Guzman

“ One may fetch angels to the brand, but, ay de mi! the iron turns them into beldames!"
"Ay, there is some truth in that," said Guzman, a little thoughtfully. "No man honours Don Hernan more than myself; and yet did he suffer me to be choused out of the princess I fetched from Iztapalapan."
"Ay, the whole army witnessed it, and there was not a man who did not cry shame on you for taking it so—"
"Good-humouredly," interrupted the cavalier. "Rub me as thou wilt for a jest, Villafana; but touch me not in soberness."
"Pshaw! can I not abuse thee as a friend, without the apology of a grin? ”

“ If we can but reach the palace, we are saved."
"Is it thou, indeed, Juan Lerma?" cried Guzman, with a voice singularly wild and piteous, but struggling onward.—"Now then thou canst kill me thyself, since thou wouldst not be avenged by infidels."
"Quick! quick! they are following us! they are crossing the ditch!—But fifty paces more!" ”

“ I accepted his invitation gladly and a part of the time that I was in Caracas I spent at the Yellow [94] House, the residence of the President, as his guest. Guzman was the handsomest man I have ever known; tall and as straight as a sword, with long black beard and dark eyes, sharp as needles, that could flash fire or friendship. He was magnetic and winning to the last degree and every inch a ruler of men, without the faintest notion as to what fear meant. During the nearly twenty years that he was absolute ruler of Venezuela his temper was the thing most dreaded through all the land. ”

“ All Guzman’s friends had endeavoured to dissuade him from making this exertion, which, they assured him, would only hasten his dissolution. But to their surprise, and doubtless their delight, from the moment his will was made, Guzman’s health began to amend,—and in less than a week he began to walk about his chamber, and calculate what time it might take an express to reach Germany, and how soon he might expect intelligence from his family. ”

“ Don Jose Avellanos loved his country. He had served it lavishly with his fortune during his diplomatic career, and the later story of his captivity and barbarous ill-usage under Guzman Bento was well known to his listeners. It was a wonder that he had not been a victim of the ferocious and summary executions which marked the course of that tyranny; for Guzman had ruled the country with the sombre imbecility of political fanaticism. The power of Supreme Government had become in his dull mind an object of strange worship, as if it were some sort of cruel deity. ”

“ Guzman’s Father gets married, and dies: what followed his death. After the old knight’s death, to whom God be merciful, his chaste widow quickly found another gallant, and I another father, in the person of the Genoese. My mother was cunning enough to persuade them both that I was their son, telling the one, that I was his living picture, and at another time, assuring the other that two eggs could not be more alike. Happily for me, whether I owe my existence to the old knight or to the young Genoese, I certainly was born a gentleman. On my mother’s side, my nobility cannot be disputed. ”

“ Don Guzman replied by a smile of contempt to the summons of Colonel Bernardo Pedrosa. He raised his wife in his arms, and prepared to follow his enemy. Notwithstanding his hatred of Don Guzman, Don Bernardo was a man of the world; the misery which overwhelmed the man he had so long persecuted touched his heart. His pity was aroused, and on his way back to Buenos Aires he showed the greatest consideration, treating him with all the respect his unhappy position demanded. ”

“ Guzman almost succeeded in escaping, but his judge, who had landed at Vera Cruz by the end of 1536, met him at the viceroy's palace in Mexico city, and secured his arrest before he could depart. After his trial he was detained in Mexico until June 30, 1538,-when he was enabled to leave New Spain by an order which directed him to surrender his person to the officers of the Casa de Contratacion, [13] at Seville. Guzman lost no time in going to Spain, where he spent the next four years in urging his claims to a right to participate in the northern conquests. ”

“ But thou must be ruled. Speak not to Cortes in complaint: he will do thee no justice. Send no defiance of battle to Guzman, for this has been proclaimed a sin against God and the king, to be punished with loss of arms, degradation, and whipping with rods,—sometimes with the loss of the right hand. You stare! Oh, señor Juan Lerma, you will find we have a master now,—a master by the king's patent,—who makes his own laws, beats and dishonours, and gives us to the gallows, when the fit moves him, without any necessity of cozening us to death in expeditions to the gold mines, or the South Seas. ”

“ Breaking the silence which both my companion and I had kept till that moment: “Are you not tired, Sayavedra,” said I, “of thus travelling like two Carthusian friars? For my part, I feel quite absorbed in idle meditation. Let us talk. Tell me some story which may enliven us.” “Signor Don Guzman,” said he, “you will, I am sure, be ready to allow that it much better becomes him who has plenty of money in his pocket to tell merry stories, than him who has not a sous wherewith to bless himself.” ”

“ Ricardo shrugged. "Nobody. There is no danger."
Blaze shook his head. "They know you are a red-hot Rebel. I wouldn't trust them."
"They know, also, that I am an American, like you gentlemen," proudly asserted Guzman. "That makes a difference. I supported the Liberator—God rest his soul!—and I secretly assist those who fight his assassins, but so does everybody else. I am receiving a fine price for those horses, so it is worth a little risk. Now, señor," he addressed himself to the Ranger, "I have brought you a little present. ”

“ The Indians, believing that he came to destroy the whites, assisted him. Guzman's troops deserted him, and Carrera with his own hands took him prisoner, sick and encumbered with a great coat, in the act of dashing his horse down a deep ravine to escape: he sent to Guatimala Guzman's military coat, with the names of Omoa, Truxillos, and other places where Guzman had distinguished himself in the service of the republic, labelled on it, and a letter to the government, stating that he had sent the coat as a proof that he had taken Guzman. ”

“ Of the agreeable life Guzman continued to lead with his Comrades. An account of his Journey to Gaeta. History of a Beggar who died at Florence. Notwithstanding the disposition recommended by the tenth statute of our laws, I did not think proper to communicate to my comrades the secrets of the Cordovan, who had revealed them to none but myself; nevertheless we all lived together in perfect union. We frequently met together of an evening to the number of ten or twelve, and passed our time in practising and inventing new exclamations to excite pity. ”

“ Stop, Guzman, cry you, or you will lose yourself in moral reflections. Whither will this learned discourse lead you? To my basket again, reply I; yes, my friend, to my basket, which, having now become to me as useful as eloquence was to Demosthenes, or stratagems to Ulysses, consoled me under my present misfortune. Long may the basket-trade flourish, which a man, having once tried, will never fail to resume. ”

“ You go too fast, good Master Alcaide. Justice is blind; but you see more than there is to behold!’
The alcaide, who evidently wished to keep well with Don José, and who as evidently wished to string me up, began to get very red in the face, and to mutter half-suppressed words of passion. Just then, the ferret-eyed man whispered him at one ear, while Captain Guzman possessed himself of the other. ”

“ I did not yet know what punishment the judges intended to impose on Sayavedra, and I was at dinner with Pompey, when one his servants, who had heard the sentence pronounced, rushed into the room quite out of breath, and cried out with as much apparent satisfaction, as if he had announced the restoration of my property: “Huzza! Signor Don Guzman, the thief who has robbed you, is condemned to the Pillory and the iron collar, and he is just now going to be fastened into it. It will be your own fault if you do not witness his punishment.” ”

“ A demand of submission was haughtily spurned, whereupon Guzman led the charge against them, assisted by Oñate and Verdugo. A lively battle ensued, for the natives fought with a desperation hitherto unparalleled; but they were comparatively few in number, and had at last to succumb, with great loss. During the struggle Guzman's lance was wrested from his grasp and directed against himself, but one of his companions turned the weapon from its course and saved his life. ”

“ In my mind, that black-faced Xicotencal is a villain and traitor."
"Thy judgment is better, in such matters, than another's," said the hunchback.
"Right!" cried Guzman; "the Alguazil will be presently in his own stocks, if thou dost heat him into a quarrel. We are not forbidden to abuse one another. Let the red jackalls pass by unnoticed; we have mirth enough among ourselves,—we will worry our Immortality. Look, Najara, man; dost thou not see in what perplexity of cogitation he is involved,—yonder dull Bernal? ”

“ Guzman was ambitious and avaricious; his outbreaks of cruelty were provoked by those passions. Where his interests demanded patience he could be gentle enough, but when excited by contradiction or negligence, he raged against his own Spaniards as well as against hostile Indians. Contrary to the orders of the Spanish Crown, he made slaves of a number of Indians in order that he might at least compensate himself for the disappointments he suffered in other respects ”

“ The next instant, Guzman drove his glassy axe deep into his uncovered side, and spurning him violently with the foot which was at liberty, the Mexican fell backwards upon the platform, writhing in the agonies of death. The whole combat was scarce the work of a minute. Those who drew in their breath as the Mexican sprang to the assault, had not taken a second inspiration, before their countryman was discomfited and dying.
The infidels set up a scream, as much of approbation as surprise. The spirit of the Roman amphitheatre was felt around the Temalacatl of Mexico ”

“ I swear to thee, Francisco, we are e'en as base knaves as himself; for we have employed our strength—our cunning and our strength—against a creature that is utterly friendless. Alas, I say; for I remember me of the days of old; and surely I loved him once as my own soul."
This outbreaking of feeling did not at all surprise Guzman, who had been familiar from the beginning with the ebbings and flowings of Don Hernan's hate, and who had several times seen him, when the destiny of Juan seemed already closed, affected so much that he shed tears, as he did at the present moment. ”

“ It is said, that Guzman has got permission to serve in the fleet with Garci Holguin, his old friend. They are two dare-devils together, and neither in very good odour; so they will doubtless do some desperate act to regain favour.—Hark, Bernal! dost thou hear nothing?"
"Nothing but the whistling of the Indians at the fire;—for that is the way they make their signals. We shall have hot work to-morrow, Najara."—
"Hark!—Ah, 'tis the sound of oars! One of the night-ships is approaching the dike. What's in the wind now?—Hah, sirrah! what brings thee out of limits?" ”

“ Guzman; your undertaking was to open and pilfer one of my barrels and take out some of the sweetmeats; this was our wager as you will be pleased to recollect; you cannot, therefore, escape the punishment.” “Come, Signor Nicola,” continued he, “seize this rash youth, and inflict on him such chastisement as he may appear to you to deserve.” “Softly, my Lord,” said I, at these last words; “I confess that I amply deserve all this if the sweetmeats that I have just laid before you are not some of those your Eminence bought yesterday ”

“ Guzman completely gained their confidence, and as he had plenty of money to spare they readily entrusted to his keeping a valuable collection of jewels, which he told them a friend desired to borrow for his wedding ceremony. With these he and Sayavedra made off to Spain, but on the way the latter fell ill of a fever, and, rushing on the deck of the galley, threw himself overboard and was drowned. ”

“ And the villain Alguazil, has he fled with them? I will tear his flesh with pincers! What! release the infidels, under my eye?"
"So please you," said Guzman, "this, I think, was no resolved treachery, but an effect of infatuation. The wine that came to us to-day, was too strong for the watchmen: where they got it, I know not; but I found them sound asleep at the open door."
"They shall be scourged, till they drop more blood than they have drunk wine," said Don Hernan, furiously. "And the prison-guards also? Hah? The prisoner has escaped?" ”

“ At this signal for breaking up the audience, which was pronounced with the grave and easy authoritativeness of one long accustomed to command, the individuals present, Christian and heathen, princes, chieftains, and cavaliers, took their departure, leaving behind them Sandoval, Alvarado, and a few other officers of high standing.
As Juan stood, embarrassed between hope and doubt, the señor Guzman descended from the platform, and, passing him, said with a low voice and a derisive smile,
"You mount, señor, and Bobadil neighs for you! It is better—the war is equal." ”