THE KING OF DARKNESS.
Don Tadeo de León had manoeuvred with the greatest skill and promptitude: supporting his left upon the sea, and pivoting upon Arauca, the capital of the confederation, he had extended his right along the mountains, so as to cut off the communications of the enemy, who, by his junction with General Fuentes, found themselves placed between two fires.
Antinahuel, deceived by the false message found on Don Ramón, had committed the unpardonable fault of raising his camp of the Bio Bio, and thus leaving a free passage for General Fuentes. General Bustamente had viewed with despair the faults his ally had committed, faults which the latter would not allow till it was too late to remedy.
Doña Maria, the woman who had been his evil genius, abandoned him now. The Linda, faithful to her hatred, only thought of one thing—to make Doña Rosario suffer as much as she could.
Antinahuel had endeavoured to throw himself into the mountains, but all his efforts had been in vain, and he had only obtained the result he wished to avoid—that is to say, he had placed himself between three corps d'armée, which, by degrees, closed round him, and had ended by placing him in the annoying obligation of fighting upon ground which it pleased the enemy to choose instead of in his own country, Don Gregorio Peralta closed up his passage towards the sea; Don Tadeo de León on the side of the Arauca; whilst General Fuentes defended the approach to the mountains.
All the marches and counter-marches which led to this result had lasted a fortnight. Don Tadeo was anxious to strike a great blow, and terminate the war in a single battle. On the day with which we resume the course of our narrative, the Araucanos and Chilians were at length in presence: Don Tadeo de León, shut up in his tent with Don Gregorio, General Fuentes, and several other superior officers of his staff, was giving them his last orders, when a summons of trumpets was heard from without. The Chilians immediately replied; an aide-de-camp entered the tent, and announced that the Grand Toqui of the Araucanos demanded an interview.
"Do not go, Don Tadeo," said General Fuentes; "it is nothing but some villainy these demons have planned."
"I am not of your opinion, general," the dictator replied. "I ought, as leader, to seek every means of preventing the effusion of blood; that is my duty, and nothing will make me fail in it."
"Caspita!" said Don Gregorio, "you wish to prevent our taking them in spite of you."
The place chosen for the conference was a small eminence, situated between the two camps. A Chilian flag and an Araucanian flag were planted at twenty paces from each other; at the foot of these flags forty Aucas lancers on the one side, and a similar number of Chilian soldiers placed themselves. When these diverse precautions were taken, Don Tadeo, followed by two aides-de-camp advanced toward Antinahuel, who came to meet him with two Ulmens. When they arrived near their respective soldiers, the two leaders ordered their officers to wait for them, and met in the space left free for them. Antinahuel was the first to break the silence.
"The Aucas know and venerate my father," he said, bowing courteously; "they know that he is good, and loves his Indian children. A cloud has arisen between him and his sons; is it impossible to dissipate it?"
"Chief," said Don Tadeo, "the whites have always protected the Indians. Often have they given them arms to defend themselves with, corn to feed them, and warm clothing to cover them in winter. But the Araucanos are ungrateful—when the evil is past they forget the service rendered. Why have they today taken up arms against the whites? Let the chief reply in his turn; I am ready to hear all he can advance in his defence."
"The chief will not defend himself," Antinahuel said, deferentially; "he acknowledges his errors; he is convinced of them; he is ready to accept the conditions it shall please his white father to impose."
"Tell me, in the first place, what conditions you offer, chief; I shall see if they are just."
Antinahuel hesitated, and then said—
"My father knows that his Indian sons are ignorant. A great chief of the whites presented himself to them; he offered them immense territories, much pillage, and fair women if the Araucanos would consent to defend his interests. The Indians are children; they allowed themselves to be seduced by this man who deceived them."
"Very well," said Don Tadeo.
"The Indians," Antinahuel continued, "are ready, if my father desires it, to give up to him this man."
"Chief," replied Don Tadeo, with indignation, "are these the proposals you have to make me? What! Do you pretend to expiate one treachery by committing one still greater and more odious? The Araucanian people are a chivalrous people, unacquainted with treachery: not one of your companions can have possibly suggested anything so infamous; you alone, chief, you alone must have conceived it!"
Antinahuel knitted his brows; but quickly resuming his Indian impassiveness, he said—
"I have been wrong; my father will pardon me: I wait to hear the condition he will impose."
"The conditions are these: the Araucanian army will lay down their arms, the two women who are in their camp will be placed this very day in my hands, the Grand Toqui, and twelve of the principal Apo-Ulmens, shall remain as hostages at Santiago, until I think proper to send them back."
A smile, of disdain curled the thin lips of Antinahuel.
"Will my father not impose less harsh conditions?"
"No," Don Tadeo answered, firmly.
The Toqui drew himself up proudly.
"We are ten thousand warriors resolved to die; my father must not drive us to despair," he said.
"Tomorrow that army will have fallen under the blows of my soldiers, like corn beneath the sickle of the reaper."
"Listen, you who impose such arrogant conditions upon me," the chief replied; "do you know who I am—I who have humbled myself before you?"
"Of what consequence is it to me? I will retire."
"One instant more! I am the great-grandson of the Toqui Cadegual; a hereditary hatred divides us; I have sworn to kill you, dog! rabbit! thief!"
And, with a movement as quick as thought, he drew out his hand, and struck Don Tadeo with a dagger full in the breast. But the arm of the assassin was seized and dislocated by the iron-muscled hand of the King of Darkness, and the weapon was broken like glass against the cuirass which he had put on under his clothes, to guard against treachery.
"Do not fire!" he said to the soldiers; "the wretch is sufficiently punished, since his execrable project has failed. Go back, assassin!" he added, contemptuously; "return and hide your shame among your warriors. Begone, unclean dog!"
Without saying a word more, Don Tadeo turned his back and regained his camp.
"Oh!" Antinahuel said, stamping with rage, "all is not ended yet! Tomorrow I shall have my turn."
"Well," Don Pancho asked, as soon as he saw him, "what have you obtained?"
Antinahuel gave him an ironical glance.
"What have I obtained?" he replied; "that man has baffled me."
"Tomorrow we will fight," said the general. "Who knows? All is not lost yet."
"Who knows?" the chief exclaimed, violently; "Tomorrow, if it costs me all my warriors, that man shall be in my power!"
Without condescending to give any further explanation, the Toqui shut himself up in his toldo with some of his chiefs.
Don Tadeo returned to his tent.
"Well!" cried General Fuentes, "I told you to beware of treachery!"
"You are right, general," the dictator replied, with a smile. "But the wretch is punished."
"No," the old soldier retorted, somewhat angrily; "when we meet with a viper in our path, we crush it without mercy beneath the heel of our boot; if we did not, it would rise and bite the imprudent man who had spared it or disdained it."
"Come, come, general!" Don Tadeo said, gaily; "you are a bird of ill-omen. Think no more about the wretch, other cares call upon us."
The general shook his head with an air of doubt, and went to visit the outposts.