The Pearl of the Andes: A Tale of Love and Adventure

"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.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE BATTLE OF CONDERKANKI

It was the fourth of October.

The Araucano warriors came out proudly from their entrenchments, and drew up in order of battle to the sound of their warlike instruments. The Araucanos have a system of battle from which they never deviate: this unchangeable order is as follows: the cavalry form the two wings, and the infantry is in the centre, divided by battalions. The ranks of these battalions are by turns composed of men armed with pikes and men armed with clubs, so that between two pikes there is always one club. The vice-Toqui commands the right wing, an Apo-Ulmen the left wing. As to the Toqui, he flies to all points, exhorting the troops to fight courageously for liberty.

The Araucanian army, drawn up as we have described, had an imposing and martial appearance. All these warriors knew they were supporting a lost cause, that they were marching to an almost certain death, and yet they waited impassively, their eyes burning with ardour for the signal for battle. Antinahuel, with his right arm tied down to his body by leather strap, brandishing a heavy club in his left hand, mounted a magnificent courser, as black as jet, which he governed with his knees, and rode through the ranks of his warriors.

Before leaving the camp, General Bustamente exchanged a few words with the Linda. Their short conversation ended with these words, which did not fail to make an impression upon the woman's heart —

"Farewell, señora!" he said, in a melancholy voice; "I am going to die – thanks to the bad influence you have exercised over me – in the ranks of those to whom my duty orders me to be opposed! I am going to die the death of a traitor, hated and despised by all! I pardon you the evil you have done me. Repent! – there is still time! Farewell!"

He coldly bowed to the dejected Doña Maria, and rejoined the troop.

The Chilian army was formed in squares of echelons.

At the instant Don Tadeo was leaving his tent he uttered an exclamation of joy at beholding two men.

"Don Louis! Don Valentine!" he exclaimed; "you here?"

"Faith! yes, here we are," Valentine replied, laughing; "Cæsar and all, who has a great inclination to taste an Araucano; haven't you, old dog?" he said.

"We thought," said the count, "that on a day like this you could not have too many of your friends round you; we have left the two chiefs concealed in the woods a short distance off, and have come to you."

"I thank you. You will not leave me, I hope."

"Pardieu! we came on purpose to stick to you."

Don Tadeo ordered each to be furnished with a superb charger, and all three set off at a gallop to place themselves in the centre square.

The plain of Conderkanki, into which Don Tadeo had at length succeeded in driving the Indians, has the form of an immense triangle. The Araucanos occupied the summit of the triangle, and found themselves hemmed in between the sea and the mountains.

"Well," Valentine asked Don Tadeo, "is not the battle going to begin?"

"Directly," the latter replied, "and be assured you will find it sharp enough."

The dictator then raised his sword. The drums beat, the bugles sounded the charge, and the Chilian army advanced at quick step. The signal being given, the Araucanos advanced in their turn resolutely, uttering frightful yells. As soon as their enemies were within a proper distance the Chilian lines opened – a discharge of artillery roared forth its thunders, and swept the front ranks of the Araucanos; then the squares as suddenly closed, and the soldiers waited in their ranks, with bayonets at charge.

The shock was terrible. The Aucas, decimated by the artillery which ploughed their ranks, front, flank, and rear, faced about on all sides at once, and rushed with fury upon the Chilian bayonets. As soon as the first rank succumbed beneath the bullets, the second and third resolutely replaced it. And yet the savage warriors retained self-command in all their eagerness; they followed with exactness and rapidity the orders of their Ulmens, and executed with the greatest regularity the various evolutions which were commanded.

In spite of the close discharges of the musketry which cut them to pieces, they rushed headlong upon the front ranks of the Chilians, and at length attacked them hand to hand. The Chilian cavalry then dashed in, and charged them to the very centre.

But General Bustamente had foreseen this movement. On his side he executed the same manoeuvre, so that the two bodies of cavalry came in contact with a noise like thunder. Calm and cool at the head of his squadron, the general charged.

As Don Tadeo had predicted to Valentine, the battle was rudely contested along the whole line; the Araucanos, with their tenacity which nothing can repel, and their contempt of death, allowed themselves to be slaughtered by the Chilian bayonets without yielding. Antinahuel was in the van of his warriors, animating them with his gestures and his voice.

"What men!" the count could not refrain from exclaiming; "what mad rashness!"

"Is it not?" Don Tadeo replied; "They are demons."

"Pardieu!" Valentine cried. "What brave soldiers! Why, they will all be killed if they go on so."

"All!" Don Tadeo replied.

The principal efforts of the Araucanians were directed against the square where the general-in-chief was, surrounded by his staff. There the fight was changed into a butchery; firearms had become useless, bayonets, hatchets, sabres, and clubs furrowed breasts and crushed skulls. Antinahuel looked around him. His followers were falling like ears of ripe corn; the forest of bayonets which barred their passage must be broken through at all hazards.

"Aucas!" he cried, in a voice of thunder "forward!"

With a movement rapid as thought, he lifted his horse, made it plunge, and hurled it upon the front ranks of the enemy. The breach was opened by this stroke of extraordinary audacity; the warriors rushed in after him. A frightful carnage ensued – a tumult impossible to be described! With every blow a man fell. The Aucas had plunged like a wedge into the square, and had broken it.

"Well," Don Tadeo asked of Valentine, "what do you think of these adversaries?"

"They are more than men!" he answered.

"Forward, forward! Chili! Chili!" Don Tadeo shouted, urging on his horse.

Followed by about fifty men, among whom were the two Frenchmen, he plunged into the thickest of the enemy's ranks. Don Gregorio and General Fuentes had divined from the persistency with which the Araucanos attacked the great square that their object was to take the general-in-chief prisoner. Therefore, they had hastened their movements, effected their junction, and enclosed the Aucas within a circle of steel.

At a glance Antinahuel perceived the critical position in which he was placed. He shouted to Bustamente a cry of anxious appeal. He also was aware of the dangerous position of the Indian army.

"Let us save our warriors," he shouted.

"We will save them," the Indians howled.

All at once the general found himself immediately opposed to the squadron commanded by Don Tadeo.

"Oh!" he cried, "I shall die at last."

From the commencement of the action Joan had fought by the side of Don Tadeo, who, intent upon his duties as leader, often neglected to parry the blows aimed at him; but the brave Indian parried them for him, and seemed to multiply himself for the sake of protecting the man he had sworn to defend. Joan instinctively divined the intention of General Bustamente.

"Oh!" the general shouted; "my God, I thank thee. I shall not die by the hand of a brother."

Joan's horse came full in contact with that of the general.

"Ah! ah!" the latter murmured, "you also are a traitor to your country; you also are fighting against your brothers. Die, wretch!"

And he aimed a heavy sabre stroke at the Indian. But Joan avoided it, and seized the general round the body. The two horses, abandoned to themselves, and rendered furious by the noise of the battle, dragged along the two men, who clung to each other like serpents. This furious struggle could not last long, and both men rolled on the ground. They disengaged themselves from their stirrups, and instantly stood face to face. After a contest of skill for a few minutes, the general, who was an expert swordsman, succeeded in planting a sabre cut which cleft the skull of the Indian; but before falling Joan collected his strength, and threw himself headlong upon his antagonist, who was surprised by this unexpected attack, and plunged his poisoned dagger into his breast. The two enemies staggered for a moment, and then fell, side by side – dead!

CHAPTER XXXI.

CONQUEROR AND PRISONER

On seeing General Bustamente fall, the Chilians uttered a loud cry of triumph.

"Poor Joan!" Valentine murmured, as he cleft the skull of an Indian; "poor Joan! he was a brave, faithful fellow."

"His death was a glorious one," Louis replied.

"By dying thus bravely," Don Tadeo observed, "Joan has rendered us a last service.

"Bah!" Valentine philosophically rejoined, "he is happy. Must we not all die, one day or another?"

Valentine was in his element; he had never been present at such a festival, he absolutely fought with pleasure.

"Pardieu! we did wisely in quitting France," he said, "there is nothing like travelling."

Louis laughed heartily at hearing him moralize.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself, brother," he said.

"Prodigiously." Valentine replied.

His courage was so great, so audacious, so spontaneous, that the Chilians looked at him with admiration, and felt themselves electrified by his example. Cæsar, covered by his master with a kind of cuirass of leather and armed with an enormous collar edged with steel points, inspired the Indians with the greatest terror – they knew not what to make of such a creature.

The battle raged as fiercely as ever; both Chilians and Araucanos fought upon heaps of carcases. The Indians gave up all hopes of conquering, but they did not even think of flying; resolved all to die, they determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible, and fought with the terrible despair of brave men who neither expect nor ask for quarter. The Chilian army drew nearer and nearer around them. A few minutes more and the Araucano army would have ceased to exist.

Antinahuel shed tears of rage; he felt his heart bursting in his breast at seeing his dearest companions thus fall around him. All these men, the victims of the ambition of their chief, died without a complaint, without a reproach. Suddenly a smile of strange character curled his thin lips; he beckoned to the Ulmens, who were fighting near him, and exchanged a few words.

After making a sign of acquiescence in reply to the orders they had received, the Ulmens immediately regained their respective posts, and during some minutes the battle continued to rage with the same fury. But all at once a mass of fifteen hundred Indians simultaneously rushed with inexpressible force against the centre squadron, in which Don Tadeo fought, and enveloped it on all sides.

"Caramba!" shouted Valentine, "we are surrounded! Mon Dieu! we must disengage ourselves, or these demons will cut us up."

And he dashed headlong into the thickest of the combatants, followed by the rest of his party. After a hot struggle of three or four minutes, they were safe and sound outside of the fatal circle.

"Hum!" said Valentine, "rather sharp work. But, thank God, here we are."

"Yes," the count replied, "we have had a narrow escape! But where is Don Tadeo?"

"That is true," Valentine observed. "Oh," he added, striking his brow with anger, "I see it all now. Quick, to the rescue!"

The two young men placed themselves at the head of the horsemen who accompanied them, and rode back furiously into the mêlée. They soon perceived the person they were in search of; Don Tadeo, supported by only four or five men, was fighting desperately.

"Hold out! hold out!" Valentine shouted.

"We are here! Courage, we are here!" the count cried.

Their voices reached Don Tadeo, and he smiled.

"Thanks," he replied despondingly; "but all is useless. I am lost."

"Caramba!" said Valentine, biting his moustache with rage; "I will save him, or perish with him."

And he redoubled his efforts. In vain the Aucas warriors opposed his passage, every stroke of his sabre cut down a man. At length the impetuosity of the two Frenchmen prevailed over the courage of the Indians, and they penetrated into the circle – Don Tadeo had disappeared.

All at once, the Indian army, feeling, no doubt, the impossibility of maintaining a longer contest with superior forces which threatened to annihilate them, dispersed.

The victory of the Chilians was brilliant, and, probably, for a long time the Araucanos would have no inclination to recommence a war. Of ten thousand warriors who had formed their line of battle, the Indians had left seven thousand on the field. General Bustamente, the instigator of this war, was killed; his body was found with the dagger still sticking in his breast; and, strange coincidence! The pommel of the dagger bore the distinctive sign of the Dark Hearts.

The results obtained by the winning of this battle were immense. Unfortunately, these results were lessened, if not compromised, by a public disaster of immense consequence, which was the disappearance, and perhaps the death, of Don Tadeo de León, the only man whose energy and severity of principles could save the country. The Chilian army in the midst of its triumph was plunged in grief.

The army encamped upon the field of battle; Valentine, the count, and Don Gregorio, passed the whole night in searching amongst this immense charnel house, upon which the vultures had already fallen with hideous cries of joy. The three men had the courage to lift and examine heaps of carcases; but all without success, they could not find the body of their friend.

The next morning at daybreak the army set forward on its march towards the Bio Bio, to re-enter Chili. It took with it, as hostages, thirty Ulmens.

"Come with us," said Don Gregorio; "now our friend is dead, you can have nothing more to do."

"I am not of your opinion," Valentine replied; "I do not think Don Tadeo is dead."

"What makes you suppose that?" Don Gregorio asked; "have you any proofs?"

"Unfortunately, none."

"And yet you must have some reason?"

"Why, yes, I have one."

"Then tell it me."

"I am afraid it will appear futile to you."

"Well, but tell it me, nevertheless."

"Well, since you insist upon it, I must confess that I feel a secret presentiment."

"Upon what do you ground that supposition? You are too intelligent to jest."

"You only do me justice. I perceived the absence of Don Tadeo. I went back again, in quick time. Don Tadeo, though closely pressed, was fighting vigorously, and I shouted out to him to stand his ground."

"And did he hear you?"

"Certainly he did, for he answered me. I redoubled my efforts – he had disappeared, and left no traces behind."

"And you thence conclude – "

"That his numerous enemies seized him and carried him off."

"But who can tell whether, after having killed him, they have not carried away the body?"

"Why should they do that? Don Tadeo dead, could only inconvenience them, whereas, as prisoner, they probably hope that by restoring him to liberty. Or perhaps, by threatening to kill him, they will have their hostages given up."

Don Gregorio was struck with the justness of this reasoning.

"It is possible," he replied; "there is a great deal of truth in what you say – what do you mean to do?"

"A very simple thing, my friend. In the environs are concealed two Indian chiefs."

"Well?"

"These men are devoted to Louis and me, and they will serve us as guides."

Don Gregorio looked at him for an instant in deep emotion, and tears glistened in his eyes; he took the young man's hand pressed it warmly, and said, in a voice tremulous with tenderness —

"Don Valentine, pardon me I did not know you; I have not appreciated your heart at its just value. Don Valentine, will you permit me to embrace you?"

"With all my heart, my brave friend," the young man replied.

"Then you are going?" Don Gregorio resumed.

"Immediately."

"Come on," said Valentine to his foster brother, as he whistled to Cæsar and clapped spurs to his horse.

"I am with you," Louis replied, promptly.

And they set off.

CHAPTER XXXII.

AFTER THE BATTLE

For some time the young men followed at a distance the march of the Chilian army, which advanced slowly, though in good order, towards the Bio Bio. They crossed, at a foot's pace, the plain where the day before the sanguinary battle had been fought between the Indians and the Chilians.

"Why do we not hasten to quit this accursed place?" Valentine asked.

"We have a duty to fulfil," Louis replied solemnly.

"A duty to fulfil?" said Valentine.

"Yes," the young me continued, "would you leave our poor Joan without sepulture?"

"Thank you for having reminded me of it; oh, you are better than I am, you forget nothing."

"Do not calumniate yourself."

In a short time they arrived at the spot where Joan and General Bustamente had fallen. The foster brothers remained for a few instants, drew their sabres and dug a deep hole, in which they buried the two enemies.

"Farewell!" said Valentine. "Farewell, Joan! Sleep in peace, at the spot where you valiantly fought; the remembrance of you will not be easily effaced."

"Farewell, Joan!" said the count, in his turn. "Sleep in peace, good friend."

Cæsar had watched with intelligent attention the movements of his masters; at this moment he placed his forepaws upon the grave, smelt the earth, and then gave two lugubrious howls.

The young men felt their spirits very much depressed; they remounted their horses silently, and after having taken one last farewell look at the spot where the brave Araucano lay, they departed.

They had by degrees diverged a little towards the right to get nearer to the mountains and were following a narrow path traced along the rather sharp descent of a wooded hill. Cæsar suddenly pricked up his ears, and sprang forward, wagging his tail.