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the master who cut the flesh from my back with a copper whip bade them rise when we knew you
were near. Lord, may I lead men again?
 You may indeed, and soon shall. It is well done.
And that day, in the sacred city of Colhuacan, he was raised to the post of tribune, delighting him greatly,
though his glory was overshadowed; for that day, by popular acclaim without a single dissenting voice,
Myrdhinn was unanimously chosen the new Kukulcan, and Tlapallan for the first time in all history had a
white ruler.
19
How We Qame to zJXttapan
As we lay in the shelter of Mian walls, resting, and replacing broken weapons with new, our scouts went
out spying upon Miapan and the reports they brought back made me thoughtful. It was almost
impregnable. The city-fortress is divided in three parts: the North, Middle and South forts.
The whole is situated on a plateau three hundred feet above the nearby river, and deep gullies and ravines
surround it like a moat at all points except in the northeast, the only point where the land joins the plateau
in a level manner. Here is a great plain, with every tree and bush removed, so that no besieger can find
shelter. Here the Mias were wont to hold their sports, as you shall learn.
Fronting this plain, the walls of the North Fort are at their strongest, being seventy feet thick at the base
and twenty-three feet high. On the plain side is a wide and deep moat, filled with water to protect this
most exposed portion of Miapan. There is also a moat, more shallow, just inside the wall. This was also
filled with water, and sharp stakes were planted in it.
From this point, the gullies form natural defenses, and the walls are not so high or thick; yet they continue,
zigzagging to protect every foot of level ground upon the surface of the plateau. They form a total length
of more than three and a half miles, though a
straight line from the north to the south walls is less than one mile.
There are five main gateways, and sixty-eight other gaps in this long wall, each opening being about ten
feet wide, and each being protected by a blockhouse reaching out beyond the wall. From these bastions,
defenders could enfilade the outside of the ramparts.
Along the top of the wall ran a sharpened palisade, also with openings for defense, supplied with small
wickets, easily closed and easily defended.
At many spots where the declivity beyond was quite inaccessible, a little platform was either built out or
cut into the wall itself. These were sentinel stands and were always occupied, except when under direct
fire, thus rendering any surprise attack almost impossible.
In the North Fort was the military camp, which we must attack from the plain, for the Middle Fort and
the South Fort were well protected by deep gullies whose walls were steep and composed of crumbling
earth. Trapped in these, we must inevitably perish, even though above us lay only the families of the
warriors.
In the military camp, our first interest, our spies estimated at least forty thousand men awaited us; fully
armed, very active, was the report, and constantly drilling.
Possibly twenty thousand more occupied the other connected forts and manned the walls and
blockhouses, while in the South Fort, well protected from us, their families dwelt.
Here then was the last stand of the Mias. Numbering, in all, possibly 150,000 people, they had gathered
with all their household goods and implements of war in this, their citadel. They had built it for a home at
their first coming into Tlapallan.
Laboriously, their ancestors and their slaves had borne on their backs the baskets of earth, containing
from a peck to a half-bushel, that in the end had created these formidable ramparts. Here they had found
a home and from behind those walls they had ex-panded and grown into a nation.
Now, back they had come, reaping the fruits of their cruelty, to find all their world in arms against them,
and once again, so great were their losses, they found the sheltering walls of Miapan broad enough to
enclose the entire Mian nation.
 Conquer Miapan, said the spies,  and you have the whole of Tlapallan!
So we lay hi Colhuacan three weeks and a little more, and every day brought recruits. By twos and
threes and scores they came flocking in savage moor-men, wifeless, childless, ragged, fierce and
destitute. They never smiled or laughed, and spent most of their time sitting alone, sharpening their knives
or hatchets, or learning the trick of archery. Scarred and maimed Tlapallico slaves, slinking hi like cowed
dogs. They cringed when spoken to sharply, but there was a fierce, furtive look hi then: eyes, like the
yellow glare hi the orbs of a tree-cat.
They brought their own war-paint. It was always black.
 Have you no gayer colors in your medicine-bag? I asked one group.
One oldster, savagely marked with running weals which* would never quite heal, looked up and said
grimly:
 We will find red paint inside the walls of Miapan! A cold feeling came upon me and I walked away,
hearing behind me the guttural grunts which pass for hearty laughter among this iron-hearted folk.
More loquacious and friendly were the newcomers from the free forest towns. Emboldened and cheered
by news of successes, they trooped into camp, from Adriutha, Oswaya and Carenay, from Kayaderos
and Danascara. Engineers, trained by Myrdhinn in his own town of Thendara, brought heavy loads of
sharp copper arrowheads, bronze swords and fittings for siege artillery. We distributed these smaller
articles at once, but postponed the building of engines till we should be before the walls for without [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]