The Pearl of the Andes: A Tale of Love and Adventure. Gustave Aimard
and destruction. On the plain, Don Gregorio, fearing to advance before he knew what he had positively to trust to, had given orders to his troops to halt. He did not conceal from himself the dangers of his position, so that if he fell in the battle he was about to fight, his honour would be safe and his memory without reproach.
"General," he said, addressing Cornejo, who as well as the senator was close to him, "you are accustomed to war, are an intrepid soldier, and I will not conceal from you that we are in a position of peril.
"Oh! oh!" said the general; "explain, Don Gregorio, explain!"
"The Indians are in ambush in great numbers, to dispute the passage of the defile with us."
"The rascals! Only see now! Why, they will knock us all on the head," the general, still calm, said.
"Oh! it is a horrible trap!" the senator cried.
"Caspita! a trap, I believe it is, indeed!" the general continued. "But you will be able to give us your opinion presently; if, as is not very probable, you come safely through, my friend."
"But I will not go and run my head into that frightful fox's hole!" cried Don Ramón, beside himself.
"Bah! you will fight as an amateur, which will be very handsome on your part."
"Sir," said Don Gregorio, coldly, "so much the worse for you; if you had remained quietly at Santiago, you would not be in this position."
"That is true, my friend," the general followed up, with a hearty laugh.
"How did it happen that you, who are as great a coward as a hare, troubled yourself with military politics?"
The senator made no reply to this cruel apostrophe.
"Whatever may happen, can I reckon upon you, general?" Don Gregorio asked.
"I can only promise you one thing," the old soldier answered, nobly; "that I will not shrink, and if it should come to that, will sell my life dearly. As to this cowardly fellow, I undertake to make him perform prodigies of valour."
At this threat the unhappy senator felt a cold sweat inundate his whole body. A long column of flame burst from the top of the mountain.
Don Gregorio cried, "Caballeros! Forward! and God protect Chili!"
"Forward!" the general repeated, unsheathing his sword.
CHAPTER X.
THE PASSAGE OF THE DEFILE
While these things were going on in the defile, a few words exchanged between Antinahuel and the Linda filled the Toqui with uneasiness, by making him vaguely suspicious of some treachery.
"What is the matter?" Doña Maria asked.
"Nothing very extraordinary," he replied, carelessly; "some reinforcements have arrived rather late, upon which I did not reckon."
"Good Heavens!" said Doña Maria, "I have been perhaps deceived by an extraordinary resemblance; but, if the man I mean were not forty leagues off, I should declare it is he who commands that troop."
"Let my sister explain herself," said Antinahuel.
"Tell me, in the first place, chief," the Linda continued, "the name of the warrior to whom you spoke?"
"His name is Joan."
"That is impossible! Joan is at this moment more than forty leagues from this place, detained by his love for a white woman," the Linda cried.
"My sister must be mistaken, because I have just been conversing with him."
"Then he is a traitor!" she said passionately.
The chief's brow became thoughtful.
"This has an awkward appearance," he said. "Can I have been betrayed?" he added in a deep tone.
"What are you going to do?" the Linda asked, stopping him.
"To demand of Joan an account of his ambiguous conduct."
"It is too late," the Linda continued, pointing with her finger to the Chilians.
"Oh!" Antinahuel cried, with rage, "woe be to him if he prove a traitor."
"It is no longer time for recrimination and threats; you must fight."
"Yes," he replied, fervently; "we will fight now. After the victory it will be time enough to chastise traitors."
The plan of the Araucanos was of the most simple kind: to allow the Spaniards to enter the defile, then to attack them at once in front and in rear, whilst the warriors in ambush on the flanks poured down upon them enormous stones and fragments of rock. A party of the Indians had bravely thrown themselves both in front and rear of the Spaniards to bar their passage. Antinahuel sprang up, and encouraging his warriors with voice and gesture, he rolled down an immense stone amongst his enemies. All at once a shower of bullets came pattering down upon his troops. The false Indians, led by Joan, showed themselves, and charged him resolutely to the cry of "Chili! Chili!"
"We are betrayed!" Antinahuel shouted, "Kill, kill!"
Some horsemen charged in troops at speed, whilst others galloped at random among the terrified infantry.
The Araucanos did not yield an inch – the Chilians did not advance a step. The mêlée undulated like the waves of the sea in a tempest; the earth was red with blood.
The combat had assumed heroic proportions.
At length, by a desperate effort Antinahuel succeeded in breaking through the close ranks of the enemies who enveloped him, and rushed into the defile, followed by his warriors, and waving his heavy hatchet over his head. Black Stag contrived to effect the same movement; but Joan's Chilian horse advanced from behind the rising ground which had concealed them, with loud cries, and came on sabring all before them.
The Linda followed closely the steps of Antinahuel, her eyes flashing, her lips compressed.
"Forward! – forward!" Don Gregorio cried in a voice of thunder.
"Chili! Chili!" the general repeated, cutting down a man at every blow.
More dead than alive, Don Ramón fought like a demon; he waved his sword, rode down all in his way with the weight of his horse, and uttered inarticulate cries with the gestures of one possessed.
In the meantime, Don Bustamente snatched a sword from one of the soldiers, made his horse plunge violently, and dashed forward, crying with a loud voice —
"To the rescue! – to the rescue!"
To this appeal the Araucanos replied by shouts of joy, and flew towards him.
"Ay, ay," a scoffing voice cried; "but you are not free yet, Don Pancho."
General Bustamente turned sharply round, and found himself face to face with General Cornejo, who had leaped his horse over a heap of dead bodies. The two men, after exchanging a look of hatred, rushed against each other with raised swords. The shock was terrible; the two horses fell with it. Don Pancho received a slight wound in the head; the arm of General Cornejo was cut through by the weapon of his adversary. With a bound Don Pancho was again on his feet; General Cornejo would willingly have been so, likewise, but suddenly a knee pressed heavily upon his chest, and obliged him to sink upon the ground.
"Pancho! Pancho!" Doña Maria cried, with the laugh of a demon, for it was she, "see how I kill your enemies!"
Don Pancho had not even heard the exclamation of the courtesan, so fully was he engaged in defending himself. At the sight of the odious murder committed by the Linda, Don Ramón shouted —
"Viper! I will not kill you, because you are a woman; but I will mar your future means of doing evil."
The Linda sank beneath his blow with a shriek of pain; he had slashed her down the cheek from top to bottom! Her hyena-like cry was so frightful that it even brought to a pause the combatants engaged around her. Bustamente heard her, and with one bound of his horse was by the side of his ancient mistress, whom the wound on her face rendered hideous. He stooped slightly down, and seizing her by her long hair, threw her across the neck of his horse; then plunging his spurs into the animals flanks, he dashed, headforemost,