheepskins with the wool on, and on theseagain is placed a wooden seat, representing a saddle, which supportsa pair of heavy wooden stirrups, hollowed out in a triangular form.A surcingle, fastened under the horse's belly, keep these variousarticles in their places, and four more ponchos and four more skinsare laid on them. Lastly, another poncho is thrown over the whole, andserves as chabraque, a second strap holding this edifice in its place.

  We can see from the description of what enters into the formation ofChilian horse accoutrement that it can advantageously take the placeof our scanty English saddle, and that the rider is able to find thematerials for a very soft bed. When the latter arrives at his sleepingplace, he unsaddles his horse, which he leaves at liberty to find itsfood where it thinks proper, and then makes the aforesaid bed in thefollowing way.

  He first lays the saddle on the ground to act as pillow, then spreadshis first sheepskins, over a space six feet in length, and two or threein width; he covers these with three ponchos, on which he lies down,and then pulls over him the four other skins and the remaining ponchos,and eventually disappears under this pile of stuff so entirely that itis impossible to perceive him, for even his head is hidden.

  It happens at times that when a man is passing the night on theCordilleras, under the protection of this formidable rampart of skinsand blankets, a few feet of snow literally bury the sleeper, who,on awaking, is compelled to throw his legs and arms about for someminutes, in order to liberate himself and see daylight again.

  Diego was preparing his bed in the manner which we have just described,and displaying all the attention of a man who feels the need of asound sleep, when he saw Leon Delbes coming towards him, who sincethe morning had not spoken to him, and seemed to avoid him. We mustsuppose that the smuggler's face betrayed a lively emotion, forDiego on looking up to him, felt ill at ease, and saw that somethingextraordinary had taken place in his friend's mind. From the way inwhich the young man looked at him, it was certain that he was preparingto ask of him an explanation about some fact, and understanding thatit could only refer to the Soto-Mayor family, he could not suppress astart of impatience which did not escape Leon.

  The latter, on his side, was asking himself how he should manage theconversation as to lead Diego to tell him what he wanted to learn, andnot knowing how to begin, he waited till the latter should addresshim. Both were afraid of reverting to the past, and yet each felt thatthe moment had arrived to behave frankly and expose the nature of hisgrievances.

  When we speak of grievances, we know perfectly that neither hadto reproach the other for any deed of a reprehensible nature inwhat concerned their mutual pledge to help each other; but if Leoninvoluntarily revolted against the implacable revenge which thehalf-breed had begun to exercise against the Soto-Mayors, whileconfessing to himself that, in spite of the friendship which united himto Diego, he could never lend a hand to excesses like the one whichhe had seen committed on the previous night by the Indians, Diego hadnot failed to comprehend that the love which Leon entertained forMaria would be an invincible obstacle to the support which the latterhad sworn to give him. Without accusing him of treachery, he stilltaxed him with softness of heart and irresolution, or rather pitiedhim for having surrendered himself, bound hand and foot, to a wildpassion which paralyzed all the goodwill which he might under othercircumstances have expected from him.

  As we see, the respective position of the two men toward each other hadbeen too false for them not to feel in their hearts a lively desireto put an end to it; the difficulty was to manage it without injuringtheir self-esteem and interests.

  Leon had hoped that Diego would at length inquire the motive which hadbrought him to his friend, but on seeing that the latter affected notto address a syllable to him, he resolved to break the silence.

  "You are going to sleep, brother," he said to him.

  "Yes," Diego replied: "I am tired."

  "You tired!" Leon remarked, with a smile of incredulity, "tired by aten leagues' ride, when I have seen you hunt on the Pampas for eightor ten days in succession without dreaming of resting for a moment;nonsense!"

  "Tired or no, I wish to sleep: besides, what is there extraordinary inthat? Has not everybody in camp lain down?"

  "That is true."

  "Then I invite you to do the same, unless love keeps you awake," headded, laconically. "In that case, the best thing you can do is tospend the night in walking round the hut in which your fair one isreposing, that her sleep may not be disturbed; and much good may it doyou."

  "Diego," Leon answered, sorrowfully, "what you are saying to me is notright. What have I done to you that you should address me so roughly?"

  "Nothing," the half-breed said, with a regretful tone. "But come,"he said, kicking the bed over which he had taken so much pains inpreparing, "you really seem so anxious to speak to me that I mightfancy that you had important business."

  "What makes you suppose that I want to speak to you?"

  "Oh, good Heaven! Leon, we have lived together long enough for us tobe able to read on one another's faces what our thoughts are. Confessthat you are suffering, that you are anxious, and that you have come toask some explanat
ion of me. Come, if it be so, tell me frankly what youwant of me, and I will answer. For on my side I also have to speak withyou about the grief and sorrow which seem to have assailed you sinceyesterday. Speak; is it the engagement you made to support me in thestruggle I am preparing, for that seems to you too heavy to carry out?Only say one word: there is still time, and I will give you back yourword; but speak, for I am anxious to come to a decision."

  "Brother," said Leon, without replying directly to Diego's injunction,"I notice bitterness in your words and mocking on your lips: still,in order to remove from the discussion anything that might resemblepassion or annoyance, I have let the whole day pass over the eventabout which I wish to speak to you, for it is the friend I amaddressing, and not Tahi-Mari."

  "Well, what do you want?"

  "I will tell you."

  Leon drew from his belt the ring which he had found, and handed it toDiego.

  "Do you know this?" he asked him.

  "What is it?" said the half-breed, taking it and turning it over in hisfingers, while giving the young man an inquiring glance.

  "A ring."

  "Hang it, I can see that, and a very handsome ring too; but I ask youwhat meaning it has in your hands?"

  "Do you not know?"

  "How would you have me know?"

  "Is it true that you do not know to whom it belongs?"

  "Certain."

  "Then you did not notice it on anybody's hand?"

  "No; and I assure you that if I had seen it twenty times I should notrecognise it now, for I pay no attention to such futilities."

  "Well, since you do not know to whom it belongs, I will tell you."

  "If you insist on my knowing, very good. But," he added, with a smile,"if I could have thought that you wished to speak to me so anxiously inorder to talk about a pearl, I should have begged you to let me sleep."

  "A little patience, for this ring is more important than you seem tofancy."

  "In that case tell me for what reason, and how it comes in your hands."

  Leon looked at Diego's face, which indicated his entire good faith, andcontinued:

  "You remember that when we reached the Indians' camp together, twoSpanish prisoners were in their power."

  "Yes, certainly."

  "Now, this morning, when passing again through that camp with thecaravan, Don Pedro Sallazar, after examining the sign, divined anIndian sojourn, and invited me to enter the huts with him. I found thisring in the one to which I saw the prisoners transported."

  "In that case," said Diego, "it must have belonged to one of them, thatis incontestable. But how do those prisoners concern us?"

  "Our second, as victim of the barbarous sacrifice which I sawaccomplished before my eyes, and he was a lancero. I allow that I sawthat hapless man for the first time in my life. But the other."

  "The other!" Diego interrupted, who was curiously listening to Leon'snarrative.

  "The other we both know, for he was Don Juan de Soto-Mayor, thegeneral's son, and this ring is the same which he wore on the day whenhis father sheltered us under his roof."

  "Don Juan!" Diego said, with a start, while a flash of savage joyilluminated his eyes. "What! it was he?"

  "Did you not know it?"

  "No, on my soul! It is probable that he was following the same road asourselves; and the Indians, who were ahead of us, seized him."

  "And what has become of him? What have they done to him?"

  "How do I know? A Soto-Mayor!" Diego repeated, on whom the announcementof this news produced unequivocal satisfaction. "Thanks, Leon, forhaving been the first to inform me of the fact."

  "What do you mean? I came to you to ask you whether this man has notfound among the Indians the horrible death that smote the lancero whoaccompanied him!"

  "No; and I thank Heaven for it, for I gave orders that all prisonersshould be kept in a place of safety, with the exception of the oneselected for sacrifice, and I shall soon be able to find Don Juan, whobelongs to me, and whose blood shall be shed by me in expiation ofthe great Tahi-Mari, my father. At length," the half-breed exclaimed,growing animated, "you are about to be avenged, my glorious ancestors!and may every head which my hand causes to fall, rejoice your irritatedmanes!"

  At this moment, Diego's attitude had something so imposing about itthat Leon felt himself gradually overcome by its terrible expression;because he resolved to oppose to the force of hatred which burned inthe half-breed's heart that of love which consumed his own, by strikinga grand blow.

  "Brother," he said, "you are strangely in error if you fancy that Itold you the name of the wearer of this ring in order to satisfy yourvengeance."

  "What do you mean?" Diego replied.

  "That in the name of the friendship which unites us, in the name of thelove which I have for Dona Maria, I have come to ask you to restore toliberty the brother of her whom I love."

  And Leon ceased speaking.

  The man who, walking along a road bordered by flowers and turf,suddenly saw the ground open under his feet, and a bottomless precipicepresent itself, would not feel a greater commotion of surprise thanthat which assailed the descendant of Tahi-Mari: his lips wereclenched, his cheeks turned livid, and he fell crushed on the ponchoswhich remained on the ground.

  "Have I rightly understood? Leon, it is at the moment when afterwaiting twenty years for the solemn hour of victory I at length hearit strike, that you ask me to surrender my enemy to you! What I shouldhave broken all the obstacles which opposed the success of the holycause which I am defending; I should have sacrificed without pity formyself all that attached me to life, after tearing from my heart allthe illusions of my youth, in order only to leave my hatred, and allthat in order to renounce the hope of attaining the object which I waspursuing! Oh, no, that is not possible; and it is not you, Leon, myfriend, my brother, who would ask such a sacrifice of me. No!"

  "Brother, forgive me!" Leon exclaimed; "but I love this woman."

  "Yes, you love her; and if I give you the life of the brother, you willask me tomorrow for that of the father; and each day, implored by you,I must, I suppose, abandoning one by one the victims I have marked,efface from my memory every recollection of the past, and allow theassassins of Tahi-Mari to live amid the joys which power and wealthproduce. No, no! I pity you, brother, for you must have left all yourreason at the bottom of that love to which you refer when you dare tomake me such a proposal."

  "Enough, Diego; enough! I implored you in the name of our friendship,and I was wrong, since you believe that you are committing an act ofjustice in killing those for whom I implore your mercy. Pardon me; andnow farewell, brother, I will leave you."

  "Where are you going, madman?" Diego asked, as he held him back.

  "I do not know, but I wish to fly far from here."

  "What! leave me! thus break a friendship like ours! You cannot think ofsuch a thing."

  "Do you not know that I love Maria with all the strength of my soul: asI told you it is an impossibility to give up that love, and yet I donot wish to betray your cause; so let me go and seek far from her, ifnot oblivion, at least death."

  "Grief leads you astray, Leon. Come, listen to me."

  "What!--your justification! I do not accuse you; but once again I saywe must separate, for if Maria were to ask me for her brother and Ishould not give him to her, she would curse me, do you hear? Becauseshe would refuse to believe that I love her, as I did not know how todie to save him whom your hatred has condemned! You see plainly that Imust depart."

  "Well, then," said Diego, with some amount of emotion, "aninsurmountable barrier is raised between us."

  "Yes, brother; but though we are parted the memory of our friendshipwill survive our separation."

  A silence of some minutes' duration followed these words, and nothingcould be heard but the hurried breathing of the two men. Diego was thefirst to speak.

  "Leon," he suddenly exclaimed, making a violent effort over himself;"you have spoken the truth; one of us must depart, a
s we are bothfollowing a different road; but it shall be I, for my place is at thehead of the Indians, my brothers. As for you, remain with those whomyou are protecting, and ere I go to resume the life of the proscript,and continue in broad daylight the struggle which I have been carryingon for so many years in the darkness, give me your hand, that I maypress it in mine for the last time; and then, to the mercy of God!"

  "Oh!" Leon replied, eagerly, "most gladly so, or rather let us embrace,for we are still worthy of each other."

  And the two smugglers fell into each other's arms.

  "Be happy, Diego," said Leon.

  "God grant that you may find happiness in the love of Dona Maria," saidDiego.

  Then the latter, taking his lasso, whistled to his colt, which came upat the appeal, and, after saddling it, he leaped lightly on its back.He remained motionless for a moment, taking a sorrowful glance at themen sleeping a short distance from him; and then, after breathing adeep sigh, he addressed Leon once again.

  "Farewell!" he said to him: "remember that you are an adopted sonof the Araucanos, and that if you please one day to come among yourbrothers to seek a supporter or a defender, you will find one and theother."

  "Farewell!" murmured Leon, whose eyes were moist.

  Ere long the half-breed's mustang, sharply spurred, leaped at one boundover the bales which formed the enclosure of the camp, and dartedacross the plain with the rapidity of an arrow.