CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
THE SHOCK OF CONFLICT AND YERMAH’S OVERTHROW
War was undertaken for religious purposes—never for conquest—which accounted for the methods used in stirring up sedition in Tlamco.
The object in conquering an outside power was to civilize it; and if captives refused to accept hospitable treatment, they were scattered throughout the country, man for man, and kept under surveillance until reconciled to their positions. No confiscation of property was allowed, and after taking the oath of allegiance, the rebels were returned to their homes.
Setos found Imos laboring with Hanabusa and Ben Hu Barabe, who remained loyal to Yermah. These faithful adherents made earnest and eloquent pleas in his behalf; but, finding themselves powerless, withdrew and prepared to defend the city against inevitable attack.
It was a semicircular bay, five thousand feet across, which brought the water to Montgomery Street up to the days of ’forty-nine. From a line parallel with what is now Market Street, but a little to the north, was a grand canal, deep and wide enough to accommodate all the commerce of Tlamco. These waters terminated in a basin near the junction of present-day Van Ness Avenue and Market Street, where a circular port of entry was strongly fortified.
Leading from this was a broad avenue, which ended in another circular building, half a mile nearer the Observatory, and in a direct line with it. This was, in modern parlance, a bonded warehouse, and was amply protected.
The port of entry was in the center of a circle which included Telegraph Hill, Lone Mountain and the Potrero hills, all of which were formidable fortifications. Rincon Hill, south and directly opposite Telegraph Hill, guarded the entrance to the canal, while Yerba Buena Island, on the east, lined with its center.
A hostile fleet sailing around Telegraph Hill would be under fire from these forts, and as they came into the canal an assault could be made on them from the ramparts and battlements of Nob Hill.
Should enemies approach the port of entry, they would be in range of the mangonel batteries at East Temple, Alamo Hill, and the Temple of Venus, which also shielded the bonded warehouse and the main, or eastern, avenue to the city. On the top of the hill, was another fortification, guarding the approaches to the Observatory, which had a complete system of defense in itself.
South of the Potrero Hill fort was a harbor for the balsas. It is now a broad marsh intersected by Islais Creek. A curved canal separated two fortified hills and turned west to within the radius of the Camp of Mars. The waterway skirted the closely guarded fortification on Bernal Heights.
From time immemorial Mars was not only considered the god of war but the guardian of sailors as well.
On the west side of the camp, a road ran south, parallel with what is now Valencia Street direct to the port of entry. This was the only approach from the south, and was well protected by the armored hills, where the granaries and storehouses were located.
Much of the food supply came by this route.
Due west of Bernal Heights is a companion hill, which was garrisoned and used as a signal station, being on a line with Mount Olympus, and from the high Observatory tower news could be flashed to all the outlying stations.
The center of the port of entry lined exactly with Telegraph Hill. By this means a message could be sent from Hanabusa’s quarters to Mount Olympus and Lone Mountain direct, and thence to the port of entry and Telegraph Hill, thus making it easy to command the entire situation.
The horsemen’s camp lay close to Iaqua, west of the Observatory, while the spearsmen’s grounds were east. From these points were trained catapults, loaded with highly explosive lead cylinders filled with sharp spikes. Mixed with the spikes were balls containing a stifling, overpowering, deadly smell, which were exploded in the air, to shower the inhabitants, barracks and forts.
Setos saw with the eye of a military genius the advantage to himself of a sudden attack, and as a politician he felt the danger of remaining inactive in such treacherous times. With a long, hissing screech, four rockets shot into the sky from the signal-stations, electrifying some, but prostrating the spirits of those who loved law and order.
Instantly, the warriors rushed pell-mell into the streets and confusion seized the populace, who ran about aimlessly, and looked into each other’s faces with half-averted eyes, like members of a family who are determined to punish one another, but not too severely.
Around what is now known as Potrero Point came a fleet of thirty balsas, with the blades of the rowers flashing in the sunlight as they rocked and glided over the choppy waves of the bay.
Rowing swiftly to the Rincon Hill fort, they embarked a strong force of spearsmen who were still loyal to Yermah.
Ponderous mangonels capable of throwing darts twenty feet long, shod with bronze points and securely lashed to the shaft with strips of bull’s-hide, surmounted each fort. This formidable weapon carried a distance of several hundred feet with sufficient force to penetrate the side of a stoutly built balsa.
On the poop of the foremost galley stood Hanabusa, in full armor, with a black plume in his helmet, while beside him was Ben Hu Barabe. They were both tall and powerful men, and the grim, determined expression on their faces augured ill for the insurgents. Soon their balsas were gliding over the smooth waters of the semicircular entrance to the canal and making directly for it.
“Beware of the bolt!” shouted Ben Hu Barabe, and every man threw himself under the stout oaken seats of the oarsmen, as a murderous missile rose high in the air and fell with a crash on the stone coping of the canal, sending a shower of splinters over the men.
“There is little danger to fear here,” said Hanabusa, “as the east fort is still in our possession. It stands midway between the gangway and basin at the end of the canal, and forms the strategic key to the operations to-day. Yermah will lead a force between that fortress and the granaries, as if ready to fall upon the city, whilst we, with our noisy drums and trumpets, draw the rebels north of the canal, to repulse our feigned attack.”
“Wilt thou forgive me for asking if this is thine own or Yermah’s plan?”
“It is the Dorado’s instruction. He is proving to be a worthy disciple of the great tactician, Akaza, who never failed to gain a victory. See! They are warned of our approach.”
As Yermah had predicted, the revolted troops, not being commanded by a leader skilled in strategy, had signaled to the forts around the city for reenforcements, and then turned toward the canal to repulse the invaders.
A rocket was sent up from East Temple, signaling the defenders to disembark south of the canal. Seeing this, the insurgents swept around the basin to engage in a close-range combat and overwhelm Hanabusa and Ben Hu Barabe by superior numbers.
Before they could execute this maneuver, the glittering ranks of Yermah’s own household guards marched through the pass between Las Papas and the Mission Hills, south of East Temple, with a company of horsemen bringing up the rear.
The two columns marched side by side, but separate, that on the right charging the insurgents on the right flank. There were about three thousand men hemmed in between their own ranks and Hanabusa’s command.
Finding they were cut off from the main body, the rebels made a desperate and gallant defense, but were obliged to surrender, with half their force either killed, wounded, or made captive.
Simultaneously, the main column under Yermah wheeled toward the Observatory, driving their enemies before them with great slaughter. The Dorado’s guard swept over the rising ground between the center of the city and the Observatory in a solid phalanx nine deep. Behind them came detachments from the fleet at the head of the canal, who harassed the stragglers and completed the general rout.
Archers and swordsmen, cutlass and javelin wielders excelled each other in feats of generous daring, while shield clanked against shield, and spearsmen tilted against spearsmen, in the shock and clamor of fratricidal warfare.
Underneath all their apparent fury was a fraternal, conciliatory spirit, causing the insurgents to make only a half-hearted fight against their hereditary leader.
The revolted troops were oppressed by a secret fear that Yermah’s soul was perjured; but this did not overcome their inherent sense of loyalty to him.
“Down with the Mazaleels!” urged Setos, now in the thick of the fight. “Spare not a single apostate! If thou art true-hearted Turghatis, stand by the old beliefs.”
He spurred his horse into the fray, shouting:
“Mazaleel! Mazaleel! Mazaleel! Who loves a Mazaleel?”
“Kill! Slay! Burn! Fire every building! Do duty with torch and sword!” hoarsely commanded Imos, seeing that the lines about the Observatory trenches were wavering. “Who will help me cut a way through to the canal?”
Urged forward by his example and words, a body of warrior-priests threw themselves against Hanabusa’s flank, and succeeded in driving him to the water’s edge. Many of the oarsmen tried to re-embark, but the fleet was on fire and a swift and terrible conflict ensued.
In the meantime, Yermah had stormed the eastern entrance to the Observatory, which finally yielded, and he rode in under the mocking inscription:
“Peace and Good Will Abide With Thee.”
“The victory is ours!” he cried, sheathing his sword, and surveying the Temple of Venus on his left, apparently deserted.
“Take a dozen horsemen,” said he to an aide, “and ascertain if the vestals are safe. If so, we will send a strong guard to prevent further disorder and then retreat; for it is not seemly to fight our brethren.”
As rapidly as possible, reconnoitering parties were dispatched to discover the damage done and to provide suitable care for the killed and wounded. To this day the native American races make strenuous efforts to prevent their dead from falling into the hands of an enemy.
The defeated troops were ordered back to quarters and Setos was seized and brought before Yermah.
“Back into thy houses under penalty of arrest!” shouted the mounted patrol, as they galloped through the streets, and rode down the turbulent mob. Soon the cry went up:
“Setos is in chains! Run for thy life!” This startling news sent the crowd flying in every direction, until even the stout-hearted seemed paralyzed by the result, and the defeated ones slunk away to their homes, like children caught in an act of disobedience.
The men were secretly humiliated and ashamed, none of that generation having ever been guilty of insurrection, and they stood aghast at sight of the carnage and slaughter.
The shamans and priestesses ministered to the wounded and dying, and many heart-rending scenes were enacted on the spot where some turbulent spirit had received its quietus.
The marketplace and temple walls were gallantly defended and by nightfall comparative order reigned in the city itself, though heavy firing from the forts told of the strife along the banks of the canal.
Imos, aided by a band of fanatical warrior-priests, was doing all in his power to destroy the fleet. Hanabusa was retreating slowly with his shattered forces, but every inch of the ground was being stubbornly contested. As darkness came on, the balsas slipped by unobserved, and Hanabusa steered for the Camp of Mars with less than half of his original numbers.
The battering-rams and catapults had done deadly work on the feebly defended Camp of Mars. Here the flood-gates of the canal had been opened by a band of marauding insurgents, under cover of the darkness, and the rising tide inundated the whole plain.
Imos marched rapidly across the peninsula, keeping well out of range of the mangonels, and was in possession of the camp when Hanabusa arrived.
Ben Hu Barabe engaged the warrior-priests in a hand-to-hand struggle, while Hanabusa hastened to the signal tower only to find it dismantled. There being no way to inform Yermah of his desperate straits, he rushed back to his house, and hurriedly securing things necessary for flight, joined in the unequal contest Ben Hu Barabe and a handful of men kept up at the water’s edge.
In the uncertain light, the commander could discern only three seaworthy balsas, and into these his followers scrambled, and, pulling Ben Hu Barabe aboard, put to sea, closely pursued by the leaky, disabled or badly manned balsas which had already been captured by the enemy.
On the heels of Hanabusa’s flight came a company of horsemen, sent by Yermah, who dashed into camp with drawn sabers and boldly demanded the surrender of Imos. Realizing that he was completely surrounded and that resistance was useless, the high-priest suffered himself to be put on horseback and carried back to Iaqua. Upon arriving there he was brought before Yermah, in company with Setos.
“Why hast thou made war upon me, Setos?”
“Because the Azes deem thee unfit to rule them,” was the blunt answer.
“I have no desire for temporal power. Hadst thou confided thy ambition to me, I would have aided thee.”
“Thou hast mistaken me. I am only an instrument in the hands of Providence for the deliverance of Tlamco,” answered Setos, in his best temple-service manner.
“Thou art incapable of delivering thyself, much less Tlamco. But I desire thee to become Grand Servitor. Art thou willing to accept its full import?”
Setos could scarcely believe his ears. Was the Dorado speaking from choice, or was he sore beset, and capitulating on the best possible terms?
“What dost thou mean by the full import?”
“The law dost require thee to marry. Thou mayst not demand the oath of allegiance without a consort. Atlantis no longer exists and thou must be responsible for the succession.”
Setos opened his eyes wide in astonishment when the real nature of the situation dawned upon him and he realized that fear had nothing to do with Yermah’s abdication. As soon as he could recover himself, he answered:
“I am willing to fulfill thy conditions.”
“Not my conditions, but the law of the ages,” corrected the Dorado, with a frown. “Rahula has long been thy willing handmaid. Wilt thou espouse her?”
“Yes.”
“And to-night?”
“Yes; but canst thou say as much for her?”
“She shall answer for herself, as she is already under this roof. And while the tamanes conduct her here, wilt thou tell me, Imos, why thou, too, art in bloody array against me?”
Encouraged by Setos’s success, Imos answered boldly:
“Because thou art a lost soul, and art unworthy to succeed Akaza.”
“For his sake must I endure persecution. But thou art rash in attempting to defy the Brotherhood. Thou art enslaved by forbidden ambition.” Yermah’s voice quivered with suppressed anger, and his eyes blazed scornfully, but he kept himself under control. Catching Rahula’s eye as she entered, he said with cutting emphasis:
“Every soul is lost on the downward spiral, and can only regain its original position by a long and painful succession of incarnations. Desire is the prison-house of the ego.”
Rahula stood abashed, uncertain how much Yermah knew, and just what his speech implied. An uncomfortable and awkward silence followed, which Setos finally broke by stepping forward and taking her by the hand. Then he asked with gentleness:
“Art thou willing to share the perils of office with me? Yermah wishes to make me Servitor of the Azes.”
“My heart acknowledges no other master, and my happiness is indissolubly linked with thy fortunes. I am willing to serve thee.” She spoke in a low voice, while a flush of triumph overspread her countenance. She was almost as much surprised as Setos had been.
“Name thy witnesses, and let Imos hear thy marriage vows at once. Matters of state compel haste.”
All three hated him, but they obeyed with alacrity, nevertheless.
“I will administer the oath of office at sunrise, and at meridian thou must be ready to receive the allegiance of Tlamco,” said Yermah later, before leaving for the Temple of Neptune.
He had not lived at Iaqua since Orondo’s death.