Araucania The Indomitable - II, Tegualda

It happened once, after there had been a desperate encounter between
the Spaniards and Araucanians, that Don Alonso de Ercilla went
out late at night to meditate on the lessons of the battle-field
strewn with the bodies of those who had been well and brave but a
few hours before. The night was dark and gloomy, and yet he thought
he discerned indistinctly a form moving from place to place, quietly
and noiselessly as a spirit might move; and anon there came from it
sighs and groans dismal to hear. Bending down, and hiding himself in
the long grass, he tracked the figure, not without some fear at heart;
but clasping his trusty sword, he came swiftly upon it. Then it rose
erect, and addressed him in humble, timorous accents: "Señor, Señor,
have pity on me; I am but a woman, and never have I offended you! If
my misery does not move you to spare me, at least consider that there
is no glory to be gained by killing a woman--or rather, slay me,
but first let me fulfil my work." Then Don Ercilla asked her what it
was had brought her there. And she in dolorous tones answered, "Never
was grief like mine; I loved him with true love and purest constancy,
and to-day he was taken from me, and slain. Let me but seek the body
of him who was my soul, and let me lay it in a decent grave, and then
take my life, lay my body beside his, for so great is my grief that
I dread living without him more than lying beside him in death."

Don Ercilla was greatly moved by her sorrow, but still he had his duty
as a soldier to consider; she might have come to spy the situation
of the Spanish camp, under the idea that, as a woman, she would be
less easily suspected; and her grief might be assumed in order to
induce him to release her. Yet his compassion swayed him at last,
so he let her live, and moreover assisted her in her search, leading
her to relieve her oppressed heart by pouring out all her story.

"Woe is me!" she said, "for no relief is possible for me, no rest till
death. He is gone, and if I open now the old wounds by thinking of him,
it is but in the hope that in the violent effort I may sink and die.

"Know then, that I am Tegualda, daughter of the Cacique Brancol. Vain
of the attentions that were paid me through many young years, I
refused to listen to the suits of any of the young Caciques whom my
father presented to me; nor when they danced or wrestled before me
would I regard them with favour.

"One day my father took me to the shady thicket where gentle Gualebo
pours its limpid stream into the floods of broad Itata with a soothing
murmur, and where the sunlight playing through the thick foliage of
the breeze-shaken trees, diapered the perfumed air.

"Scarcely had we sat down, when there entered on the plain that
spread away before us a band of youths, earnest and silent. At a
sign from Brancol various games began, in which each exerted himself
to the utmost only to win a glance from me. To me, however, it was
a greater pleasure to stand detached from them all, and while they
ran, and fought, and showed strange feats of endurance, rather than
gratify them by a look, to rest my eyes on the murmuring stream,
watching the polished stones, now bathed in snow-like foam, now
piercing, black and stark through the mimic waves; or on the waving
trees, flinging their lithesome limbs in every graceful attitude,
now wide apart, now interlaced in one another's thrall; or on the
far-off sky, sparkling and peering through the leafy shade; on any
thing rather than on the contending youths; and thus I sat there,
disdaining all interest in the games, and, as I deemed, fancy-free,
when all at once a loud cry rose from the contending throng: this was
no unusual occurrence, but it was so exulting and prolonged that I
could not choose but ask the cause. The youth who stood nearest me
made answer, 'Did you not observe, Señora, how the brave Mareguano
has won the victory over every other combatant? and now when, with
joyous haste, we were leading him to receive the conqueror's wreath
from your hand, to gird his temples in token that he is the first
and bravest of our company--all at once that handsome lad yonder,
wearing green and scarlet for his device, suddenly confronted him,
and at their first contest laid him low on the green sward. Mareguano
no sooner regained his feet than he required to be allowed another
trial; but as this is against all our rules, it was refused him. So
the stranger youth comes to be crowned by you, unless you, whose
power is absolute over us, suffer them to renew the contest.'

"As he spoke the shouting crowd led him up to me; but before I could
take the wreath to crown him, he placed himself modestly before me
on his knees, and thus spoke:--

"'Lady, I seek one favour, though I be a stranger, and have no claim
to your regard, yet I have the boldness to prefer my request, having
no greater desire than to live and die in your service. Let me then
have your permission to try another fall with Mareguano; ay, and
another and another, even to a hundred, till he is satisfied of my
superiority; for here striving in your presence, I know I am certain
to come off with greater and greater glory in every trial.'

"And I, who cared little about the matter, carelessly granted what
he asked.

"On the instant the two darted off to meet each other: then came a
prolonged struggle, fought out with desperate resolve; now lithely
bending, now strained to their utmost height, they wrestled for a
long space, grasping each other in such iron fashion that it would
seem they scarce could breathe; at last the stranger youth ended the
contest by seizing Mareguano round the body, then lifting him high
in the air, and flinging him headlong on the ground.

"No sooner had he accomplished the feat than the assembled people,
delighted at this exhibition of manly strength, bore him along in
triumph to receive his reward at my hand.

"When I looked at him, kneeling before me again, flushed with success,
praised and applauded by all around, yet waiting for my word, as
if he prized it more than all the rest, I felt a new emotion take
possession of me, I perceived an interest in him which I had never
experienced for any of the others, and it was with difficulty I could
command myself sufficiently to conceal what I felt. However, I rose
with all the dignity I could summon, placed the crown on his brow,
and announced that the prize I held for the next contest was a ring
ornamented with a fine emerald, and that it was for the winner in the
race immediately to follow. I could not help saying it in such a way
as to betray I expected it would be on him I should have to confer
it. Nor was I mistaken.

"The competitors, forty in number, were ranged in a long row, panting
with anxiety to start. The signal scarcely given, the whole forty
set off as one man, and so swiftly that their feet scarcely seemed to
touch the sand; but Crepino (such was the name of the young stranger)
pursued the sport with so much ardour that he distanced the very wind,
and touched the red Palio before the others were near it. But
I, when he was brought back to me, was more troubled than before;
so that when I handed him the ring, I gave him as it were my liberty
enclosed in it. And he no sooner had received the ring than, holding
it still before me, said,--

"'Señora, I pray you accept it of me; for though it be but little to
offer to you, yet it is offered with entire devotion, and the favour
you will confer on me in accepting it will be so great, that it will
make me rich, and shall so strengthen and animate me, that there will
thenceforth be no undertaking so arduous that I shall not be able to
accomplish it; and so you will have added the bravest heart and the
stoutest arm to the Araucanian band.'

"I could not but accept what was so gracefully proffered; and now,
the games being concluded, the meeting was broken up, and I had to
return home with my father.

"For three weeks I concealed what I felt, that I might not appear
to change too suddenly from what had been a life-long resolve. But I
could not overcome the desire to see him again. When next my father,
therefore, urged me to make my choice among the young Caciques,
I told him that I had resolved to attend to his bidding, and that
my choice had fallen on Crepino, who was of honourable name, brave,
well-mannered, and well-grown.

"My father was all rejoiced at this announcement, and, kissing me
on the forehead, he confirmed my choice; he told me how on Crepino
of all the others his own heart yearned, and how Crepino himself had
sued for me, and yet had urged him in no way to overrule my will.

"With joyful haste the nuptial ceremonies were performed over us,
and all was mirth and gladness. That was but one short month ago, and
to-day your people have slain him who was all my joy; and all our hopes
of happiness are poured out like water on the ground. What comfort is
there for so great misery! There is nothing left to hope for now, since
earth contains no good which could be measured against such a grief!

"Now, therefore, let me seek my lord, and bury him; for it is not meet
that his dear body should fall a prey to voracious beasts and birds."

Don Ercilla was so much moved by her recital that he no longer
doubted her, but helped her to search for Crepino's body. When the
morning dawned they found it, stark and cold, and disfigured by a
cannon-ball. Tegualda's agony revived when she came in sight of his
shattered form. She threw herself on him, placed her heart on his
heart, and her lips on his, that so she might perchance yet call back
the life; and then she struck her face, and tore her long dark hair,
and pressed her fingers tightly round her throat, and threw herself
again upon the ground, not knowing what she did for very grief. Don
Ercilla looked on compassionating, knowing it was but distressing her
to interfere till the first violence of her agony was past. Then,
at peril of treachery towards him, alone in their midst, he bade
her make a signal to call her people, and ordered them to bear away
Crepino's body in decent order.

Then he composed her mantle round her, and, supporting her, gently
led her along behind it till they reached the sierra where her own
people dwelt, and then he delivered her over to her father's keeping.