“Your will be done,” he said to Io’. “Arise!” Then looking toward the sun, he added, with majestic fervor, “The inspiration is from you, O holy gods! strengthen it, I pray, and help him in the way he would go.” A moment after, he turned to Cuitlahua, “My brother, have your wish also. I give you the command. You have my signet already. To-morrow the drum of Huitzil’ will be beaten. At the sound, let the bridges next the palace of Axaya’ on all the causeways be taken up. Close the market to-night. Supplies for one day more Malinche may have, and that is all. Around the teocallis, in hearing of a shell, are ten thousand warriors; take them, and, after the beating of the drum, see that the strangers come not out of the palace, and that nothing goes through its gates for them. But until the signal, let there be friendship and perfect peace. And”—he looked around slowly and solemnly—“what I have here spoken is between ourselves and the gods.”
And Cuitlahua knelt and kissed his hand, in token of loyalty.
While the scene was passing, as the only one present not of the royal family, Hualpa stood by, with downcast eyes; and as he listened to the brave words of the king, involving so much of weal or woe to the realm, he wondered at the fortune which had brought him such rich confidence, not as the slow result of years of service, but, as it were, in a day. Suddenly, the monarch turned to him.
“Thanks are not enough, lord Hualpa, for the report you bring. As a messenger between me and the mighty Huitzil’, you shall have reason to rejoice with us. Lands and rank you have, and a palace; now,”—a smile broke through his seriousness,—“now I will give you a wife. Here she is.” And to the amazement of all, he pointed to Nenetzin. “A wild bird, by the Sun! What say you, lord Hualpa? Is she not beautiful? Yet,” he became grave in an instant, “I warn you that she is self-willed, and spoiled, and now suffers from a distemper which she fancies to be love. I warn you, lest one of the enemy, of whom we were but now talking, lure her from you, as he seems to have lured her from us and our gods. To save her, and place her in good keeping, as well as to bestow a proper reward, I will give her to you for wife.”
Tecalco looked at Acatlan, who governed her feelings well; possibly she was satisfied, for the waywardness of the girl had, of late, caused her anxiety, while, if not a prince, like Cacama, Hualpa was young, brave, handsome, ennobled, and, as the proposal itself proved, on the high road to princely honors. Tula openly rejoiced; so did Io’. The lord Cuitlahua was indifferent; his new command, and the prospects of the morrow, so absorbed him that a betrothal or a wedding was a trifle. As for Hualpa, it was as if the flowery land of the Aztec heaven had opened around him. He was speechless; but in the step half taken, his flushed face, his quick breathing, Nenetzin read all he could have said, and more; and so he waited a sign from her,—a sign, though but a glance or a motion of the lip or hand. And she gave him a smile,—not like that the bold Spaniard received on the temple, nor warm, as if prompted by the loving soul,—a smile, witnessed by all present, and by all accepted as her expression of assent.
“I will give her to you for wife,” the monarch repeated, slowly and distinctly. “This is the betrothal; the wedding shall be when the war is over, when not a white-faced stranger is left in all my domain.”
While yet he spoke, Nenetzin ran to her mother, and hid her face in her bosom.
“Listen further, lord Hualpa,” said the king. “In the great business of to-morrow I give you a part. At daylight return to the temple, and remain there in the turret where hangs the drum of Huitzil’. Io’ will come to you about noon, with my command; then, if such be its effect, with your own hand give the signal for which the lord Cuitlahua will be waiting. Strike so as to be heard by the city, and by the cities on the shores of the lake. Afterwards, with Io’, go to the lord Cuitlahua. Here is the signet again. The teotuctli may want proof of your authority.”
Hualpa, kneeling to receive the seal, kissed the monarch’s hand.
“And now,” the latter said, addressing himself to Cuitlahua, “the interview is ended. You have much to do. Go. The gods keep you.”