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+Project Gutenberg Etext Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard
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+Montezuma's Daughter
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+by H. Rider Haggard
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+August, 1999  [Etext #1848]
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+Project Gutenberg Etext Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard
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+
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+
+
+Montezuma's Daughter
+
+by
+
+H. Rider Haggard
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+The more unpronounceable of the Aztec names are shortened in many
+instances out of consideration for the patience of the reader; thus
+'Popocatapetl' becomes 'Popo,' 'Huitzelcoatl' becomes 'Huitzel,'
+&c.  The prayer in Chapter xxvi. is freely rendered from
+Jourdanet's French translation of Fray Bernardino de Sahagun's
+History of New Spain, written shortly after the conquest of Mexico
+(Book VI, chap. v.), to which monumental work and to Prescott's
+admirable history the author of this romance is much indebted.  The
+portents described as heralding the fall of the Aztec Empire, and
+many of the incidents and events written of in this story, such as
+the annual personation of the god Tezcatlipoca by a captive
+distinguished for his personal beauty, and destined to sacrifice,
+are in the main historical.  The noble speech of the Emperor
+Guatemoc to the Prince of Tacuba uttered while they both were
+suffering beneath the hands of the Spaniards is also authentic.
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+My dear Jebb,
+
+Strange as were the adventures and escapes of Thomas Wingfield,
+once of this parish, whereof these pages tell, your own can almost
+equal them in these latter days, and, since a fellow feeling makes
+us kind, you at least they may move to a sigh of sympathy.  Among
+many a distant land you know that in which he loved and fought,
+following vengeance and his fate, and by your side I saw its relics
+and its peoples, its volcans and its valleys.  You know even where
+lies the treasure which, three centuries and more ago, he helped to
+bury, the countless treasure that an evil fortune held us back from
+seeking.  Now the Indians have taken back their secret, and though
+many may search, none will lift the graven stone that seals it, nor
+shall the light of day shine again upon the golden head of
+Montezuma.  So be it!  The wealth which Cortes wept over, and his
+Spaniards sinned and died for, is for ever hidden yonder by the
+shores of the bitter lake whose waters gave up to you that ancient
+horror, the veritable and sleepless god of Sacrifice, of whom I
+would not rob you--and, for my part, I do not regret the loss.
+
+What cannot be lost, what to me seem of more worth than the dead
+hero Guatemoc's gems and jars of gold, are the memories of true
+friendship shown to us far away beneath the shadow of the
+Slumbering Woman,* and it is in gratitude for these that I ask
+permission to set your name within a book which were it not for you
+would never have been written.
+
+I am, my dear Jebb,
+
+Always sincerely yours,
+
+H. RIDER HAGGARD.
+
+
+DITCHINGHAM, NORFOLK, October 5, 1892.
+
+To J. Gladwyn Jebb, Esq.
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+Worn out prematurely by a life of hardship and extraordinary
+adventure, Mr. Jebb passed away on March 18, 1893, taking with him
+the respect and affection of all who had the honour of his
+friendship.  The author has learned with pleasure that the reading
+of this tale in proof and the fact of its dedication to himself
+afforded him some amusement and satisfaction in the intervals of
+his sufferings.
+
+H. R. H.
+
+March 22, 1893.
+
+
+* The volcano Izticcihuatl in Mexico.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I        WHY THOMAS WINGFIELD TELLS HIS TALE
+
+II.      OF THE PARENTAGE OF THOMAS WINGFIELD
+
+III.     THE COMING OF THE SPANIARD
+
+IV.      THOMAS TELLS HIS LOVE
+
+V.       THOMAS SWEARS AN OATH
+
+VI.      GOOD-BYE, SWEETHEART
+
+VII.     ANDRES DE FONSECA
+
+VIII.    THE SECOND MEETING
+
+IX.      THOMAS BECOMES RICH
+
+X.       THE PASSING OF ISABELLA DE SIGUENZA
+
+XI.      THE LOSS OF THE CARAK
+
+XII.     THOMAS COMES TO SHORE
+
+XIII.    THE STONE OF SACRIFICE
+
+XIV.     THE SAVING OF GUATEMOC
+
+XV.      THE COURT OF MONTEZUMA
+
+XVI.     THOMAS BECOMES A GOD
+
+XVII.    THE ARISING OF PAPANTZIN
+
+XVIII.   THE NAMING OF THE BRIDES
+
+XIX.     THE FOUR GODDESSES
+
+XX.      OTOMIE'S COUNSEL
+
+XXI.     THE KISS OF LOVE
+
+XXII.    THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS
+
+XXIII.   THOMAS IS MARRIED
+
+XXIV.    THE NIGHT OF FEAR
+
+XXV.     THE BURYING OF MONTEZUMA'S TREASURE
+
+XXVI.    THE CROWNING OF GUATEMOC
+
+XXVII.   THE FALL OF TENOCTITLAN
+
+XXVIII.  THOMAS IS DOOMED
+
+XXIX.    DE GARCIA SPEAKS HIS MIND
+
+XXX.     THE ESCAPE
+
+XXXI.    OTOMIE PLEADS WITH HER PEOPLE
+
+XXXII.   THE END OF GUATEMOC
+
+XXXIII.  ISABELLA DE SIGUENZA IS AVENGED
+
+XXXIV.   THE SIEGE OF THE CITY OF PINES
+
+XXXV.    THE LAST SACRIFICE OF THE WOMEN OF THE OTOMIE
+
+XXXVI.   THE SURRENDER
+
+XXXVII.  VENGEANCE
+
+XXXVIII. OTOMIE'S FAREWELL
+
+XXXIX.   THOMAS COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD
+
+XL.      AMEN
+
+
+
+Montezuma's Daughter
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+WHY THOMAS WINGFIELD TELLS HIS TALE
+
+
+Now glory be to God who has given us the victory!  It is true, the
+strength of Spain is shattered, her ships are sunk or fled, the sea
+has swallowed her soldiers and her sailors by hundreds and by
+thousands, and England breathes again.  They came to conquer, to
+bring us to the torture and the stake--to do to us free Englishmen
+as Cortes did by the Indians of Anahuac.  Our manhood to the slave
+bench, our daughters to dishonour, our souls to the loving-kindness
+of the priest, our wealth to the Emperor and the Pope!  God has
+answered them with his winds, Drake has answered them with his
+guns.  They are gone, and with them the glory of Spain.
+
+I, Thomas Wingfield, heard the news to-day on this very Thursday in
+the Bungay market-place, whither I went to gossip and to sell the
+apples which these dreadful gales have left me, as they hang upon
+my trees.
+
+Before there had been rumours of this and of that, but here in
+Bungay was a man named Young, of the Youngs of Yarmouth, who had
+served in one of the Yarmouth ships in the fight at Gravelines, aye
+and sailed north after the Spaniards till they were lost in the
+Scottish seas.
+
+Little things lead to great, men say, but here great things lead to
+little, for because of these tidings it comes about that I, Thomas
+Wingfield, of the Lodge and the parish of Ditchingham in the county
+of Norfolk, being now of a great age and having only a short time
+to live, turn to pen and ink.  Ten years ago, namely, in the year
+1578, it pleased her Majesty, our gracious Queen Elizabeth, who at
+that date visited this county, that I should be brought before her
+at Norwich.  There and then, saying that the fame of it had reached
+her, she commanded me to give her some particulars of the story of
+my life, or rather of those twenty years, more or less, which I
+spent among the Indians at that time when Cortes conquered their
+country of Anahuac, which is now known as Mexico.  But almost
+before I could begin my tale, it was time for her to start for
+Cossey to hunt the deer, and she said it was her wish that I should
+write the story down that she might read it, and moreover that if
+it were but half as wonderful as it promised to be, I should end my
+days as Sir Thomas Wingfield.  To this I answered her Majesty that
+pen and ink were tools I had no skill in, yet I would bear her
+command in mind.  Then I made bold to give her a great emerald that
+once had hung upon the breast of Montezuma's daughter, and of many
+a princess before her, and at the sight of it her eyes glistened
+brightly as the gem, for this Queen of ours loves such costly
+playthings.  Indeed, had I so desired, I think that I might then
+and there have struck a bargain, and set the stone against a title;
+but I, who for many years had been the prince of a great tribe, had
+no wish to be a knight.  So I kissed the royal hand, and so tightly
+did it grip the gem within that the knuckle joints shone white, and
+I went my ways, coming back home to this my house by the Waveney on
+that same day.
+
+Now the Queen's wish that I should set down the story of my life
+remained in my mind, and for long I have desired to do it before
+life and story end together.  The labour, indeed, is great to one
+unused to such tasks; but why should I fear labour who am so near
+to the holiday of death?  I have seen things that no other
+Englishman has seen, which are worthy to be recorded; my life has
+been most strange, many a time it has pleased God to preserve it
+when all seemed lost, and this perchance He has done that the
+lesson of it might become known to others.  For there is a lesson
+in it and in the things that I have seen, and it is that no wrong
+can ever bring about a right, that wrong will breed wrong at last,
+and be it in man or people, will fall upon the brain that thought
+it and the hand that wrought it.
+
+Look now at the fate of Cortes--that great man whom I have known
+clothed with power like a god.  Nearly forty years ago, so I have
+heard, he died poor and disgraced in Spain; he, the conqueror--yes,
+and I have learned also that his son Don Martin has been put to the
+torture in that city which the father won with so great cruelties
+for Spain.  Malinche, she whom the Spaniards named Marina, the
+chief and best beloved of all the women of this same Cortes,
+foretold it to him in her anguish when after all that had been,
+after she had so many times preserved him and his soldiers to look
+upon the sun, at the last he deserted her, giving her in marriage
+to Don Juan Xaramillo.  Look again at the fate of Marina herself.
+Because she loved this man Cortes, or Malinche, as the Indians
+named him after her, she brought evil on her native land; for
+without her aid Tenoctitlan, or Mexico, as they call it now, had
+never bowed beneath the yoke of Spain--yes, she forgot her honour
+in her passion.  And what was her reward, what right came to her of
+her wrongdoing?  This was her reward at last: to be given away in
+marriage to another and a lesser man when her beauty waned, as a
+worn-out beast is sold to a poorer master.
+
+Consider also the fate of those great peoples of the land of
+Anahuac.  They did evil that good might come.  They sacrificed the
+lives of thousands to their false gods, that their wealth might
+increase, and peace and prosperity be theirs throughout the
+generations.  And now the true God has answered them.  For wealth
+He has given them desolation, for peace the sword of the Spaniard,
+for prosperity the rack and the torment and the day of slavery.
+For this it was that they did sacrifice, offering their own
+children on the altars of Huitzel and of Tezcat.
+
+And the Spaniards themselves, who in the name of mercy have wrought
+cruelties greater than any that were done by the benighted Aztecs,
+who in the name of Christ daily violate His law to the uttermost
+extreme, say shall they prosper, shall their evil-doing bring them
+welfare?  I am old and cannot live to see the question answered,
+though even now it is in the way of answering.  Yet I know that
+their wickedness shall fall upon their own heads, and I seem to see
+them, the proudest of the peoples of the earth, bereft of fame and
+wealth and honour, a starveling remnant happy in nothing save their
+past.  What Drake began at Gravelines God will finish in many
+another place and time, till at last Spain is of no more account
+and lies as low as the empire of Montezuma lies to-day.
+
+Thus it is in these great instances of which all the world may
+know, and thus it is even in the life of so humble a man as I,
+Thomas Wingfield.  Heaven indeed has been merciful to me, giving me
+time to repent my sins; yet my sins have been visited on my head,
+on me who took His prerogative of vengeance from the hand of the
+Most High.  It is just, and because it is so I wish to set out the
+matter of my life's history that others may learn from it.  For
+many years this has been in my mind, as I have said, though to
+speak truth it was her Majesty the Queen who first set the seed.
+But only on this day, when I have heard for certain of the fate of
+the Armada, does it begin to grow, and who can say if ever it will
+come to flower?  For this tidings has stirred me strangely,
+bringing back my youth and the deeds of love and war and wild
+adventure which I have been mingled in, fighting for my own hand
+and for Guatemoc and the people of the Otomie against these same
+Spaniards, as they have not been brought back for many years.
+Indeed, it seems to me, and this is no rare thing with the aged, as
+though there in the far past my true life lay, and all the rest
+were nothing but a dream.
+
+From the window of the room wherein I write I can see the peaceful
+valley of the Waveney.  Beyond its stream are the common lands
+golden with gorse, the ruined castle, and the red roofs of Bungay
+town gathered about the tower of St. Mary's Church.  Yonder far
+away are the king's forests of Stowe and the fields of Flixton
+Abbey; to the right the steep bank is green with the Earsham oaks,
+to the left the fast marsh lands spotted with cattle stretch on to
+Beccles and Lowestoft, while behind me my gardens and orchards rise
+in terraces up the turfy hill that in old days was known as the
+Earl's Vineyard.  All these are about me, and yet in this hour they
+are as though they were not.  For the valley of the Waveney I see
+the vale of Tenoctitlan, for the slopes of Stowe the snowy shapes
+of the volcans Popo and Iztac, for the spire of Earsham and the
+towers of Ditchingham, of Bungay, and of Beccles, the soaring
+pyramids of sacrifice gleaming with the sacred fires, and for the
+cattle in the meadows the horsemen of Cortes sweeping to war.
+
+It comes back to me; that was life, the rest is but a dream.  Once
+more I feel young, and, should I be spared so long, I will set down
+the story of my youth before I am laid in yonder churchyard and
+lost in the world of dreams.  Long ago I had begun it, but it was
+only on last Christmas Day that my dear wife died, and while she
+lived I knew that this task was better left undone.  Indeed, to be
+frank, it was thus with my wife:  She loved me, I believe, as few
+men have the fortune to be loved, and there is much in my past that
+jarred upon this love of hers, moving her to a jealousy of the dead
+that was not the less deep because it was so gentle and so closely
+coupled with forgiveness.  For she had a secret sorrow that ate her
+heart away, although she never spoke of it.  But one child was born
+to us, and this child died in infancy, nor for all her prayers did
+it please God to give her another, and indeed remembering the words
+of Otomie I did not expect that it would be so.  Now she knew well
+that yonder across the seas I had children whom I loved by another
+wife, and though they were long dead, must always love unalterably,
+and this thought wrung her heart.  That I had been the husband of
+another woman she could forgive, but that this woman should have
+borne me children whose memory was still so dear, she could not
+forget if she forgave it, she who was childless.  Why it was so,
+being but a man, I cannot say; for who can know all the mystery of
+a loving woman's heart?  But so it was.  Once, indeed, we
+quarrelled on the matter; it was our only quarrel.
+
+It chanced that when we had been married but two years, and our
+babe was some few days buried in the churchyard of this parish of
+Ditchingham, I dreamed a very vivid dream as I slept one night at
+my wife's side.  I dreamed that my dead children, the four of them,
+for the tallest lad bore in his arms my firstborn, that infant who
+died in the great siege, came to me as they had often come when I
+ruled the people of the Otomie in the City of Pines, and talked
+with me, giving me flowers and kissing my hands.  I looked upon
+their strength and beauty, and was proud at heart, and, in my
+dream, it seemed as though some great sorrow had been lifted from
+my mind; as though these dear ones had been lost and now were found
+again.  Ah! what misery is there like to this misery of dreams,
+that can thus give us back our dead in mockery, and then departing,
+leave us with a keener woe?
+
+Well, I dreamed on, talking with my children in my sleep and naming
+them by their beloved names, till at length I woke to look on
+emptiness, and knowing all my sorrow I sobbed aloud.  Now it was
+early morning, and the light of the August sun streamed through the
+window, but I, deeming that my wife slept, still lay in the shadow
+of my dream as it were, and groaned, murmuring the names of those
+whom I might never see again.  It chanced, however, that she was
+awake, and had overheard those words which I spoke with the dead,
+while I was yet asleep and after; and though some of this talk was
+in the tongue of the Otomie, the most was English, and knowing the
+names of my children she guessed the purport of it all.  Suddenly
+she sprang from the bed and stood over me, and there was such anger
+in her eyes as I had never seen before nor have seen since, nor did
+it last long then, for presently indeed it was quenched in tears.
+
+'What is it, wife?' I asked astonished.
+
+'It is hard,' she answered, 'that I must bear to listen to such
+talk from your lips, husband.  Was it not enough that, when all men
+thought you dead, I wore my youth away faithful to your memory?
+though how faithful you were to mine you know best.  Did I ever
+reproach you because you had forgotten me, and wedded a savage
+woman in a distant land?'
+
+'Never, dear wife, nor had I forgotten you as you know well; but
+what I wonder at is that you should grow jealous now when all cause
+is done with.'
+
+'Cannot we be jealous of the dead?  With the living we may cope,
+but who can fight against the love which death has completed,
+sealing it for ever and making it immortal!  Still, THAT I forgive
+you, for against this woman I can hold my own, seeing that you were
+mine before you became hers, and are mine after it.  But with the
+children it is otherwise.  They are hers and yours alone.  I have
+no part nor lot in them, and whether they be dead or living I know
+well you love them always, and will love them beyond the grave if
+you may find them there.  Already I grow old, who waited twenty
+years and more before I was your wife, and I shall give you no
+other children.  One I gave you, and God took it back lest I should
+be too happy; yet its name was not on your lips with those strange
+names.  My dead babe is little to you, husband!'
+
+Here she choked, bursting into tears; nor did I think it well to
+answer her that there was this difference in the matter, that
+whereas, with the exception of one infant, those sons whom I had
+lost were almost adolescent, the babe she bore lived but sixty
+days.
+
+Now when the Queen first put it in my mind to write down the
+history of my life, I remembered this outbreak of my beloved wife;
+and seeing that I could write no true tale and leave out of it the
+story of her who was also my wife, Montezuma's daughter, Otomie,
+Princess of the Otomie, and of the children that she gave me, I let
+the matter lie.  For I knew well, that though we spoke very rarely
+on the subject during all the many years we passed together, still
+it was always in Lily's mind; nor did her jealousy, being of the
+finer sort, abate at all with age, but rather gathered with the
+gathering days.  That I should execute the task without the
+knowledge of my wife would not have been possible, for till the
+very last she watched over my every act, and, as I verily believe,
+divined the most of my thoughts.
+
+
+And so we grew old together, peacefully, and side by side, speaking
+seldom of that great gap in my life when we were lost to each other
+and of all that then befell.  At length the end came.  My wife died
+suddenly in her sleep in the eighty-seventh year of her age.  I
+buried her on the south side of the church here, with sorrow
+indeed, but not with sorrow inconsolable, for I know that I must
+soon rejoin her, and those others whom I have loved.
+
+There in that wide heaven are my mother and my sister and my sons;
+there are great Guatemoc my friend, last of the emperors, and many
+other companions in war who have preceded me to peace; there, too,
+though she doubted of it, is Otomie the beautiful and proud.  In
+the heaven which I trust to reach, all the sins of my youth and the
+errors of my age notwithstanding, it is told us there is no
+marrying and giving in marriage; and this is well, for I do not
+know how my wives, Montezuma's daughter and the sweet English
+gentlewoman, would agree together were it otherwise.
+
+And now to my task.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+OF THE PARENTAGE OF THOMAS WINGFIELD
+
+
+I, Thomas Wingfield, was born here at Ditchingham, and in this very
+room where I write to-day.  The house of my birth was built or
+added to early in the reign of the seventh Henry, but long before
+his time some kind of tenement stood here, which was lived in by
+the keeper of the vineyards, and known as Gardener's Lodge.
+Whether it chanced that the climate was more kindly in old times,
+or the skill of those who tended the fields was greater, I do not
+know, but this at the least is true, that the hillside beneath
+which the house nestles, and which once was the bank of an arm of
+the sea or of a great broad, was a vineyard in Earl Bigod's days.
+Long since it has ceased to grow grapes, though the name of the
+'Earl's Vineyard' still clings to all that slope of land which lies
+between this house and a certain health-giving spring that bubbles
+from the bank the half of a mile away, in the waters of which sick
+folks come to bathe even from Norwich and Lowestoft.  But sheltered
+as it is from the east winds, to this hour the place has the
+advantage that gardens planted here are earlier by fourteen days
+than any others in the country side, and that a man may sit in them
+coatless in the bitter month of May, when on the top of the hill,
+not two hundred paces hence, he must shiver in a jacket of
+otterskins.
+
+The Lodge, for so it has always been named, in its beginnings
+having been but a farmhouse, faces to the south-west, and is built
+so low that it might well be thought that the damp from the river
+Waveney, which runs through the marshes close by, would rise in it.
+But this is not so, for though in autumn the roke, as here in
+Norfolk we name ground fog, hangs about the house at nightfall, and
+in seasons of great flood the water has been known to pour into the
+stables at the back of it, yet being built on sand and gravel there
+is no healthier habitation in the parish.  For the rest the
+building is of stud-work and red brick, quaint and mellow looking,
+with many corners and gables that in summer are half hidden in
+roses and other creeping plants, and with its outlook on the
+marshes and the common where the lights vary continually with the
+seasons and even with the hours of the day, on the red roofs of
+Bungay town, and on the wooded bank that stretches round the
+Earsham lands; though there are many larger, to my mind there is
+none pleasanter in these parts.  Here in this house I was born, and
+here doubtless I shall die, and having spoken of it at some length,
+as we are wont to do of spots which long custom has endeared to us,
+I will go on to tell of my parentage.
+
+First, then, I would set out with a certain pride--for who of us
+does not love an ancient name when we happen to be born to it?--
+that I am sprung from the family of the Wingfields of Wingfield
+Castle in Suffolk, that lies some two hours on horseback from this
+place.  Long ago the heiress of the Wingfields married a De la
+Pole, a family famous in our history, the last of whom, Edmund,
+Earl of Suffolk, lost his head for treason when I was young, and
+the castle passed to the De la Poles with her.  But some offshoots
+of the old Wingfield stock lingered in the neighbourhood, perchance
+there was a bar sinister on their coat of arms, I know not and do
+not care to know; at the least my fathers and I are of this blood.
+My grandfather was a shrewd man, more of a yeoman than a squire,
+though his birth was gentle.  He it was who bought this place with
+the lands round it, and gathered up some fortune, mostly by careful
+marrying and living, for though he had but one son he was twice
+married, and also by trading in cattle.
+
+Now my grandfather was godly-minded even to superstition, and
+strange as it may seem, having only one son, nothing would satisfy
+him but that the boy should be made a priest.  But my father had
+little leaning towards the priesthood and life in a monastery,
+though at all seasons my grandfather strove to reason it into him,
+sometimes with words and examples, at others with his thick cudgel
+of holly, that still hangs over the ingle in the smaller sitting-
+room.  The end of it was that the lad was sent to the priory here
+in Bungay, where his conduct was of such nature that within a year
+the prior prayed his parents to take him back and set him in some
+way of secular life.  Not only, so said the prior, did my father
+cause scandal by his actions, breaking out of the priory at night
+and visiting drinking houses and other places; but, such was the
+sum of his wickedness, he did not scruple to question and make mock
+of the very doctrines of the Church, alleging even that there was
+nothing sacred in the image of the Virgin Mary which stood in the
+chancel, and shut its eyes in prayer before all the congregation
+when the priest elevated the Host.  'Therefore,' said the prior, 'I
+pray you take back your son, and let him find some other road to
+the stake than that which runs through the gates of Bungay Priory.'
+
+Now at this story my grandfather was so enraged that he almost fell
+into a fit; then recovering, he bethought him of his cudgel of
+holly, and would have used it.  But my father, who was now nineteen
+years of age and very stout and strong, twisted it from his hand
+and flung it full fifty yards, saying that no man should touch him
+more were he a hundred times his father.  Then he walked away,
+leaving the prior and my grandfather staring at each other.
+
+Now to shorten a long tale, the end of the matter was this.  It was
+believed both by my grandfather and the prior that the true cause
+of my father's contumacy was a passion which he had conceived for a
+girl of humble birth, a miller's fair daughter who dwelt at
+Waingford Mills.  Perhaps there was truth in this belief, or
+perhaps there was none.  What does it matter, seeing that the maid
+married a butcher at Beccles and died years since at the good age
+of ninety and five?  But true or false, my grandfather believed the
+tale, and knowing well that absence is the surest cure for love, he
+entered into a plan with the prior that my father should be sent to
+a monastery at Seville in Spain, of which the prior's brother was
+abbot, and there learn to forget the miller's daughter and all
+other worldly things.
+
+When this was told to my father he fell into it readily enough,
+being a young man of spirit and having a great desire to see the
+world, otherwise, however, than through the gratings of a monastery
+window.  So the end of it was that he went to foreign parts in the
+care of a party of Spanish monks, who had journeyed here to Norfolk
+on a pilgrimage to the shrine of our Lady of Walsingham.
+
+It is said that my grandfather wept when he parted with his son,
+feeling that he should see him no more; yet so strong was his
+religion, or rather his superstition, that he did not hesitate to
+send him away, though for no reason save that he would mortify his
+own love and flesh, offering his son for a sacrifice as Abraham
+would have offered Isaac.  But though my father appeared to consent
+to the sacrifice, as did Isaac, yet his mind was not altogether set
+on altars and faggots; in short, as he himself told me in after
+years, his plans were already laid.
+
+Thus it chanced that when he had sailed from Yarmouth a year and
+six months, there came a letter from the abbot of the monastery in
+Seville to his brother, the prior of St. Mary's at Bungay, saying
+that my father had fled from the monastery, leaving no trace of
+where he had gone.  My grandfather was grieved at this tidings, but
+said little about it.
+
+Two more years passed away, and there came other news, namely, that
+my father had been captured, that he had been handed over to the
+power of the Holy Office, as the accursed Inquisition was then
+named, and tortured to death at Seville.  When my grandfather heard
+this he wept, and bemoaned himself that his folly in forcing one
+into the Church who had no liking for that path, had brought about
+the shameful end of his only son.  After that date also he broke
+his friendship with the prior of St. Mary's at Bungay, and ceased
+his offerings to the priory.  Still he did not believe that my
+father was dead in truth, since on the last day of his own life,
+that ended two years later, he spoke of him as a living man, and
+left messages to him as to the management of the lands which now
+were his.
+
+And in the end it became clear that this belief was not ill-
+founded, for one day three years after the old man's death, there
+landed at the port of Yarmouth none other than my father, who had
+been absent some eight years in all.  Nor did he come alone, for
+with him he brought a wife, a young and very lovely lady, who
+afterwards was my mother.  She was a Spaniard of noble family,
+having been born at Seville, and her maiden name was Donna Luisa de
+Garcia.
+
+
+Now of all that befell my father during his eight years of
+wandering I cannot speak certainly, for he was very silent on the
+matter, though I may have need to touch on some of his adventures.
+But I know it is true that he fell under the power of the Holy
+Office, for once when as a little lad I bathed with him in the
+Elbow Pool, where the river Waveney bends some three hundred yards
+above this house, I saw that his breast and arms were scored with
+long white scars, and asked him what had caused them.  I remember
+well how his face changed as I spoke, from kindliness to the hue of
+blackest hate, and how he answered speaking to himself rather than
+to me.
+
+'Devils,' he said, 'devils set on their work by the chief of all
+devils that live upon the earth and shall reign in hell.  Hark you,
+my son Thomas, there is a country called Spain where your mother
+was born, and there these devils abide who torture men and women,
+aye, and burn them living in the name of Christ.  I was betrayed
+into their hands by him whom I name the chief of the devils, though
+he is younger than I am by three years, and their pincers and hot
+irons left these marks upon me.  Aye, and they would have burnt me
+alive also, only I escaped, thanks to your mother--but such tales
+are not for a little lad's hearing; and see you never speak of
+them, Thomas, for the Holy Office has a long arm.  You are half a
+Spaniard, Thomas, your skin and eyes tell their own tale, but
+whatever skin and eyes may tell, let your heart give them the lie.
+Keep your heart English, Thomas; let no foreign devilments enter
+there.  Hate all Spaniards except your mother, and be watchful lest
+her blood should master mine within you.'
+
+I was a child then, and scarcely understood his words or what he
+meant by them.  Afterwards I learned to understand them but too
+well.  As for my father's counsel, that I should conquer my Spanish
+blood, would that I could always have followed it, for I know that
+from this blood springs the most of such evil as is in me.  Hence
+come my fixedness of purpose or rather obstinacy, and my powers of
+unchristian hatred that are not small towards those who have
+wronged me.  Well, I have done what I might to overcome these and
+other faults, but strive as we may, that which is bred in the bone
+will out in the flesh, as I have seen in many signal instances.
+
+There were three of us children, Geoffrey my elder brother, myself,
+and my sister Mary, who was one year my junior, the sweetest child
+and the most beautiful that I have ever known.  We were very happy
+children, and our beauty was the pride of our father and mother,
+and the envy of other parents.  I was the darkest of the three,
+dark indeed to swarthiness, but in Mary the Spanish blood showed
+only in her rich eyes of velvet hue, and in the glow upon her cheek
+that was like the blush on a ripe fruit.  My mother used to call me
+her little Spaniard, because of my swarthiness, that is when my
+father was not near, for such names angered him.  She never learned
+to speak English very well, but he would suffer her to talk in no
+other tongue before him.  Still, when he was not there she spoke in
+Spanish, of which language, however, I alone of the family became a
+master--and that more because of certain volumes of old Spanish
+romances which she had by her, than for any other reason.  From my
+earliest childhood I was fond of such tales, and it was by bribing
+me with the promise that I should read them that she persuaded me
+to learn Spanish.  For my mother's heart still yearned towards her
+old sunny home, and often she would talk of it with us children,
+more especially in the winter season, which she hated as I do.
+Once I asked her if she wished to go back to Spain.  She shivered
+and answered no, for there dwelt one who was her enemy and would
+kill her; also her heart was with us children and our father.  I
+wondered if this man who sought to kill my mother was the same as
+he of whom my father had spoken as 'the chief of the devils,' but I
+only answered that no man could wish to kill one so good and
+beautiful.
+
+'Ah! my boy,' she said, 'it is just because I am, or rather have
+been, beautiful that he hates me.  Others would have wedded me
+besides your dear father, Thomas.'  And her face grew troubled as
+though with fear.
+
+
+Now when I was eighteen and a half years old, on a certain evening
+in the month of May it happened that a friend of my father's,
+Squire Bozard, late of the Hall in this parish, called at the Lodge
+on his road from Yarmouth, and in the course of his talk let it
+fall that a Spanish ship was at anchor in the Roads, laden with
+merchandise.  My father pricked up his ears at this, and asked who
+her captain might be.  Squire Bozard answered that he did not know
+his name, but that he had seen him in the market-place, a tall and
+stately man, richly dressed, with a handsome face and a scar upon
+his temple.
+
+At this news my mother turned pale beneath her olive skin, and
+muttered in Spanish:
+
+'Holy Mother! grant that it be not he.'
+
+My father also looked frightened, and questioned the squire closely
+as to the man's appearance, but without learning anything more.
+Then he bade him adieu with little ceremony, and taking horse rode
+away for Yarmouth.
+
+That night my mother never slept, but sat all through it in her
+nursing chair, brooding over I know not what.  As I left her when I
+went to my bed, so I found her when I came from it at dawn.  I can
+remember well pushing the door ajar to see her face glimmering
+white in the twilight of the May morning, as she sat, her large
+eyes fixed upon the lattice.
+
+'You have risen early, mother,' I said.
+
+'I have never lain down, Thomas,' she answered.
+
+'Why not?  What do you fear?'
+
+'I fear the past and the future, my son.  Would that your father
+were back.'
+
+About ten o'clock of that morning, as I was making ready to walk
+into Bungay to the house of that physician under whom I was
+learning the art of healing, my father rode up.  My mother, who was
+watching at the lattice, ran out to meet him.
+
+Springing from his horse he embraced her, saying, 'Be of good
+cheer, sweet, it cannot be he.  This man has another name.'
+
+'But did you see him?' she asked.
+
+'No, he was out at his ship for the night, and I hurried home to
+tell you, knowing your fears.'
+
+'It were surer if you had seen him, husband.  He may well have
+taken another name.'
+
+'I never thought of that, sweet,' my father answered; 'but have no
+fear.  Should it be he, and should he dare to set foot in the
+parish of Ditchingham, there are those who will know how to deal
+with him.  But I am sure that it is not he.'
+
+'Thanks be to Jesu then!' she said, and they began talking in a low
+voice.
+
+Now, seeing that I was not wanted, I took my cudgel and started
+down the bridle-path towards the common footbridge, when suddenly
+my mother called me back.
+
+'Kiss me before you go, Thomas,' she said.  'You must wonder what
+all this may mean.  One day your father will tell you.  It has to
+do with a shadow which has hung over my life for many years, but
+that is, I trust, gone for ever.'
+
+'If it be a man who flings it, he had best keep out of reach of
+this,' I said, laughing, and shaking my thick stick.
+
+'It is a man,' she answered, 'but one to be dealt with otherwise
+than by blows, Thomas, should you ever chance to meet him.'
+
+'May be, mother, but might is the best argument at the last, for
+the most cunning have a life to lose.'
+
+'You are too ready to use your strength, son,' she said, smiling
+and kissing me.  'Remember the old Spanish proverb: "He strikes
+hardest who strikes last."'
+
+'And remember the other proverb, mother: "Strike before thou art
+stricken,"' I answered, and went.
+
+When I had gone some ten paces something prompted me to look back,
+I know not what.  My mother was standing by the open door, her
+stately shape framed as it were in the flowers of a white creeping
+shrub that grew upon the wall of the old house.  As was her custom,
+she wore a mantilla of white lace upon her head, the ends of which
+were wound beneath her chin, and the arrangement of it was such
+that at this distance for one moment it put me in mind of the
+wrappings which are placed about the dead.  I started at the
+thought and looked at her face.  She was watching me with sad and
+earnest eyes that seemed to be filled with the spirit of farewell.
+
+
+I never saw her again till she was dead.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE COMING OF THE SPANIARD
+
+
+And now I must go back and speak of my own matters.  As I have
+told, it was my father's wish that I should be a physician, and
+since I came back from my schooling at Norwich, that was when I had
+entered on my sixteenth year, I had studied medicine under the
+doctor who practised his art in the neighbourhood of Bungay.  He
+was a very learned man and an honest, Grimstone by name, and as I
+had some liking for the business I made good progress under him.
+Indeed I had learned almost all that he could teach me, and my
+father purposed to send me to London, there to push on my studies,
+so soon as I should attain my twentieth year, that is within some
+five months of the date of the coming of the Spaniard.
+
+But it was not fated that I should go to London.
+
+Medicine was not the only thing that I studied in those days,
+however.  Squire Bozard of Ditchingham, the same who told my father
+of the coming of the Spanish ship, had two living children, a son
+and a daughter, though his wife had borne him many more who died in
+infancy.  The daughter was named Lily and of my own age, having
+been born three weeks after me in the same year.  Now the Bozards
+are gone from these parts, for my great-niece, the granddaughter
+and sole heiress of this son, has married and has issue of another
+name.  But this is by the way.
+
+From our earliest days we children, Bozards and Wingfields, lived
+almost as brothers and sisters, for day by day we met and played
+together in the snow or in the flowers.  Thus it would be hard for
+me to say when I began to love Lily or when she began to love me;
+but I know that when first I went to school at Norwich I grieved
+more at losing sight of her than because I must part from my mother
+and the rest.  In all our games she was ever my partner, and I
+would search the country round for days to find such flowers as she
+chanced to love.  When I came back from school it was the same,
+though by degrees Lily grew shyer, and I also grew suddenly shy,
+perceiving that from a child she had become a woman.  Still we met
+often, and though neither said anything of it, it was sweet to us
+to meet.
+
+Thus things went on till this day of my mother's death.  But before
+I go further I must tell that Squire Bozard looked with no favour
+on the friendship between his daughter and myself--and this, not
+because he disliked me, but rather because he would have seen Lily
+wedded to my elder brother Geoffrey, my father's heir, and not to a
+younger son.  So hard did he grow about the matter at last that we
+two might scarcely meet except by seeming accident, whereas my
+brother was ever welcome at the Hall.  And on this account some
+bitterness arose between us two brothers, as is apt to be the case
+when a woman comes between friends however close.  For it must be
+known that my brother Geoffrey also loved Lily, as all men would
+have loved her, and with a better right perhaps than I had--for he
+was my elder by three years and born to possessions.  It may seem
+indeed that I was somewhat hasty to fall into this state, seeing
+that at the time of which I write I was not yet of age; but young
+blood is nimble, and moreover mine was half Spanish, and made a man
+of me when many a pure-bred Englishman is still nothing but a boy.
+For the blood and the sun that ripens it have much to do with such
+matters, as I have seen often enough among the Indian peoples of
+Anahuac, who at the age of fifteen will take to themselves a bride
+of twelve.  At the least it is certain that when I was eighteen
+years of age I was old enough to fall in love after such fashion
+that I never fell out of it again altogether, although the history
+of my life may seem to give me the lie when I say so.  But I take
+it that a man may love several women and yet love one of them the
+best of all, being true in the spirit to the law which he breaks in
+the letter.
+
+Now when I had attained nineteen years I was a man full grown, and
+writing as I do in extreme old age, I may say it without false
+shame, a very handsome youth to boot.  I was not over tall, indeed,
+measuring but five feet nine inches and a half in height, but my
+limbs were well made, and I was both deep and broad in the chest.
+In colour I was, and my white hair notwithstanding, am still
+extraordinarily dark hued, my eyes also were large and dark, and my
+hair, which was wavy, was coal black.  In my deportment I was
+reserved and grave to sadness, in speech I was slow and temperate,
+and more apt at listening than in talking.  I weighed matters well
+before I made up my mind upon them, but being made up, nothing
+could turn me from that mind short of death itself, whether it were
+set on good or evil, on folly or wisdom.  In those days also I had
+little religion, since, partly because of my father's secret
+teaching and partly through the workings of my own reason, I had
+learned to doubt the doctrines of the Church as they used to be set
+out.  Youth is prone to reason by large leaps as it were, and to
+hold that all things are false because some are proved false; and
+thus at times in those days I thought that there was no God,
+because the priest said that the image of the Virgin at Bungay wept
+and did other things which I knew that it did not do.  Now I know
+well that there is a God, for my own story proves it to my heart.
+In truth, what man can look back across a long life and say that
+there is no God, when he can see the shadow of His hand lying deep
+upon his tale of years?
+
+On this sad day of which I write I knew that Lily, whom I loved,
+would be walking alone beneath the great pollard oaks in the park
+of Ditchingham Hall.  Here, in Grubswell as the spot is called,
+grew, and indeed still grow, certain hawthorn trees that are the
+earliest to blow of any in these parts, and when we had met at the
+church door on the Sunday, Lily said that there would be bloom upon
+them by the Wednesday, and on that afternoon she should go to cut
+it.  It may well be that she spoke thus with design, for love will
+breed cunning in the heart of the most guileless and truthful maid.
+Moreover, I noticed that though she said it before her father and
+the rest of us, yet she waited to speak till my brother Geoffrey
+was out of hearing, for she did not wish to go maying with him, and
+also that as she spoke she shot a glance of her grey eyes at me.
+Then and there I vowed to myself that I also would be gathering
+hawthorn bloom in this same place and on that Wednesday afternoon,
+yes, even if I must play truant and leave all the sick of Bungay to
+Nature's nursing.  Moreover, I was determined on one thing, that if
+I could find Lily alone I would delay no longer, but tell her all
+that was in my heart; no great secret indeed, for though no word of
+love had ever passed between us as yet, each knew the other's
+hidden thoughts.  Not that I was in the way to become affianced to
+a maid, who had my path to cut in the world, but I feared that if I
+delayed to make sure of her affection my brother would be before me
+with her father, and Lily might yield to that to which she would
+not yield if once we had plighted troth.
+
+Now it chanced that on this afternoon I was hard put to it to
+escape to my tryst, for my master, the physician, was ailing, and
+sent me to visit the sick for him, carrying them their medicines.
+At the last, however, between four and five o'clock, I fled, asking
+no leave.  Taking the Norwich road I ran for a mile and more till I
+had passed the Manor House and the church turn, and drew near to
+Ditchingham Park.  Then I dropped my pace to a walk, for I did not
+wish to come before Lily heated and disordered, but rather looking
+my best, to which end I had put on my Sunday garments.  Now as I
+went down the little hill in the road that runs past the park, I
+saw a man on horseback who looked first at the bridle-path, that at
+this spot turns off to the right, then back across the common lands
+towards the Vineyard Hills and the Waveney, and then along the road
+as though he did not know which way to turn.  I was quick to notice
+things--though at this moment my mind was not at its swiftest,
+being set on other matters, and chiefly as to how I should tell my
+tale to Lily--and I saw at once that this man was not of our
+country.
+
+He was very tall and noble-looking, dressed in rich garments of
+velvet adorned by a gold chain that hung about his neck, and as I
+judged about forty years of age.  But it was his face which chiefly
+caught my eye, for at that moment there was something terrible
+about it.  It was long, thin, and deeply carved; the eyes were
+large, and gleamed like gold in sunlight; the mouth was small and
+well shaped, but it wore a devilish and cruel sneer; the forehead
+lofty, indicating a man of mind, and marked with a slight scar.
+For the rest the cavalier was dark and southern-looking, his
+curling hair, like my own, was black, and he wore a peaked
+chestnut-coloured beard.
+
+
+By the time that I had finished these observations my feet had
+brought me almost to the stranger's side, and for the first time he
+caught sight of me.  Instantly his face changed, the sneer left it,
+and it became kindly and pleasant looking.  Lifting his bonnet with
+much courtesy he stammered something in broken English, of which
+all that I could catch was the word Yarmouth; then perceiving that
+I did not understand him, he cursed the English tongue and all
+those who spoke it, aloud and in good Castilian.
+
+'If the senor will graciously express his wish in Spanish,' I said,
+speaking in that language, 'it may be in my power to help him.'
+
+'What! you speak Spanish, young sir,' he said, starting, 'and yet
+you are not a Spaniard, though by your face you well might be.
+Caramba! but it is strange!' and he eyed me curiously.
+
+'It may be strange, sir,' I answered, 'but I am in haste.  Be
+pleased to ask your question and let me go.'
+
+'Ah!' he said, 'perhaps I can guess the reason of your hurry.  I
+saw a white robe down by the streamlet yonder,' and he nodded
+towards the park.  'Take the advice of an older man, young sir, and
+be careful.  Make what sport you will with such, but never believe
+them and never marry them--lest you should live to desire to kill
+them!'
+
+Here I made as though I would pass on, but he spoke again.
+
+'Pardon my words, they were well meant, and perhaps you may come to
+learn their truth.  I will detain you no more.  Will you graciously
+direct me on my road to Yarmouth, for I am not sure of it, having
+ridden by another way, and your English country is so full of trees
+that a man cannot see a mile?'
+
+I walked a dozen paces down the bridle-path that joined the road at
+this place, and pointed out the way that he should go, past
+Ditchingham church.  As I did so I noticed that while I spoke the
+stranger was watching my face keenly and, as it seemed to me, with
+an inward fear which he strove to master and could not.  When I had
+finished again he raised his bonnet and thanked me, saying,
+
+'Will you be so gracious as to tell me your name, young Sir?'
+
+'What is my name to you?' I answered roughly, for I disliked this
+man.  'You have not told me yours.'
+
+'No, indeed, I am travelling incognito.  Perhaps I also have met a
+lady in these parts,' and he smiled strangely.  'I only wished to
+know the name of one who had done me a courtesy, but who it seems
+is not so courteous as I deemed.'  And he shook his horse's reins.
+
+'I am not ashamed of my name,' I said.  'It has been an honest one
+so far, and if you wish to know it, it is Thomas Wingfield.'
+
+'I thought it,' he cried, and as he spoke his face grew like the
+face of a fiend.  Then before I could find time even to wonder, he
+had sprung from his horse and stood within three paces of me.
+
+'A lucky day!  Now we will see what truth there is in prophecies,'
+he said, drawing his silver-mounted sword.  'A name for a name;
+Juan de Garcia gives you greeting, Thomas Wingfield.'
+
+Now, strange as it may seem, it was at this moment only that there
+flashed across my mind the thought of all that I had heard about
+the Spanish stranger, the report of whose coming to Yarmouth had
+stirred my father and mother so deeply.  At any other time I should
+have remembered it soon enough, but on this day I was so set upon
+my tryst with Lily and what I should say to her, that nothing else
+could hold a place in my thoughts.
+
+'This must be the man,' I said to myself, and then I said no more,
+for he was on me, sword up.  I saw the keen point flash towards me,
+and sprang to one side having a desire to fly, as, being unarmed
+except for my stick, I might have done without shame.  But spring
+as I would I could not avoid the thrust altogether.  It was aimed
+at my heart and it pierced the sleeve of my left arm, passing
+through the flesh--no more.  Yet at the pain of that cut all
+thought of flight left me, and instead of it a cold anger filled
+me, causing me to wish to kill this man who had attacked me thus
+and unprovoked.  In my hand was my stout oaken staff which I had
+cut myself on the banks of Hollow Hill, and if I would fight I must
+make such play with this as I might.  It seems a poor weapon indeed
+to match against a Toledo blade in the hands of one who could
+handle it well, and yet there are virtues in a cudgel, for when a
+man sees himself threatened with it, he is likely to forget that he
+holds in his hand a more deadly weapon, and to take to the guarding
+of his own head in place of running his adversary through the body.
+
+And that was what chanced in this case, though how it came about
+exactly I cannot tell.  The Spaniard was a fine swordsman, and had
+I been armed as he was would doubtless have overmatched me, who at
+that age had no practice in the art, which was almost unknown in
+England.  But when he saw the big stick flourished over him he
+forgot his own advantage, and raised his arm to ward away the blow.
+Down it came upon the back of his hand, and lo! his sword fell from
+it to the grass.  But I did not spare him because of that, for my
+blood was up.  The next stroke took him on the lips, knocking out a
+tooth and sending him backwards.  Then I caught him by the leg and
+beat him most unmercifully, not upon the head indeed, for now that
+I was victor I did not wish to kill one whom I thought a madman as
+I would that I had done, but on every other part of him.
+
+Indeed I thrashed him till my arms were weary and then I fell to
+kicking him, and all the while he writhed like a wounded snake and
+cursed horribly, though he never cried out or asked for mercy.  At
+last I ceased and looked at him, and he was no pretty sight to see--
+indeed, what with his cuts and bruises and the mire of the
+roadway, it would have been hard to know him for the gallant
+cavalier whom I had met not five minutes before.  But uglier than
+all his hurts was the look in his wicked eyes as he lay there on
+his back in the pathway and glared up at me.
+
+'Now, friend Spaniard,' I said, 'you have learned a lesson; and
+what is there to hinder me from treating you as you would have
+dealt with me who had never harmed you?' and I took up his sword
+and held it to his throat.
+
+'Strike home, you accursed whelp!' he answered in a broken voice;
+'it is better to die than to live to remember such shame as this.'
+
+'No,' I said, 'I am no foreign murderer to kill a defenceless man.
+You shall away to the justice to answer for yourself.  The hangman
+has a rope for such as you.'
+
+'Then you must drag me thither,' he groaned, and shut his eyes as
+though with faintness, and doubtless he was somewhat faint.
+
+Now as I pondered on what should be done with the villain, it
+chanced that I looked up through a gap in the fence, and there,
+among the Grubswell Oaks three hundred yards or more away, I caught
+sight of the flutter of a white robe that I knew well, and it
+seemed to me that the wearer of that robe was moving towards the
+bridge of the 'watering' as though she were weary of waiting for
+one who did not come.
+
+Then I thought to myself that if I stayed to drag this man to the
+village stocks or some other safe place, there would be an end of
+meeting with my love that day, and I did not know when I might find
+another chance.  Now I would not have missed that hour's talk with
+Lily to bring a score of murderous-minded foreigners to their
+deserts, and, moreover, this one had earned good payment for his
+behaviour.  Surely thought I, he might wait a while till I had done
+my love-making, and if he would not wait I could find a means to
+make him do so.  Not twenty paces from us the horse stood cropping
+the grass.  I went to him and undid his bridle rein, and with it
+fastened the Spaniard to a small wayside tree as best I was able.
+
+'Now, here you stay,' I said, 'till I am ready to fetch you;' and I
+turned to go.
+
+But as I went a great doubt took me, and once more I remembered my
+mother's fear, and how my father had ridden in haste to Yarmouth on
+business about a Spaniard.  Now to-day a Spaniard had wandered to
+Ditchingham, and when he learned my name had fallen upon me madly
+trying to kill me.  Was not this the man whom my mother feared, and
+was it right that I should leave him thus that I might go maying
+with my dear?  I knew in my breast that it was not right, but I was
+so set upon my desire and so strongly did my heartstrings pull me
+towards her whose white robe now fluttered on the slope of the Park
+Hill, that I never heeded the warning.
+
+Well had it been for me if I had done so, and well for some who
+were yet unborn.  Then they had never known death, nor I the land
+of exile, the taste of slavery, and the altar of sacrifice.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THOMAS TELLS HIS LOVE
+
+
+Having made the Spaniard as fast as I could, his arms being bound
+to the tree behind him, and taking his sword with me, I began to
+run hard after Lily and caught her not too soon, for in one more
+minute she would have turned along the road that runs to the
+watering and over the bridge by the Park Hill path to the Hall.
+
+Hearing my footsteps, she faced about to greet me, or rather as
+though to see who it was that followed her.  There she stood in the
+evening light, a bough of hawthorn bloom in her hand, and my heart
+beat yet more wildly at the sight of her.  Never had she seemed
+fairer than as she stood thus in her white robe, a look of amaze
+upon her face and in her grey eyes, that was half real half
+feigned, and with the sunlight shifting on her auburn hair that
+showed beneath her little bonnet.  Lily was no round-checked
+country maid with few beauties save those of health and youth, but
+a tall and shapely lady who had ripened early to her full grace and
+sweetness, and so it came about that though we were almost of an
+age, yet in her presence I felt always as though I were the
+younger.  Thus in my love for her was mingled some touch of
+reverence.
+
+'Oh! it is you, Thomas,' she said, blushing as she spoke.  'I
+thought you were not--I mean that I am going home as it grows late.
+But say, why do you run so fast, and what has happened to you,
+Thomas, that your arm is bloody and you carry a sword in your
+hand?'
+
+'I have no breath to speak yet,' I answered.  'Come back to the
+hawthorns and I will tell you.'
+
+'No, I must be wending homewards.  I have been among the trees for
+more than an hour, and there is little bloom upon them.'
+
+'I could not come before, Lily.  I was kept, and in a strange
+manner.  Also I saw bloom as I ran.'
+
+'Indeed, I never thought that you would come, Thomas,' she
+answered, looking down, 'who have other things to do than to go out
+maying like a girl.  But I wish to hear your story, if it is short,
+and I will walk a little way with you.'
+
+So we turned and walked side by side towards the great pollard
+oaks, and by the time that we reached them, I had told her the tale
+of the Spaniard, and how he strove to kill me, and how I had beaten
+him with my staff.  Now Lily listened eagerly enough, and sighed
+with fear when she learned how close I had been to death.
+
+'But you are wounded, Thomas,' she broke in; 'see, the blood runs
+fast from your arm.  Is the thrust deep?'
+
+'I have not looked to see.  I have had no time to look.'
+
+'Take off your coat, Thomas, that I may dress the wound.  Nay, I
+will have it so.'
+
+So I drew off the garment, not without pain, and rolled up the
+shirt beneath, and there was the hurt, a clean thrust through the
+fleshy part of the lower arm.  Lily washed it with water from the
+brook, and bound it with her kerchief, murmuring words of pity all
+the while.  To say truth, I would have suffered a worse harm
+gladly, if only I could find her to tend it.  Indeed, her gentle
+care broke down the fence of my doubts and gave me a courage that
+otherwise might have failed me in her presence.  At first, indeed,
+I could find no words, but as she bound my wound, I bent down and
+kissed her ministering hand.  She flushed red as the evening sky,
+the flood of crimson losing itself at last beneath her auburn hair,
+but it burned deepest upon the white hand which I had kissed.
+
+'Why did you do that, Thomas?' she said, in a low voice.
+
+Then I spoke.  'I did it because I love you, Lily, and do not know
+how to begin the telling of my love.  I love you, dear, and have
+always loved as I always shall love you.'
+
+'Are you so sure of that, Thomas?' she said, again.
+
+'There is nothing else in the world of which I am so sure, Lily.
+What I wish to be as sure of is that you love me as I love you.'
+
+For a moment she stood quiet, her head sunk almost to her breast,
+then she lifted it and her eyes shone as I had never seen them
+shine before.
+
+'Can you doubt it, Thomas?' she said.
+
+And now I took her in my arms and kissed her on the lips, and the
+memory of that kiss has gone with me through my long life, and is
+with me yet, when, old and withered, I stand upon the borders of
+the grave.  It was the greatest joy that has been given to me in
+all my days.  Too soon, alas! it was done, that first pure kiss of
+youthful love--and I spoke again somewhat aimlessly.
+
+'It seems then that you do love me who love you so well.'
+
+'If you doubted it before, can you doubt it NOW?' she answered very
+softly.  'But listen, Thomas.  It is well that we should love each
+other, for we were born to it, and have no help in the matter, even
+if we wished to find it.  Still, though love be sweet and holy, it
+is not all, for there is duty to be thought of, and what will my
+father say to this, Thomas?'
+
+'I do not know, Lily, and yet I can guess.  I am sure, sweet, that
+he wishes you to take my brother Geoffrey, and leave me on one
+side.'
+
+'Then his wishes are not mine, Thomas.  Also, though duty be
+strong, it is not strong enough to force a woman to a marriage for
+which she has no liking.  Yet it may prove strong enough to keep a
+woman from a marriage for which her heart pleads--perhaps, also, it
+should have been strong enough to hold me back from the telling of
+my love.'
+
+'No, Lily, the love itself is much, and though it should bring no
+fruit, still it is something to have won it for ever and a day.'
+
+'You are very young to talk thus, Thomas.  I am also young, I know,
+but we women ripen quicker.  Perhaps all this is but a boy's fancy,
+to pass with boyhood.'
+
+'It will never pass, Lily.  They say that our first loves are the
+longest, and that which is sown in youth will flourish in our age.
+Listen, Lily; I have my place to make in the world, and it may take
+a time in the making, and I ask one promise of you, though perhaps
+it is a selfish thing to seek.  I ask of you that you will be
+faithful to me, and come fair weather or foul, will wed no other
+man till you know me dead.'
+
+'It is something to promise, Thomas, for with time come changes.
+Still I am so sure of myself that I promise--nay I swear it.  Of
+you I cannot be sure, but things are so with us women that we must
+risk all upon a throw, and if we lose, good-bye to happiness.'
+
+Then we talked on, and I cannot remember what we said, though these
+words that I have written down remain in my mind, partly because of
+their own weight, and in part because of all that came about in the
+after years.
+
+And at last I knew that I must go, though we were sad enough at
+parting.  So I took her in my arms and kissed her so closely that
+some blood from my wound ran down her white attire.  But as we
+embraced I chanced to look up, and saw a sight that frightened me
+enough.  For there, not five paces from us, stood Squire Bozard,
+Lily's father, watching all, and his face wore no smile.
+
+He had been riding by a bridle-path to the watering ford, and
+seeing a couple trespassing beneath the oaks, dismounted from his
+horse to hunt them away.  Not till he was quite near did he know
+whom he came to hunt, and then he stood still in astonishment.
+Lily and I drew slowly apart and looked at him.  He was a short
+stout man, with a red face and stern grey eyes, that seemed to be
+starting from his head with anger.  For a while he could not speak,
+but when he began at length the words came fast enough.  All that
+he said I forget, but the upshot of it was that he desired to know
+what my business was with his daughter.  I waited till he was out
+of breath, then answered him that Lily and I loved each other well,
+and were plighting our troth.
+
+'Is this so, daughter?' he asked.
+
+'It is so, my father,' she answered boldly.
+
+Then he broke out swearing.  'You light minx,' he said, 'you shall
+be whipped and kept cool on bread and water in your chamber.  And
+for you, my half-bred Spanish cockerel, know once and for all that
+this maid is for your betters.  How dare you come wooing my
+daughter, you empty pill-box, who have not two silver pennies to
+rattle in your pouch!  Go win fortune and a name before you dare to
+look up to such as she.'
+
+'That is my desire, and I will do it, sir,' I answered.
+
+'So, you apothecary's drudge, you will win name and place, will
+you!  Well, long before that deed is done the maid shall be safely
+wedded to one who has them and who is not unknown to you.
+Daughter, say now that you have finished with him.'
+
+'I cannot say that, father,' she replied, plucking at her robe.
+'If it is not your will that I should marry Thomas here, my duty is
+plain and I may not wed him.  But I am my own and no duty can make
+me marry where I will not.  While Thomas lives I am sworn to him
+and to no other man.'
+
+'At the least you have courage, hussey,' said her father.  'But
+listen now, either you will marry where and when I wish, or tramp
+it for your bread.  Ungrateful girl, did I breed you to flaunt me
+to my face?  Now for you, pill-box.  I will teach you to come
+kissing honest men's daughters without their leave,' and with a
+curse he rushed at me, stick aloft, to thrash me.
+
+Then for the second time that day my quick blood boiled in me, and
+snatching up the Spaniard's sword that lay upon the grass beside
+me, I held it at the point, for the game was changed, and I who had
+fought with cudgel against sword, must now fight with sword against
+cudgel.  And had it not been that Lily with a quick cry of fear
+struck my arm from beneath, causing the point of the sword to pass
+over his shoulder, I believe truly that I should then and there
+have pierced her father through, and ended my days early with a
+noose about my neck.
+
+'Are you mad?' she cried.  'And do you think to win me by slaying
+my father?  Throw down that sword, Thomas.'
+
+'As for winning you, it seems that there is small chance of it;' I
+answered hotly, 'but I tell you this, not for the sake of all the
+maids upon the earth will I stand to be beaten with a stick like a
+scullion.'
+
+'And there I do not blame you, lad,' said her father, more kindly.
+'I see that you also have courage which may serve you in good
+stead, and it was unworthy of me to call you "pill-box" in my
+anger.  Still, as I have said, the girl is not for you, so be gone
+and forget her as best you may, and if you value your life, never
+let me find you two kissing again.  And know that to-morrow I will
+have a word with your father on this matter.'
+
+'I will go since I must go,' I answered, 'but, sir, I still hope to
+live to call your daughter wife.  Lily, farewell till these storms
+are overpast.'
+
+'Farewell, Thomas,' she said weeping.  'Forget me not and I will
+never forget my oath to you.'
+
+Then taking Lily by the arm her father led her away.
+
+I also went away--sad, but not altogether ill-pleased.  For now I
+knew that if I had won the father's anger, I had also won the
+daughter's unalterable love, and love lasts longer than wrath, and
+here or hereafter will win its way at length.  When I had gone a
+little distance I remembered the Spaniard, who had been clean
+forgotten by me in all this love and war, and I turned to seek him
+and drag him to the stocks, the which I should have done with joy,
+and been glad to find some one on whom to wreak my wrongs.  But
+when I came to the spot where I had left him, I found that fate had
+befriended him by the hand of a fool, for there was no Spaniard but
+only the village idiot, Billy Minns by name, who stood staring
+first at the tree to which the foreigner had been made fast, and
+then at a piece of silver in his hand.
+
+'Where is the man who was tied here, Billy?' I asked.
+
+'I know not, Master Thomas,' he answered in his Norfolk talk which
+I will not set down.  'Half-way to wheresoever he was going I
+should say, measured by the pace at which he left when once I had
+set him upon his horse.'
+
+'You set him on his horse, fool?  How long was that ago?'
+
+'How long!  Well, it might be one hour, and it might be two.  I'm
+no reckoner of time, that keeps its own score like an innkeeper,
+without my help.  Lawks! how he did gallop off, working those long
+spurs he wore right into the ribs of the horse.  And little wonder,
+poor man, and he daft, not being able to speak, but only to bleat
+sheeplike, and fallen upon by robbers on the king's roads, and in
+broad daylight.  But Billy cut him loose and caught his horse and
+set him on it, and got this piece for his good charity.  Lawks! but
+he was glad to be gone.  How he did gallop!'
+
+'Now you are a bigger fool even than I thought you, Billy Minns,' I
+said in anger.  'That man would have murdered me, I overcame him
+and made him fast, and you have let him go.'
+
+'He would have murdered you, Master, and you made him fast!  Then
+why did you not stop to keep him till I came along, and we would
+have haled him to the stocks?  That would have been sport and all.
+You call me fool--but if you found a man covered with blood and
+hurts tied to a tree, and he daft and not able to speak, had you
+not cut him loose?  Well, he's gone, and this alone is left of
+him,' and he spun the piece into the air.
+
+Now, seeing that there was reason in Billy's talk, for the fault
+was mine, I turned away without more words, not straight homewards,
+for I wished to think alone awhile on all that had come about
+between me and Lily and her father, but down the way which runs
+across the lane to the crest of the Vineyard Hills.  These hills
+are clothed with underwood, in which large oaks grow to within some
+two hundred yards of this house where I write, and this underwood
+is pierced by paths that my mother laid out, for she loved to walk
+here.  One of these paths runs along the bottom of the hill by the
+edge of the pleasant river Waveney, and the other a hundred feet or
+more above and near the crest of the slope, or to speak more
+plainly, there is but one path shaped like the letter O, placed
+thus [symbol of O laying on its side omitted], the curved ends of
+the letter marking how the path turns upon the hill-side.
+
+Now I struck the path at the end that is furthest from this house,
+and followed that half of it which runs down by the river bank,
+having the water on one side of it and the brushwood upon the
+other.  Along this lower path I wandered, my eyes fixed upon the
+ground, thinking deeply as I went, now of the joy of Lily's love,
+and now of the sorrow of our parting and of her father's wrath.  As
+I went, thus wrapped in meditation, I saw something white lying
+upon the grass, and pushed it aside with the point of the
+Spaniard's sword, not heeding it.  Still, its shape and fashioning
+remained in my mind, and when I had left it some three hundred
+paces behind me, and was drawing near to the house, the sight of it
+came back to me as it lay soft and white upon the grass, and I knew
+that it was familiar to my eyes.  From the thing, whatever it might
+be, my mind passed to the Spaniard's sword with which I had tossed
+it aside, and from the sword to the man himself.  What had been his
+business in this parish?--an ill one surely--and why had he looked
+as though he feared me and fallen upon me when he learned my name?
+
+I stood still, looking downward, and my eyes fell upon footprints
+stamped in the wet sand of the path.  One of them was my mother's.
+I could have sworn to it among a thousand, for no other woman in
+these parts had so delicate a foot.  Close to it, as though
+following after, was another that at first I thought must also have
+been made by a woman, it was so narrow.  But presently I saw that
+this could scarcely be, because of its length, and moreover, that
+the boot which left it was like none that I knew, being cut very
+high at the instep and very pointed at the toe.  Then, of a sudden,
+it came upon me that the Spanish stranger wore such boots, for I
+had noted them while I talked with him, and that his feet were
+following those of my mother, for they had trodden on her track,
+and in some places, his alone had stamped their impress on the sand
+blotting out her footprints.  Then, too, I knew what the white rag
+was that I had thrown aside.  It was my mother's mantilla which I
+knew, and yet did not know, because I always saw it set daintily
+upon her head.  In a moment it had come home to me, and with the
+knowledge a keen and sickening dread.  Why had this man followed my
+mother, and why did her mantilla lie thus upon the ground?
+
+I turned and sped like a deer back to where I had seen the lace.
+All the way the footprints went before me.  Now I was there.  Yes,
+the wrapping was hers, and it had been rent as though by a rude
+hand; but where was she?
+
+With a beating heart once more I bent to read the writing of the
+footsteps.  Here they were mixed one with another, as though the
+two had stood close together, moving now this way and now that in
+struggle.  I looked up the path, but there were none.  Then I cast
+round about like a beagle, first along the river side, then up the
+bank.  Here they were again, and made by feet that flew and feet
+that followed.  Up the bank they went fifty yards and more, now
+lost where the turf was sound, now seen in sand or loam, till they
+led to the bole of a big oak, and were once more mixed together,
+for here the pursuer had come up with the pursued.
+
+Despairingly as one who dreams, for now I guessed all and grew mad
+with fear, I looked this way and that, till at length I found more
+footsteps, those of the Spaniard.  These were deep marked, as of a
+man who carried some heavy burden.  I followed them; first they
+went down the hill towards the river, then turned aside to a spot
+where the brushwood was thick.  In the deepest of the clump the
+boughs, now bursting into leaf, were bent downwards as though to
+hide something beneath.  I wrenched them aside, and there, gleaming
+whitely in the gathering twilight was the dead face of my mother.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THOMAS SWEARS AN OATH
+
+
+For a while I stood amazed with horror, staring down at the dead
+face of my beloved mother.  Then I stooped to lift her and saw that
+she had been stabbed, and through the breast, stabbed with the
+sword which I carried in my hand.
+
+Now I understood.  This was the work of that Spanish stranger whom
+I had met as he hurried from the place of murder, who, because of
+the wickedness of his heart or for some secret reason, had striven
+to slay me also when he learned that I was my mother's son.  And I
+had held this devil in my power, and that I might meet my May, I
+had suffered him to escape my vengeance, who, had I known the
+truth, would have dealt with him as the priests of Anahuac deal
+with the victims of their gods.  I understood and shed tears of
+pity, rage, and shame.  Then I turned and fled homewards like one
+mad.
+
+At the doorway I met my father and my brother Geoffrey riding up
+from Bungay market, and there was that written on my face which
+caused them to ask as with one voice:
+
+'What evil thing has happened?'
+
+Thrice I looked at my father before I could speak, for I feared
+lest the blow should kill him.  But speak I must at last, though I
+chose that it should be to Geoffrey my brother.  'Our mother lies
+murdered yonder on the Vineyard Hill.  A Spanish man has done the
+deed, Juan de Garcia by name.'  When my father heard these words
+his face became livid as though with pain of the heart, his jaw
+fell and a low moan issued from his open mouth.  Presently he
+rested his hand upon the pommel of the saddle, and lifting his
+ghastly face he said:
+
+'Where is this Spaniard?  Have you killed him?'
+
+'No, father.  He chanced upon me in Grubswell, and when he learned
+my name he would have murdered me.  But I played quarter staff with
+him and beat him to a pulp, taking his sword.'
+
+'Ay, and then?'
+
+'And then I let him go, knowing nothing of the deed he had already
+wrought upon our mother.  Afterwards I will tell you all.'
+
+'You let him go, son!  You let Juan de Garcia go!  Then, Thomas,
+may the curse of God rest upon you till you find him and finish
+that which you began to-day.'
+
+'Spare to curse me, father, who am accursed by my own conscience.
+Turn your horses rather and ride for Yarmouth, for there his ship
+lies and thither he has gone with two hours' start.  Perhaps you
+may still trap him before he sets sail.'
+
+Without another word my father and brother wheeled their horses
+round and departed at full gallop into the gloom of the gathering
+night.
+
+They rode so fiercely that, their horses being good, they came to
+the gates of Yarmouth in little more than an hour and a half, and
+that is fast riding.  But the bird was flown.  They tracked him to
+the quay and found that he had shipped a while before in a boat
+which was in waiting for him, and passed to his vessel that lay in
+the Roads at anchor but with the most of her canvas set.  Instantly
+she sailed, and now was lost in the night.  Then my father caused
+notice to be given that he would pay reward of two hundred pieces
+in gold to any ship that should capture the Spaniard, and two
+started on the quest, but they did not find her that before morning
+was far on her way across the sea.
+
+So soon as they had galloped away I called together the grooms and
+other serving men and told them what had chanced.  Then we went
+with lanterns, for by now it was dark, and came to the thick
+brushwood where lay the body of my mother.  I drew near the first,
+for the men were afraid, and so indeed was I, though why I should
+fear her lying dead who living had loved me tenderly, I do not
+know.  Yet I know this, that when I came to the spot and saw two
+eyes glowering at me and heard the crash of bushes as something
+broke them, I could almost have fallen with fear, although I knew
+well that it was but a fox or wandering hound haunting the place of
+death.
+
+Still I went on, calling the others to follow, and the end of it
+was that we laid my mother's body upon a door which had been lifted
+from its hinges, and bore her home for the last time.  And to me
+that path is still a haunted place.  It is seventy years and more
+since my mother died by the hand of Juan de Garcia her cousin, yet
+old as I am and hardened to such sad scenes, I do not love to walk
+that path alone at night.
+
+Doubtless it was fancy which plays us strange tricks, still but a
+year ago, having gone to set a springe for a woodcock, I chanced to
+pass by yonder big oak upon a November eve, and I could have sworn
+that I saw it all again.  I saw myself a lad, my wounded arm still
+bound with Lily's kerchief, climbing slowly down the hill-side,
+while behind me, groaning beneath their burden, were the forms of
+the four serving men.  I heard the murmur of the river and the wind
+that seventy years ago whispered in the reeds.  I saw the clouded
+sky flawed here and there with blue, and the broken light that
+gleamed on the white burden stretched upon the door, and the red
+stain at its breast.  Ay, I heard myself talk as I went forward
+with the lantern, bidding the men pass to the right of some steep
+and rotten ground, and it was strange to me to listen to my own
+voice as it had been in youth.  Well, well, it was but a dream, yet
+such slaves are we to the fears of fancy, that because of the dead,
+I, who am almost of their number, do not love to pass that path at
+night.
+
+At length we came home with our burden, and the women took it
+weeping and set about their task with it.  And now I must not only
+fight my own sorrows but must strive to soothe those of my sister
+Mary, who as I feared would go mad with grief and horror.  At last
+she sobbed herself into a torpor, and I went and questioned the men
+who sat round the fire in the kitchen, for none sought their beds
+that night.  From them I learned that an hour or more before I met
+the Spaniard, a richly-dressed stranger had been seen walking along
+the church-path, and that he had tied his horse among some gorse
+and brambles on the top of the hill, where he stood as though in
+doubt, till my mother came out, when he descended and followed her.
+Also I learned that one of the men at work in the garden, which is
+not more than three hundred paces from where the deed was done,
+heard cries, but had taken no note of them, thinking forsooth that
+it was but the play of some lover from Bungay and his lass chasing
+each other through the woods, as to this hour it is their fashion
+to do.  Truly it seemed to me that day as though this parish of
+Ditchingham were the very nursery of fools, of whom I was the first
+and biggest, and indeed this same thought has struck me since
+concerning other matters.
+
+At length the morning came, and with it my father and brother, who
+returned from Yarmouth on hired horses, for their own were spent.
+In the afternoon also news followed them that the ships which had
+put to sea on the track of the Spaniard had been driven back by bad
+weather, having seen nothing of him.
+
+Now I told all the story of my dealings with the murderer of my
+mother, keeping nothing back, and I must bear my father's bitter
+anger because knowing that my mother was in dread of a Spaniard, I
+had suffered my reason to be led astray by my desire to win speech
+with my love.  Nor did I meet with any comfort from my brother
+Geoffrey, who was fierce against me because he learned that I had
+not pleaded in vain with the maid whom he desired for himself.  But
+he said nothing of this reason.  Also that no drop might be lacking
+in my cup, Squire Bozard, who came with many other neighbours to
+view the corpse and offer sympathy with my father in his loss, told
+him at the same time that he took it ill that I should woo his
+daughter against his wish, and that if I continued in this course
+it would strain their ancient friendship.  Thus I was hit on every
+side; by sorrow for my mother whom I had loved tenderly, by longing
+for my dear whom I might not see, by self-reproach because I had
+let the Spaniard go when I held him fast, and by the anger of my
+father and my brother.  Indeed those days were so dark and bitter,
+for I was at the age when shame and sorrow sting their sharpest,
+that I wished that I were dead beside my mother.  One comfort
+reached me indeed, a message from Lily sent by a servant girl whom
+she trusted, giving me her dear love and bidding me to be of good
+cheer.
+
+At length came the day of burial, and my mother, wrapped in fair
+white robes, was laid to her rest in the chancel of the church at
+Ditchingham, where my father has long been set beside her, hard by
+the brass effigies that mark the burying place of Lily's
+forefather, his wife, and many of their children.  This funeral was
+the saddest of sights, for the bitterness of my father's grief
+broke from him in sobs and my sister Mary swooned away in my arms.
+Indeed there were few dry eyes in all that church, for my mother,
+notwithstanding her foreign birth, was much loved because of her
+gentle ways and the goodness of her heart.  But it came to an end,
+and the noble Spanish lady and English wife was left to her long
+sleep in the ancient church, where she shall rest on when her
+tragic story and her very name are forgotten among men.  Indeed
+this is likely to be soon, for I am the last of the Wingfields
+alive in these parts, though my sister Mary has left descendants of
+another name to whom my lands and fortune go except for certain
+gifts to the poor of Bungay and of Ditchingham.
+
+When it was over I went back home.  My father was sitting in the
+front room well nigh beside himself with grief, and by him was my
+brother.  Presently he began to assail me with bitter words because
+I had let the murderer go when God gave him into my hand.
+
+'You forget, father,' sneered Geoffrey, 'Thomas woos a maid, and it
+was more to him to hold her in his arms than to keep his mother's
+murderer safely.  But by this it seems he has killed two birds with
+one stone, he has suffered the Spanish devil to escape when he knew
+that our mother feared the coming of a Spaniard, and he has made
+enmity between us and Squire Bozard, our good neighbour, who
+strangely enough does not favour his wooing.'
+
+'It is so,' said my father.  'Thomas, your mother's blood is on
+your hands.'
+
+I listened and could bear this goading injustice no longer.
+
+'It is false,' I said, 'I say it even to my father.  The man had
+killed my mother before I met him riding back to seek his ship at
+Yarmouth and having lost his way; how then is her blood upon my
+hands?  As for my wooing of Lily Bozard, that is my matter,
+brother, and not yours, though perhaps you wish that it was yours
+and not mine.  Why, father, did you not tell me what you feared of
+this Spaniard?  I heard some loose talk only and gave little
+thought to it, my mind being full of other things.  And now I will
+say something.  You called down God's curse upon me, father, till
+such time as I should find this murderer and finish what I had
+begun.  So be it!  Let God's curse rest upon me till I do find him.
+I am young, but I am quick and strong, and so soon as may be I
+start for Spain to hunt him there till I shall run him down or know
+him to be dead.  If you will give me money to help me on my quest,
+so be it--if not I go without.  I swear before God and by my
+mother's spirit that I will neither rest nor stay till with the
+very sword that slew her, I have avenged her blood upon her
+murderer or know him dead, and if I suffer myself to be led astray
+from the purpose of this oath by aught that is, then may a worse
+end than hers overtake me, may my soul be rejected in heaven, and
+my name be shameful for ever upon the earth!'
+
+Thus I swore in my rage and anguish, holding up my hand to heaven
+that I called upon to witness the oath.
+
+My father looked at me keenly.  'If that is your mind, son Thomas,
+you shall not lack for money.  I would go myself, for blood must be
+wiped out with blood, but I am too broken in my health; also I am
+known in Spain and the Holy Office would claim me there.  Go, and
+my blessing go with you.  It is right that you should go, for it is
+through your folly that our enemy has escaped us.'
+
+'Yes, it is right that he should go,' said Geoffrey.
+
+'You say that because you wish to be rid of me, Geoffrey,' I
+answered hotly, 'and you would be rid of me because you desire to
+take my place at the side of a certain maid.  Follow your nature
+and do as you will, but if you would outwit an absent man no good
+shall come to you of it.'
+
+'The girl is to him who can win her,' he said.
+
+'The girl's heart is won already, Geoffrey.  You may buy her from
+her father but you can never win her heart, and without a heart she
+will be but a poor prize.'
+
+'Peace! now is no time for such talk of love and maids,' said my
+father, 'and listen.  This is the tale of the Spanish murderer and
+your mother.  I have said nothing of it heretofore, but now it must
+out.  When I was a lad it happened that I also went to Spain
+because my father willed it.  I went to a monastery at Seville, but
+I had no liking for monks and their ways, and I broke out from the
+monastery.  For a year or more I made my living as I best might,
+for I feared to return to England as a runaway.  Still I made a
+living and not a bad one, now in this way and now in that, but
+though I am ashamed to say it, mostly by gaming, at which I had
+great luck.  One night I met this man Juan de Garcia--for in his
+hate he gave you his true name when he would have stabbed you--at
+play.  Even then he had an evil fame, though he was scarcely more
+than a lad, but he was handsome in person, set high in birth, and
+of a pleasing manner.  It chanced that he won of me at the dice,
+and being in a good humour, he took me to visit at the house of his
+aunt, his uncle's widow, a lady of Seville.  This aunt had one
+child, a daughter, and that daughter was your mother.  Now your
+mother, Luisa de Garcia, was affianced to her cousin Juan de
+Garcia, not with her own will indeed, for the contract had been
+signed when she was only eight years old.  Still it was binding,
+more binding indeed than in this country, being a marriage in all
+except in fact.  But those women who are thus bound for the most
+part bear no wife's love in their hearts, and so it was with your
+mother.  Indeed she both hated and feared her cousin Juan, though I
+think that he loved her more than anything on earth, and by one
+pretext and another she contrived to bring him to an agreement that
+no marriage should be celebrated till she was full twenty years of
+age.  But the colder she was to him, the more was he inflamed with
+desire to win her and also her possessions, which were not small,
+for like all Spaniards he was passionate, and like most gamesters
+and men of evil life, much in want of money.
+
+'Now to be brief, from the first moment that your mother and I set
+eyes on each other we loved one another, and it was our one desire
+to meet as often as might be; and in this we had no great
+difficulty, for her mother also feared and hated Juan de Garcia,
+her nephew by marriage, and would have seen her daughter clear of
+him if possible.  The end of it was that I told my love, and a plot
+was made between us that we should fly to England.  But all this
+had not escaped the ears of Juan, who had spies in the household,
+and was jealous and revengeful as only a Spaniard can be.  First he
+tried to be rid of me by challenging me to a duel, but we were
+parted before we could draw swords.  Then he hired bravos to murder
+me as I walked the streets at night, but I wore a chain shirt
+beneath my doublet and their daggers broke upon it, and in place of
+being slain I slew one of them.   Twice baffled, de Garcia was not
+defeated.  Fight and murder had failed, but another and surer means
+remained.  I know not how, but he had won some clue to the history
+of my life, and of how I had broken out from the monastery.  It was
+left to him, therefore, to denounce me to the Holy Office as a
+renegade and an infidel, and this he did one night; it was the
+night before the day when we should have taken ship.  I was sitting
+with your mother and her mother in their house at Seville, when six
+cowled men entered and seized me without a word.  When I prayed to
+know their purpose they gave no other answer than to hold a
+crucifix before my eyes.  Then I knew why I was taken, and the
+women ceased clinging to me and fell back sobbing.  Secretly and
+silently I was hurried away to the dungeons of the Holy Office, but
+of all that befell me there I will not stop to tell.
+
+'Twice I was racked, once I was seared with hot irons, thrice I was
+flogged with wire whips, and all this while I was fed on food such
+as we should scarcely offer to a dog here in England.  At length my
+offence of having escaped from a monastery and sundry blasphemies,
+so-called, being proved against me, I was condemned to death by
+fire.
+
+'Then at last, when after a long year of torment and of horror, I
+had abandoned hope and resigned myself to die, help came.  On the
+eve of the day upon which I was to be consumed by flame, the chief
+of my tormentors entered the dungeon where I lay on straw, and
+embracing me bade me be of good cheer, for the church had taken
+pity on my youth and given me my freedom.  At first I laughed
+wildly, for I thought that this was but another torment, and not
+till I was freed of my fetters, clothed in decent garments, and set
+at midnight without the prison gates, would I believe that so good
+a thing had befallen me through the hand of God.  I stood weak and
+wondering outside the gates, not knowing where to fly, and as I
+stood a woman glided up to me wrapped in a dark cloak, who
+whispered "Come."  That woman was your mother.  She had learned of
+my fate from the boasting of de Garcia and set herself to save me.
+Thrice her plans failed, but at length through the help of some
+cunning agent, gold won what was denied to justice and to mercy,
+and my life and liberty were bought with a very great sum.
+
+'That same night we were married and fled for Cadiz, your mother
+and I, but not her mother, who was bedridden with a sickness.  For
+my sake your beloved mother abandoned her people, what remained to
+her of her fortune after paying the price of my life, and her
+country, so strong is the love of woman.  All had been made ready,
+for at Cadiz lay an English ship, the "Mary" of Bristol, in which
+passage was taken for us.  But the "Mary" was delayed in port by a
+contrary wind which blew so strongly that notwithstanding his
+desire to save us, her master dared not take the sea.  Two days and
+a night we lay in the harbour, fearing all things not without
+cause, and yet most happy in each other's love.  Now those who had
+charge of me in the dungeon had given out that I had escaped by the
+help of my master the Devil, and I was searched for throughout the
+country side.  De Garcia also, finding that his cousin and
+affianced wife was missing, guessed that we two were not far apart.
+It was his cunning, sharpened by jealousy and hate, that dogged us
+down step by step till at length he found us.
+
+'On the morning of the third day, the gale having abated, the
+anchor of the "Mary" was got home and she swung out into the
+tideway.  As she came round and while the seamen were making ready
+to hoist the sails, a boat carrying some twenty soldiers, and
+followed by two others, shot alongside and summoned the captain to
+heave to, that his ship might be boarded and searched under warrant
+from the Holy Office.  It chanced that I was on deck at the time,
+and suddenly, as I prepared to hide myself below, a man, in whom I
+knew de Garcia himself, stood up and called out that I was the
+escaped heretic whom they sought.  Fearing lest his ship should be
+boarded and he himself thrown into prison with the rest of his
+crew, the captain would then have surrendered me.  But I, desperate
+with fear, tore my clothes from my body and showed the cruel scars
+that marked it.
+
+'"You are Englishmen," I cried to the sailors, "and will you
+deliver me to these foreign devils, who am of your blood?  Look at
+their handiwork," and I pointed to the half-healed scars left by
+the red-hot pincers; "if you give me up, you send me back to more
+of this torment and to death by burning.  Pity my wife if you will
+not pity me, or if you will pity neither, then lend me a sword that
+by death I may save myself from torture."
+
+'Then one of the seamen, a Southwold man who had known my father,
+called out: "By God! I for one will stand by you, Thomas Wingfield.
+If they want you and your sweet lady they must kill me first," and
+seizing a bow from the rack he drew it out of its case and strung
+it, and setting an arrow on the string he pointed it at the
+Spaniards in the boat.
+
+'Then the others broke into shouts of:
+
+'"If you want any man from among us, come aboard and take him, you
+torturing devils," and the like.
+
+'Seeing where the heart of the crew lay, the captain found courage
+in his turn.  He made no answer to the Spaniards, but bade half of
+the men hoist the sails with all speed, and the rest make ready to
+keep off the soldiers should they seek to board us.
+
+'By now the other two boats had come up and fastened on to us with
+their hooks.  One man climbed into the chains and thence to the
+deck, and I knew him for a priest of the Holy Office, one of those
+who had stood by while I was tormented.  Then I grew mad at the
+thought of all that I had suffered, while that devil watched,
+bidding them lay on for the love of God.  Snatching the bow from
+the hand of the Southwold seaman, I drew the arrow to its head and
+loosed.  It did not miss its mark, for like you, Thomas, I was
+skilled with the bow, and he dived back into the sea with an
+English yard shaft in his heart.
+
+'After that they tried to board us no more, though they shot at us
+with arrows, wounding one man.  The captain called to us to lay
+down our bows and take cover behind the bulwarks, for by now the
+sails began to draw.  Then de Garcia stood up in the boat and
+cursed me and my wife.
+
+'"I will find you yet," he screamed, with many Spanish oaths and
+foul words.  "If I must wait for twenty years I will be avenged
+upon you and all you love.  Be assured of this, Luisa de Garcia,
+hide where you will, I shall find you, and when we meet, you shall
+come with me for so long as I will keep you or that shall be the
+hour of your death."
+
+'Then we sailed away for England, and the boats fell astern.
+
+
+'My sons, this is the story of my youth, and of how I came to wed
+your mother whom I have buried to-day.  Juan de Garcia has kept his
+word.'
+
+'Yet it seems strange,' said my brother, 'that after all these
+years he should have murdered her thus, whom you say he loved.
+Surely even the evilest of men had shrunk from such a deed!'
+
+'There is little that is strange about it,' answered my father.
+'How can we know what words were spoken between them before he
+stabbed her?  Doubtless he told of some of them when he cried to
+Thomas that now they would see what truth there was in prophecies.
+What did de Garcia swear years since?--that she should come with
+him or he would kill her.  Your mother was still beautiful,
+Geoffrey, and he may have given her choice between flight and
+death.  Seek to know no more, son'--and suddenly my father hid his
+face in his hands and broke into sobs that were dreadful to hear.
+
+'Would that you had told us this tale before, father,' I said so
+soon as I could speak.  'Then there would have lived a devil the
+less in the world to-day, and I should have been spared a long
+journey.'
+
+
+Little did I know how long that journey would be!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GOOD-BYE, SWEETHEART
+
+
+Within twelve days of the burial of my mother and the telling of
+the story of his marriage to her by my father, I was ready to start
+upon my search.  As it chanced a vessel was about to sail from
+Yarmouth to Cadiz.  She was named the 'Adventuress,' of one hundred
+tons burden, and carried wool and other goods outwards, purposing
+to return with a cargo of wine and yew staves for bows.  In this
+vessel my father bought me a passage.  Moreover, he gave me fifty
+pounds in gold, which was as much as I would risk upon my person,
+and obtained letters from the Yarmouth firm of merchants to their
+agents in Cadiz, in which they were advised to advance me such sums
+as I might need up to a total of one hundred and fifty English
+pounds, and further to assist me in any way that was possible.
+
+Now the ship 'Adventuress' was to sail on the third day of June.
+Already it was the first of that month, and that evening I must
+ride to Yarmouth, whither my baggage had gone already.  Except one
+my farewells were made, and yet that was the one I most wished to
+make.  Since the day when we had sworn our troth I had gained no
+sight of Lily except once at my mother's burial, and then we had
+not spoken.  Now it seemed that I must go without any parting word,
+for her father had sent me notice that if I came near the Hall his
+serving men had orders to thrust me from the door, and this was a
+shame that I would not risk.  Yet it was hard that I must go upon
+so long a journey, whence it well might chance I should not return,
+and bid her no goodbye.  In my grief and perplexity I spoke to my
+father, telling him how the matter stood and asking his help.
+
+'I go hence,' I said, 'to avenge our common loss, and if need be to
+give my life for the honour of our name.  Aid me then in this.'
+
+'My neighbour Bozard means his daughter for your brother Geoffrey,
+and not for you, Thomas,' he answered; 'and a man may do what he
+wills with his own.  Still I will help you if I can, at the least
+he cannot drive me from his door.  Bid them bring horses, and we
+will ride to the Hall.'
+
+Within the half of an hour we were there, and my father asked for
+speech with its master.  The serving man looked at me askance,
+remembering his orders, still he ushered us into the justice room
+where the Squire sat drinking ale.
+
+'Good morrow to you, neighbour,' said the Squire; 'you are welcome
+here, but you bring one with you who is not welcome, though he be
+your son.'
+
+'I bring him for the last time, friend Bozard.  Listen to his
+request, then grant it or refuse it as you will; but if you refuse
+it, it will not bind us closer.  The lad rides to-night to take
+ship for Spain to seek that man who murdered his mother.  He goes
+of his own free will because after the doing of the deed it was he
+who unwittingly suffered the murderer to escape, and it is well
+that he should go.'
+
+'He is a young hound to run such a quarry to earth, and in a
+strange country,' said the Squire.  'Still I like his spirit and
+wish him well.  What would he of me?'
+
+'Leave to bid farewell to your daughter.  I know that his suit does
+not please you and cannot wonder at it, and for my own part I think
+it too early for him to set his fancy in the way of marriage.  But
+if he would see the maid it can do no harm, for such harm as there
+is has been done already.  Now for your answer.'
+
+Squire Bozard thought a while, then said:
+
+'The lad is a brave lad though he shall be no son-in-law of mine.
+He is going far, and mayhap will return no more, and I do not wish
+that he should think unkindly of me when I am dead.  Go without,
+Thomas Wingfield, and stand under yonder beech--Lily shall join you
+there and you may speak with her for the half of an hour--no more.
+See to it that you keep within sight of the window.  Nay, no
+thanks; go before I change my mind.'
+
+So I went and waited under the beech with a beating heart, and
+presently Lily glided up to me, a more welcome sight to my eyes
+than any angel out of heaven.  And, indeed, I doubt if an angel
+could have been more fair than she, or more good and gentle.
+
+'Oh! Thomas,' she whispered, when I had greeted her, 'is this true
+that you sail oversea to seek the Spaniard?'
+
+'I sail to seek the Spaniard, and to find him and to kill him when
+he is found.  It was to come to you, Lily, that I let him go, now I
+must let you go to come to him.  Nay, do not weep, I have sworn to
+do it, and were I to break my oath I should be dishonoured.'
+
+'And because of this oath of yours I must be widowed, Thomas,
+before I am a wife?  You go and I shall never see you more.'
+
+'Who can say, my sweet?  My father went over seas and came back
+safe, having passed through many perils.'
+
+'Yes, he came back and--not alone.  You are young, Thomas, and in
+far countries there are ladies great and fair, and how shall I hold
+my own in your heart against them, I being so far away?'
+
+'I swear to you, Lily--'
+
+'Nay, Thomas, swear no oaths lest you should add to your sins by
+breaking them.  Yet, love, forget me not, who shall forget you
+never.  Perhaps--oh! it wrings my heart to say it--this is our last
+meeting on the earth.  If so, then we must hope to meet in heaven.
+At the least be sure of this, while I live I will be true to you,
+and father or no father, I will die before I break my troth.  I am
+young to speak so largely, but it shall be as I say.  Oh! this
+parting is more cruel than death.  Would that we were asleep and
+forgotten among men.  Yet it is best that you should go, for if you
+stayed what could we be to each other while my father lives, and
+may he live long!'
+
+'Sleep and forgetfulness will come soon enough, Lily; none must
+await them for very long.  Meanwhile we have our lives to live.
+Let us pray that we may live them to each other.  I go to seek
+fortune as well as foes, and I will win it for your sake that we
+may marry.'
+
+She shook her head sadly.  'It were too much happiness, Thomas.
+Men and women may seldom wed their true loves, or if they do, it is
+but to lose them.  At the least we love, and let us be thankful
+that we have learned what love can be, for having loved here,
+perchance at the worst we may love otherwhere when there are none
+to say us nay.'
+
+Then we talked on awhile, babbling broken words of love and hope
+and sorrow, as young folks so placed are wont to do, till at length
+Lily looked up with a sad sweet smile and said:
+
+'It is time to go, sweetheart.  My father beckons me from the
+lattice.  All is finished.'
+
+'Let us go then,' I answered huskily, and drew her behind the trunk
+of the old beech.  And there I caught her in my arms and kissed her
+again and yet again, nor was she ashamed to kiss me back.
+
+After this I remember little of what happened, except that as we
+rode away I saw her beloved face, wan and wistful, watching me
+departing out of her life.  For twenty years that sad and beautiful
+face haunted me, and it haunts me yet athwart life and death.
+Other women have loved me and I have known other partings, some of
+them more terrible, but the memory of this woman as she was then,
+and of her farewell look, overruns them all.  Whenever I gaze down
+the past I see this picture framed in it and I know that it is one
+which cannot fade.  Are there any sorrows like these sorrows of our
+youth?  Can any bitterness equal the bitterness of such good-byes?
+I know but one of which I was fated to taste in after years, and
+that shall be told of in its place.  It is a common jest to mock at
+early love, but if it be real, if it be something more than the
+mere arising of the passions, early love is late love also; it is
+love for ever, the best and worst event which can befall a man or
+woman.  I say it who am old and who have done with everything, and
+it is true.
+
+One thing I have forgotten.  As we kissed and clung in our despair
+behind the bole of the great beech, Lily drew a ring from her
+finger and pressed it into my hand saying, 'Look on this each
+morning when you wake, and think of me.'  It had been her mother's,
+and to-day it still is set upon my withered hand, gleaming in the
+winter sunlight as I trace these words.  Through the long years of
+wild adventure, through all the time of after peace, in love and
+war, in the shine of the camp fire, in the glare of the sacrificial
+flame, in the light of lonely stars illumining the lonely
+wilderness, that ring has shone upon my hand, reminding me always
+of her who gave it, and on this hand it shall go down into the
+grave.  It is a plain circlet of thick gold, somewhat worn now, a
+posy-ring, and on its inner surface is cut this quaint couplet:
+
+
+     Heart to heart,
+     Though far apart.
+
+
+A fitting motto for us indeed, and one that has its meaning to this
+hour.
+
+
+That same day of our farewell I rode with my father to Yarmouth.
+My brother Geoffrey did not come with us, but we parted with kindly
+words, and of this I am glad, for we never saw each other again.
+No more was said between us as to Lily Bozard and our wooing of
+her, though I knew well enough that so soon as my back was turned
+he would try to take my place at her side, as indeed happened.  I
+forgive it to him; in truth I cannot blame him much, for what man
+is there that would not have desired to wed Lily who knew her?
+Once we were dear friends, Geoffrey and I, but when we ripened
+towards manhood, our love of Lily came between us, and we grew more
+and more apart.  It is a common case enough.  Well, as it chanced
+he failed, so why should I think unkindly of him?  Let me rather
+remember the affection of our childhood and forget the rest.  God
+rest his soul.
+
+Mary, my sister, who after Lily Bozard was now the fairest maiden
+in the country side, wept much at my going.  There was but a year
+between us, and we loved each other dearly, for no such shadow of
+jealousy had fallen on our affection.  I comforted her as well as I
+was able, and telling her all that had passed between me and Lily,
+I prayed her to stand my friend and Lily's, should it ever be in
+her power to do so.  This Mary promised to do readily enough, and
+though she did not give the reason, I could see that she thought it
+possible that she might be able to help us.  As I have said, Lily
+had a brother, a young man of some promise, who at this time was
+away at college, and he and my sister Mary had a strong fancy for
+each other, that might or might not ripen into something closer.
+So we kissed and bade farewell with tears.
+
+And after that my father and I rode away.  But when we had passed
+down Pirnhow Street, and mounted the little hill beyond Waingford
+Mills to the left of Bungay town, I halted my horse, and looked
+back upon the pleasant valley of the Waveney where I was born, and
+my heart grew full to bursting.  Had I known all that must befall
+me, before my eyes beheld that scene again, I think indeed that it
+would have burst.  But God, who in his wisdom has laid many a
+burden upon the backs of men, has saved them from this; for had we
+foreknowledge of the future, I think that of our own will but few
+of us would live to see it.  So I cast one long last look towards
+the distant mass of oaks that marked the spot where Lily lived, and
+rode on.
+
+On the following day I embarked on board the 'Adventuress' and we
+sailed.  Before I left, my father's heart softened much towards me,
+for he remembered that I was my mother's best beloved, and feared
+also lest we should meet no more.  So much did it soften indeed,
+that at the last hour he changed his mind and wished to hold me
+back from going.  But having put my hand to the plough and suffered
+all the bitterness of farewell, I would not return to be mocked by
+my brother and my neighbours.  'You speak too late, father,' I
+said.  'You desired me to go to work this vengeance and stirred me
+to it with many bitter words, and now I would go if I knew that I
+must die within a week, for such oaths cannot be lightly broken,
+and till mine is fulfilled the curse rests on me.'
+
+'So be it, son,' he answered with a sigh.  'Your mother's cruel
+death maddened me and I said what I may live to be sorry for,
+though at the best I shall not live long, for my heart is broken.
+Perhaps I should have remembered that vengeance is in the hand of
+the Lord, who wreaks it at His own time and without our help.  Do
+not think unkindly of me, my boy, if we should chance to meet no
+more, for I love you, and it was but the deeper love that I bore to
+your mother which made me deal harshly with you.'
+
+'I know it, father, and bear no grudge.  But if you think that you
+owe me anything, pay it by holding back my brother from working
+wrong to me and Lily Bozard while I am absent.'
+
+'I will do my best, son, though were it not that you and she have
+grown so dear to each other, the match would have pleased me well.
+But as I have said, I shall not be long here to watch your welfare
+in this or any other matter, and when I am gone things must follow
+their own fate.  Do not forget your God or your home wherever you
+chance to wander, Thomas: keep yourself from brawling, beware of
+women that are the snare of youth, and set a watch upon your tongue
+and your temper which is not of the best.  Moreover, wherever you
+may be do not speak ill of the religion of the land, or make a mock
+of it by your way of life, lest you should learn how cruel men can
+be when they think that it is pleasing to their gods, as I have
+learnt already.'
+
+I said that I would bear his counsel in mind, and indeed it saved
+me from many a sorrow.  Then he embraced me and called on the
+Almighty to take me in His care, and we parted.
+
+I never saw him more, for though he was but middle-aged, within a
+year of my going my father died suddenly of a distemper of the
+heart in the nave of Ditchingham church, as he stood there, near
+the rood screen, musing by my mother's grave one Sunday after mass,
+and my brother took his lands and place.  God rest him also!  He
+was a true-hearted man, but more wrapped up in his love for my
+mother than it is well for any man to be who would look at life
+largely and do right by all.  For such love, though natural to
+women, is apt to turn to something that partakes of selfishness,
+and to cause him who bears it to think all else of small account.
+His children were nothing to my father when compared to my mother,
+and he would have been content to lose them every one if thereby he
+might have purchased back her life.  But after all it was a noble
+infirmity, for he thought little of himself and had gone through
+much to win her.
+
+
+Of my voyage to Cadiz, to which port I had learned that de Garcia's
+ship was bound, there is little to be told.  We met with contrary
+winds in the Bay of Biscay and were driven into the harbour of
+Lisbon, where we refitted.  But at last we came safely to Cadiz,
+having been forty days at sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ANDRES DE FONSECA
+
+
+Now I shall dwell but briefly on all the adventures which befell me
+during the year or so that I remained in Spain, for were I to set
+out everything at length, this history would have no end, or at
+least mine would find me before I came to it.
+
+Many travellers have told of the glories of Seville, to which
+ancient Moorish city I journeyed with all speed, sailing there up
+the Guadalquiver, and I have to tell of lands from which no other
+wanderer has returned to England, and must press on to them.  To be
+short then; foreseeing that it might be necessary for me to stop
+some time in Seville, and being desirous to escape notice and to be
+at the smallest expense possible, I bethought me that it would be
+well if I could find means of continuing my studies of medicine,
+and to this end I obtained certain introductions from the firm of
+merchants to whose care I had been recommended, addressed to
+doctors of medicine in Seville.  These letters at my request were
+made out not in my own name but in that of 'Diego d'Aila,' for I
+did not wish it to be known that I was an Englishman.  Nor, indeed,
+was this likely, except my speech should betray me, for, as I have
+said, in appearance I was very Spanish, and the hindrance of the
+language was one that lessened every day, since having already
+learned it from my mother, and taking every opportunity to read and
+speak it, within six months I could talk Castilian except for some
+slight accent, like a native of the land.  Also I have a gift for
+the acquiring of languages.
+
+
+When I was come to Seville, and had placed my baggage in an inn,
+not one of the most frequented, I set out to deliver a letter of
+recommendation to a famous physician of the town whose name I have
+long forgotten.  This physician had a fine house in the street of
+Las Palmas, a great avenue planted with graceful trees, that has
+other little streets running into it.  Down one of these I came
+from my inn, a quiet narrow place having houses with patios or
+courtyards on either side of it.  As I walked down this street I
+noticed a man sitting in the shade on a stool in the doorway of his
+patio.  He was small and withered, with keen black eyes and a
+wonderful air of wisdom, and he watched me as I went by.  Now the
+house of the famous physician whom I sought was so placed that the
+man sitting at this doorway could command it with his eyes and take
+note of all who went in and came out.  When I had found the house I
+returned again into the quiet street and walked to and fro there
+for a while, thinking of what tale I should tell to the physician,
+and all the time the little man watched me with his keen eyes.  At
+last I had made up my story and went to the house, only to find
+that the physician was from home.  Having inquired when I might
+find him I left, and once more took to the narrow street, walking
+slowly till I came to where the little man sat.  As I passed him,
+his broad hat with which he was fanning himself slipped to the
+ground before my feet.  I stooped down, lifted it from the
+pavement, and restored it to him.
+
+'A thousand thanks, young sir,' he said in a full and gentle voice.
+'You are courteous for a foreigner.'
+
+'How do you know me to be a foreigner, senor?' I asked, surprised
+out of my caution.
+
+'If I had not guessed it before, I should know it now,' he
+answered, smiling gravely.  'Your Castilian tells its own tale.'
+
+I bowed, and was about to pass on, when he addressed me again.
+
+'What is your hurry, young sir?  Step in and take a cup of wine
+with me; it is good.'
+
+I was about to say him nay, when it came into my mind that I had
+nothing to do, and that perhaps I might learn something from this
+gossip.
+
+'The day is hot, senor, and I accept.'
+
+He spoke no more, but rising, led me into a courtyard paved with
+marble in the centre of which was a basin of water, having vines
+trained around it.  Here were chairs and a little table placed in
+the shade of the vines.  When he had closed the door of the patio
+and we were seated, he rang a silver bell that stood upon the
+table, and a girl, young and fair, appeared from the house, dressed
+in a quaint Spanish dress.
+
+'Bring wine,' said my host.
+
+The wine was brought, white wine of Oporto such as I had never
+tasted before.
+
+'Your health, senor?'  And my host stopped, his glass in his hand,
+and looked at me inquiringly.
+
+'Diego d'Aila,' I answered.
+
+'Humph,' he said.  'A Spanish name, or perhaps an imitation Spanish
+name, for I do not know it, and I have a good head for names.'
+
+'That is my name, to take or to leave, senor?'--And I looked at him
+in turn.
+
+'Andres de Fonseca,' he replied bowing, 'a physician of this city,
+well known enough, especially among the fair.  Well, Senor Diego, I
+take your name, for names are nothing, and at times it is
+convenient to change them, which is nobody's business except their
+owners'.  I see that you are a stranger in this city--no need to
+look surprised, senor, one who is familiar with a town does not
+gaze and stare and ask the path of passers-by, nor does a native of
+Seville walk on the sunny side of the street in summer.  And now,
+if you will not think me impertinent, I will ask you what can be
+the business of so healthy a young man with my rival yonder?'  And
+he nodded towards the house of the famous physician.
+
+'A man's business, like his name, is his own affair, senor,' I
+answered, setting my host down in my mind as one of those who
+disgrace our art by plying openly for patients that they may
+capture their fees.  'Still, I will tell you.  I am also a
+physician, though not yet fully qualified, and I seek a place where
+I may help some doctor of repute in his daily practice, and thus
+gain experience and my living with it.'
+
+'Ah is it so?  Well, senor, then you will look in vain yonder,' and
+again he nodded towards the physician's house.  'Such as he will
+take no apprentice without the fee be large indeed; it is not the
+custom of this city.'
+
+'Then I must seek a livelihood elsewhere, or otherwise.'
+
+'I did not say so.  Now, senor, let us see what you know of
+medicine, and what is more important, of human nature, for of the
+first none of us can ever know much, but he who knows the latter
+will be a leader of men--or of women--who lead the men.'
+
+And without more ado he put me many questions, each of them so
+shrewd and going so directly to the heart of the matter in hand,
+that I marvelled at his sagacity.  Some of these questions were
+medical, dealing chiefly with the ailments of women, others were
+general and dealt more with their characters.  At length he
+finished.
+
+'You will do, senor,' he said; 'you are a young man of parts and
+promise, though, as was to be expected from one of your years, you
+lack experience.  There is stuff in you, senor, and you have a
+heart, which is a good thing, for the blunders of a man with a
+heart often carry him further than the cunning of the cynic; also
+you have a will and know how to direct it.'
+
+I bowed, and did my best to hold back my satisfaction at his words
+from showing in my face.
+
+'Still,' he went on, 'all this would not cause me to submit to you
+the offer that I am about to make, for many a prettier fellow than
+yourself is after all unlucky, or a fool at the bottom, or bad
+tempered and destined to the dogs, as for aught I know you may be
+also.  But I take my chance of that because you suit me in another
+way.  Perhaps you may scarcely know it yourself, but you have
+beauty, senor, beauty of a very rare and singular type, which half
+the ladies of Seville will praise when they come to know you.'
+
+'I am much flattered,' I said, 'but might I ask what all these
+compliments may mean?  To be brief, what is your offer?'
+
+'To be brief then, it is this.  I am in need of an assistant who
+must possess all the qualities that I see in you, but most of all
+one which I can only guess you to possess--discretion.  That
+assistant would not be ill-paid; this house would be at his
+disposal, and he would have opportunities of learning the world
+such as are given to few.  What say you?'
+
+'I say this, senor, that I should wish to know more of the business
+in which I am expected to assist.  Your offers sound too liberal,
+and I fear that I must earn your bounty by the doing of work that
+honest men might shrink from.'
+
+'A fair argument, but, as it happens, not quite a correct one.
+Listen: you have been told that yonder physician, to whose house
+you went but now, and these'--here he repeated four or five names--
+'are the greatest of their tribe in Seville.  It is not so.  I am
+the greatest and the richest, and I do more business than any two
+of them.  Do you know what my earnings have been this day alone?  I
+will tell you; just over twenty-five gold pesos,* more than all the
+rest of the profession have taken together, I will wager.  You want
+to know how I earn so much; you want to know also, why, if I have
+earned so much, I am not content to rest from my labours.  Good, I
+will tell you.  I earn it by ministering to the vanities of women
+and sheltering them from the results of their own folly.  Has a
+lady a sore heart, she comes to me for comfort and advice.  Has she
+pimples on her face, she flies to me to cure them.  Has she a
+secret love affair, it is I who hide her indiscretion; I consult
+the future for her, I help her to atone the past, I doctor her for
+imaginary ailments, and often enough I cure her of real ones.  Half
+the secrets of Seville are in my hands; did I choose to speak I
+could set a score of noble houses to broil and bloodshed.  But I do
+not speak, I am paid to keep silent; and when I am not paid, still
+I keep silent for my credit's sake.  Hundreds of women think me
+their saviour, I know them for my dupes.  But mark you, I do not
+push this game too far.  A love philtre--of coloured water--I may
+give at a price, but not a poisoned rose.  These they must seek
+elsewhere.  For the rest, in my way I am honest.  I take the world
+as it comes, that is all, and, as women will be fools, I profit by
+their folly and have grown rich upon it.
+
+
+* About sixty-three pounds sterling.
+
+
+'Yes, I have grown rich, and yet I cannot stop.  I love the money
+that is power; but more than all, I love the way of life.  Talk of
+romances and adventure!  What romance or adventure is half so
+wonderful as those that come daily to my notice?  And I play a part
+in every one of them, and none the less a leading part because I do
+not shout and strut upon the boards.'
+
+'If all this is so, why do you seek the help of an unknown lad, a
+stranger of whom you know nothing?' I asked bluntly.
+
+'Truly, you lack experience,' the old man answered with a laugh.
+'Do you then suppose that I should choose one who was NOT a
+stranger--one who might have ties within this city with which I was
+unacquainted.  And as for knowing nothing of you, young man, do you
+think that I have followed this strange trade of mine for forty
+years without learning to judge at sight?  Perhaps I know you
+better than you know yourself.  By the way, the fact that you are
+deeply enamoured of that maid whom you have left in England is a
+recommendation to me, for whatever follies you may commit, you will
+scarcely embarrass me and yourself by suffering your affections to
+be seriously entangled.  Ah! have I astonished you?'
+
+'How do you know?' I began--then ceased.
+
+'How do I know?  Why, easily enough.  Those boots you wear were
+made in England.  I have seen many such when I travelled there;
+your accent also though faint is English, and twice you have spoken
+English words when your Castilian failed you.  Then for the maid,
+is not that a betrothal ring upon your hand?  And when I spoke to
+you of the ladies of this country, my talk did not interest you
+overmuch as at your age it had done were you heart-whole.  Surely
+also the lady is fair and tall?  Ah! I thought so.  I have noticed
+that men and women love their opposite in colour, no invariable
+rule indeed, but good for a guess.'
+
+'You are very clever, senor.'
+
+'No, not clever, but trained, as you will be when you have been a
+year in my hands, though perchance you do not intend to stop so
+long in Seville.  Perhaps you came here with an object, and wish to
+pass the time profitably till it is fulfilled.  A good guess again,
+I think.  Well, so be it, I will risk that; object and attainment
+are often far apart.  Do you take my offer?'
+
+'I incline to do so.'
+
+'Then you will take it.  Now I have something more to say before we
+come to terms.  I do not want you to play the part of an
+apothecary's drudge.  You will figure before the world as my
+nephew, come from abroad to learn my trade.  You will help me in it
+indeed, but that is not all your duty.  Your part will be to mix in
+the life of Seville, and to watch those whom I bid you watch, to
+drop a word here and a hint there, and in a hundred ways that I
+shall show you to draw grist to my mill--and to your own.  You must
+be brilliant and witty, or sad and learned, as I wish; you must
+make the most of your person and your talents, for these go far
+with my customers.  To the hidalgo you must talk of arms, to the
+lady, of love; but you must never commit yourself beyond
+redemption.  And above all, young man'--and here his manner changed
+and his face grew stern and almost fierce--'you must never violate
+my confidence or the confidence of my clients.  On this point I
+will be quite open within you, and I pray you for your own sake to
+believe what I say, however much you may mistrust the rest.  If you
+break faith with me, YOU DIE.  You die, not by my hand, but you
+die.  That is my price; take it or leave it.  Should you leave it
+and go hence to tell what you have heard this day, even then
+misfortune may overtake you suddenly.  Do you understand?'
+
+'I understand.  For my own sake I will respect your confidence.'
+
+'Young sir, I like you better than ever.  Had you said that you
+would respect it because it was a confidence, I should have
+mistrusted you, for doubtless you feel that secrets communicated so
+readily have no claim to be held sacred.  Nor have they, but when
+their violation involves the sad and accidental end of the
+violator, it is another matter.  Well now, do you accept?'
+
+'I accept.'
+
+'Good.  Your baggage I suppose is at the inn.  I will send porters
+to discharge your score and bring it here.  No need for you to go,
+nephew, let us stop and drink another glass of wine; the sooner we
+grow intimate the better, nephew.'
+
+
+It was thus that first I became acquainted with Senor Andres de
+Fonseca, my benefactor, the strangest man whom I have ever known.
+Doubtless any person reading this history would think that I, the
+narrator, was sowing a plentiful crop of troubles for myself in
+having to deal with him, setting him down as a rogue of the
+deepest, such as sometimes, for their own wicked purposes, decoy
+young men to crime and ruin.  But it was not so, and this is the
+strangest part of the strange story.  All that Andres de Fonseca
+told me was true to the very letter.
+
+He was a gentleman of great talent who had been rendered a little
+mad by misfortunes in his early life.  As a physician I have never
+met his master, if indeed he has one in these times, and as a man
+versed in the world and more especially in the world of women, I
+have known none to compare with him.  He had travelled far, and
+seen much, and he forgot nothing.  In part he was a quack, but his
+quackery always had a meaning in it.  He fleeced the foolish,
+indeed, and even juggled with astronomy, making money out of their
+superstition; but on the other hand he did many a kind act without
+reward.  He would make a rich lady pay ten gold pesos for the
+dyeing of her hair, but often he would nurse some poor girl through
+her trouble and ask no charge; yes, and find her honest employment
+after it.  He who knew all the secrets of Seville never made money
+out of them by threat of exposure, as he said because it would not
+pay to do so, but really because though he affected to be a selfish
+knave, at bottom his heart was honest.
+
+For my own part I found life with him both easy and happy, so far
+as mine could be quite happy.  Soon I learned my role and played it
+well.  It was given out that I was the nephew of the rich old
+physician Fonseca, whom he was training to take his place; and
+this, together with my own appearance and manners, ensured me a
+welcome in the best houses of Seville.  Here I took that share of
+our business which my master could not take, for now he never mixed
+among the fashion of the city.  Money I was supplied with in
+abundance so that I could ruffle it with the best, but soon it
+became known that I looked to business as well as to pleasure.
+Often and often during some gay ball or carnival, a lady would
+glide up to me and ask beneath her breath if Don Andres de Fonseca
+would consent to see her privately on a matter of some importance,
+and I would fix an hour then and there.  Had it not been for me
+such patients would have been lost to us, since, for the most part,
+their timidity had kept them away.
+
+In the same fashion when the festival was ended and I prepared to
+wend homewards, now and again a gallant would slip his arm in mine
+and ask my master's help in some affair of love or honour, or even
+of the purse.  Then I would lead him straight to the old Moorish
+house where Don Andres sat writing in his velvet robe like some
+spider in his web, for the most of our business was done at night;
+and straight-way the matter would be attended to, to my master's
+profit and the satisfaction of all.  By degrees it became known
+that though I was so young yet I had discretion, and that nothing
+which went in at my ears came out of my lips; that I neither
+brawled nor drank nor gambled to any length, and that though I was
+friendly with many fair ladies, there were none who were entitled
+to know my secrets.  Also it became known that I had some skill in
+my art of healing, and it was said among the ladies of Seville that
+there lived no man in that city so deft at clearing the skin of
+blemishes or changing the colour of the hair as old Fonseca's
+nephew, and as any one may know this reputation alone was worth a
+fortune.  Thus it came about that I was more and more consulted on
+my own account.  In short, things went so well with us that in the
+first six months of my service I added by one third to the receipts
+of my master's practice, large as they had been before, besides
+lightening his labours not a little.
+
+It was a strange life, and of the things that I saw and learned,
+could they be written, I might make a tale indeed, but they have no
+part in this history.  For it was as though the smiles and silence
+with which men and women hide their thoughts were done away, and
+their hearts spoke to us in the accents of truth.  Now some fair
+young maid or wife would come to us with confessions of wickedness
+that would be thought impossible, did not her story prove itself;
+the secret murder perchance of a spouse, or a lover, or a rival;
+now some aged dame who would win a husband in his teens, now some
+wealthy low-born man or woman, who desired to buy an alliance with
+one lacking money, but of noble blood.  Such I did not care to help
+indeed, but to the love-sick or the love-deluded I listened with a
+ready ear, for I had a fellow-feeling with them.  Indeed so deep
+and earnest was my sympathy that more than once I found the unhappy
+fair ready to transfer their affections to my unworthy self, and in
+fact once things came about so that, had I willed it, I could have
+married one of the loveliest and wealthiest noble ladies of
+Seville.
+
+But I would none of it, who thought of my English Lily by day and
+night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE SECOND MEETING
+
+
+It may be thought that while I was employed thus I had forgotten
+the object of my coming to Spain, namely to avenge my mother's
+murder on the person of Juan de Garcia.  But this was not so.  So
+soon as I was settled in the house of Andres de Fonseca I set
+myself to make inquiries as to de Garcia's whereabouts with all
+possible diligence, but without result.
+
+Indeed, when I came to consider the matter coolly it seemed that I
+had but a slender chance of finding him in this city.  He had,
+indeed, given it out in Yarmouth that he was bound for Seville, but
+no ship bearing the same name as his had put in at Cadiz or sailed
+up the Guadalquivir, nor was it likely, having committed murder in
+England, that he would speak the truth as to his destination.
+Still I searched on.  The house where my mother and grandmother had
+lived was burned down, and as their mode of life had been retired,
+after more than twenty years of change few even remembered their
+existence.  Indeed I only discovered one, an old woman whom I found
+living in extreme poverty, and who once had been my grandmother's
+servant and knew my mother well, although she was not in the house
+at the time of her flight to England.  From this woman I gathered
+some information, though, needless to say, I did not tell her that
+I was the grandson of her old mistress.
+
+It seemed that after my mother fled to England with my father, de
+Garcia persecuted my grandmother and his aunt with lawsuits and by
+other means, till at last she was reduced to beggary, in which
+condition the villain left her to die.  So poor was she indeed,
+that she was buried in a public grave.  After that the old woman,
+my informant, said she had heard that de Garcia had committed some
+crime and been forced to flee the country.  What the crime was she
+could not remember, but it had happened about fifteen years ago.
+
+All this I learned when I had been about three months in Seville,
+and though it was of interest it did not advance me in my search.
+
+Some four or five nights afterwards, as I entered my employer's
+house I met a young woman coming out of the doorway of the patio;
+she was thickly veiled and my notice was drawn to her by her tall
+and beautiful figure and because she was weeping so violently that
+her body shook with her sobs.  I was already well accustomed to
+such sights, for many of those who sought my master's counsel had
+good cause to weep, and I passed her without remark.  But when I
+was come into the room where he received his patients, I mentioned
+that I had met such a person and asked if it was any one whom I
+knew.
+
+'Ah! nephew,' said Fonseca, who always called me thus by now, and
+indeed began to treat me with as much affection as though I were
+really of his blood, 'a sad case, but you do not know her and she
+is no paying patient.  A poor girl of noble birth who had entered
+religion and taken her vows, when a gallant appears, meets her
+secretly in the convent garden, promises to marry her if she will
+fly with him, indeed does go through some mummery of marriage with
+her--so she says--and the rest of it.  Now he has deserted her and
+she is in trouble, and what is more, should the priests catch her,
+likely to learn what it feels like to die by inches in a convent
+wall.  She came to me for counsel and brought some silver ornaments
+as the fee.  Here they are.'
+
+'You took them!'
+
+'Yes, I took them--I always take a fee, but I gave her back their
+weight in gold.  What is more, I told her where she might hide from
+the priests till the hunt is done with.  What I did not like to
+tell her is that her lover is the greatest villain who ever trod
+the streets of Seville.  What was the good?  She will see little
+more of him.  Hist! here comes the duchess--an astrological case
+this.  Where are the horoscope and the wand, yes, and the crystal
+ball?  There, shade the lamps, give me the book, and vanish.'
+
+I obeyed, and presently met the great lady, a stout woman attended
+by a duenna, gliding fearfully through the darkened archways to
+learn the answer of the stars and pay many good pesos for it, and
+the sight of her made me laugh so much that I forgot quickly about
+the other lady and her woes.
+
+
+And now I must tell how I met my cousin and my enemy de Garcia for
+the second time.  Two days after my meeting with the veiled lady it
+chanced that I was wandering towards midnight through a lonely part
+of the old city little frequented by passers-by.  It was scarcely
+safe to be thus alone in such a place and hour, but the business
+with which I had been charged by my master was one that must be
+carried out unattended.  Also I had no enemies whom I knew of, and
+was armed with the very sword that I had taken from de Garcia in
+the lane at Ditchingham, the sword that had slain my mother, and
+which I bore in the hope that it might serve to avenge her.  In the
+use of this weapon I had grown expert enough by now, for every
+morning I took lessons in the art of fence.
+
+My business being done I was walking slowly homeward, and as I went
+I fell to thinking of the strangeness of my present life and of how
+far it differed from my boyhood in the valley of the Waveney, and
+of many other things.  And then I thought of Lily and wondered how
+her days passed, and if my brother Geoffrey persecuted her to marry
+him, and whether or no she would resist his importunities and her
+father's.  And so as I walked musing I came to a water-gate that
+opened on to the Guadalquivir, and leaning upon the coping of a low
+wall I rested there idly to consider the beauty of the night.  In
+truth it was a lovely night, for across all these years I remember
+it.  Let those who have seen it say if they know any prospect more
+beautiful than the sight of the August moon shining on the broad
+waters of the Guadalquivir and the clustering habitations of the
+ancient city.
+
+Now as I leaned upon the wall and looked, I saw a man pass up the
+steps beside me and go on into the shadow of the street.  I took no
+note of him till presently I heard a murmur of distant voices, and
+turning my head I discovered that the man was in conversation with
+a woman whom he had met at the head of the path that ran down to
+the water-gate.  Doubtless it was a lovers' meeting, and since such
+sights are of interest to all, and more especially to the young, I
+watched the pair.  Soon I learned that there was little of
+tenderness in this tryst, at least on the part of the gallant, who
+drew continually backwards toward me as though he would seek the
+boat by which doubtless he had come, and I marvelled at this, for
+the moonlight shone upon the woman's face, and even at that
+distance I could see that it was very fair.  The man's face I could
+not see however, since his back was towards me for the most part,
+moreover he wore a large sombrero that shaded it.  Now they came
+nearer to me, the man always drawing backward and the woman always
+following, till at length they were within earshot.  The woman was
+pleading with the man.
+
+'Surely you will not desert me,' she said, 'after marrying me and
+all that you have sworn; you will not have the heart to desert me.
+I abandoned everything for you.  I am in great danger.  I--' and
+here her voice fell so that I could not catch her words.
+
+Then he spoke.  'Fairest, now as always I adore you.  But we must
+part awhile.  You owe me much, Isabella.  I have rescued you from
+the grave, I have taught you what it is to live and love.
+Doubtless with your advantages and charms, your great charms, you
+will profit by the lesson.  Money I cannot give you, for I have
+none to spare, but I have endowed you with experience that is more
+valuable by far.  This is our farewell for awhile and I am
+brokenhearted.  Yet
+
+
+   "'Neath fairer skies
+     Shine other eyes,"
+
+
+and I--' and again he spoke so low that I could not catch his
+words.
+
+As he talked on, all my body began to tremble.  The scene was
+moving indeed, but it was not that which stirred me so deeply, it
+was the man's voice and bearing that reminded me--no, it could
+scarcely be!
+
+'Oh! you will not be so cruel,' said the lady, 'to leave me, your
+wife, thus alone and in such sore trouble and danger.  Take me with
+you, Juan, I beseech you!' and she caught him by the arm and clung
+to him.
+
+He shook her from him somewhat roughly, and as he did so his wide
+hat fell to the ground so that the moonlight shone upon his face.
+By Heaven! it was he--Juan de Garcia and no other!  I could not be
+mistaken.  There was the deeply carved, cruel face, the high
+forehead with the scar on it, the thin sneering mouth, the peaked
+beard and curling hair.  Chance had given him into my hand, and I
+would kill him or he should kill me.
+
+I took three paces and stood before him, drawing my sword as I
+came.
+
+'What, my dove, have you a bully at hand?' he said stepping back
+astonished.  'Your business, senor?  Are you here to champion
+beauty in distress?'
+
+'I am here, Juan de Garcia, to avenge a murdered woman.  Do you
+remember a certain river bank away in England, where you chanced to
+meet a lady you had known, and to leave her dead?  Or if you have
+forgotten, perhaps at least you will remember this, which I carry
+that it may kill you,' and I flashed the sword that had been his
+before his eyes.
+
+'Mother of God!  It is the English boy who--' and he stopped.
+
+'It is Thomas Wingfield who beat and bound you, and who now
+purposes to finish what he began yonder as he has sworn.  Draw, or,
+Juan de Garcia, I will stab you where you stand.'
+
+De Garcia heard this speech, that to-day seems to me to smack of
+the theatre, though it was spoken in grimmest earnest, and his face
+grew like the face of a trapped wolf.  Yet I saw that he had no
+mind to fight, not because of cowardice, for to do him justice he
+was no coward, but because of superstition.  He feared to fight
+with me since, as I learned afterwards, he believed that he would
+meet his end at my hand, and it was for this reason chiefly that he
+strove to kill me when first we met.
+
+'The duello has its laws, senor,' he said courteously.  'It is not
+usual to fight thus unseconded and in the presence of a woman.  If
+you believe that you have any grievance against me--though I know
+not of what you rave, or the name by which you call me--I will meet
+you where and when you will.'  And all the while he looked over his
+shoulder seeking some way of escape.
+
+'You will meet me now,' I answered.  'Draw or I strike!'
+
+Then he drew, and we fell to it desperately enough, till the sparks
+flew, indeed, and the rattle of steel upon steel rang down the
+quiet street.  At first he had somewhat the better of me, for my
+hate made me wild in my play, but soon I settled to the work and
+grew cooler.  I meant to kill him--more, I knew that I should kill
+him if none came between us.  He was still a better swordsman than
+I, who, till I fought with him in the lane at Ditchingham, had
+never even seen one of these Spanish rapiers, but I had the youth
+and the right on my side, as also I had an eye like a hawk's and a
+wrist of steel.
+
+Slowly I pressed him back, and ever my play grew closer and better
+and his became wilder.  Now I had touched him twice, once in the
+face, and I held him with his back against the wall of the way that
+led down to the water-gate, and it had come to this, that he
+scarcely strove to thrust at me at all, but stood on his defence
+waiting till I should tire.  Then, when victory was in my hand
+disaster overtook me, for the woman, who had been watching
+bewildered, saw that her faithless lover was in danger of death and
+straightway seized me from behind, at the same time sending up
+shriek after shriek for help.  I shook her from me quickly enough,
+but not before de Garcia, seeing his advantage, had dealt me a
+coward's thrust that took me in the right shoulder and half
+crippled me, so that in my turn I must stand on my defence if I
+would keep my life in me.  Meanwhile the shrieks had been heard,
+and of a sudden the watch came running round the corner whistling
+for help.  De Garcia saw them, and disengaging suddenly, turned and
+ran for the water-gate, the lady also vanishing, whither I do not
+know.
+
+Now the watch was on me, and their leader came at me to seize me,
+holding a lantern in his hand.  I struck it with the handle of the
+sword, so that it fell upon the roadway, where it blazed up like a
+bonfire.  Then I turned also and fled, for I did not wish to be
+dragged before the magistrates of the city as a brawler, and in my
+desire to escape I forgot that de Garcia was escaping also.  Away I
+went and three of the watch after me, but they were stout and scant
+of breath, and by the time that I had run three furlongs I
+distanced them.  I halted to get my breath and remembered that I
+had lost de Garcia and did not know when I should find him again.
+At first I was minded to return and seek him, but reflection told
+me that by now it would be useless, also that the end of it might
+be that I should fall into the hands of the watch, who would know
+me by my wound, which began to pain me.  So I went homeward cursing
+my fortune, and the woman who had clasped me from behind just as I
+was about to send the death-thrust home, and also my lack of skill
+which had delayed that thrust so long.  Twice I might have made it
+and twice I had waited, being overcautious and over-anxious to be
+sure, and now I had lost my chance, and might bide many a day
+before it came again.
+
+How should I find him in this great city?  Doubtless, though I had
+not thought of it, de Garcia passed under some feigned name as he
+had done at Yarmouth.  It was bitter indeed to have been so near to
+vengeance and to have missed it.
+
+By now I was at home and bethought me that I should do well to go
+to Fonseca, my master, and ask his help.  Hitherto I had said
+nothing of this matter to him, for I have always loved to keep my
+own counsel, and as yet I had not spoken of my past even to him.
+Going to the room where he was accustomed to receive patients, I
+found he had retired to rest, leaving orders that I was not to
+awake him this night as he was weary.  So I bound up my hurt after
+a fashion and sought my bed also, very ill-satisfied with my
+fortune.
+
+On the morrow I went to my master's chamber where he still lay
+abed, having been seized by a sudden weakness that was the
+beginning of the illness which ended in his death.  As I mixed a
+draught for him he noticed that my shoulder was hurt and asked me
+what had happened.  This gave me my opportunity, which I was not
+slow to take.
+
+'Have you patience to listen to a story?' I said, 'for I would seek
+your help.'
+
+'Ah!' he answered, 'it is the old case, the physician cannot heal
+himself.  Speak on, nephew.'
+
+Then I sat down by the bed and told him all, keeping nothing back.
+I told him the history of my mother and my father's courtship, of
+my own childhood, of the murder of my mother by de Garcia, and of
+the oath that I had sworn to be avenged upon him.  Lastly I told
+him of what had happened upon the previous night and how my enemy
+had evaded me.  All the while that I was speaking Fonseca, wrapped
+in a rich Moorish robe, sat up in the bed holding his knees beneath
+his chin, and watching my face with his keen eyes.  But he spoke no
+word and made no sign till I had finished the tale.
+
+'You are strangely foolish, nephew,' he said at length.  'For the
+most part youth fails through rashness, but you err by over-
+caution.  By over-caution in your fence you lost your chance last
+night, and so by over-caution in hiding this tale from me you have
+lost a far greater opportunity.  What, have you not seen me give
+counsel in many such matters, and have you ever known me to betray
+the confidence even of the veriest stranger?  Why then did you fear
+for yours?'
+
+'I do not know,' I answered, 'but I thought that first I would
+search for myself.'
+
+'Pride goeth before a fall, nephew.  Now listen: had I known this
+history a month ago, by now de Garcia had perished miserably, and
+not by your hand, but by that of the law.  I have been acquainted
+with the man from his childhood, and know enough to hang him twice
+over did I choose to speak.  More, I knew your mother, boy, and now
+I see that it was the likeness in your face to hers that haunted
+me, for from the first it was familiar.  It was I also who bribed
+the keepers of the Holy Office to let your father loose, though, as
+it chanced, I never saw him, and arranged his flight.  Since then,
+I have had de Garcia through my hands some four or five times, now
+under this name and now under that.  Once even he came to me as a
+client, but the villainy that he would have worked was too black
+for me to touch.  This man is the wickedest whom I have known in
+Seville, and that is saying much, also he is the cleverest and the
+most revengeful.  He lives by vice for vice, and there are many
+deaths upon his hands.  But he has never prospered in his evil-
+doing, and to-day he is but an adventurer without a name, who lives
+by blackmail, and by ruining women that he may rob them at his
+leisure.  Give me those books from the strong box yonder, and I
+will tell you of this de Garcia.'
+
+I did as he bade me, bringing the heavy parchment volumes, each
+bound in vellum and written in cipher.
+
+'These are my records,' he said, 'though none can read them except
+myself.  Now for the index.  Ah! here it is.  Give me volume three,
+and open it at page two hundred and one.'
+
+I obeyed, laying the book on the bed before him, and he began to
+read the crabbed marks as easily as though they were good black-
+letter.
+
+'De Garcia--Juan.  Height, appearance, family, false names, and so
+on.  This is it--history.  Now listen.'
+
+Then came some two pages of closely written matter, expressed in
+secret signs that Fonseca translated as he read.  It was brief
+enough, but such a record as it contained I have never heard before
+nor since.  Here, set out against this one man's name, was well
+nigh every wickedness of which a human being could be capable,
+carried through by him to gratify his appetites and revengeful
+hate, and to provide himself with gold.
+
+In that black list were two murders: one of a rival by the knife,
+and one of a mistress by poison.  And there were other things even
+worse, too shameful, indeed, to be written.
+
+'Doubtless there is more that has not come beneath my notice,' said
+Fonseca coolly, 'but these things I know for truth, and one of the
+murders could be proved against him were he captured.  Stay, give
+me ink, I must add to the record.'
+
+And he wrote in his cipher: 'In May, 1517, the said de Garcia
+sailed to England on a trading voyage, and there, in the parish of
+Ditchingham, in the county of Norfolk, he murdered Luisa Wingfield,
+spoken of above as Luisa de Garcia, his cousin, to whom he was once
+betrothed.  In September of the same year, or previously, under
+cover of a false marriage, he decoyed and deserted one Donna
+Isabella of the noble family of Siguenza, a nun in a religious
+house in this city.'
+
+'What!' I exclaimed, 'is the girl who came to seek your help two
+nights since the same that de Garcia deserted?'
+
+'The very same, nephew.  It was she whom you heard pleading with
+him last night.  Had I known two days ago what I know to-day, by
+now this villain had been safe in prison.  But perhaps it is not
+yet too late.  I am ill, but I will rise and see to it.  Leave it
+to me, nephew.  Go, nurse yourself, and leave it to me; if anything
+may be done I can do it.  Stay, bid a messenger be ready.  This
+evening I shall know whatever there is to be known.'
+
+That night Fonseca sent for me again.
+
+'I have made inquiries,' he said.  'I have even warned the officers
+of justice for the first time for many years, and they are hunting
+de Garcia as bloodhounds hunt a slave.  But nothing can be heard of
+him.  He has vanished and left no trace.  To-night I write to
+Cadiz, for he may have fled there down the river.  One thing I have
+discovered, however.  The Senora Isabella was caught by the watch,
+and being recognised as having escaped from a convent, she was
+handed over to the executories of the Holy Office, that her case
+may be investigated, or in other words, should her fault be proved,
+to death.'
+
+'Can she be rescued?'
+
+'Impossible.  Had she followed my counsel she would never have been
+taken.'
+
+'Can she be communicated with?'
+
+'No.  Twenty years ago it might have been managed, now the Office
+is stricter and purer.  Gold has no power there.  We shall never
+see or hear of her again, unless, indeed, it is at the hour of her
+death, when, should she choose to speak with me, the indulgence may
+possibly be granted to her, though I doubt it.  But it is not
+likely that she will wish to do so.  Should she succeed in hiding
+her disgrace, she may escape; but it is not probable.  Do not look
+so sad, nephew, religion must have its sacrifices.  Perchance it is
+better for her to die thus than to live for many years dead in
+life.  She can die but once.  May her blood lie heavy on de
+Garcia's head!'
+
+'Amen!' I answered.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THOMAS BECOMES RICH
+
+
+For many months we heard no more of de Garcia or of Isabella de
+Siguenza.  Both had vanished leaving no sign, and we searched for
+them in vain.  As for me I fell back into my former way of life of
+assistant to Fonseca, posing before the world as his nephew.  But
+it came about that from the night of my duel with the murderer, my
+master's health declined steadily through the action of a wasting
+disease of the liver which baffled all skill, so that within eight
+months of that time he lay almost bedridden and at the point of
+death.  His mind indeed remained quite clear, and on occasions he
+would even receive those who came to consult him, reclining on a
+chair and wrapped in his embroidered robe.  But the hand of death
+lay on him, and he knew that it was so.  As the weeks went by he
+grew more and more attached to me, till at length, had I been his
+son, he could not have treated me with a greater affection, while
+for my part I did what lay in my power to lessen his sufferings,
+for he would let no other physician near him.
+
+At length when he had grown very feeble he expressed a desire to
+see a notary.  The man he named was sent for and remained closeted
+with him for an hour or more, when he left for a while to return
+with several of his clerks, who accompanied him to my master's
+room, from which I was excluded.  Presently they all went away,
+bearing some parchments with them.
+
+That evening Fonseca sent for me.  I found him very weak, but
+cheerful and full of talk.
+
+'Come here, nephew,' he said, 'I have had a busy day.  I have been
+busy all my life through, and it would not be well to grow idle at
+the last.  Do you know what I have been doing this day?'
+
+I shook my head.
+
+'I will tell you.  I have been making my will--there is something
+to leave; not so very much, but still something.'
+
+'Do not talk of wills,' I said; 'I trust that you may live for many
+years.'
+
+He laughed.  'You must think badly of my case, nephew, when you
+think that I can be deceived thus.  I am about to die as you know
+well, and I do not fear death.  My life has been prosperous but not
+happy, for it was blighted in its spring--no matter how.  The story
+is an old one and not worth telling; moreover, whichever way it had
+read, it had all been one now in the hour of death.  We must travel
+our journey each of us; what does it matter if the road has been
+good or bad when we have reached the goal?  For my part religion
+neither comforts nor frightens me now at the last.  I will stand or
+fall upon the record of my life.  I have done evil in it and I have
+done good; the evil I have done because nature and temptation have
+been too strong for me at times, the good also because my heart
+prompted me to it.  Well, it is finished, and after all death
+cannot be so terrible, seeing that every human being is born to
+undergo it, together with all living things.  Whatever else is
+false, I hold this to be true, that God exists and is more merciful
+than those who preach Him would have us to believe.'  And he ceased
+exhausted.
+
+Often since then I have thought of his words, and I still think of
+them now that my own hour is so near.  As will be seen Fonseca was
+a fatalist, a belief which I do not altogether share, holding as I
+do that within certain limits we are allowed to shape our own
+characters and destinies.  But his last sayings I believe to be
+true.  God is and is merciful, and death is not terrible either in
+its act or in its consequence.
+
+Presently Fonseca spoke again.  'Why do you lead me to talk of such
+things?  They weary me and I have little time.  I was telling of my
+will.  Nephew, listen.  Except certain sums that I have given to be
+spent in charities--not in masses, mind you--I have left you all I
+possess.'
+
+'You have left it to ME!' I said astonished.
+
+'Yes, nephew, to you.  Why not?  I have no relations living and I
+have learned to love you, I who thought that I could never care
+again for any man or woman or child.  I am grateful to you, who
+have proved to me that my heart is not dead, take what I give you
+as a mark of my gratitude.'
+
+Now I began to stammer my thanks, but he stopped me.  'The sum that
+you will inherit, nephew, amounts in all to about five thousand
+gold pesos, or perhaps twelve thousand of your English pounds,
+enough for a young man to begin life on, even with a wife.  Indeed
+there in England it may well be held a great fortune, and I think
+that your betrothed's father will make no more objection to you as
+a son-in-law.  Also there is this house and all that it contains;
+the library and the silver are valuable, and you will do well to
+keep them.  All is left to you with the fullest formality, so that
+no question can arise as to your right to take it; indeed,
+foreseeing my end, I have of late called in my moneys, and for the
+most part the gold lies in strong boxes in the secret cupboard in
+the wall yonder that you know of.  It would have been more had I
+known you some years ago, for then, thinking that I grew too rich
+who was without an heir, I gave away as much as what remains in
+acts of mercy and in providing refuge for the homeless and the
+suffering.  Thomas Wingfield, for the most part this money has come
+to me as the fruit of human folly and human wretchedness, frailty
+and sin.  Use it for the purposes of wisdom and the advancing of
+right and liberty.  May it prosper you, and remind you of me, your
+old master, the Spanish quack, till at last you pass it on to your
+children or the poor.  And now one word more.  If your conscience
+will let you, abandon the pursuit of de Garcia.  Take your fortune
+and go with it to England; wed that maid whom you desire, and
+follow after happiness in whatever way seems best to you.  Who are
+you that you should meet out vengeance on this knave de Garcia?
+Let him be, and he will avenge himself upon himself.  Otherwise you
+may undergo much toil and danger, and in the end lose love, and
+life, and fortune at a blow.'
+
+'But I have sworn to kill him,' I answered, 'and how can I break so
+solemn an oath?  How could I sit at home in peace beneath the
+burden of such shame?'
+
+'I do not know; it is not for me to judge.  You must do as you
+wish, but in the doing of it, it may happen that you will fall into
+greater shames than this.  You have fought the man and he has
+escaped you.  Let him go if you are wise.  Now bend down and kiss
+me, and bid me farewell.  I do not desire that you should see me
+die, and my death is near.  I cannot tell if we shall meet again
+when in your turn you have lain as I lie now, or if we shape our
+course for different stars.  If so, farewell for ever.'
+
+Then I leant down and kissed him on the forehead, and as I did so I
+wept, for not till this hour did I learn how truly I had come to
+love him, so truly that it seemed to me as though my father lay
+there dying.
+
+'Weep not,' he said, 'for all our life is but a parting.  Once I
+had a son like you, and ours was the bitterest of farewells.  Now I
+go to seek for him again who could not come back to me, so weep not
+because I die.  Good-bye, Thomas Wingfield.  May God prosper and
+protect you!  Now go!'
+
+So I went weeping, and that night, before the dawn, all was over
+with Andres de Fonseca.  They told me that he was conscious to the
+end and died murmuring the name of that son of whom he spoke in his
+last words to me.
+
+What was the history of this son, or of Fonseca himself, I never
+learned, for like an Indian he hid his trail as step by step he
+wandered down the path of life.  He never spoke of his past, and in
+all the books and documents that he left behind him there is no
+allusion to it.  Once, some years ago, I read through the cipher
+volumes of records that I have spoken of, and of which he gave me
+the key before he died.  They stand before me on the shelf as I
+write, and in them are many histories of shame, sorrow, and evil,
+of faith deluded and innocence betrayed, of the cruelty of priests,
+of avarice triumphant over love, and of love triumphant over death--
+enough, indeed, to furnish half a hundred of true romances.  But
+among these chronicles of a generation now past and forgotten,
+there is no mention of Fonseca's own name and no hint of his own
+story.  It is lost for ever, and perhaps this is well.  So died my
+benefactor and best friend.
+
+When he was made ready for burial I went in to see him and he
+looked calm and beautiful in his death sleep.  Then it was that she
+who had arrayed him for the grave handed to me two portraits most
+delicately painted on ivory and set in gold, which had been found
+about his neck.  I have them yet.  One is of the head of a lady
+with a sweet and wistful countenance, and the other the face of a
+dead youth also beautiful, but very sad.  Doubtless they were
+mother and son, but I know no more about them.
+
+On the morrow I buried Andres de Fonseca, but with no pomp, for he
+had said that he wished as little money as possible spent upon his
+dead body, and returned to the house to meet the notaries.  Then
+the seals were broken and the parchments read and I was put in full
+possession of the dead man's wealth, and having deducted such sums
+as were payable for dues, legacies, and fees, the notaries left me
+bowing humbly, for was I not rich?  Yes, I was rich, wealth had
+come to me without effort, and I had reason to desire it, yet this
+was the saddest night that I had passed since I set foot in Spain,
+for my mind was filled with doubts and sorrow, and moreover my
+loneliness got a hold of me.  But sad as it might be, it was
+destined to seem yet more sorrowful before the morning.  For as I
+sat making pretence to eat, a servant came to me saying that a
+woman waited in the outer room who had asked to see his late
+master.  Guessing that this was some client who had not heard of
+Fonseca's death I was about to order that she should be dismissed,
+then bethought me that I might be of service to her or at the least
+forget some of my own trouble in listening to hers.  So I bade him
+bring her in.  Presently she came, a tall woman wrapped in a dark
+cloak that hid her face.  I bowed and motioned to her to be seated,
+when suddenly she started and spoke.
+
+'I asked to see Don Andres de Fonseca,' she said in a low quick
+voice.  'You are not he, senor.'
+
+'Andres de Fonseca was buried to-day,' I answered.  'I was his
+assistant in his business and am his heir.  If I can serve you in
+any way I am at your disposal.'
+
+'You are young--very young,' she murmured confusedly, 'and the
+matter is terrible and urgent.  How can I trust you?'
+
+'It is for you to judge, senora.'
+
+She thought a while, then drew off her cloak, displaying the robes
+of a nun.
+
+'Listen,' she said.  'I must do many a penance for this night's
+work, and very hardly have I won leave to come hither upon an
+errand of mercy.  Now I cannot go back empty-handed, so I must
+trust you.  But first swear by thine blessed Mother of God that you
+will not betray me.'
+
+'I give you my word,' I answered; 'if that is not enough, let us
+end this talk.'
+
+'Do not be angry with me,' she pleaded; 'I have not left my convent
+walls for many years and I am distraught with grief.  I seek a
+poison of the deadliest.  I will pay well for it.'
+
+'I am not the tool of murderers,' I answered.  'For what purpose do
+you wish the poison?'
+
+'Oh! I must tell you--yet how can I?  In our convent there dies to-
+night a woman young and fair, almost a girl indeed, who has broken
+the vows she took.  She dies to-night with her babe--thus, oh God,
+thus! by being built alive into the foundations of the house she
+has disgraced.  It is the judgment that has been passed upon her,
+judgment without forgiveness or reprieve.  I am the abbess of this
+convent--ask not its name or mine--and I love this sinner as though
+she were my daughter.  I have obtained this much of mercy for her
+because of my faithful services to the church and by secret
+influence, that when I give her the cup of water before the work is
+done, I may mix poison with it and touch the lips of the babe with
+poison, so that their end is swift.  I may do this and yet have no
+sin upon my soul.  I have my pardon under seal.  Help me then to be
+an innocent murderess, and to save this sinner from her last
+agonies on earth.'
+
+I cannot set down the feelings with which I listened to this tale
+of horror, for words could not carry them.  I stood aghast seeking
+an answer, and a dreadful thought entered my mind.
+
+'Is this woman named Isabella de Siguenza?' I asked.
+
+'That name was hers in the world,' she answered, 'though how you
+know it I cannot guess.'
+
+'We know many things in this house, mother.  Say now, can this
+Isabella be saved by money or by interest?'
+
+'It is impossible; her sentence has been confirmed by the Tribunal
+of Mercy.  She must die and within two hours.  Will you not give
+the poison?'
+
+'I cannot give it unless I know its purpose, mother.  This may be a
+barren tale, and the medicine might be used in such a fashion that
+I should fall beneath the law.  At one price only can I give it,
+and it is that I am there to see it used.'
+
+She thought a while and answered: 'It may be done, for as it
+chances the wording of my absolution will cover it.  But you must
+come cowled as a priest, that those who carry out the sentence may
+know nothing.  Still others will know and I warn you that should
+you speak of the matter you yourself will meet with misfortune.
+The Church avenges itself on those who betray its secrets, senor.'
+
+'As one day its secrets will avenge themselves upon the Church,' I
+answered bitterly.  'And now let me seek a fitting drug--one that
+is swift, yet not too swift, lest your hounds should see themselves
+baffled of the prey before all their devilry is done.  Here is
+something that will do the work,' and I held up a phial that I drew
+from a case of such medicines.  'Come, veil yourself, mother, and
+let us be gone upon this "errand of mercy."'
+
+She obeyed, and presently we left the house and walked away swiftly
+through the crowded streets till we came to the ancient part of the
+city along the river's edge.  Here the woman led me to a wharf
+where a boat was in waiting for her.  We entered it, and were rowed
+for a mile or more up the stream till the boat halted at a landing-
+place beneath a high wall.  Leaving it, we came to a door in the
+wall on which my companion knocked thrice.  Presently a shutter in
+the woodwork was drawn, and a white face peeped through the grating
+and spoke.  My companion answered in a low voice, and after some
+delay the door was opened, and I found myself in a large walled
+garden planted with orange trees.  Then the abbess spoke to me.
+
+'I have led you to our house,' she said.  'If you know where you
+are, and what its name may be, for your own sake I pray you forget
+it when you leave these doors.'
+
+I made no answer, but looked round the dim and dewy garden.
+
+Here it was doubtless that de Garcia had met that unfortunate who
+must die this night.  A walk of a hundred paces brought us to
+another door in the wall of a long low building of Moorish style.
+Here the knocking and the questioning were repeated at more length.
+Then the door was opened, and I found myself in a passage, ill
+lighted, long and narrow, in the depths of which I could see the
+figures of nuns flitting to and fro like bats in a tomb.  The
+abbess walked down the passage till she came to a door on the right
+which she opened.  It led into a cell, and here she left me in the
+dark.  For ten minutes or more I stayed there, a prey to thoughts
+that I had rather forget.  At length the door opened again, and she
+came in, followed by a tall priest whose face I could not see, for
+he was dressed in the white robe and hood of the Dominicans that
+left nothing visible except his eyes.
+
+'Greeting, my son,' he said, when he had scanned me for a while.
+'The abbess mother has told me of your errand.  You are full young
+for such a task.'
+
+'Were I old I should not love it better, father.  You know the
+case.  I am asked to provide a deadly drug for a certain merciful
+purpose.  I have provided that drug, but I must be there to see
+that it is put to proper use.'
+
+'You are very cautious, my son.  The Church is no murderess.  This
+woman must die because her sin is flagrant, and of late such
+wickedness has become common.  Therefore, after much thought and
+prayer, and many searchings to find a means of mercy, she is
+condemned to death by those whose names are too high to be spoken.
+I, alas, am here to see the sentence carried out with a certain
+mitigation which has been allowed by the mercy of her chief judge.
+It seems that your presence is needful to this act of love,
+therefore I suffer it.  The mother abbess has warned you that evil
+dogs the feet of those who reveal the secrets of the Church.  For
+your own sake I pray you to lay that warning to heart.'
+
+'I am no babbler, father, so the caution is not needed.  One word
+more.  This visit should be well feed, the medicine is costly.'
+
+'Fear not, physician,' the monk answered with a note of scorn in
+his voice; 'name your sum, it shall be paid to you.'
+
+'I ask no money, father.  Indeed I would pay much to be far away
+to-night.  I ask only that I may be allowed to speak with this girl
+before she dies.'
+
+'What!' he said, starting, 'surely you are not that wicked man?  If
+so, you are bold indeed to risk the sharing of her fate.'
+
+'No, father, I am not that man.  I never saw Isabella de Siguenza
+except once, and I have never spoken to her.  I am not the man who
+tricked her but I know him; he is named Juan de Garcia.'
+
+'Ah!' he said quickly, 'she would never tell his real name, even
+under threat of torture.  Poor erring soul, she could be faithful
+in her unfaith.  Of what would you speak to her?'
+
+'I wish to ask her whither this man has gone.  He is my enemy, and
+I would follow him as I have already followed him far.  He has done
+worse by me and mine than by this poor girl even.  Grant my
+request, father, that I may be able to work my vengeance on him,
+and with mine the Church's also.'
+
+'"Vengeance is mine," saith the Lord; "I will repay."  Yet it may
+be, son, that the Lord will choose you as the instrument of his
+wrath.  An opportunity shall be given you to speak with her.  Now
+put on this dress'--and he handed me a white Dominican hood and
+robe--'and follow me.'
+
+'First,' I said, 'let me give this medicine to the abbess, for I
+will have no hand in its administering.  Take it, mother, and when
+the time comes, pour the contents of the phial into a cup of water.
+Then, having touched the mouth and tongue of the babe with the
+fluid, give it to the mother to drink and be sure that she does
+drink it.  Before the bricks are built up about them both will
+sleep sound, never to wake again.'
+
+'I will do it,' murmured the abbess; 'having absolution I will be
+bold, and do it for love and mercy's sake!'
+
+'Your heart is too soft, sister.  Justice is mercy,' said the monk
+with a sigh.  'Alas for the frailty of the flesh that wars against
+the spirit!'
+
+Then I clothed myself in the ghastly looking dress, and they took
+lamps and motioned to me to follow them.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE PASSING OF ISABELLA DE SIGUENZA
+
+
+Silently we went down the long passage, and as we went I saw the
+eyes of the dwellers in this living tomb watch us pass through the
+gratings of their cell doors.  Little wonder that the woman about
+to die had striven to escape from such a home back to the world of
+life and love!  Yet for that crime she must perish.  Surely God
+will remember the doings of such men as these priests, and the
+nation that fosters them.  And, in deed, He does remember, for
+where is the splendour of Spain to-day, and where are the cruel
+rites she gloried in?  Here in England their fetters are broken for
+ever, and in striving to bind them fast upon us free Englishmen she
+is broken also--never to be whole again.
+
+At the far end of the passage we found a stair down which we
+passed.  At its foot was an iron-bound door that the monk unlocked
+and locked again upon the further side.  Then came another passage
+hollowed in the thickness of the wall, and a second door, and we
+were in the place of death.
+
+It was a vault low and damp, and the waters of the river washed its
+outer wall, for I could hear their murmuring in the silence.
+Perhaps the place may have measured ten paces in length by eight
+broad.  For the rest its roof was supported by massive columns, and
+on one side there was a second door that led to a prison cell.  At
+the further end of this gloomy den, that was dimly lighted by
+torches and lamps, two men with hooded heads, and draped in coarse
+black gowns, were at work, silently mixing lime that sent up a hot
+steam upon the stagnant air.  By their sides were squares of
+dressed stone ranged neatly against the end of the vault, and
+before them was a niche cut in the thickness of the wall itself,
+shaped like a large coffin set upon its smaller end.  In front of
+this niche was placed a massive chair of chestnut wood.  I noticed
+also that two other such coffin-shaped niches had been cut in this
+same wall, and filled in with similar blocks of whitish stone.  On
+the face of each was a date graved in deep letters.  One had been
+sealed up some thirty years before, and one hard upon a hundred.
+
+These two men were the only occupants of the vault when we entered
+it, but presently a sound of soft and solemn singing stole down the
+second passage.  Then the door was opened, the mason monks ceased
+labouring at the heap of lime, and the sound of singing grew louder
+so that I could catch the refrain.  It was that of a Latin hymn for
+the dying.  Next through the open door came the choir, eight veiled
+nuns walking two by two, and ranging themselves on either side of
+the vault they ceased their singing.  After them followed the
+doomed woman, guarded by two more nuns, and last of all a priest
+bearing a crucifix.  This man wore a black robe, and his thin half-
+frenzied face was uncovered.  All these and other things I noticed
+and remembered, yet at the time it seemed to me that I saw nothing
+except the figure of the victim.  I knew her again, although I had
+seen her but once in the moonlight.  She was changed indeed, her
+lovely face was fuller and the great tormented eyes shone like
+stars against its waxen pallor, relieved by the carmine of her lips
+alone.  Still it was the same face that some eight months before I
+had seen lifted in entreaty to her false lover.  Now her tall shape
+was wrapped about with grave clothes over which her black hair
+streamed, and in her arms she bore a sleeping babe that from time
+to time she pressed convulsively to her breast.
+
+On the threshold of her tomb Isabella de Siguenza paused and looked
+round wildly as though for help, scanning each of the silent
+watchers to find a friend among them.  Then her eye fell upon the
+niche and the heap of smoking lime and the men who guarded it, and
+she shuddered and would have fallen had not those who attended her
+led her to the chair and placed her in it--a living corpse.
+
+Now the dreadful rites began.  The Dominican father stood before
+her and recited her offence, and the sentence that had been passed
+upon her, which doomed her, 'to be left alone with God and the
+child of your sin, that He may deal with you as He sees fit.'*  To
+all of this she seemed to pay no heed, nor to the exhortation that
+followed.  At length he ceased with a sigh, and turning to me said:
+
+'Draw near to this sinner, brother, and speak with her before it is
+too late.'
+
+
+* Lest such cruelty should seem impossible and unprecedented, the
+writer may mention that in the museum of the city of Mexico, he has
+seen the desiccated body of a young woman, which was found immured
+in the walls of a religious building.  With it is the body of an
+infant.  Although the exact cause of her execution remains a matter
+of conjecture, there can be no doubt as to the manner of her death,
+for in addition to other evidences, the marks of the rope with
+which her limbs were bound in life are still distinctly visible.
+Such in those days were the mercies of religion!
+
+
+Then he bade all present gather themselves at the far end of the
+vault that our talk might not be overheard, and they did so without
+wonder, thinking doubtless that I was a monk sent to confess the
+doomed woman.
+
+So I drew near with a beating heart, and bending over her I spoke
+in her ear.
+
+'Listen to me, Isabella de Siguenza!' I said; and as I uttered the
+name she started wildly.  'Where is that de Garcia who deceived and
+deserted you?'
+
+'How have you learnt his true name?' she answered.  'Not even
+torture would have wrung it from me as you know.'
+
+'I am no monk and I know nothing.  I am that man who fought with de
+Garcia on the night when you were taken, and who would have killed
+him had you not seized me.'
+
+'At the least I saved him, that is my comfort now.'
+
+'Isabella de Siguenza,' I said, 'I am your friend, the best you
+ever had and the last, as you shall learn presently.  Tell me where
+this man is, for there is that between us which must be settled.'
+
+'If you are my friend, weary me no more.  I do not know where he
+is.  Months ago he went whither you will scarcely follow, to the
+furthest Indies; but you will never find him there.'
+
+'It may still be that I shall, and if it should so chance, say have
+you any message for this man?'
+
+'None--yes, this.  Tell him how we died, his child and his wife--
+tell him that I did my best to hide his name from the priests lest
+some like fate should befall him.'
+
+'Is that all?'
+
+'Yes.  No, it is not all.  Tell him that I passed away loving and
+forgiving.'
+
+'My time is short,' I said; 'awake and listen!' for having spoken
+thus she seemed to be sinking into a lethargy.  'I was the
+assistant of that Andres de Fonseca whose counsel you put aside to
+your ruin, and I have given a certain drug to the abbess yonder.
+When she offers you the cup of water, see that you drink and deep,
+you and the child.  If so none shall ever die more happily.  Do you
+understand?'
+
+'Yes--yes,' she gasped, 'and may blessings rest upon you for the
+gift.  Now I am no more afraid--for I have long desired to die--it
+was the way I feared.'
+
+'Then farewell, and God be with you, unhappy woman.'
+
+'Farewell,' she answered softly, 'but call me not unhappy who am
+about to die thus easily with that I love.'  And she glanced at the
+sleeping babe.
+
+Then I drew back and stood with bent head, speaking no word.  Now
+the Dominican motioned to all to take the places where they had
+stood before and asked her:
+
+'Erring sister, have you aught to say before you are silent for
+ever?'
+
+'Yes,' she answered in a clear, sweet voice, that never even
+quavered, so bold had she become since she learned that her death
+would be swift and easy.  'Yes, I have this to say, that I go to my
+end with a clean heart, for if I have sinned it is against custom
+and not against God.  I broke the vows indeed, but I was forced to
+take those vows, and, therefore, they did not bind.  I was a woman
+born for light and love, and yet I was thrust into the darkness of
+this cloister, there to wither dead in life.  And so I broke the
+vows, and I am glad that I have broken them, though it has brought
+me to this.  If I was deceived and my marriage is no marriage
+before the law as they tell me now, I knew nothing of it, therefore
+to me it is still valid and holy and on my soul there rests no
+stain.  At the least I have lived, and for some few hours I have
+been wife and mother, and it is as well to die swiftly in this cell
+that your mercy has prepared, as more slowly in those above.  And
+now for you--I tell you that your wickedness shall find you out,
+you who dare to say to God's children--"Ye shall not love," and to
+work murder on them because they will not listen.  It shall find
+you out I say, and not only you but the Church you serve.  Both
+priest and Church shall be broken together and shall be a scorn in
+the mouths of men to come.'
+
+'She is distraught,' said the Dominican as a sigh of fear and
+wonder went round the vault, 'and blasphemes in her madness.
+Forget her words.  Shrive her, brother, swiftly ere she adds to
+them.'
+
+Then the black-robed, keen-eyed priest came to her, and holding the
+cross before her face, began to mutter I know not what.  But she
+rose from the chair and thrust the crucifix aside.
+
+'Peace!' she said, 'I will not be shriven by such as you.  I take
+my sins to God and not to you--you who do murder in the name of
+Christ.'
+
+The fanatic heard and a fury took him.
+
+'Then go unshriven down to hell, you--' and he named her by ill
+names and struck her in the face with the ivory crucifix.
+
+The Dominican bade him cease his revilings angrily enough, but
+Isabella de Siguenza wiped her bruised brow and laughed aloud a
+dreadful laugh to hear.
+
+'Now I see that you are a coward also,' she said.  'Priest, this is
+my last prayer, that you also may perish at the hands of fanatics,
+and more terribly than I die to-night.'
+
+Then they hurried her into the place prepared for her and she spoke
+again:
+
+'Give me to drink, for we thirst, my babe and I!'
+
+Now I saw the abbess enter that passage whence the victim had been
+led.  Presently she came back bearing a cup of water in her hand
+and with it a loaf of bread, and I knew by her mien that my draught
+was in the water.  But of what befell afterwards I cannot say
+certainly, for I prayed the Dominican to open the door by which we
+had entered the vault, and passing through it I stood dazed with
+horror at some distance.  A while went by, I do not know how long,
+till at length I saw the abbess standing before me, a lantern in
+her hand, and she was sobbing bitterly.
+
+'All is done,' she said.  'Nay, have no fear, the draught worked
+well.  Before ever a stone was laid mother and child slept sound.
+Alas for her soul who died unrepentant and unshriven!'
+
+'Alas for the souls of all who have shared in this night's work,' I
+answered.  'Now, mother, let me hence, and may we never meet
+again!'
+
+Then she led me back to the cell, where I tore off that accursed
+monk's robe, and thence to the door in the garden wall and to the
+boat which still waited on the river, and I rejoiced to feel the
+sweet air upon my face as one rejoices who awakes from some foul
+dream.  But I won little sleep that night, nor indeed for some days
+to come.  For whenever I closed my eyes there rose before me the
+vision of that beauteous woman as I saw her last by the murky
+torchlight, wrapped in grave clothes and standing in the coffin-
+shaped niche, proud and defiant to the end, her child clasped to
+her with one arm while the other was outstretched to take the
+draught of death.  Few have seen such a sight, for the Holy Office
+and its helpers do not seek witnesses to their dark deeds, and none
+would wish to see it twice.  If I have described it ill, it is not
+that I have forgotten, but because even now, after the lapse of
+some seventy years, I can scarcely bear to write of it or to set
+out its horrors fully.  But of all that was wonderful about it
+perhaps the most wonderful was that even to the last this
+unfortunate lady should still have clung to her love for the
+villain who, having deceived her by a false marriage, deserted her,
+leaving her to such a doom.  To what end can so holy a gift as this
+great love of hers have been bestowed on such a man?  None can say,
+but so it was.  Yet now that I think of it, there is one thing even
+stranger than her faithfulness.
+
+It will be remembered that when the fanatic priest struck her she
+prayed that he also might die at such hands and more terribly than
+she must do.  So it came about.  In after years that very man,
+Father Pedro by name, was sent to convert the heathen of Anahuac,
+among whom, because of his cruelty, he was known as the 'Christian
+Devil.'  But it chanced that venturing too far among a clan of the
+Otomie before they were finally subdued, he fell into the hands of
+some priests of the war god Huitzel, and by them was sacrificed
+after their dreadful fashion.  I saw him as he went to his death,
+and without telling that I had been present when it was uttered, I
+called to his mind the dying curse of Isabella de Siguenza.  Then
+for a moment his courage gave way, for seeing in me nothing but an
+Indian chief, he believed that the devil had put the words into my
+lips to torment him, causing me to speak of what I knew nothing.
+But enough of this now; if it is necessary I will tell of it in its
+proper place.  At least, whether it was by chance, or because she
+had a gift of vision in her last hours, or that Providence was
+avenged on him after this fashion, so it came about, and I do not
+sorrow for it, though the death of this priest brought much
+misfortune on me.
+
+This then was the end of Isabella de Siguenza who was murdered by
+priests because she had dared to break their rule.
+
+
+So soon as I could clear my mind somewhat of all that I had seen
+and heard in that dreadful vault, I began to consider the
+circumstances in which I found myself.  In the first place I was
+now a rich man, and if it pleased me to go back to Norfolk with my
+wealth, as Fonseca had pointed out, my prospects were fair indeed.
+But the oath that I had taken hung like lead about my neck.  I had
+sworn to be avenged upon de Garcia, and I had prayed that the curse
+of heaven might rest upon me till I was so avenged, but in England
+living in peace and plenty I could scarcely come by vengeance.
+Moreover, now I knew where he was, or at least in what portion of
+the world I might seek him, and there where white men are few he
+could not hide from me as in Spain.  This tidings I had gained from
+the doomed lady, and I have told her story at some length because
+it was through it and her that I came to journey to Hispaniola, as
+it was because of the sacrifice of her tormentor, Father Pedro, by
+the priests of the Otomie that I am here in England this day, since
+had it not been for that sacrifice the Spaniards would never have
+stormed the City of Pines, where, alive or dead, I should doubtless
+have been to this hour; for thus do seeming accidents build up the
+fates of men.  Had those words never passed Isabella's lips,
+doubtless in time I should have wearied of a useless search and
+sailed for home and happiness.  But having heard them it seemed to
+me, to my undoing, that this would be to play the part of a sorry
+coward.  Moreover, strange as it may look, now I felt as though I
+had two wrongs to avenge, that of my mother and that of Isabella de
+Siguenza.  Indeed none could have seen that young and lovely lady
+die thus terribly and not desire to wreak her death on him who had
+betrayed and deserted her.
+
+So the end of it was that being of a stubborn temper, I determined
+to do violence to my own desires and the dying counsels of my
+benefactor, and to follow de Garcia to the ends of the earth and
+there to kill him as I had sworn to do.
+
+First, however, I inquired secretly and diligently as to the truth
+of the statement that de Garcia had sailed for the Indies, and to
+be brief, having the clue, I discovered that two days after the
+date of the duel I had fought with him, a man answering to de
+Garcia's description, though bearing a different name, had shipped
+from Seville in a carak bound for the Canary Islands, which carak
+was there to await the arrival of the fleet sailing for Hispaniola.
+Indeed from various circumstances I had little doubt that the man
+was none other than de Garcia himself, which, although I had not
+thought of it before, was not strange, seeing that then as now the
+Indies were the refuge of half the desperadoes and villains who
+could no longer live in Spain.  Thither then I made up my mind to
+follow him, consoling myself a little by the thought that at least
+I should see new and wonderful countries, though how new and
+wonderful they were I did not guess.
+
+
+Now it remained for me to dispose of the wealth which had come to
+me suddenly.  While I was wondering how I could place it in safety
+till my return, I heard by chance that the 'Adventuress' of
+Yarmouth, the same ship in which I had come to Spain a year before,
+was again in the port of Cadiz, and I bethought me that the best
+thing I could do with the gold and other articles of value would be
+to ship them to England, there to be held in trust for me.  So
+having despatched a message to my friend the captain of the
+'Adventuress,' that I had freight of value for him, I made my
+preparations to depart from Seville with such speed as I might, and
+to this end I sold my benefactor's house, with many of the effects,
+at a price much below their worth.  The most of the books and
+plate, together with some other articles, I kept, and packing them
+in cases, I caused them to be transported down the river to Cadiz,
+to the care of those same agents to whom I had received letters
+from the Yarmouth merchants.
+
+This being done I followed thither myself, taking the bulk of my
+fortune with me in gold, which I hid artfully in numerous packages.
+And so it came to pass that after a stay of a year in Seville, I
+turned my back on it for ever.  My sojourn there had been
+fortunate, for I came to it poor and left it a rich man, to say
+nothing of what I had gained in experience, which was much.  Yet I
+was glad to be gone, for here Juan de Garcia had escaped me, here I
+had lost my best friend and seen Isabella de Siguenza die.
+
+
+I came to Cadiz in safety and without loss of any of my goods or
+gold, and taking boat proceeded on board the 'Adventuress,' where I
+found her captain, whose name was Bell, in good health and very
+glad to see me.  What pleased me more, however, was that he had
+three letters for me, one from my father, one from my sister Mary,
+and one from my betrothed, Lily Bozard, the only letter I ever
+received from her.  The contents of these writings were not
+altogether pleasing however, for I learned from them that my father
+was in broken health and almost bedridden, and indeed, though I did
+not know it for many years after, he died in Ditchingham Church
+upon the very day that I received his letter.  It was short and
+sad, and in it he said that he sorrowed much that he had allowed me
+to go upon my mission, since he should see me no more and could
+only commend me to the care of the Almighty, and pray Him for my
+safe return.  As for Lily's letter, which, hearing that the
+'Adventuress' was to sail for Cadiz, she had found means to
+despatch secretly, though it was not short it was sad also, and
+told me that so soon as my back was turned on home, my brother
+Geoffrey had asked her in marriage from her father, and that they
+pushed the matter strongly, so that her life was made a misery to
+her, for my brother waylaid her everywhere, and her father did not
+cease to revile her as an obstinate jade who would fling away her
+fortune for the sake of a penniless wanderer.
+
+'But,' it went on, 'be assured, sweetheart, that unless they marry
+me by force, as they have threatened to do, I will not budge from
+my promise.  And, Thomas, should I be wedded thus against my will,
+I shall not be a wife for long, for though I am strong I believe
+that I shall die of shame and sorrow.  It is hard that I should be
+thus tormented, and for one reason only, that you are not rich.
+Still I have good hope that things may better themselves, for I see
+that my brother Wilfred is much inclined towards your sister Mary,
+and though he also urges this marriage on me to-day, she is a
+friend to both of us and may be in the way to make terms with him
+before she accepts his suit.'  Then the writing ended with many
+tender words and prayers for my safe return.
+
+As for the letter from my sister Mary it was to the same purpose.
+As yet, she said, she could do nothing for me with Lily Bozard, for
+my brother Geoffrey was mad with love for her, my father was too
+ill to meddle in the matter, and Squire Bozard was fiercely set
+upon the marriage because of the lands that were at stake.  Still,
+she hinted, things might not always be so, as a time might come
+when she could speak up for me and not in vain.
+
+Now all this news gave me much cause for thought.  More indeed, it
+awoke in me a longing for home which was so strong that it grew
+almost to a sickness.  Her loving words and the perfume that hung
+about the letter of my betrothed brought Lily back to me in such
+sort that my heart ached with a desire to be with her.  Moreover I
+knew that I should be welcome now, for my fortune was far greater
+than my brother's would ever be, and parents do not show the door
+to suitors who bring more than twelve thousand golden pieces in
+their baggage.  Also I wished to see my father again before he
+passed beyond my reach.  But still between me and my desire lay the
+shadow of de Garcia and my oath.  I had brooded on vengeance for so
+long that I felt even in the midst of this strong temptation that I
+should have no pleasure in my life if I forsook my quest.  To be
+happy I must first kill de Garcia.  Moreover I had come to believe
+that did I so forsake it the curse which I had invoked would surely
+fall upon me.
+
+Meanwhile I did this.  Going to a notary I caused him to prepare a
+deed which I translated into English.  By this deed I vested all my
+fortune except two hundred pesos that I kept for my own use, in
+three persons to hold the same on my behalf till I came to claim
+it.  Those three persons were my old master, Doctor Grimstone of
+Bungay, whom I knew for the honestest of men, my sister Mary
+Wingfield, and my betrothed, Lily Bozard.  I directed them by this
+deed, which for greater validity I signed upon the ship and caused
+to be witnessed by Captain Bell and two other Englishmen, to deal
+with the property according to their discretion, investing not less
+than half of it in the purchase of lands and putting the rest out
+to interest, which interest with the rent of the lands was to be
+paid to the said Lily Bozard for her own use for so long as she
+remained unmarried.
+
+Also with the deed I executed a will by which I devised the most of
+my property to Lily Bozard should she be unmarried at the date of
+my death, and the residue to my sister Mary.  In the event of the
+marriage or death of Lily, then the whole was to pass to Mary and
+her heirs.
+
+These two documents being signed and sealed, I delivered them,
+together with all my treasure and other goods, into the keeping of
+Captain Bell, charging him solemnly to hand them and my possessions
+to Dr. Grimstone of Bungay, by whom he would be liberally rewarded.
+This he promised to do, though not until he had urged me almost
+with tears to accompany them myself.
+
+With the gold and the deeds I sent several letters; to my father,
+my sister, my brother, Dr. Grimstone, Squire Bozard, and lastly to
+Lily herself.  In these letters I gave an account of my life and
+fortunes since I had come to Spain, for I gathered that others
+which I had sent had never reached England, and told them of my
+resolution to follow de Garcia to the ends of the earth.
+
+'Others,' I wrote to Lily, 'may think me a madman thus to postpone,
+or perchance to lose, a happiness which I desire above anything on
+earth, but you who understand my heart will not blame me, however
+much you may grieve for my decision.  You will know that when once
+I have set my mind upon an object, nothing except death itself can
+turn me from it, and that in this matter I am bound by an oath
+which my conscience will not suffer me to break.  I could never be
+happy even at your side if I abandoned my search now.  First must
+come the toil and then the rest, first the sorrow and then the joy.
+Do not fear for me, I feel that I shall live to return again, and
+if I do not return, at least I am able to provide for you in such
+fashion that you need never be married against your will.  While de
+Garcia lives I must follow him.'
+
+To my brother Geoffrey I wrote very shortly, telling him what I
+thought of his conduct in persecuting an undefended maiden and
+striving to do wrong to an absent brother.  I have heard that my
+letter pleased him very ill.
+
+
+And here I may state that those letters and everything else that I
+sent came safely to Yarmouth.  There the gold and goods were taken
+to Lowestoft and put aboard a wherry, and when he had discharged
+his ship, Captain Bell sailed up the Waveney with them till he
+brought them to Bungay Staithe and thence to the house of Dr.
+Grimstone in Nethergate Street.  Here were gathered my sister and
+brother, for my father was then two months buried--and also Squire
+Bozard and his son and daughter, for Captain Bell had advised them
+of his coming by messenger, and when all the tale was told there
+was wonder and to spare.  Still greater did it grow when the chests
+were opened and the weight of bullion compared with that set out in
+my letters, for there had never been so much gold at once in Bungay
+within the memory of man.
+
+And now Lily wept, first for joy because of my good fortune, and
+then for sorrow because I had not come with my treasure, and when
+he had seen all and heard the deeds read by virtue of which Lily
+was a rich woman whether I lived or died, the Squire her father
+swore aloud and said that he had always thought well of me, and
+kissed his daughter, wishing her joy of her luck.  In short all
+were pleased except my brother, who left the house without a word
+and straightway took to evil courses.  For now the cup was dashed
+from his lips, seeing that having come into my father's lands, he
+had brought it about that Lily was to be married to him by might if
+no other means would serve.  For even now a man can force his
+daughter into marriage while she is under age, and Squire Bozard
+was not one to shrink from such a deed, holding as he did that a
+woman's fancies were of no account.  But on this day, so great is
+the power of gold, there was no more talk of her marrying any man
+except myself, indeed her father would have held her back from such
+a thing had she shown a mind to it, seeing that then Lily would
+have lost the wealth which I had settled on her.  But all talked
+loudly of my madness because I would not abandon the chase of my
+enemy but chose to follow him to the far Indies, though Squire
+Bozard took comfort from the thought that whether I lived or died
+the money was still his daughter's.  Only Lily spoke up for me,
+saying 'Thomas has sworn an oath and he does well to keep it, for
+his honour is at stake.  Now I go to wait until he comes to me in
+this world or the next.'
+
+
+But all this is out of place, for many a year passed away before I
+heard of these doings.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE LOSS OF THE CARAK
+
+
+On the day after I had given my fortune and letters into the charge
+of Captain Bell, I watched the 'Adventuress' drop slowly round the
+mole of Cadiz, and so sad was I at heart, that I am not ashamed to
+confess I wept.  I would gladly have lost the wealth she carried if she
+had but carried me.  But my purpose was indomitable, and it must be
+some other ship that would bear me home to the shores of England.
+
+As it chanced, a large Spanish carak named 'Las Cinque Llagas,' or
+'The Five Wounds,' was about to sail for Hispaniola, and having
+obtained a licence to trade, I took passage in her under my assumed
+name of d'Aila, passing myself off as a merchant.  To further this
+deception I purchased goods the value of one hundred and five
+pesos, and of such nature as I was informed were most readily
+saleable in the Indies, which merchandise I shipped with me.  The
+vessel was full of Spanish adventurers, mostly ruffians of varied
+career and strange history, but none the less good companions
+enough when not in drink.  By this time I could speak Castilian so
+perfectly, and was so Spanish in appearance, that it was not
+difficult for me to pass myself off as one of their nation and this
+I did, inventing a feigned tale of my parentage, and of the reasons
+that led me to tempt the seas.  For the rest, now as ever I kept my
+own counsel, and notwithstanding my reserve, for I would not mingle
+in their orgies, I soon became well liked by my comrades, chiefly
+because of my skill in ministering to their sicknesses.
+
+Of our voyage there is little to tell except of its sad end.  At
+the Canary Isles we stayed a month, and then sailed away for
+Hispaniola, meeting with fine weather but light winds.  When, as
+our captain reckoned, we were within a week's sail of the port of
+San Domingo for which we were bound, the weather changed, and
+presently gathered to a furious tempest from the north that grew
+more terrible every hour.  For three days and nights our cumbrous
+vessel groaned and laboured beneath the stress of the gale, that
+drove us on rapidly we knew not whither, till at length it became
+clear that, unless the weather moderated, we must founder.  Our
+ship leaked at every seam, one of our masts was carried away, and
+another broken in two, at a height of twenty feet from the deck.
+But all these misfortunes were small compared to what was to come,
+for on the fourth morning a great wave swept off our rudder, and we
+drifted helpless before the waves.  An hour later a green sea came
+aboard of us, washing away the captain, so that we filled and
+settled down to founder.
+
+Then began a most horrid scene.  For several days both the crew and
+passengers had been drinking heavily to allay their terror, and now
+that they saw their end at hand, they rushed to and fro screaming,
+praying, and blaspheming.  Such of them as remained sober began to
+get out the two boats, into which I and another man, a worthy
+priest, strove to place the women and children, of whom we had
+several on board.  But this was no easy task, for the drunken
+sailors pushed them aside and tried to spring into the boats, the
+first of which overturned, so that all were lost.  Just then the
+carak gave a lurch before she sank, and, seeing that everything was
+over, I called to the priest to follow me, and springing into the
+sea I swam for the second boat, which, laden with some shrieking
+women, had drifted loose in the confusion.  As it chanced I reached
+it safely, being a strong swimmer, and was able to rescue the
+priest before he sank.  Then the vessel reared herself up on her
+stern and floated thus for a minute or more, which gave us time to
+get out the oars and row some fathoms further away from her.
+Scarcely had we done so, when, with one wild and fearful scream
+from those on board of her, she rushed down into the depths below,
+nearly taking us with her.  For a while we sat silent, for our
+horror overwhelmed us, but when the whirlpool which she made had
+ceased to boil, we rowed back to where the carak had been.  Now all
+the sea was strewn with wreckage, but among it we found only one
+child living that had clung to an oar.  The rest, some two hundred
+souls, had been sucked down with the ship and perished miserably,
+or if there were any still living, we could not find them in that
+weltering sea over which the darkness was falling.
+
+Indeed, it was well for our own safety that we failed in so doing,
+for the little boat had ten souls on board in all, which was as
+many as she could carry--the priest and I being the only men among
+them.  I have said that the darkness was falling, and as it chanced
+happily for us, so was the sea, or assuredly we must have been
+swamped.  All that we could do was to keep the boat's head straight
+to the waves, and this we did through the long night.  It was a
+strange thing to see, or rather to hear, that good man the priest
+my companion, confessing the women one by one as he laboured at his
+oar, and when all were shriven sending up prayers to God for the
+salvation of our souls, for of the safety of our bodies we
+despaired.  What I felt may well be imagined, but I forbear to
+describe it, seeing that, bad as was my case, there were worse ones
+before me of which I shall have to tell in their season.
+
+At length the night wore away, and the dawn broke upon the desolate
+sea.  Presently the sun came up, for which at first we were
+thankful, for we were chilled to the bone, but soon its heat grew
+intolerable, since we had neither food nor water in the boat, and
+already we were parched with thirst.  But now the wind had fallen
+to a steady breeze, and with the help of the oars and a blanket, we
+contrived to fashion a sail that drew us through the water at a
+good speed.  But the ocean was vast, and we did not know whither we
+were sailing, and every hour the agony of thirst pressed us more
+closely.  Towards mid-day a child died suddenly and was thrown into
+the sea, and some three hours later the mother filled a bailing
+bowl and drank deep of the bitter water.  For a while it seemed to
+assuage her thirst, then suddenly a madness took her, and springing
+up she cast herself overboard and sank.  Before the sun, glowing
+like a red-hot ball, had sunk beneath the horizon, the priest and I
+were the only ones in that company who could sit upright--the rest
+lay upon the bottom of the boat heaped one on another like dying
+fish groaning in their misery.  Night fell at last and brought us
+some relief from our sufferings, for the air grew cooler.  But the
+rain we prayed for did not fall, and so great was the heat that,
+when the sun rose again in a cloudless sky, we knew, if no help
+reached us, that it must be the last which we should see.
+
+An hour after dawn another child died, and as we were in the act of
+casting the body into the sea, I looked up and saw a vessel far
+away, that seemed to be sailing in such fashion that she would pass
+within two miles of where we were.  Returning thanks to God for
+this most blessed sight, we took to the oars, for the wind was now
+so light that our clumsy sail would no longer draw us through the
+water, and rowed feebly so as to cut the path of the ship.  When we
+had laboured for more than an hour the wind fell altogether and the
+vessel lay becalmed at a distance of about three miles.  So the
+priest and I rowed on till I thought that we must die in the boat,
+for the heat of the sun was like that of a flame and there came no
+wind to temper it; by now, too, our lips were cracked with thirst.
+Still we struggled on till the shadow of the ship's masts fell
+athwart us and we saw her sailors watching us from the deck.  Now
+we were alongside and they let down a ladder of rope, speaking to
+us in Spanish.
+
+How we reached the deck I cannot say, but I remember falling
+beneath the shade of an awning and drinking cup after cup of the
+water that was brought to me.  At last even my thirst was
+satisfied, and for a while I grew faint and dizzy, and had no
+stomach for the meat which was thrust into my hand.  Indeed, I
+think that I must have fainted, for when I came to myself the sun
+was straight overhead, and it seemed to me that I had dreamed I
+heard a familiar and hateful voice.  At the time I was alone
+beneath the awning, for the crew of the ship were gathered on the
+foredeck clustering round what appeared to be the body of a man.
+By my side was a large plate of victuals and a flask of spirits,
+and feeling stronger I ate and drank of them heartily.  I had
+scarcely finished my meal when the men on the foredeck lifted the
+body of the man, which I saw was black in colour, and cast it
+overboard.  Then three of them, whom from their port I took to be
+officers, came towards me and I rose to my feet to meet them.
+
+'Senor,' said the tallest of them in a soft and gentle voice,
+'suffer me to offer you our felicitations on your wonderful--' and
+he stopped suddenly.
+
+Did I still dream, or did I know the voice?  Now for the first time
+I could see the man's face--it was that of JUAN DE GARCIA!  But if
+I knew him he also knew me.
+
+'Caramba!' he said, 'whom have we here?  Senor Thomas Wingfield I
+salute you.  Look, my comrades, you see this young man whom the sea
+has brought to us.  He is no Spaniard but an English spy.  The last
+time that I saw him was in the streets of Seville, and there he
+tried to murder me because I threatened to reveal his trade to the
+authorities.  Now he is here, upon what errand he knows best.'
+
+'It is false,' I answered; 'I am no spy, and I am come to these
+seas for one purpose only--to find you.'
+
+'Then you have succeeded well, too well for your own comfort,
+perhaps.  Say now, do you deny that you are Thomas Wingfield and an
+Englishman?'
+
+'I do not deny it.  I--'
+
+'Your pardon.  How comes it then that, as your companion the priest
+tells me, you sailed in Las Cinque Llagas under the name of
+D'AILA?'
+
+'For my own reasons, Juan de Garcia.'
+
+'You are confused, senor.  My name is Sarceda, as these gentlemen
+can bear me witness.  Once I knew a cavalier of the name of de
+Garcia, but he is dead.'
+
+'You lie,' I answered; whereon one of De Garcia's companions struck
+me across the mouth.
+
+'Gently, friend,' said de Garcia; 'do not defile your hand by
+striking such rats as this, or if you must strike, use a stick.
+You have heard that he confesses to passing under a false name and
+to being an Englishman, and therefore one of our country's foes.
+To this I add upon my word of honour that to my knowledge he is a
+spy and a would-be murderer.  Now, gentlemen, under the commission
+of his majesty's representative, we are judges here, but since you
+may think that, having been called a liar openly by this English
+dog, I might be minded to deal unjustly with him, I prefer to leave
+the matter in your hands.'
+
+Now I tried to speak once more, but the Spaniard who had struck me,
+a ferocious-looking villain, drew his sword and swore that he would
+run me through if I dared to open my lips.  So I thought it well to
+keep silent.
+
+'This Englishman would grace a yardarm very well,' he said.
+
+De Garcia, who had begun to hum a tune indifferently, smiled,
+looking first at the yard and then at my neck, and the hate in his
+eyes seemed to burn me.
+
+'I have a better thought than that,' said the third officer.  'If
+we hung him questions might be asked, and at the least, it would be
+a waste of good money.  He is a finely built young man and would
+last some years in the mines.  Let him be sold with the rest of the
+cargo, or I will take him myself at a valuation.  I am in want of a
+few such on my estate.'
+
+At these words I saw de Garcia's face fall a little, for he wished
+to be rid of me for ever.  Still he did not think it politic to
+interfere beyond saying with a slight yawn:
+
+'So far as I am concerned, take him, comrade, and free of cost.
+Only I warn you, watch him well or you will find a stiletto in your
+back.'
+
+The officer laughed and said: 'Our friend will scarcely get a
+chance at me, for I do not go a hundred paces underground, where he
+will find his quarters.  And now, Englishman, there is room for you
+below I think;' and he called to a sailor bidding him bring the
+irons of the man who had died.
+
+This was done, and after I had been searched and a small sum in
+gold that I had upon my person taken from me--it was all that
+remained to me of my possessions--fetters were placed upon my
+ankles and round my neck, and I was dragged into the hold.  Before
+I reached it I knew from various signs what was the cargo of this
+ship.  She was laden with slaves captured in Fernandina, as the
+Spaniards name the island of Cuba, that were to be sold in
+Hispaniola.  Among these slaves I was now numbered.
+
+
+How to tell the horrors of that hold I know not.  The place was
+low, not more than seven feet in height, and the slaves lay ironed
+in the bilge water on the bottom of the vessel.  They were crowded
+as thick as they could lie, being chained to rings fixed in the
+sides of the ship.  Altogether there may have been two hundred of
+them, men, women and children, or rather there had been two hundred
+when the ship sailed a week before.  Now some twenty were dead,
+which was a small number, since the Spaniards reckon to lose from a
+third to half of their cargo in this devilish traffic.  When I
+entered the place a deadly sickness seized me, weak as I was,
+brought on by the horrible sounds and smells, and the sights that I
+saw in the flare of the lanterns which my conductors carried, for
+the hold was shut off from light and air.  But they dragged me
+along and presently I found myself chained in the midst of a line
+of black men and women, many feet resting in the bilge water.
+There the Spaniards left me with a jeer, saying that this was too
+good a bed for an Englishman to lie on.  For a while I endured,
+then sleep or insensibility came to my succour, and I sank into
+oblivion, and so I must have remained for a day and a night.
+
+When I awoke it was to find the Spaniard to whom I had been sold or
+given, standing near me with a lantern and directing the removal of
+the fetters from a woman who was chained next to me.  She was dead,
+and in the light of the lantern I could see that she had been
+carried off by some horrible disease that was new to me, but which
+I afterwards learned to know by the name of the Black Vomit.  Nor
+was she the only one, for I counted twenty dead who were dragged
+out in succession, and I could see that many more were sick.  Also
+I saw that the Spaniards were not a little frightened, for they
+could make nothing of this sickness, and strove to lessen it by
+cleansing the hold and letting air into it by the removal of some
+planks in the deck above.  Had they not done this I believe that
+every soul of us must have perished, and I set down my own escape
+from the sickness to the fact that the largest opening in the deck
+was made directly above my head, so that by standing up, which my
+chains allowed me to do, I could breathe air that was almost pure.
+
+Having distributed water and meal cakes, the Spaniards went away.
+I drank greedily of the water, but the cakes I could not eat, for
+they were mouldy.  The sights and sounds around me were so awful
+that I will not try to write of them.
+
+And all the while we sweltered in the terrible heat, for the sun
+pierced through the deck planking of the vessel, and I could feel
+by her lack of motion that we were becalmed and drifting.  I stood
+up, and by resting my heels upon a rib of the ship and my back
+against her side, I found myself in a position whence I could see
+the feet of the passers-by on the deck above.
+
+Presently I saw that one of these wore a priest's robe, and
+guessing that he must be my companion with whom I had escaped, I
+strove to attract his notice, and at length succeeded.  So soon as
+he knew who it was beneath him, the priest lay down on the deck as
+though to rest himself, and we spoke together.  He told me, as I
+had guessed, that we were becalmed and that a great sickness had
+taken hold of the ship, already laying low a third of the crew,
+adding that it was a judgment from heaven because of their cruelty
+and wickedness.
+
+To this I answered that the judgment was working on the captives as
+well as on the captors, and asked him where was Sarceda, as they
+named de Garcia.  Then I learned that he had been taken sick that
+morning, and I rejoiced at the news, for if I had hated him before,
+it may be judged how deeply I hated him now.  Presently the priest
+left me and returned with water mixed with the juice of limes, that
+tasted to me like nectar from the gods, and some good meat and
+fruit.  These he gave me through the hole in the planks, and I made
+shift to seize them in my manacled hands and devoured them.  After
+this he went away, to my great chagrin; why, I did not discover
+till the following morning.
+
+That day passed and the long night passed, and when at length the
+Spaniards visited the hold once more, there were forty bodies to be
+dragged out of it, and many others were sick.  After they had gone
+I stood up, watching for my friend the priest, but he did not come
+then, nor ever again.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THOMAS COMES TO SHORE
+
+
+For an hour or more I stood thus craning my neck upwards to seek
+for the priest.  At length when I was about to sink back into the
+hold, for I could stand no longer in that cramped posture, I saw a
+woman's dress pass by the hole in the deck, and knew it for one
+that was worn by a lady who had escaped with me in the boat.
+
+'Senora,' I whispered, 'for the love of God listen to me.  It is I,
+d'Aila, who am chained down here among the slaves.'
+
+She started, then as the priest had done, she sat herself down upon
+the deck, and I told her of my dreadful plight, not knowing that
+she was acquainted with it, and of the horrors below.
+
+'Alas! senor,' she answered, 'they can be little worse than those
+above.  A dreadful sickness is raging among the crew, six are
+already dead and many more are raving in their last madness.  I
+would that the sea had swallowed us with the rest, for we have been
+rescued from it only to fall into hell.  Already my mother is dead
+and my little brother is dying.'
+
+'Where is the priest?' I asked.
+
+'He died this morning and has just been cast into the sea.  Before
+he died he spoke of you, and prayed me to help you if I could.  But
+his words were wild and I thought that he might be distraught.  And
+indeed how can I help you?'
+
+'Perhaps you can find me food and drink,' I answered 'and for our
+friend, God rest his soul.  What of the Captain Sarceda?  Is he
+also dead?'
+
+'No, senor, he alone is recovering of all whom the scourge has
+smitten.  And now I must go to my brother, but first I will seek
+food for you.'
+
+She went and presently returned with meat and a flask of wine which
+she had hidden beneath her dress, and I ate and blessed her.
+
+For two days she fed me thus, bringing me food at night.  On the
+second night she told me that her brother was dead and of all the
+crew only fifteen men and one officer remained untouched by the
+sickness, and that she herself grew ill.  Also she said that the
+water was almost finished, and there was little food left for the
+slaves.  After this she came no more, and I suppose that she died
+also.
+
+It was within twenty hours of her last visit that I left this
+accursed ship.  For a day none had come to feed or tend the slaves,
+and indeed many needed no tending, for they were dead.  Some still
+lived however, though so far as I could see the most of them were
+smitten with the plague.  I myself had escaped the sickness,
+perhaps because of the strength and natural healthiness of my body,
+which has always saved me from fevers and diseases, fortified as it
+was by the good food that I had obtained.  But now I knew that I
+could not live long, indeed chained in this dreadful charnel-house
+I prayed for death to release me from the horrors of such
+existence.  The day passed as before in sweltering heat, unbroken
+by any air or motion, and night came at last, made hideous by the
+barbarous ravings of the dying.  But even there and then I slept
+and dreamed that I was walking with my love in the vale of Waveney.
+
+Towards the morning I was awakened by a sound of clanking iron, and
+opening my eyes, I saw that men were at work, by the light of
+lanterns, knocking the fetters from the dead and the living
+together.  As the fetters were loosed a rope was put round the body
+of the slave, and dead or quick, he was hauled through the
+hatchway.  Presently a heavy splash in the water without told the
+rest of the tale.  Now I understood that all the slaves were being
+thrown overboard because of the want of water, and in the hope that
+it might avail to save from the pestilence those of the Spaniards
+who still remained alive.
+
+I watched them at their work for a while till there were but two
+slaves between me and the workers, of whom one was living and the
+other dead.  Then I bethought me that this would be my fate also,
+to be cast quick into the sea, and took counsel with myself as to
+whether I should declare that I was whole from the plague and pray
+them to spare me, or whether I should suffer myself to be drowned.
+The desire for life was strong, but perhaps it may serve to show
+how great were the torments from which I was suffering, and how
+broken was my spirit by misfortunes and the horrors around me, when
+I say that I determined to make no further effort to live, but
+rather to accept death as a merciful release.  And, indeed, I knew
+that there was little likelihood of such attempts being of avail,
+for I saw that the Spanish sailors were mad with fear and had but
+one desire, to be rid of the slaves who consumed the water, and as
+they believed, had bred the pestilence.  So I said such prayers as
+came into my head, and although with a great shivering of fear, for
+the poor flesh shrinks from its end and the unknown beyond it,
+however high may be the spirit, I prepared myself to die.
+
+Now, having dragged away my neighbour in misery, the living savage,
+the men turned to me.  They were naked to the middle, and worked
+furiously to be done with their hateful task, sweating with the
+heat, and keeping themselves from fainting by draughts of spirit.
+
+'This one is alive also and does not seem so sick,' said a man as
+he struck the fetters from me.
+
+'Alive or dead, away with the dog!' answered another hoarsely, and
+I saw that it was the same officer to whom I had been given as a
+slave.  'It is that Englishman, and he it is who brought us ill
+luck.  Cast the Jonah overboard and let him try his evil eye upon
+the sharks.'
+
+'So be it,' answered the other man, and finished striking off my
+fetters.  'Those who have come to a cup of water each a day, do not
+press their guests to share it.  They show them the door.  Say your
+prayers, Englishman, and may they do you more good than they have
+done for most on this accursed ship.  Here, this is the stuff to
+make drowning easy, and there is more of it on board than of
+water,' and he handed me the flask of spirit.  I took it and drank
+deep, and it comforted me a little.  Then they put the rope round
+me and at a signal those on the deck above began to haul till I
+swung loose beneath the hatchway.  As I passed that Spaniard to
+whom I had been given in slavery, and who but now had counselled my
+casting away, I saw his face well in the light of the lantern, and
+there were signs on it that a physician could read clearly.
+
+'Farewell,' I said to him, 'we may soon meet again.  Fool, why do
+you labour?  Take your rest, for the plague is on you.  In six
+hours you will be dead!'
+
+His jaw dropped with terror at my words, and for a moment he stood
+speechless.  Then he uttered a fearful oath and aimed a blow at me
+with the hammer he held, which would swiftly have put an end to my
+sufferings had I not at that moment been lifted from his reach by
+those who pulled above.
+
+In another second I had fallen on the deck as they slacked the
+rope.  Near me stood two black men whose office it was to cast us
+poor wretches into the sea, and behind them, seated in a chair, his
+face haggard from recent illness, sat de Garcia fanning himself
+with his sombrero, for the night was very hot.
+
+He recognised me at once in the moonlight, which was brilliant, and
+said, 'What! are you here and still alive, Cousin?  You are tough
+indeed; I thought that you must be dead or dying.  Indeed had it
+not been for this accursed plague, I would have seen to it myself.
+Well, it has come right at last, and here is the only lucky thing
+in all this voyage, that I shall have the pleasure of sending you
+to the sharks.  It consoles me for much, friend Wingfield.  So you
+came across the seas to seek vengeance on me?  Well, I hope that
+your stay has been pleasant.  The accommodation was a little poor,
+but at least the welcome was hearty.  And now it is time to speed
+the parting guest.  Good night, Thomas Wingfield; if you should
+chance to meet your mother presently, tell her from me that I was
+grieved to have to kill her, for she is the one being whom I have
+loved.  I did not come to murder her as you may have thought, but
+she forced me to it to save myself, since had I not done so, I
+should never have lived to return to Spain.  She had too much of my
+own blood to suffer me to escape, and it seems that it runs strong
+in your veins also, else you would scarcely hold so fast by
+vengeance.  Well, it has not prospered you!'  And he dropped back
+into the chair and fell to fanning himself again with the broad
+hat.
+
+Even then, as I stood upon the eve of death, I felt my blood run
+hot within me at the sting of his coarse taunts.  Truly de Garcia's
+triumph was complete.  I had come to hunt him down, and what was
+the end of it?  He was about to hurl me to the sharks.  Still I
+answered him with such dignity as I could command.
+
+'You have me at some disadvantage,' I said.  'Now if there is any
+manhood left in you, give me a sword and let us settle our quarrel
+once and for all.  You are weak from sickness I know, but what am I
+who have spent certain days and nights in this hell of yours.  We
+should be well matched, de Garcia.'
+
+'Perhaps so, Cousin, but where is the need?  To be frank, things
+have not gone over well with me when we stood face to face before,
+and it is odd, but do you know, I have been troubled with a
+foreboding that you would be the end of me.  That is one of the
+reasons why I sought a change of air to these warmer regions.  But
+see the folly of forebodings, my friend.  I am still alive, though
+I have been ill, and I mean to go on living, but you are--forgive
+me for mentioning it--you are already dead.  Indeed those
+gentlemen,' and he pointed to the two black men who were taking
+advantage of our talk to throw into the sea the slave who followed
+me up the hatchway, 'are waiting to put a stop to our conversation.
+Have you any message that I can deliver for you?  If so, out with
+it, for time is short and that hold must be cleared by daybreak.'
+
+'I have no message to give you from myself, though I have a message
+for you, de Garcia,' I answered.  'But before I tell it, let me say
+a word.  You seem to have won, wicked murderer as you are, but
+perhaps the game is not yet played.  Your fears may still come
+true.  I am dead, but my vengeance may yet live on, for I leave it
+to the Hand in which I should have left it at first.  You may live
+some years longer, but do you think that you shall escape?  One day
+you will die as surely as I must die to-night, and what then, de
+Garcia?'
+
+'A truce, I pray you,' he said with a sneer.  'Surely you have not
+been consecrated priest.  You had a message, you said.  Pray
+deliver it quickly.  Time presses, Cousin Wingfield.  Who sends
+messages to an exile like myself?'
+
+'Isabella de Siguenza, whom you cheated with a false marriage and
+abandoned,' I said.
+
+He started from his chair and stood over me.
+
+'What of her?' he whispered fiercely.
+
+'Only this, the monks walled her up alive with her babe.'
+
+'Walled her up alive!  Mother of God! how do you know that?'
+
+'I chanced to see it done, that is all.  She prayed me to tell you
+of her end and the child's, and that she died hiding your name,
+loving and forgiving.  This was all her message, but I will add to
+it.  May she haunt you for ever, she and my mother; may they haunt
+you through life and death, through earth and hell.'
+
+He covered his face with his hands for a moment, then dropping them
+sank back into the chair and called to the black sailors.
+
+'Away with this slave.  Why are you so slow?'
+
+The men advanced upon me, but I was not minded to be handled by
+them if I could help it, and I was minded to cause de Garcia to
+share my fate.  Suddenly I bounded at him, and gripping him round
+the middle, I dragged him from his chair.  Such was the strength
+that rage and despair gave to me that I succeeded in swinging him
+up to the level of the bulwarks.  But there the matter ended, for
+at that moment the two black sailors sprang upon us both, and tore
+him from my grip.  Then seeing that all was lost, for they were
+about to cut me down with their swords, I placed my hand upon the
+bulwark and leaped into the sea.
+
+My reason told me that I should do well to drown as quickly as
+possible, and I thought to myself that I would not try to swim, but
+would sink at once.  Yet love of life was too strong for me, and so
+soon as I touched the water, I struck out and began to swim along
+the side of the ship, keeping myself in her shadow, for I feared
+lest de Garcia should cause me to be shot at with arrows and musket
+balls.  Presently as I went I heard him say with an oath:
+
+'He has gone, and for good this time, but my foreboding went near
+to coming true after all.  Bah! how the sight of that man frightens
+me.'
+
+Now I knew in my heart that I was doing a mad thing, for though if
+no shark took me, I might float for six or eight hours in this warm
+water yet I must sink at last, and what would my struggle have
+profited me?  Still I swam on slowly, and after the filth and
+stench of the slave hold, the touch of the clean water and the
+breath of the pure air were like food and wine to me, and I felt
+strength enter into me as I went.  By this time I was a hundred
+yards or more from the ship, and though those on board could
+scarcely have seen me, I could still hear the splash of the bodies,
+as the slaves were flung from her, and the drowning cries of such
+among them as still lived.
+
+I lifted my head and looked round the waste of water, and seeing
+something floating on it at a distance, I swam towards it,
+expecting that every moment would be my last, because of the sharks
+which abound in these seas.  Soon I was near it, and to my joy I
+perceived that it was a large barrel, which had been thrown from
+the ship, and was floating upright in the water.  I reached it, and
+pushing at it from below, contrived to tilt it so that I caught its
+upper edge with my hand.  Then I saw that it was half full of meal
+cakes, and that it had been cast away because the meal was
+stinking.  It was the weight of these rotten cakes acting as
+ballast, that caused the tub to float upright in the water.  Now I
+bethought me, that if I could get into this barrel I should be safe
+from the sharks for a while, but how to do it I did not know.
+
+While I wondered, chancing to glance behind me, I saw the fin of a
+shark standing above the water not twenty paces away, and advancing
+rapidly towards me.  Then terror seized me and gave me strength and
+the wit of despair.  Pulling down the edge of the barrel till the
+water began to pour into it, I seized it on either side with my
+hands, and lifting my weight upon them, I doubled my knees.  To
+this hour I cannot tell how I accomplished it, but the next second
+I was in the cask, with no other hurt than a scraped shin.  But
+though I had found a boat, the boat itself was like to sink, for
+what with my weight and that of the rotten meal, and of the water
+which had poured over the rim, the edge of the barrel was not now
+an inch above the level of the sea, and I knew that did another
+bucketful come aboard, it would no longer bear me.  At that moment
+also I saw the fin of the shark within four yards, and then felt
+the barrel shake as the fish struck it with his nose.
+
+Now I began to bail furiously with my hands, and as I bailed, the
+edge of the cask lifted itself above the water.  When it had risen
+some two inches, the shark, enraged at my escape, came to the
+surface, and turning on its side, bit at the tub so that I heard
+its teeth grate on the wood and iron bands, causing it to heel over
+and to spin round, shipping more water as it heeled.  Now I must
+bail afresh, and had the fish renewed its onset, I should have been
+lost.  But not finding wood and iron to its taste, it went away for
+a while, although I saw its fin from time to time for the space of
+some hours.  I bailed with my hands till I could lift the water no
+longer, then making shift to take off my boot, I bailed with that.
+Soon the edge of the cask stood twelve inches above the water, and
+I did not lighten it further, fearing lest it should overturn.  Now
+I had time to rest and to remember that all this was of no avail,
+since I must die at last either by the sea or because of thirst,
+and I lamented that my cowardice had only sufficed to prolong my
+sufferings.
+
+Then I prayed to God to succour me, and never did I pray more
+heartily than in that hour, and when I had finished praying some
+sort of peace and hope fell upon me.  I thought it marvellous that
+I should thus have escaped thrice from great perils within the
+space of a few days, first from the sinking carak, then from
+pestilence and starvation in the bold of the slave-ship, and now,
+if only for a while, from the cruel jaws of the sharks.  It seemed
+to me that I had not been preserved from dangers which proved fatal
+to so many, only that I might perish miserably at last, and even in
+my despair I began to hope when hope was folly; though whether this
+relief was sent to me from above, or whether it was simply that
+being so much alive at the moment I could not believe that I should
+soon be dead, is not for me to say.
+
+At the least my courage rose again, and I could even find heart to
+note the beauty of the night.  The sea was smooth as a pond, there
+was no breath of wind, and now that the moon began to sink,
+thousands of stars of a marvellous brightness, such as we do not
+see in England, gemmed the heavens everywhere.  At last these grew
+pale, and dawn began to flush the east, and after it came the first
+rays of sunlight.  But now I could not see fifty yards around me,
+because of a dense mist that gathered on the face of the quiet
+water, and hung there for an hour or more.  When the sun was well
+up and at length the mist cleared away, I perceived that I had
+drifted far from the ship, of which I could only see the masts that
+grew ever fainter till they vanished.  Now the surface of the sea
+was clear of fog except in one direction, where it hung in a thick
+bank of vapour, though why it should rest there and nowhere else, I
+could not understand.
+
+Then the sun grew hot, and my sufferings commenced, for except the
+draught of spirits that had been given me in the hold of the slave-
+ship, I had touched no drink for a day and a night.  I will not
+tell them all in particular detail, it is enough to say that those
+can scarcely imagine them who have never stood for hour after hour
+in a barrel, bare-headed and parched with thirst, while the fierce
+heat of a tropical sun beat down on them from above, and was
+reflected upward from the glassy surface of the water.  In time,
+indeed, I grew faint and dizzy, and could hardly save myself from
+falling into the sea, and at last I sank into a sort of sleep or
+insensibility, from which I was awakened by a sound of screaming
+birds and of falling water.  I looked and saw to my wonder and
+delight, that what I had taken to be a bank of mist was really low-
+lying land, and that I was drifting rapidly with the tide towards
+the bar of a large river.  The sound of birds came from great
+flocks of sea-gulls that were preying on the shoals of fish, which
+fed at the meeting of the fresh and salt water.  Presently, as I
+watched, a gull seized a fish that could not have weighed less than
+three pounds, and strove to lift it from the sea.  Failing in this,
+it beat the fish on the head with its beak till it died, and had
+begun to devour it, when I drifted down upon the spot and made
+haste to seize the fish.  In another moment, dreadful as it may
+seem, I was devouring the food raw, and never have I eaten with
+better appetite, or found more refreshment in a meal.
+
+When I had swallowed all that I was able, without drinking water, I
+put the rest of the fish into the pocket of my coat, and turned my
+thoughts to the breakers on the bar.  Soon it was evident to me
+that I could not pass them standing in my barrel, so I hastened to
+upset myself into the water and to climb astride of it.  Presently
+we were in the surf, and I had much ado to cling on, but the tide
+bore me forward bravely, and in half an hour more the breakers were
+past, and I was in the mouth of the great river.  Now fortune
+favoured me still further, for I found a piece of wood floating on
+the stream which served me for a paddle, and by its help I was
+enabled to steer my craft towards the shore, that as I went I
+perceived to be clothed with thick reeds, in which tall and lovely
+trees grew in groups, bearing clusters of large nuts in their
+crowns.  Hither to this shore I came without further accident,
+having spent some ten hours in my tub, though it was but a chance
+that I did so, because of the horrible reptiles called crocodiles,
+or, by some, alligators, with which this river swarmed.  But of
+them I knew nothing as yet.
+
+I reached land but just in time, for before I was ashore the tide
+turned, and tide and current began to carry me out to sea again,
+whence assuredly I had never come back.  Indeed, for the last ten
+minutes, it took all the strength that I had to force the barrel
+along towards the bank.  At length, however, I perceived that it
+floated in not more than four feet of water, and sliding from it, I
+waded to the bank and cast myself at length there to rest and thank
+God who thus far had preserved me miraculously.  But my thirst,
+which now returned upon me more fiercely than ever, would not
+suffer me to lie thus for long, so I staggered to my feet and
+walked along the bank of the river till I came to a pool of rain
+water, which on the tasting, proved to be sweet and good.  Then I
+drank, weeping for joy at the taste of the water, drank till I
+could drink no more, and let those who have stood in such a plight
+remember what water was to them, for no words of mine can tell it.
+After I had drunk and washed the brine from my face and body, I
+drew out the remainder of my fish and ate it thankfully, and thus
+refreshed, cast myself down to sleep in the shade of a bush bearing
+white flowers, for I was utterly outworn.
+
+When I opened my eyes again it was night, and doubtless I should
+have slept on through many hours more had it not been for a
+dreadful itch and pain that took me in every part, till at length I
+sprang up and cursed in my agony.  At first I was at a loss to know
+what occasioned this torment, till I perceived that the air was
+alive with gnat-like insects which made a singing noise, and then
+settling on my flesh, sucked blood and spat poison into the wound
+at one and the same time.  These dreadful insects the Spaniards
+name mosquitoes.  Nor were they the only flies, for hundreds of
+other creatures, no bigger than a pin's head, had fastened on to me
+like bulldogs to a baited bear, boring their heads into the flesh,
+where in the end they cause festers.  They are named garrapatas by
+the Spanish, and I take them to be the young of the tic.  Others
+there were, also, too numerous to mention, and of every shape and
+size, though they had this in common, all bit and all were
+venomous.  Before the morning these plagues had driven me almost to
+madness, for in no way could I obtain relief from them.  Towards
+dawn I went and lay in the water, thinking to lessen my sufferings,
+but before I had been there ten minutes I saw a huge crocodile rise
+up from the mud beside me.  I sprang away to the bank horribly
+afraid, for never before had I beheld so monstrous and evil-looking
+a brute, to fall again into the clutches of the creatures, winged
+and crawling, that were waiting for me there by myriads.
+
+But enough of these damnable insects!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE STONE OF SACRIFICE
+
+
+At length the morning broke and found me in a sorry plight, for my
+face was swollen to the size of a pumpkin by the venom of the
+mosquitoes, and the rest of my body was in little better case.
+Moreover I could not keep myself still because of the itching, but
+must run and jump like a madman.  And where was I to run to through
+this huge swamp, in which I could see no shelter or sign of man?  I
+could not guess, so since I must keep moving I followed the bank of
+the river, as I walked disturbing many crocodiles and loathsome
+snakes.  Now I knew that I could not live long in such suffering,
+and determined to struggle forward till I fell down insensible and
+death put an end to my torments.
+
+For an hour or more I went on thus till I came to a place that was
+clear of bush and reeds.  Across this I skipped and danced,
+striking with my swollen hands at the gnats which buzzed about my
+head.  Now the end was not far off, for I was exhausted and near to
+falling, when suddenly I came upon a party of men, brown in colour
+and clothed with white garments, who had been fishing in the river.
+By them on the water were several canoes in which were loads of
+merchandise, and they were now engaged in eating.  So soon as these
+men caught sight of me they uttered exclamations in an unknown
+tongue and seizing weapons that lay by them, bows and arrows and
+wooden clubs set on either side with spikes of flinty glass, they
+made towards me as though to kill me.  Now I lifted up my hands
+praying for mercy, and seeing that I was unarmed and helpless the
+men laid down their arms and addressed me.  I shook my head to show
+that I could not understand, and pointed first to the sea and then
+to my swollen features.  They nodded, and going to one of the
+canoes a man brought from it a paste of a brown colour and aromatic
+smell.  Then by signs he directed me to remove such garments as
+remained on me, the fashion of which seemed to puzzle them greatly.
+This being done, they proceeded to anoint my body with the paste,
+the touch of which gave me a most blessed relief from my
+intolerable itching and burning, and moreover rendered my flesh
+distasteful to the insects, for after that they plagued me little.
+
+When I was anointed they offered me food, fried fish and cakes of
+meal, together with a most delicious hot drink covered with a brown
+and foaming froth that I learned to know afterwards as chocolate.
+When I had finished eating, having talked a while together in low
+tones, they motioned me to enter one of the canoes, giving me mats
+to lie on.  I obeyed, and three other men came with me, for the
+canoe was large.  One of these, a very grave man with a gentle face
+and manner whom I took to be the chief of the party, sat down
+opposite to me, the other two placing themselves in the bow and
+stern of the boat which they drove along by means of paddles.  Then
+we started, followed by three other canoes, and before we had gone
+a mile utter weariness overpowered me and I fell asleep.
+
+I awoke much refreshed, having slept many hours, for now the sun
+was setting, and was astonished to find the grave-looking man my
+companion in the canoe, keeping watch over my sleep and warding the
+gnats from me with a leafy branch.  His kindness seemed to show
+that I was in no danger of ill-treatment, and my fears on that
+point being set at rest, I began to wonder as to what strange land
+I had come and who its people might be.  Soon, however, I gave
+over, having nothing to build on, and observed the scenery instead.
+Now we were paddling up a smaller river than the one on the banks
+of which I had been cast away, and were no longer in the midst of
+marshes.  On either side of us was open land, or rather land that
+would have been open had it not been for the great trees, larger
+than the largest oak, which grew upon it, some of them of
+surpassing beauty.  Up these trees climbed creepers that hung like
+ropes even from the topmost boughs, and among them were many
+strange and gorgeous flowering plants that seemed to cling to the
+bark as moss clings to a wall.  In their branches also sat harsh-
+voiced birds of brilliant colours, and apes that barked and
+chattered at us as we went.
+
+Just as the sun set over all this strange new scene the canoes came
+to a landing place built of timber, and we disembarked.  Now it
+grew dark suddenly, and all I could discover was that I was being
+led along a good road.  Presently we reached a gate, which, from
+the barking of dogs and the numbers of people who thronged about
+it, I judged to be the entrance to a town, and passing it, we
+advanced down a long street with houses on either side.  At the
+doorway of the last house my companion halted, and taking me by the
+hand, led me into a long low room lit with lamps of earthenware.
+Here some women came forward and kissed him, while others whom I
+took to be servants, saluted him by touching the floor with one
+hand.  Soon, however, all eyes were turned on me and many eager
+questions were asked of the chief, of which I could only guess the
+purport.
+
+When all had gazed their fill supper was served, a rich meal of
+many strange meats, and of this I was invited to partake, which I
+did, seated on a mat and eating of the dishes that were placed upon
+the ground by the women.  Among these I noticed one girl who far
+surpassed all the others in grace, though none were unpleasing to
+the eye.  She was dark, indeed, but her features were regular and
+her eyes fine.  Her figure was tall and straight, and the sweetness
+of her face added to the charm of her beauty.  I mention this girl
+here for two reasons, first because she saved me once from
+sacrifice and once from torture, and secondly because she was none
+other than that woman who afterwards became known as Marina, the
+mistress of Cortes, without whose aid he had never conquered
+Mexico.  But at this time she did not guess that it was her destiny
+to bring her country of Anahuac beneath the cruel yoke of the
+Spaniard.
+
+From the moment of my entry I saw that Marina, as I will call her,
+for her Indian name is too long to be written, took pity on my
+forlorn state, and did what lay in her power to protect me from
+vulgar curiosity and to minister to my wants.  It was she who
+brought me water to wash in, and a clean robe of linen to replace
+my foul and tattered garments, and a cloak fashioned of bright
+feathers for my shoulders.
+
+When supper was done a mat was given me to sleep on in a little
+room apart, and here I lay down, thinking that though I might be
+lost for ever to my own world, at least I had fallen among a people
+who were gentle and kindly, and moreover, as I saw from many
+tokens, no savages.  One thing, however, disturbed me; I discovered
+that though I was well treated, also I was a prisoner, for a man
+armed with a copper spear slept across the doorway of my little
+room.  Before I lay down I looked through the wooden bars which
+served as a protection to the window place, and saw that the house
+stood upon the border of a large open space, in the midst of which
+a great pyramid towered a hundred feet or more into the air.  On
+the top of this pyramid was a building of stone that I took to be a
+temple, and rightly, in front of which a fire burned.  Marvelling
+what the purpose of this great work might be, and in honour of what
+faith it was erected, I went to sleep.
+
+On the morrow I was to learn.
+
+Here it may be convenient for me to state, what I did not discover
+till afterwards, that I was in the city of Tobasco, the capital of
+one of the southern provinces of Anahuac, which is situated at a
+distance of some hundreds of miles from the central city of
+Tenoctitlan, or Mexico.  The river where I had been cast away was
+the Rio de Tobasco, where Cortes landed in the following year, and
+my host, or rather my captor, was the cacique or chief of Tobasco,
+the same man who subsequently presented Marina to Cortes.  Thus it
+came about that, with the exception of a certain Aguilar, who with
+some companions was wrecked on the coast of Yucatan six years
+before, I was the first white man who ever dwelt among the Indians.
+This Aguilar was rescued by Cortes, though his companions were all
+sacrificed to Huitzel, the horrible war-god of the country.  But
+the name of the Spaniards was already known to the Indians, who
+looked on them with superstitious fear, for in the year previous to
+my being cast away, the hidalgo Hernandez de Cordova had visited
+the coast of Yucatan and fought several battles with the natives,
+and earlier in the same year of my arrival, Juan de Grigalva had
+come to this very river of Tobasco.  Thus it came about that I was
+set down as one of this strange new nation of Teules, as the
+Indians named the Spaniards, and therefore as an enemy for whose
+blood the gods were thirsting.
+
+
+I awoke at dawn much refreshed with sleep, and having washed and
+clothed myself in the linen robes that were provided for me, I came
+into the large room, where food was given me.  Scarcely had I
+finished my meal when my captor, the cacique, entered, accompanied
+by two men whose appearance struck terror to my heart.  In
+countenance they were fierce and horrible; they wore black robes
+embroidered with mystic characters in red, and their long and
+tangled hair was matted together with some strange substance.
+These men, whom all present, including the chief or cacique, seemed
+to look on with the utmost reverence, glared at me with a fierce
+glee that made my blood run cold.  One of them, indeed, tore open
+my white robe and placed his filthy hand upon my heart, which beat
+quickly enough, counting its throbs aloud while the other nodded at
+his words.  Afterwards I learned that he was saying that I was very
+strong.
+
+Glancing round to find the interpretation of this act upon the
+faces of those about me, my eyes caught those of the girl Marina,
+and there was that in them which left me in little doubt.  Horror
+and pity were written there, and I knew that some dreadful death
+overshadowed me.  Before I could do anything, before I could even
+think, I was seized by the priests, or pabas as the Indians name
+them, and dragged from the room, all the household following us
+except Marina and the cacique.  Now I found myself in a great
+square or market place bordered by many fine houses of stone and
+lime, and some of mud, which was filling rapidly with a vast number
+of people, men women and children, who all stared at me as I went
+towards the pyramid on the top of which the fire burned.  At the
+foot of this pyramid I was led into a little chamber hollowed in
+its thickness, and here my dress was torn from me by more priests,
+leaving me naked except for a cloth about my loins and a chaplet of
+bright flowers which was set upon my head.  In this chamber were
+three other men, Indians, who from the horror on their faces I
+judged to be also doomed to death.
+
+Presently a drum began to beat high above us, and we were taken
+from the chamber and placed in a procession of many priests, I
+being the first among the victims.  Then the priests set up a chant
+and we began the ascent of the pyramid, following a road that wound
+round and round its bulk till it ended on a platform at its summit,
+which may have measured forty paces in the square.  Hence the view
+of the surrounding country was very fine, but in that hour I
+scarcely noticed it, having no care for prospects, however
+pleasing.  On the further side of the platform were two wooden
+towers fifty feet or so in height.  These were the temples of the
+gods, Huitzel God of War and Quetzal God of the Air, whose hideous
+effigies carved in stone grinned at us through the open doorways.
+In the chambers of these temples stood small altars, and on the
+altars were large dishes of gold, containing the hearts of those
+who had been sacrificed on the yesterday.  These chambers,
+moreover, were encrusted with every sort of filth.  In front of the
+temples stood the altar whereon the fire burned eternally, and
+before it were a hog-backed block of black marble of the size of an
+inn drinking table, and a great carven stone shaped like a wheel,
+measuring some ten feet across with a copper ring in its centre.
+
+All these things I remembered afterwards, though at the time I
+scarcely seemed to see them, for hardly were we arrived on the
+platform when I was seized and dragged to the wheel-shaped stone.
+Here a hide girdle was put round my waist and secured to the ring
+by a rope long enough to enable me to run to the edge of the stone
+and no further.  Then a flint-pointed spear was given to me and
+spears were given also to the two captives who accompanied me, and
+it was made clear to me by signs that I must fight with them, it
+being their part to leap upon the stone and mine to defend it.  Now
+I thought that if I could kill these two poor creatures, perhaps I
+myself should be allowed to go free, and so to save my life I
+prepared to take theirs if I could.  Presently the head priest gave
+a signal commanding the two men to attack me, but they were so lost
+in fear that they did not even stir.  Then the priests began to
+flog them with leather girdles till at length crying out with pain,
+they ran at me.  One reached the stone and leapt upon it a little
+before the other, and I struck the spear through his arm.
+Instantly he dropped his weapon and fled, and the other man fled
+also, for there was no fight in them, nor would any flogging bring
+them to face me again.
+
+Seeing that they could not make them brave, the priests determined
+to have done with them.  Amidst a great noise of music and
+chanting, he whom I had smitten was seized and dragged to the hog-
+backed block of marble, which in truth was a stone of sacrifice.
+On this he was cast down, breast upwards, and held so by five
+priests, two gripping his hands, two his legs, and one his head.
+Then, having donned a scarlet cloak, the head priest, that same who
+had felt my heart, uttered some kind of prayer, and, raising a
+curved knife of the flint-like glass or itztli, struck open the
+poor wretch's breast at a single blow, and made the ancient
+offering to the sun.
+
+As he did this all the multitude in the place below, in full view
+of whom this bloody game was played, prostrated themselves,
+remaining on their knees till the offering had been thrown into the
+golden censer before the statue of the god Huitzel.  Thereon the
+horrible priests, casting themselves on the body, carried it with
+shouts to the edge of the pyramid or teocalli, and rolled it down
+the steep sides.  At the foot of the slope it was lifted and borne
+away by certain men who were waiting, for what purpose I did not
+know at that time.
+
+Scarcely was the first victim dead when the second was seized and
+treated in a like fashion, the multitude prostrating themselves as
+before.  And then last of all came my turn.  I felt myself seized
+and my senses swam, nor did I recover them till I found myself
+lying on the accursed stone, the priests dragging at my limbs and
+head, my breast strained upwards till the skin was stretched tight
+as that of a drum, while over me stood the human devil in his red
+mantle, the glass knife in his hand.  Never shall I forget his
+wicked face maddened with the lust for blood, or the glare in his
+eyes as he tossed back his matted locks.  But he did not strike at
+once, he gloated over me, pricking me with the point of the knife.
+It seemed to me that I lay there for years while the paba aimed and
+pointed with the knife, but at last through a mist that gathered
+before my eyes, I saw it flash upward.  Then when I thought that my
+hour had come, a hand caught his arm in mid-air and held it and I
+heard a voice whispering.
+
+What was said did not please the priest, for suddenly he howled
+aloud and made a dash towards me to kill me, but again his arm was
+caught before the knife fell.  Then he withdrew into the temple of
+the god Quetzal, and for a long while I lay upon the stone
+suffering the agonies of a hundred deaths, for I believed that it
+was determined to torture me before I died, and that my slaughter
+had been stayed for this purpose.
+
+There I lay upon the stone, the fierce sunlight beating on my
+breast, while from below came the faint murmur of the thousands of
+the wondering people.  All my life seemed to pass before me as I
+was stretched upon that awful bed, a hundred little things which I
+had forgotten came back to me, and with them memories of childhood,
+of my oath to my father, of Lily's farewell kiss and words, of de
+Garcia's face as I was hurled into the sea, of the death of
+Isabella de Siguenza, and lastly a vague wonder as to why all
+priests were so cruel!
+
+At length I heard footsteps and shut my eyes, for I could bear the
+sight of that dreadful knife no longer.  But behold! no knife fell.
+Suddenly my hands were loosed and I was lifted to my feet, on which
+I never hoped to stand again.  Then I was borne to the edge of the
+teocalli, for I could not walk, and here my would-be murderer, the
+priest, having first shouted some words to the spectators below,
+that caused them to murmur like a forest when the wind stirs it,
+clasped me in his blood-stained arms and kissed me on the forehead.
+Now it was for the first time that I noticed my captor, the
+cacique, standing at my side, grave, courteous, and smiling.  As he
+had smiled when he handed me to the pabas, so he smiled when he
+took me back from them.  Then having been cleansed and clothed, I
+was led into the sanctuary of the god Quetzal and stood face to
+face with the hideous image there, staring at the golden censer
+that was to have received my heart while the priests uttered
+prayers.  Thence I was supported down the winding road of the
+pyramid till I came to its foot, where my captor the cacique took
+me by the hand and led me through the people who, it seemed, now
+regarded me with some strange veneration.  The first person that I
+saw when we reached the house was Marina, who looked at me and
+murmured some soft words that I could not understand.  Then I was
+suffered to go to my chamber, and there I passed the rest of the
+day prostrated by all that I had undergone.  Truly I had come to a
+land of devils!
+
+And now I will tell how it was that I came to be saved from the
+knife.  Marina having taken some liking to me, pitied my sad fate,
+and being very quick-witted, she found a way to rescue me.  For
+when I had been led off to sacrifice, she spoke to the cacique, her
+lord, bringing it to his mind that, by common report Montezuma, the
+Emperor of Anahuac, was disturbed as to the Teules or Spaniards,
+and desired much to see one.  Now, she said, I was evidently a
+Teule, and Montezuma would be angered, indeed, if I were sacrificed
+in a far-off town, instead of being sent to him to sacrifice if he
+saw fit.  To this the cacique answered that the words were wise,
+but that she should have spoken them before, for now the priests
+had got hold of me, and it was hopeless to save me from their grip.
+
+'Nay,' answered Marina, 'there is this to be said.  Quetzal, the
+god to whom this Teule is to be offered, was a white man,* and it
+may well happen that this man is one of his children.  Will it
+please the god that his child should be offered to him?  At the
+least, if the god is not angered, Montezuma will certainly be
+wroth, and wreak a vengeance on you and on the priests.'
+
+
+* Quetzal, or more properly Quetzalcoatl, was the divinity who is
+fabled to have taught the natives of Anahuac all the useful arts,
+including those of government and policy, he was white-skinned and
+dark-haired.  Finally he sailed from the shores of Anahuac for the
+fabulous country of Tlapallan in a bark of serpents' skins.  But
+before he sailed he promised that he would return again with a
+numerous progeny.  This promise was remembered by the Aztecs, and
+it was largely on account of it that the Spaniards were enabled to
+conquer the country, for they were supposed to be his descendants.
+Perhaps Quetzalcoatl was a Norseman!   Vide Sagas of Eric the Red
+and of Thorfinn Karlsefne.--AUTHOR.
+
+
+Now when the cacique heard this he saw that Marina spoke truth, and
+hurrying up the teocalli, he caught the knife as it was in the act
+of falling upon me.  At first the head priest was angered and
+called out that this was sacrilege, but when the cacique had told
+him his mind, he understood that he would do wisely not to run a
+risk of the wrath of Montezuma.  So I was loosed and led into the
+sanctuary, and when I came out the paba announced to the people
+that the god had declared me to be one of his children, and it was
+for this reason that then and thereafter they treated me with
+reverence.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE SAVING OF GUATEMOC
+
+
+Now after this dreadful day I was kindly dealt with by the people
+of Tobasco, who gave me the name of Teule or Spaniard, and no
+longer sought to put me to sacrifice.  Far from it indeed, I was
+well clothed and fed, and suffered to wander where I would, though
+always under the care of guards who, had I escaped, would have paid
+for it with their lives.  I learned that on the morrow of my rescue
+from the priests, messengers were despatched to Montezuma, the
+great king, acquainting him with the history of my capture, and
+seeking to know his pleasure concerning me.  But the way to
+Tenoctitlan was far, and many weeks passed before the messengers
+returned again.  Meanwhile I filled the days in learning the Maya
+language, and also something of that of the Aztecs, which I
+practised with Marina and others.  For Marina was not a Tobascan,
+having been born at Painalla, on the southeastern borders of the
+empire.  But her mother sold her to merchants in order that
+Marina's inheritance might come to another child of hers by a
+second marriage, and thus in the end the girl fell into the hands
+of the cacique of Tobasco.
+
+Also I learned something of the history and customs, and of the
+picture writing of the land, and how to read it, and moreover I
+obtained great repute among the Tobascans by my skill in medicine,
+so that in time they grew to believe that I was indeed a child of
+Quetzal, the good god.  And the more I studied this people the less
+I could understand of them.  In most ways they were equal to any
+nation of our own world of which I had knowledge.  None are more
+skilled in the arts, few are better architects or boast purer laws.
+Moreover, they were brave and had patience.  But their faith was
+the canker at the root of the tree.  In precept it was noble and
+had much in common with our own, such as the rite of baptism, but I
+have told what it was in practice.  And yet, when all is said, is
+it more cruel to offer up victims to the gods than to torture them
+in the vaults of the Holy Office or to immure them in the walls of
+nunneries?
+
+When I had lived a month in Tobasco I had learned enough of the
+language to talk with Marina, with whom I grew friendly, though no
+more, and it was from her that I gathered the most of my knowledge,
+and also many hints as to the conduct necessary to my safety.  In
+return I taught her something of my own faith, and of the customs
+of the Europeans, and it was the knowledge that she gained from me
+which afterwards made her so useful to the Spaniards, and prepared
+her to accept their religion, giving her insight into the ways of
+white people.
+
+So I abode for four months and more in the house of the cacique of
+Tobasco, who carried his kindness towards me to the length of
+offering me his sister in marriage.  To this proposal I said no as
+gently as I might, and he marvelled at it, for the girl was fair.
+Indeed, so well was I treated, that had it not been that my heart
+was far away, and because of the horrible rites of their religion
+which I was forced to witness almost daily, I could have learned to
+love this gentle, skilled, and industrious people.
+
+
+At length, when full four months had passed away, the messengers
+returned from the court of Montezuma, having been much delayed by
+swollen rivers and other accidents of travel.  So great was the
+importance that the Emperor attached to the fact of my capture, and
+so desirous was he to see me at his capital, that he had sent his
+own nephew, the Prince Guatemoc, to fetch me and a great escort of
+warriors with him.
+
+Never shall I forget my first meeting with this prince who
+afterwards became my dear companion and brother in arms.  When the
+escort arrived I was away from the town shooting deer with the bow
+and arrow, a weapon in the use of which I had such skill that all
+the Indians wondered at me, not knowing that twice I had won the
+prize at the butts on Bungay Common.  Our party being summoned by a
+messenger, we returned bearing our deer with us.  On reaching the
+courtyard of the cacique's house, I found it filled with warriors
+most gorgeously attired, and among them one more splendid than the
+rest.  He was young, very tall and broad, most handsome in face,
+and having eyes like those of an eagle, while his whole aspect
+breathed majesty and command.  His body was encased in a cuirass of
+gold, over which hung a mantle made of the most gorgeous feathers,
+exquisitely set in bands of different colours.  On his head he wore
+a helmet of gold surmounted by the royal crest, an eagle, standing
+on a snake fashioned in gold and gems.  On his arms, and beneath
+his knees, he wore circlets of gold and gems, and in his hand was a
+copper-bladed spear.  Round this man were many nobles dressed in a
+somewhat similar fashion, except that the most of them wore a vest
+of quilted cotton in place of the gold cuirass, and a jewelled
+panache of the plumes of birds instead of the royal symbol.
+
+This was Guatemoc, Montezuma's nephew, and afterwards the last
+emperor of Anahuac.  So soon as I saw him I saluted him in the
+Indian fashion by touching the earth with my right hand, which I
+then raised to my head.  But Guatemoc, having scanned me with his
+eye as I stood, bow in hand, attired in my simple hunter's dress,
+smiled frankly and said:
+
+'Surely, Teule, if I know anything of the looks of men, we are too
+equal in our birth, as in our age, for you to salute me as a slave
+greets his master.'  And he held his hand to me.
+
+I took it, answering with the help of Marina, who was watching this
+great lord with eager eyes.
+
+'It may be so, prince, but though in my own country I am a man of
+repute and wealth, here I am nothing but a slave snatched from the
+sacrifice.'
+
+'I know it,' he said frowning.  'It is well for all here that you
+were so snatched before the breath of life had left you, else
+Montezuma's wrath had fallen on this city.'  And he looked at the
+cacique who trembled, such in those days was the terror of
+Montezuma's name.
+
+Then he asked me if I was a Teule or Spaniard.  I told him that I
+was no Spaniard but one of another white race who had Spanish blood
+in his veins.  This saying seemed to puzzle him, for he had never
+so much as heard of any other white race, so I told him something
+of my story, at least so much of it as had to do with my being cast
+away.
+
+When I had finished, he said, 'If I have understood aright, Teule,
+you say that you are no Spaniard, yet that you have Spanish blood
+in you, and came hither in a Spanish ship, and I find this story
+strange.  Well, it is for Montezuma to judge of these matters, so
+let us talk of them no more.  Come and show me how you handle that
+great bow of yours.  Did you bring it with you or did you fashion
+it here?  They tell me, Teule, that there is no such archer in the
+land.'
+
+So I came up and showed him the bow which was of my own make, and
+would shoot an arrow some sixty paces further than any that I saw
+in Anahuac, and we fell into talk on matters of sport and war,
+Marina helping out my want of language, and before that day was
+done we had grown friendly.
+
+For a week the prince Guatemoc and his company rested in the town
+of Tobasco, and all this time we three talked much together.  Soon
+I saw that Marina looked with eyes of longing on the great lord,
+partly because of his beauty rank and might, and partly because she
+wearied of her captivity in the house of the cacique, and would
+share Guatemoc's power, for Marina was ambitious.  She tried to win
+his heart in many ways, but he seemed not to notice her, so that at
+last she spoke more plainly and in my hearing.
+
+'You go hence to-morrow, prince,' she said softly, 'and I have a
+favour to ask of you, if you will listen to your handmaid.'
+
+'Speak on, maiden,' he answered.
+
+'I would ask this, that if it pleases you, you will buy me of the
+cacique my master, or command him to give me up to you, and take me
+with you to Tenoctitlan.'
+
+Guatemoc laughed aloud.  'You put things plainly, maiden,' he said,
+'but know that in the city of Tenoctitlan, my wife and royal
+cousin, Tecuichpo, awaits me, and with her three other ladies, who
+as it chances are somewhat jealous.'
+
+Now Marina flushed beneath her brown skin, and for the first and
+last time I saw her gentle eyes grow hard with anger as she
+answered:
+
+'I asked you to take me with you, prince; I did not ask to be your
+wife or love.'
+
+'But perchance you meant it,' he said dryly.
+
+'Whatever I may have meant, prince, it is now forgotten.  I wished
+to see the great city and the great king, because I weary of my
+life here and would myself grow great.  You have refused me, but
+perhaps a time will come when I shall grow great in spite of you,
+and then I may remember the shame that has been put upon me against
+you, prince, and all your royal house.'
+
+Again Guatemoc laughed, then of a sudden grew stern.
+
+'You are over-bold, girl,' he said; 'for less words than these many
+a one might find herself stretched upon the stone of sacrifice.
+But I will forget them, for your woman's pride is stung, and you
+know not what you say.  Do you forget them also, Teule, if you have
+understood.'
+
+Then Marina turned and went, her bosom heaving with anger and
+outraged love or pride, and as she passed me I heard her mutter,
+'Yes, prince, you may forget, but I shall not.'
+
+Often since that day I have wondered if some vision of the future
+entered into the girl's breast in that hour, or if in her wrath she
+spoke at random.  I have wondered also whether this scene between
+her and Guatemoc had anything to do with the history of her after
+life; or did Marina, as she avowed to me in days to come, bring
+shame and ruin on her country for the love of Cortes alone?  It is
+hard to say, and perhaps these things had nothing to do with what
+followed, for when great events have happened, we are apt to search
+out causes for them in the past that were no cause.  This may have
+been but a passing mood of hers and one soon put out of mind, for
+it is certain that few build up the temples of their lives upon
+some firm foundation of hope or hate, of desire or despair, though
+it has happened to me to do so, but rather take chance for their
+architect--and indeed whether they take him or no, he is still the
+master builder.  Still that Marina did not forget this talk I know,
+for in after times I heard her remind this very prince of the words
+that had passed between them, ay, and heard his noble answer to
+her.
+
+
+Now I have but one more thing to tell of my stay in Tobasco, and
+then let me on to Mexico, and to the tale of how Montezuma's
+daughter became my wife, and of my further dealings with de Garcia.
+
+On the day of our departure a great sacrifice of slaves was held
+upon the teocalli to propitiate the gods, so that they might give
+us a safe journey, and also in honour of some festival, for to the
+festivals of the Indians there was no end.  Thither we went up the
+sides of the steep pyramid, since I must look upon these horrors
+daily.  When all was prepared, and we stood around the stone of
+sacrifice while the multitude watched below, that fierce paba who
+once had felt the beatings of my heart, came forth from the
+sanctuary of the god Quetzal and signed to his companions to
+stretch the first of the victims on the stone.  Then of a sudden
+the prince Guatemoc stepped forward, and addressing the priests,
+pointed to their chief, and said:
+
+'Seize that man!'
+
+They hesitated, for though he who commanded was a prince of the
+blood royal, to lay hands upon a high priest was sacrilege.  Then
+with a smile Guatemoc drew forth a ring having a dull blue stone
+set in its bezel, on which was engraved a strange device.  With the
+ring he drew out also a scroll of picture-writing, and held them
+both before the eyes of the pabas.  Now the ring was the ring of
+Montezuma, and the scroll was signed by the great high priest of
+Tenoctitlan, and those who looked on the ring and the scroll knew
+well that to disobey the mandate of him who bore them was death and
+dishonour in one.  So without more ado they seized their chief and
+held him.  Then Guatemoc spoke again and shortly:
+
+'Lay him on the stone and sacrifice him to the god Quetzal.'
+
+Now he who had taken such fierce joy in the death of others on this
+same stone, began to tremble and weep, for he did not desire to
+drink of his own medicine.
+
+'Why must I be offered up, O prince?' he cried, 'I who have been a
+faithful servant to the gods and to the Emperor.'
+
+'Because you dared to try to offer up this Teule,' answered
+Guatemoc, pointing to me, 'without leave from your master
+Montezuma, and because of the other evils that you have done, all
+of which are written in this scroll.  The Teule is a son of
+Quetzal, as you have yourself declared, and Quetzal will be avenged
+because of his son.  Away with him, here is your warrant.'
+
+Then the priests, who till this moment had been his servants,
+dragged their chief to the stone, and there, notwithstanding his
+prayers and bellowings, one who had donned his mantle practised his
+own art upon him, and presently his body was cast down the side of
+the pyramid.  For my part I am not sufficient of a Christian to
+pretend that I was sorry to see him die in that same fashion by
+which he had caused the death of so many better men.
+
+When it was done Guatemoc turned to me and said, 'So perish all
+your enemies, my friend Teule.'
+
+Within an hour of this event, which revealed to me how great was
+the power of Montezuma, seeing that the sight of a ring from his
+finger could bring about the instant death of a high priest at the
+hands of his disciples, we started on our long journey.  But before
+I went I bid a warm farewell to my friend the cacique, and also to
+Marina, who wept at my going.  The cacique I never saw again, but
+Marina I did see.
+
+
+For a whole month we travelled, for the way was far and the road
+rough, and sometimes we must cut our path through forests and
+sometimes we must wait upon the banks of rivers.  Many were the
+strange sights that I saw upon that journey, and many the cities in
+which we sojourned in much state and honour, but I cannot stop to
+tell of all these.
+
+One thing I will relate, however, though briefly, because it
+changed the regard that the prince Guatemoc and I felt one to the
+other into a friendship which lasted till his death, and indeed
+endures in my heart to this hour.
+
+One day we were delayed by the banks of a swollen river, and in
+pastime went out to hunt for deer.  When we had hunted a while and
+killed three deer, it chanced that Guatemoc perceived a buck
+standing on a hillock, and we set out to stalk it, five of us in
+all.  But the buck was in the open, and the trees and bush ceased a
+full hundred yards away from where he stood, so that there was no
+way by which we might draw near to him.  Then Guatemoc began to
+mock me, saying, 'Now, Teule, they tell tales of your archery, and
+this deer is thrice as far as we Aztecs can make sure of killing.
+Let us see your skill.'
+
+'I will try,' I answered, 'though the shot is long.'
+
+So we drew beneath the cover of a ceiba tree, of which the lowest
+branches drooped to within fifteen feet of the ground, and having
+set an arrow on the string of the great bow that I had fashioned
+after the shape of those we use in merry England, I aimed and drew
+it.  Straight sped the arrow and struck the buck fair, passing
+through its heart, and a low murmur of wonderment went up from
+those who saw the feat.
+
+Then, just as we prepared to go to the fallen deer, a male puma,
+which is nothing but a cat, though fifty times as big, that had
+been watching the buck from above, dropped down from the boughs of
+the ceiba tree full on to the shoulders of the prince Guatemoc,
+felling him to the ground, where he lay face downwards while the
+fierce brute clawed and bit at his back.  Indeed had it not been
+for his golden cuirass and helm Guatemoc would never have lived to
+be emperor of Anahuac, and perhaps it might have been better so.
+
+Now when they saw the puma snarling and tearing at the person of
+their prince, though brave men enough, the three nobles who were
+with us were seized by sudden panic and ran, thinking him dead.
+But I did not run, though I should have been glad enough to do so.
+At my side hung one of the Indian weapons that serve them instead
+of swords, a club of wood set on both sides with spikes of
+obsidian, like the teeth in the bill of a swordfish.  Snatching it
+from its loop I gave the puma battle, striking a blow upon his head
+that rolled him over and caused the blood to pour.  In a moment he
+was up and at me roaring with rage.  Whirling the wooden sword with
+both hands I smote him in mid air, the blow passing between his
+open paws and catching him full on the snout and head.  So hard was
+this stroke that my weapon was shattered, still it did not stop the
+puma.  In a second I was cast to the earth with a great shock, and
+the brute was on me tearing and biting at my chest and neck.  It
+was well for me at that moment that I wore a garment of quilted
+cotton, otherwise I must have been ripped open, and even with this
+covering I was sadly torn, and to this day I bear the marks of the
+beast's claws upon my body.  But now when I seemed to be lost the
+great blow that I had struck took effect on him, for one of the
+points of glass had pierced to his brain.  He lifted his head, his
+claws contracted themselves in my flesh, then he howled like a dog
+in pain and fell dead upon my body.  So I lay upon the ground
+unable to stir, for I was much hurt, until my companions, having
+taken heart, came back and pulled the puma off me.  By this time
+Guatemoc, who saw all, but till now was unable to move from lack of
+breath, had found his feet again.
+
+'Teule,' he gasped, 'you are a brave man indeed, and if you live I
+swear that I will always stand your friend to the death as you have
+stood mine.'
+
+Thus he spoke to me; but to the others he said nothing, casting no
+reproaches at them.
+
+Then I fainted away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE COURT OF MONTEZUMA
+
+
+Now for a week I was so ill from my wounds that I was unable to be
+moved, and then I must be carried in a litter till we came to
+within three days' journey of the city of Tenoctitlan or Mexico.
+After that, as the roads were now better made and cared for than
+any I have seen in England, I was able to take to my feet again.
+Of this I was glad, for I have no love of being borne on the
+shoulders of other men after the womanish Indian fashion, and,
+moreover, as we had now come to a cold country, the road running
+through vast table-lands and across the tops of mountains, it was
+no longer necessary as it had been in the hot lands.  Never did I
+see anything more dreary than these immense lengths of desolate
+plains covered with aloes and other thorny and succulent shrubs of
+fantastic aspect, which alone could live on the sandy and waterless
+soil.  This is a strange land, that can boast three separate
+climates within its borders, and is able to show all the glories of
+the tropics side by side with deserts of measureless expanse.
+
+One night we camped in a rest house, of which there were many built
+along the roads for the use of travellers, that was placed almost
+on the top of the sierra or mountain range which surrounds the
+valley of Tenoctitlan.  Next morning we took the road again before
+dawn, for the cold was so sharp at this great height that we, who
+had travelled from the hot land, could sleep very little, and also
+Guatemoc desired if it were possible to reach the city that night.
+
+When we had gone a few hundred paces the path came to the crest of
+the mountain range, and I halted suddenly in wonder and admiration.
+Below me lay a vast bowl of land and water, of which, however, I
+could see nothing, for the shadows of the night still filled it.
+But before me, piercing the very clouds, towered the crests of two
+snow-clad mountains, and on these the light of the unrisen sun
+played, already changing their whiteness to the stain of blood.
+Popo, or the Hill that Smokes, is the name of the one, and Ixtac,
+or the Sleeping Woman, that of the other, and no grander sight was
+ever offered to the eyes of man than they furnished in that hour
+before the dawn.  From the lofty summit of Popo went up great
+columns of smoke which, what with the fire in their heart and the
+crimson of the sunrise, looked like rolling pillars of flame.  And
+for the glory of the glittering slopes below, that changed
+continually from the mystery of white to dull red, from red to
+crimson, and from crimson to every dazzling hue that the rainbow
+holds, who can tell it, who can even imagine it?  None, indeed,
+except those that have seen the sun rise over the volcans of
+Tenoctitlan.
+
+When I had feasted my eyes on Popo I turned to Ixtac.  She is not
+so lofty as her 'husband,' for so the Aztecs name the volcan Popo,
+and when first I looked I could see nothing but the gigantic shape
+of a woman fashioned in snow, and lying like a corpse upon her
+lofty bier, whose hair streamed down the mountain side.  But now
+the sunbeams caught her also, and she seemed to start out in
+majesty from a veil of rosy mist, a wonderful and thrilling sight.
+But beautiful as she was then, still I love the Sleeping Woman best
+at eve.  Then she lies a shape of glory on the blackness beneath,
+and is slowly swallowed up into the solemn night as the dark draws
+its veil across her.
+
+Now as I gazed the light began to creep down the sides of the
+volcans, revealing the forests on their flanks.  But still the vast
+valley was filled with mist that lay in dense billows resembling
+those of the sea, through which hills and temple tops started up
+like islands.  By slow degrees as we passed upon our downward road
+the vapours cleared away, and the lakes of Tezcuco, Chalco, and
+Xochicalco shone in the sunlight like giant mirrors.  On their
+banks stood many cities, indeed the greatest of these, Mexico,
+seemed to float upon the waters; beyond them and about them were
+green fields of corn and aloe, and groves of forest trees, while
+far away towered the black wall of rock that hedges in the valley.
+
+All day we journeyed swiftly through this fairy land.  We passed
+through the cities of Amaquem and Ajotzinco, which I will not stay
+to describe, and many a lovely village that nestled upon the
+borders of Lake Chalco.  Then we entered on the great causeway of
+stone built like a road resting on the waters, and with the
+afternoon we came to the town of Cuitlahuac.  Thence we passed on
+to Iztapalapan, and here Guatemoc would have rested for the night
+in the royal house of his uncle Cuitlahua.  But when we reached the
+town we found that Montezuma, who had been advised of our approach
+by runners, had sent orders that we were to push on to Tenoctitlan,
+and that palanquins had been made ready to bear us.  So we entered
+the palanquins, and leaving that lovely city of gardens, were borne
+swiftly along the southern causeway.  On we went past towns built
+upon piles fixed in the bottom of the lake, past gardens that were
+laid out on reeds and floated over the waters like a boat, past
+teocallis and glistening temples without number, through fleets of
+light canoes and thousands of Indians going to and fro about their
+business, till at length towards sunset we reached the battlemented
+fort that is called Xoloc which stands upon the dyke.  I say
+stands, but alas! it stands no more.  Cortes has destroyed it, and
+with it all those glorious cities which my eyes beheld that day.
+
+At Xoloc we began to enter the city of Tenoctitlan or Mexico, the
+mightiest city that ever I had seen.  The houses on the outskirts,
+indeed, were built of mud or adobe, but those in the richer parts
+were constructed of red stone.  Each house surrounded a courtyard
+and was in turn surrounded by a garden, while between them ran
+canals, having footpaths on either side.  Then there were squares,
+and in the squares pyramids, palaces, and temples without end.  I
+gazed on them till I was bewildered, but all seemed as nothing when
+at length I saw the great temple with its stone gateways opening to
+the north and the south, the east and the west, its wall carven
+everywhere with serpents, its polished pavements, its teocallis
+decked with human skulls, thousands upon thousands of them, and its
+vast surrounding tianquez, or market place.  I caught but a glimpse
+of it then, for the darkness was falling, and afterwards we were
+borne on through the darkness, I did not know whither.
+
+A while went by and I saw that we had left the city, and were
+passing up a steep hill beneath the shadow of mighty cedar trees.
+Presently we halted in a courtyard and here I was bidden to alight.
+Then the prince Guatemoc led me into a wondrous house, of which all
+the rooms were roofed with cedar wood, and its walls hung with
+richly-coloured cloths, and in that house gold seemed as plentiful
+as bricks and oak are with us in England.  Led by domestics who
+bore cedar wands in their hands, we went through many passages and
+rooms, till at length we came to a chamber where other domestics
+were awaiting us, who washed us with scented waters and clothed us
+in gorgeous apparel.  Thence they conducted us to a door where we
+were bidden to remove our shoes, and a coarse coloured robe was
+given to each of us to hide our splendid dress.  The robes having
+been put on, we were suffered to pass the door, and found ourselves
+in a vast chamber in which were many noble men and some women, all
+standing and clad in coarse robes.  At the far end of this chamber
+was a gilded screen, and from behind it floated sounds of sweet
+music.
+
+Now as we stood in the great chamber that was lighted with sweet-
+smelling torches, many men advanced and greeted Guatemoc the
+prince, and I noticed that all of them looked upon me curiously.
+Presently a woman came and I saw that her beauty was great.  She
+was tall and stately, and beneath her rough outer robe splendidly
+attired in worked and jewelled garments.  Weary and bewildered as I
+was, her loveliness seized me as it were in a vice, never before
+had I seen such loveliness.  For her eye was proud and full like
+the eye of a buck, her curling hair fell upon her shoulders, and
+her features were very noble, yet tender almost to sadness, though
+at times she could seem fierce enough.  This lady was yet in her
+first youth, perchance she may have seen some eighteen years, but
+her shape was that of a full-grown woman and most royal.
+
+'Greeting, Guatemoc my cousin,' she said in a sweet voice; 'so you
+are come at last.  My royal father has awaited you for long and
+will ask questions as to your delay.  My sister your wife has
+wondered also why you tarried.'
+
+Now as she spoke I felt rather than saw that this lady was
+searching me with her eyes.
+
+'Greeting, Otomie my cousin,' answered the prince.  'I have been
+delayed by the accidents of travel.  Tobasco is far away, also my
+charge and companion, Teule,' and he nodded towards me, 'met with
+an accident on the road.'
+
+'What was the accident?' she asked.
+
+'Only this, that he saved me from the jaws of a puma at the risk of
+his life when all the others fled from me, and was somewhat hurt in
+the deed.  He saved me thus--' and in few words he told the story.
+
+She listened and I saw that her eyes sparkled at the tale.  When it
+was done she spoke again, and this time to me.
+
+'Welcome, Teule,' she said smiling.  'You are not of our people,
+yet my heart goes out to such a man.'  And still smiling she left
+us.
+
+'Who is that great lady?' I asked of Guatemoc.
+
+'That is my cousin Otomie, the princess of the Otomie, my uncle
+Montezuma's favourite daughter,' he answered.  'She likes you,
+Teule, and that is well for you for many reasons.  Hush!'
+
+As he spoke the screen at the far end of the chamber was drawn
+aside.  Beyond it a man sat upon a broidered cushion, who was
+inhaling the fumes of the tobacco weed from a gilded pipe of wood
+after the Indian fashion.  This man, who was no other than the
+monarch Montezuma, was of a tall build and melancholy countenance,
+having a very pale face for one of his nation, and thin black hair.
+He was dressed in a white robe of the purest cotton, and wore a
+golden belt and sandals set with pearls, and on his head a plume of
+feathers of the royal green.  Behind him were a band of beautiful
+girls somewhat slightly clothed, some of whom played on lutes and
+other instruments of music, and on either side stood four ancient
+counsellors, all of them barefooted and clad in the coarsest
+garments.
+
+So soon as the screen was drawn all the company in the chamber
+prostrated themselves upon their knees, an example that I hastened
+to follow, and thus they remained till the emperor made a sign with
+the gilded bowl of his pipe, when they rose to their feet again and
+stood with folded hands and eyes fixed abjectly upon the floor.
+Presently Montezuma made another signal, and three aged men whom I
+understood to be ambassadors, advanced and asked some prayer of
+him.  He answered them with a nod of the head and they retreated
+from his presence, making obeisance and stepping backward till they
+mingled with the crowd.  Then the emperor spoke a word to one of
+the counsellors, who bowed and came slowly down the hall looking to
+the right and to the left.  Presently his eye fell upon Guatemoc,
+and, indeed, he was easy to see, for he stood a head taller than
+any there.
+
+'Hail, prince,' he said.  'The royal Montezuma desires to speak
+with you, and with the Teule, your companion.'
+
+'Do as I do, Teule,' said Guatemoc, and led the way up the chamber,
+till we reached the place where the wooden screen had been, which,
+as we passed it, was drawn behind us, shutting us off from the
+hall.
+
+Here we stood a while, with folded hands and downcast eyes, till a
+signal was made to us to advance.
+
+'Your report, nephew,' said Montezuma in a low voice of command.
+
+'I went to the city of Tobasco, O glorious Montezuma.  I found the
+Teule and brought him hither.  Also I caused the high priest to be
+sacrificed according to the royal command, and now I hand back the
+imperial signet,' and he gave the ring to a counsellor.
+
+'Why did you delay so long upon the road, nephew?'
+
+'Because of the chances of the journey; while saving my life, royal
+Montezuma, the Teule my prisoner was bitten by a puma.  Its skin is
+brought to you as an offering.'
+
+Now Montezuma looked at me for the first time, then opened a
+picture scroll that one of the counsellors handed to him, and read
+in it, glancing at me from time to time.
+
+'The description is good,' he said at length, 'in all save one
+thing--it does not say that this prisoner is the handsomest man in
+Anahuac.  Say, Teule, why have your countrymen landed on my
+dominions and slain my people?'
+
+'I know nothing of it, O king,' I answered as well as I might with
+the help of Guatemoc, 'and they are not my countrymen.'
+
+'The report says that you confess to having the blood of these
+Teules in your veins, and that you came to these shores, or near
+them, in one of their great canoes.'
+
+'That is so, O king, yet I am not of their people, and I came to
+the shore floating on a barrel.'
+
+'I hold that you lie,' answered Montezuma frowning, 'for the sharks
+and crocodiles would devour one who swam thus.'  Then he added
+anxiously, 'Say, are you of the descendants of Quetzal?'
+
+'I do not know, O king.  I am of a white race, and our forefather
+was named Adam.'
+
+'Perchance that is another name for Quetzal,' he said.  'It has
+long been prophesied that his children would return, and now it
+seems that the hour of their coming is at hand,' and he sighed
+heavily, then added: 'Go now.  To-morrow you shall tell me of these
+Teules, and the council of the priests shall decide your fate.'
+
+Now when I heard the name of the priests I trembled in all my bones
+and cried, clasping my hands in supplication:
+
+'Slay me if you will, O king, but I beseech you deliver me not
+again into the hands of the priests.'
+
+'We are all in the hands of the priests, who are the mouth of God,'
+he answered coldly.  'Besides, I hold that you have lied to me.'
+
+Then I went foreboding evil, and Guatemoc also looked downcast.
+Bitterly did I curse the hour when I had said that I was of the
+Spanish blood and yet no Spaniard.  Had I known even what I knew
+that day, torture would not have wrung those words from me.  But
+now it was too late.
+
+Now Guatemoc led me to certain apartments of this palace of
+Chapoltepec, where his wife, the royal princess Tecuichpo, was
+waiting him, a very lovely lady, and with her other ladies, among
+them the princess Otomie, Montezuma's daughter, and some nobles.
+Here a rich repast was served to us, and I was seated next to the
+princess Otomie, who spoke to me most graciously, asking me many
+things concerning my land and the people of the Teules.  It was
+from her that I learned first that the emperor was much disturbed
+at heart because of these Teules or Spaniards, for he was
+superstitious, and held them to be the children of the god Quetzal,
+who according to ancient prophecy would come to take the land.
+Indeed, so gracious was she, and so royally lovely, that for the
+first time I felt my heart stirred by any other woman than my
+betrothed whom I had left far away in England, and whom, as I
+thought, I should never see again.  And as I learned in after days
+mine was not the only heart that was stirred that night.
+
+Near to us sat another royal lady, Papantzin, the sister of
+Montezuma, but she was neither young nor lovely, and yet most sweet
+faced and sad as though with the presage of death.  Indeed she died
+not many weeks after but could not rest quiet in her grave, as
+shall be told.
+
+When the feast was done and we had drunk of the cocoa or chocolate,
+and smoked tobacco in pipes, a strange but most soothing custom
+that I learned in Tobasco and of which I have never been able to
+break myself, though the weed is still hard to come by here in
+England, I was led to my sleeping place, a small chamber panelled
+with cedar boards.  For a while I could not sleep, for I was
+overcome by the memory of all the strange sights that I had seen in
+this wonderful new land which was so civilised and yet so
+barbarous.  I thought of that sad-faced king, the absolute lord of
+millions, surrounded by all that the heart of man can desire, by
+vast wealth, by hundreds of lovely wives, by loving children, by
+countless armies, by all the glory of the arts, ruling over the
+fairest empire on the earth, with every pleasure to his hand, a god
+in all things save his mortality, and worshipped as a god, and yet
+a victim to fear and superstition, and more heavy hearted than the
+meanest slave about his palaces.  Here was a lesson such as Solomon
+would have loved to show, for with Solomon this Montezuma might
+cry:
+
+'I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of
+kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers,
+and the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments, and
+that of all sorts.  And whatsoever my eyes desired I kept not from
+them, I withheld not my heart from any joy.  And behold, all was
+vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the
+sun.'
+
+So he might have cried, so, indeed, he did cry in other words, for,
+as the painting of the skeletons and the three monarchs that is
+upon the north wall of the aisle of Ditchingham Church shows forth
+so aptly, kings have their fates and happiness is not to them more
+than to any other of the sons of men.  Indeed, it is not at all, as
+my benefactor Fonseca once said to me; true happiness is but a
+dream from which we awake continually to the sorrows of our short
+laborious day.
+
+Then my thoughts flew to the vision of that most lovely maid, the
+princess Otomie, who, as I believed, had looked on me so kindly,
+and I found that vision sweet, for I was young, and the English
+Lily, my own love, was far away and lost to me for ever.  Was it
+then wonderful that I should find this Indian poppy fair?  Indeed,
+where is the man who would not have been overcome by her sweetness,
+her beauty, and that stamp of royal grace which comes with kingly
+blood and the daily exercise of power?  Like the rich wonders of
+the robe she wore, her very barbarism, of which now I saw but the
+better side, drew and dazzled my mind's eye, giving her woman's
+tenderness some new quality, sombre and strange, an eastern
+richness which is lacking in our well schooled English women, that
+at one and the same stroke touched both the imagination and the
+senses, and through them enthralled the heart.
+
+For Otomie seemed such woman as men dream of but very rarely win,
+seeing that the world has few such natures and fewer nurseries
+where they can be reared.  At once pure and passionate, of royal
+blood and heart, rich natured and most womanly, yet brave as a man
+and beautiful as the night, with a mind athirst for knowledge and a
+spirit that no sorrows could avail to quell, ever changing in her
+outer moods, and yet most faithful and with the honour of a man,
+such was Otomie, Montezuma's daughter, princess of the Otomie.  Was
+it wonderful then that I found her fair, or, when fate gave me her
+love, that at last I loved her in turn?  And yet there was that in
+her nature which should have held me back had I but known of it,
+for with all her charm, her beauty and her virtues, at heart she
+was still a savage, and strive as she would to hide it, at times
+her blood would master her.
+
+But as I lay in the chamber of the palace of Chapoltepec, the tramp
+of the guards without my door reminded me that I had little now to
+do with love and other delights, I whose life hung from day to day
+upon a hair.  To-morrow the priests would decide my fate, and when
+the priests were judges, the prisoner might know the sentence
+before it was spoken.  I was a stranger and a white man, surely
+such a one would prove an offering more acceptable to the gods than
+that furnished by a thousand Indian hearts.  I had been snatched
+from the altars of Tobasco that I might grace the higher altars of
+Tenoctitlan, and that was all.  My fate would be to perish
+miserably far from my home, and in this world never to be heard of
+more.
+
+Musing thus sadly at last I slept.  When I woke the sun was up.
+Rising from my mat I went to the wood-barred window place and
+looked through.  The palace whence I gazed was placed on the crest
+of a rocky hill.  On one side this hill was bathed by the blue
+waters of Tezcuco, on the other, a mile or more away, rose the
+temple towers of Mexico.  Along the slopes of the hill, and in some
+directions for a mile from its base, grew huge cedar trees from the
+boughs of which hung a grey and ghostly-looking moss.  These trees
+are so large that the smallest of them is bigger than the best oak
+in this parish of Ditchingham, while the greatest measures twenty-
+two paces round the base.  Beyond and between these marvellous and
+ancient trees were the gardens of Montezuma, that with their
+strange and gorgeous flowers, their marble baths, their aviaries
+and wild beast dens, were, as I believe, the most wonderful in the
+whole world.*
+
+'At the least,' I thought to myself, 'even if I must die, it is
+something to have seen this country of Anahuac, its king, its
+customs, and its people.'
+
+
+* The gardens of Montezuma have been long destroyed, but some of
+the cedars still flourish at Chapoltepec, though the Spaniards cut
+down many.  One of them, which tradition says was a favourite tree
+of the great emperor's, measures (according to a rough calculation
+the author of this book made upon the spot) about sixty feet round
+the bole.  It is strange to think that a few ancient conifers
+should alone survive of all the glories of Montezuma's wealth and
+state.--AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THOMAS BECOMES A GOD
+
+
+Little did I, plain Thomas Wingfield, gentleman, know, when I rose
+that morning, that before sunset I should be a god, and after
+Montezuma the Emperor, the most honoured man, or rather god, in the
+city of Mexico.
+
+It came about thus.  When I had breakfasted with the household of
+the prince Guatemoc, I was led to the hall of justice, which was
+named the 'tribunal of god.'  Here on a golden throne sat
+Montezuma, administering justice in such pomp as I cannot describe.
+About him were his counsellors and great lords, and before him was
+placed a human skull crowned with emeralds so large that a blaze of
+light went up from them.  In his hand also he held an arrow for a
+sceptre.  Certain chiefs or caciques were on their trial for
+treason, nor were they left long in doubt as to their fate.  For
+when some evidence had been heard they were asked what they had to
+say in their defence.  Each of them told his tale in few words and
+short.  Then Montezuma, who till now had said and done nothing,
+took the painted scroll of their indictments and pricked it with
+the arrow in his hand where the picture of each prisoner appeared
+upon the scroll.  Then they were led away to death, but how they
+died I do not know.
+
+When this trial was finished certain priests entered the hall
+clothed in sable robes, their matted hair hanging down their backs.
+They were fierce, wild-eyed men of great dignity, and I shivered
+when I saw them.  I noticed also that they alone made small
+reverence to the majesty of Montezuma.  The counsellors and nobles
+having fallen back, these priests entered into talk with the
+emperor, and presently two of them came forward and taking me from
+the custody of the guards, led me forward before the throne.  Then
+of a sudden I was commanded to strip myself of my garments, and
+this I did with no little shame, till I stood naked before them
+all.  Now the priests came forward and examined every part of me
+closely.  On my arms were the scars left by de Garcia's sword, and
+on my breast the scarcely healed marks of the puma's teeth and
+claws.  These wounds they scanned, asking how I had come by them.
+I told them, and thereupon they carried on a discussion among
+themselves, and out of my hearing, which grew so warm that at
+length they appealed to the emperor to decide the point.  He
+thought a while, and I heard him say:
+
+'The blemishes do not come from within the body, nor were they upon
+it at birth, but have been inflicted by the violence of man and
+beast.'
+
+Then the priests consulted together again, and presently their
+leader spoke some words into the ear of Montezuma.  He nodded, and
+rising from his throne, came towards me who stood naked and
+shivering before him, for the air of Mexico is keen.  As he
+advanced he loosed a chain of emeralds and gold that hung about his
+neck, and unclasped the royal cloak from his shoulders.  Then with
+his own hand, he put the chain about my throat, and the cloak upon
+my shoulders, and having humbly bent the knee before me as though
+in adoration, he cast his arms about me and embraced me.
+
+'Hail! most blessed,' he said, 'divine son of Quetzal, holder of
+the spirit of Tezcat, Soul of the World, Creator of the World.
+What have we done that you should honour us thus with your presence
+for a season?  What can we do to pay the honour back?  You created
+us and all this country; behold! while you tarry with us, it is
+yours and we are nothing but your servants.  Order and your
+commands shall be obeyed, think and your thought shall be executed
+before it can pass your lips.  O Tezcat, I, Montezuma your servant,
+offer you my adoration, and through me the adoration of all my
+people,' and again he bowed the knee.
+
+'We adore you, O Tezcat!' chimed in the priests.
+
+Now I remained silent and bewildered, for of all this foolery I
+could understand nothing, and while I stood thus Montezuma clapped
+his hands and women entered bearing beautiful clothing with them,
+and a wreath of flowers.  The clothing they put upon my body and
+the wreath of flowers on my head, worshipping me the while and
+saying, 'Tezcat who died yesterday is come again.  Be joyful,
+Tezcat has come again in the body of the captive Teule.'
+
+Then I understood that I was now a god and the greatest of gods,
+though at that moment within myself I felt more of a fool than I
+had ever been before.
+
+And now men appeared, grave and reverend in appearance, bearing
+lutes in their hands.  I was told that these were my tutors, and
+with them a train of royal pages who were to be my servants.  They
+led me forth from the hall making music as they went, and before me
+marched a herald, calling out that this was the god Tezcat, Soul of
+the World, Creator of the World, who had come again to visit his
+people.  They led me through all the courts and endless chambers of
+the palace, and wherever I went, man woman and child bowed
+themselves to the earth before me, and worshipped me, Thomas
+Wingfield of Ditchingham, in the county of Norfolk, till I thought
+that I must be mad.
+
+Then they placed me in a litter and carried me down the hill
+Chapoltepec, and along causeways and through streets, till we came
+to the great square of the temple.  Before me went heralds and
+priests, after me followed pages and nobles, and ever as we passed
+the multitudes prostrated themselves till I began to understand how
+wearisome a thing it is to be a god.  Next they carried me through
+the wall of serpents and up the winding paths of the mighty
+teocalli till we reached the summit, where the temples and idols
+stood, and here a great drum beat, and the priests sacrificed
+victim after victim in my honour and I grew sick with the sight of
+wickedness and blood.  Presently they invited me to descend from
+the litter, laying rich carpets and flowers for my feet to tread
+on, and I was much afraid, for I thought that they were about to
+sacrifice me to myself or some other divinity.  But this was not
+so.  They led me to the edge of the pyramid, or as near as I would
+go, for I shrank back lest they should seize me suddenly and cast
+me over the edge.  And there the high priest called out my dignity
+to the thousands who were assembled beneath, and every one of them
+bent the knee in adoration of me, the priests above and the
+multitudes below.  And so it went on till I grew dizzy with the
+worship, and the shouting, and the sounds of music, and the sights
+of death, and very thankful was I, when at last they carried me
+back to Chapoltepec.
+
+Here new honours awaited me, for I was conducted to a splendid
+range of apartments, next to those of the emperor himself, and I
+was told that all Montezuma's household were at my command and that
+he who refused to do my bidding should die.
+
+So at last I spoke and said it was my bidding that I should be
+suffered to rest a while, till a feast was prepared for me in the
+apartments of Guatemoc the prince, for there I hoped to meet
+Otomie.
+
+My tutors and the nobles who attended me answered that Montezuma my
+servant had trusted that I would feast with him that night.  Still
+my command should be done.  Then they left me, saying that they
+would come again in an hour to lead me to the banquet.  Now I threw
+off the emblems of my godhead and cast myself down on cushions to
+rest and think, and a certain exultation took possession of me, for
+was I not a god, and had I not power almost absolute?  Still being
+of a cautious mind I wondered why I was a god, and how long my
+power would last.
+
+Before the hour had gone by, pages and nobles entered, bearing new
+robes which were put upon my body and fresh flowers to crown my
+head, and I was led away to the apartments of Guatemoc, fair women
+going before me who played upon instruments of music.
+
+Here Guatemoc the prince waited to receive me, which he did as
+though I, his captive and companion, was the first of kings.  And
+yet I thought that I saw merriment in his eye, mingled with sorrow.
+Bending forward I spoke to him in a whisper:
+
+'What does all this mean, prince?' I said.  'Am I befooled, or am I
+indeed a god?'
+
+'Hush!' he answered, bowing low and speaking beneath his breath.
+'It means both good and ill for you, my friend Teule.  Another time
+I will tell you.'  Then he added aloud, 'Does it please you, O
+Tezcat, god of gods, that we should sit at meat with you, or will
+you eat alone?'
+
+'The gods like good company, prince,' I said.
+
+Now during this talk I had discovered that among those gathered in
+the hall was the princess Otomie.  So when we passed to the low
+table around which we were to sit on cushions, I hung back watching
+where she would place herself, and then at once seated myself
+beside her.  This caused some little confusion among the company,
+for the place of honour had been prepared for me at the head of the
+table, the seat of Guatemoc being to my right and that of his wife,
+the royal Tecuichpo, to my left.
+
+'Your seat is yonder, O Tezcat,' she said, blushing beneath her
+olive skin as she spoke.
+
+'Surely a god may sit where he chooses, royal Otomie,' I answered;
+'besides,' I added in a low voice, 'what better place can he find
+than by the side of the most lovely goddess on the earth.'
+
+Again she blushed and answered, 'Alas! I no goddess, but only a
+mortal maid.  Listen, if you desire that I should be your companion
+at our feasts, you must issue it as a command; none will dare to
+disobey you, not even Montezuma my father.'
+
+So I rose and said in very halting Aztec to the nobles who waited
+on me, 'It is my will that my place shall always be set by the side
+of the princess Otomie.'
+
+At these words Otomie blushed even more, and a murmur went round
+among the guests, while Guatemoc first looked angry and then
+laughed.  But the nobles, my attendants, bowed, and their spokesman
+answered:
+
+'The words of Tezcat shall be obeyed.  Let the seat of Otomie, the
+royal princess, the favoured of Tezcat, be placed by the side of
+the god.'
+
+Afterwards this was always done, except when I ate with Montezuma
+himself.  Moreover the princess Otomie became known throughout the
+city as 'the blessed princess, the favoured of Tezcat.'  For so
+strong a hold had custom and superstition upon this people that
+they thought it the greatest of honours to her, who was among the
+first ladies in the land, that he who for a little space was
+supposed to hold the spirit of the soul of the world, should deign
+to desire her companionship when he ate.  Now the feast went on,
+and presently I made shift to ask Otomie what all this might mean.
+
+'Alas!' she whispered, 'you do not know, nor dare I tell you now.
+But I will say this: though you who are a god may sit where you
+will to-day, an hour shall come when you must lie where you would
+not.  Listen: when we have finished eating, say that it is your
+wish to walk in the gardens of the palace and that I should
+accompany you.  Then I may find a chance to speak.'
+
+Accordingly, when the feast was over I said that I desired to walk
+in the gardens with the princess Otomie, and we went out and
+wandered under the solemn trees, that are draped in a winding-sheet
+of grey moss which, hanging from every bough as though the forest
+had been decked with the white beards of an army of aged men, waved
+and rustled sadly in the keen night air.  But alas! we might not be
+alone, for after us at a distance of twenty paces followed all my
+crowd of attendant nobles, together with fair dancing girls and
+minstrels armed with their accursed flutes, on which they blew in
+season and out of it, dancing as they blew.  In vain did I command
+them to be silent, telling them that it was written of old that
+there is a time to play and dance and a time to cease from dancing,
+for in this alone they would not obey me.  Never could I be at
+peace because of them then or thereafter, and not till now did I
+learn how great a treasure is solitude.
+
+Still we were allowed to walk together under the trees, and though
+the clamour of music pursued us wherever we went, we were soon deep
+in talk.  Then it was that I learned how dreadful was the fate
+which overshadowed me.
+
+'Know, O Teule,' said Otomie, for she would call me by the old name
+when there were none to hear; 'this is the custom of our land, that
+every year a young captive should be chosen to be the earthly image
+of the god Tezcat, who created the world.  Only two things are
+necessary to this captive, namely, that his blood should be noble,
+and that his person should be beautiful and without flaw or
+blemish.  The day that you came hither, Teule, chanced to be the
+day of choosing a new captive to personate the god, and you have
+been chosen because you are both noble and more beautiful than any
+man in Anahuac, and also because being of the people of the Teules,
+the children of Quetzal of whom so many rumours have reached us,
+and whose coming my father Montezuma dreads more than anything in
+the world, it was thought by the priests that you may avert their
+anger from us, and the anger of the gods.'
+
+Now Otomie paused as one who has something to say that she can
+scarcely find words to fit, but I, remembering only what had been
+said, swelled inwardly with the sense of my own greatness, and
+because this lovely princess had declared that I was the most
+beautiful man in Anahuac, I who though I was well-looking enough,
+had never before been called 'beautiful' by man, woman, or child.
+But in this case as in many another, pride went before a fall.
+
+'It must be spoken, Teule,' Otomie continued.  'Alas! that it
+should be I who am fated to tell you.  For a year you will rule as
+a god in this city of Tenoctitlan, and except for certain
+ceremonies that you must undergo, and certain arts which you must
+learn, none will trouble you.  Your slightest wish will be a law,
+and when you smile on any, it shall be an omen of good to them and
+they will bless you; even my father Montezuma will treat you with
+reverence as an equal or more.  Every delight shall be yours except
+that of marriage, and this will be withheld till the twelfth month
+of the year.  Then the four most beautiful maidens in the land will
+be given to you as brides.'
+
+'And who will choose them?' I asked.
+
+'Nay, I know not, Teule, who do not meddle in such mysteries,' she
+answered hurriedly.  'Sometimes the god is judge and sometimes the
+priests judge for him.  It is as it may chance.  Listen now to the
+end of my tale and you will surely forget the rest.  For one month
+you will live with your wives, and this month you will pass in
+feasting at all the noblest houses in the city.  On the last day of
+the month, however, you will be placed in a royal barge and
+together with your wives, paddled across the lake to a place that
+is named "Melting of Metals."  Thence you will be led to the
+teocalli named "House of Weapons," where your wives will bid
+farewell to you for ever, and there, Teule, alas! that I must say
+it, you are doomed to be offered as a sacrifice to the god whose
+spirit you hold, the great god Tezcat, for your heart will be torn
+from your body, and your head will be struck from your shoulders
+and set upon the stake that is known as "post of heads."'
+
+Now when I heard this dreadful doom I groaned aloud and my knees
+trembled so that I almost fell to the ground.  Then a great fury
+seized me and, forgetting my father's counsel, I blasphemed the
+gods of that country and the people who worshipped them, first in
+the Aztec and Maya languages, then when my knowledge of these
+tongues failed me, in Spanish and good English.  But Otomie, who
+heard some of my words and guessed more, was seized with fear and
+lifted her hands, saying:
+
+'Curse not the awful gods, I beseech you, lest some terrible thing
+befall you at once.  If you are overheard it will be thought that
+you have an evil spirit and not a good one, and then you must die
+now and by torment.  At the least the gods, who are everywhere,
+will hear you.'
+
+'Let them hear,' I answered.  'They are false gods and that country
+is accursed which worships them.  They are doomed I say, and all
+their worshippers are doomed.  Nay, I care not if I am heard--as
+well die now by torment as live a year in the torment of
+approaching death.  But I shall not die alone, all the sea of blood
+that your priests have shed cries out for vengeance to the true
+God, and He will avenge.'
+
+Thus I raved on, being mad with fear and impotent anger, while the
+princess Otomie stood terrified and amazed at my blasphemies, and
+the flutes piped and the dancers danced behind us.  And as I raved
+I saw that the mind of Otomie wandered from my words, for she was
+staring towards the east like one who sees a vision.  Then I looked
+also towards the east and saw that the sky was alight there.  For
+from the edge of the horizon to the highest parts of heaven spread
+a fan of pale and fearful light powdered over with sparks of fire,
+the handle of the fan resting on the earth as it were, while its
+wings covered the eastern sky.  Now I ceased my cursing and stood
+transfixed, and as I stood, a cry of terror arose from all the
+precincts of the palace and people poured from every door to gaze
+upon the portent that flared and blazed in the east.  Presently
+Montezuma himself came out, attended by his great lords, and in
+that ghastly light I saw that his lips worked and his hands writhed
+over each other.  Nor was the miracle done with, for anon from the
+clear sky that hung over the city, descended a ball of fire, which
+seemed to rest upon the points of the lofty temple in the great
+square, lighting up the teocalli as with the glare of day.  It
+vanished, but where it had been another light now burned, for the
+temple of Quetzal was afire.
+
+Now cries of fear and lamentation arose from all who beheld these
+wonders on the hill of Chapoltepec and also from the city below.
+Even I was frightened, I do not know why, for it may well be that
+the blaze of light which we saw on that and after nights was
+nothing but the brightness of a comet, and that the fire in the
+temple was caused by a thunderbolt.  But to these people, and more
+especially to Montezuma, whose mind was filled already with rumours
+of the coming of a strange white race, which, as it was truly
+prophesied, would bring his empire to nothingness, the omens seemed
+very evil.  Indeed, if they had any doubt as to their meaning, it
+was soon to be dispelled, in their minds at least.  For as we stood
+wonder-struck, a messenger, panting and soiled with travel, arrived
+among us and prostrating himself before the majesty of the emperor,
+he drew a painted scroll from his robe and handed it to an
+attendant noble.  So desirous was Montezuma to know its contents,
+that contrary to all custom he snatched the roll from the hands of
+the counsellor, and unrolling it, he began to read the picture
+writing by the baleful light of the blazing sky and temple.
+Presently, as we watched and he read, Montezuma groaned aloud, and
+casting down the writing he covered his face with his hands.  As it
+chanced it fell near to where I stood, and I saw painted over it
+rude pictures of ships of the Spanish rig, and of men in the
+Spanish armour.  Then I understood why Montezuma groaned.  The
+Spaniards had landed on his shores!
+
+Now some of his counsellors approached him to console him, but he
+thrust them aside, saying:
+
+'Let me mourn--the doom that was foretold is fallen upon the
+children of Anahuac.  The children of Quetzal muster on our shores
+and slay my people.  Let me mourn, I say.'
+
+At that moment another messenger came from the palace, having grief
+written on his face.
+
+'Speak,' said Montezuma.
+
+'O king, forgive the tongue that must tell such tidings.  Your
+royal sister Papantzin was seized with terror at yonder dreadful
+sight,' and he pointed to the heavens; 'she lies dying in the
+palace!'
+
+Now when the emperor heard that his sister whom he loved was dying,
+he said nothing, but covering his face with his royal mantle, he
+passed slowly back to the palace.
+
+And all the while the crimson light gleamed and sparkled in the
+east like some monstrous and unnatural dawn, while the temple of
+Quetzal burned fiercely in the city beneath.
+
+Now, I turned to the princess Otomie, who had stood by my side
+throughout, overcome with wonder and trembling.
+
+'Did I not say that this country was accursed, princess of the
+Otomie?'
+
+'You said it, Teule,' she answered, 'and it is accursed.'
+
+
+Then we went into the palace, and even in this hour of fear, after
+me came the minstrels as before.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE ARISING OF PAPANTZIN
+
+
+On the morrow Papantzin died, and was buried with great pomp that
+same evening in the burial-ground at Chapoltepec, by the side of
+the emperor's royal ancestors.  But, as will be seen, she was not
+content with their company.  On that day also, I learned that to be
+a god is not all pleasure, since it was expected of me that I must
+master various arts, and chiefly the horrid art of music, to which
+I never had any desire.  Still my own wishes were not allowed to
+weigh in the matter, for there came to me tutors, aged men who
+might have found better employment, to instruct me in the use of
+the lute, and on this instrument I must learn to strum.  Others
+there were also, who taught me letters, poetry, and art, as they
+were understood among the Aztecs, and all this knowledge I was glad
+of.  Still I remembered the words of the preacher which tell us
+that he who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow, and moreover I
+could see little use in acquiring learning that was to be lost
+shortly on the stone of sacrifice.
+
+As to this matter of my sacrifice I was at first desperate.  But
+reflection told me that I had already passed many dangers and come
+out unscathed, and therefore it was possible that I might escape
+this one also.  At least death was still a long way off, and for
+the present I was a god.  So I determined that whether I died or
+lived, while I lived I would live like a god and take such
+pleasures as came to my hand, and I acted on this resolve.  No man
+ever had greater or more strange opportunities, and no man can have
+used them better.  Indeed, had it not been for the sorrowful
+thoughts of my lost love and home which would force themselves upon
+me, I should have been almost happy, because of the power that I
+wielded and the strangeness of all around me.  But I must to my
+tale.
+
+During the days that followed the death of Papantzin the palace and
+the city also were plunged in ferment.  The minds of men were
+shaken strangely because of the rumours that filled the air.  Every
+night the fiery portent blazed in the east, every day a new wonder
+or omen was reported, and with it some wild tale of the doings of
+the Spaniards, who by most were held to be white gods, the children
+of Quetzal, come back to take the land which their forefather
+ruled.
+
+But of all that were troubled, none were in such bad case as the
+emperor himself, who, during these weeks scarcely ate or drank or
+slept, so heavy were his fears upon him.  In this strait he sent
+messengers to his ancient rival, that wise and severe man Neza, the
+king of the allied state of Tezcuco, begging that he would visit
+him.  This king came, an old man with a fierce and gleaming eye,
+and I was witness to the interview that followed, for in my quality
+of god I had full liberty of the palace, and even to be present at
+the councils of the emperor and his nobles.  When the two monarchs
+had feasted together, Montezuma spoke to Neza of the matter of the
+omens and of the coming of the Teules, asking him to lighten the
+darkness by his wisdom.  Then Neza pulled his long grey beard and
+answered that heavy as the heart of Montezuma might be, it must
+grow still heavier before the end.
+
+'See, Lord,' he said, 'I am so sure that the days of our empire are
+numbered, that I will play you at dice for my kingdoms which you
+and your forefathers have ever desired to win.'
+
+'For what wager?' asked Montezuma.
+
+'I will play you thus,' answered Neza.  'You shall stake three
+fighting cocks, of which, should I win, I ask the spurs only.  I
+set against them all the wide empire of Tezcuco.'
+
+'A small stake,' said Montezuma; 'cocks are many and kingdoms few.'
+
+'Still, it shall serve our turn,' answered the aged king, 'for know
+that we play against fate.  As the game goes, so shall the issue
+be.  If you win my kingdoms all is well; if I win the cocks, then
+good-bye to the glory of Anahuac, for its people will cease to be a
+people, and strangers shall possess the land.'
+
+'Let us play and see,' said Montezuma, and they went down to the
+place that is called tlachco, where the games are set.  Here they
+began the match with dice and at first all went well for Montezuma,
+so that he called aloud that already he was lord of Tezcuco.
+
+'May it be so!' answered the aged Neza, and from that moment the
+chance changed.  For strive as he would, Montezuma could not win
+another point, and presently the set was finished, and Neza had won
+the cocks.  Now the music played, and courtiers came forward to
+give the king homage on his success.  But he rose sighing, and
+said:
+
+'I had far sooner lose my kingdoms than have won these fowls, for
+if I had lost my kingdoms they would still have passed into the
+hands of one of my own race.  Now alas! my possessions and his must
+come under the hand of strangers, who shall cast down our gods and
+bring our names to nothing.'
+
+And having spoken thus, he rose, and taking farewell of the
+emperor, he departed for his own land, where, as it chanced, he
+died very shortly, without living to see the fulfilment of his
+fears.
+
+On the morrow of his departure came further accounts of the doings
+of the Spaniards that plunged Montezuma into still greater alarm.
+In his terror he sent for an astronomer, noted throughout the land
+for the truth of his divinations.  The astronomer came, and was
+received by the emperor privately.  What he told him I do not know,
+but at least it was nothing pleasant, for that very night men were
+commanded to pull down the house of this sage, who was buried in
+its ruins.
+
+Two days after the death of the astronomer, Montezuma bethought him
+that, as he believed, I also was a Teule, and could give him
+information.  So at the hour of sunset he sent for me, bidding me
+walk with him in the gardens.  I went thither, followed by my
+musicians and attendants, who would never leave me in peace, but he
+commanded that all should stand aside, as he wished to speak with
+me alone.  Then he began to walk beneath the mighty cedar trees,
+and I with him, but keeping one pace behind.
+
+'Teule,' he said at length, 'tell me of your countrymen, and why
+they have come to these shores.  See that you speak truth.'
+
+'They are no countrymen of mine, O Montezuma,' I answered, 'though
+my mother was one of them.'
+
+'Did I not bid you speak the truth, Teule?  If your mother was one
+of them, must you not also be of them; for are you not of your
+mother's bone and blood?'
+
+'As the king pleases,' I answered bowing.  Then I began and told
+him of the Spaniards--of their country, their greatness, their
+cruelty and their greed of gold, and he listened eagerly, though I
+think that he believed little of what I said, for his fear had made
+him very suspicious.  When I had done, he spoke and said:
+
+'Why do they come here to Anahuac?'
+
+'I fear, O king, that they come to take the land, or at the least
+to rob it of all its treasure, and to destroy its faiths.'
+
+'What then is your counsel, Teule?  How can I defend myself against
+these mighty men, who are clothed in metal, and ride upon fierce
+wild beasts, who have instruments that make a noise like thunder,
+at the sound of which their adversaries fall dead by hundreds, and
+who bear weapons of shining silver in their hands?  Alas! there is
+no defence possible, for they are the children of Quetzal come back
+to take the land.  From my childhood I have known that this evil
+overshadowed me, and now it is at my door.'
+
+'If I, who am only a god, may venture to speak to the lord of the
+earth,' I answered, 'I say that the reply is easy.  Meet force by
+force.  The Teules are few and you can muster a thousand soldiers
+for every one of theirs.  Fall on them at once, do not hesitate
+till their prowess finds them friends, but crush them.'
+
+'Such is the counsel of one whose mother was a Teule;' the emperor
+answered, with sarcasm and bitter meaning.  'Tell me now,
+counsellor, how am I to know that in fighting against them I shall
+not be fighting against the gods; how even am I to learn the true
+wishes and purposes of men or gods who cannot speak my tongue and
+whose tongue I cannot speak?'
+
+'It is easy, O Montezuma,' I answered.  'I can speak their tongue;
+send me to discover for you.'
+
+Now as I spoke thus my heart bounded with hope, for if once I could
+come among the Spaniards, perhaps I might escape the altar of
+sacrifice.  Also they seemed a link between me and home.  They had
+sailed hither in ships, and ships can retrace their path.  For
+though at present my lot was not all sorrow, it will be guessed
+that I should have been glad indeed to find myself once more among
+Christian men.
+
+Montezuma looked at me a while and answered:
+
+'You must think me very foolish, Teule.  What! shall I send you to
+tell my fears and weakness to your countrymen, and to show them the
+joints in my harness?  Do you then suppose that I do not know you
+for a spy sent to this land by these same Teules to gather
+knowledge of the land?  Fool, I knew it from the first, and by
+Huitzel! were you not vowed to Tezcat, your heart should smoke to-
+morrow on the altar of Huitzel.  Be warned, and give me no more
+false counsels lest your end prove swifter than you think.  Learn
+that I have asked these questions of you to a purpose, and by the
+command of the gods, as it was written on the hearts of those
+sacrificed this day.  This was the purpose and this was the
+command, that I might discover your secret mind, and that I should
+shun whatever advice you chanced to give.  You counsel me to fight
+the Teules, therefore I will not fight them, but meet them with
+gifts and fair words, for I know well that you would have me to do
+that which should bring me to my doom.'
+
+Thus he spoke very fiercely and in a low voice, his head held low
+and his arms crossed upon his breast, and I saw that he shook with
+passion.  Even then, though I was very much afraid, for god as I
+was, a nod from this mighty king would have sent me to death by
+torment, I wondered at the folly of one who in everything else was
+so wise.  Why should he doubt me thus and allow superstition to
+drag him down to ruin?  To-day I see the answer.  Montezuma did not
+these things of himself, but because the hand of destiny worked
+with his hand, and the voice of destiny spoke in his voice.  The
+gods of the Aztecs were false gods indeed, but I for one believe
+that they had life and intelligence, for those hideous shapes of
+stone were the habitations of devils, and the priests spoke truth
+when they said that the sacrifice of men was pleasing to their
+gods.
+
+To these devils the king went for counsel through the priests, and
+now this doom was on them, that they must give false counsel to
+their own destruction, and to the destruction of those who
+worshipped them, as was decreed by One more powerful than they.
+
+
+Now while we were talking the sun had sunk swiftly, so that all the
+world was dark.  But the light still lingered on the snowy crests
+of the volcans Popo and Ixtac, staining them an awful red.  Never
+before to my sight had the shape of the dead woman whose
+everlasting bier is Ixtac's bulk, seemed so clear and wonderful as
+on that night, for either it was so or my fancy gave it the very
+shape and colour of a woman's corpse steeped in blood and laid out
+for burial.  Nor was it my phantasy alone, for when Montezuma had
+finished upbraiding me he chanced to look up, and his eyes falling
+on the mountain remained fixed there.
+
+'Look now, Teule!' he said, presently, with a solemn laugh; 'yonder
+lies the corpse of the nations of Anahuac washed in a water of blood
+and made ready for burial.  Is she not terrible in death?'
+
+As he spoke the words and turned to go, a sound of doleful wailing
+came from the direction of the mountain, a very wild and unearthly
+sound that caused the blood in my veins to stand still.  Now
+Montezuma caught my arm in his fear, and we gazed together on
+Ixtac, and it seemed to us that this wonder happened.  For in that
+red and fearful light the red figure of the sleeping woman arose,
+or appeared to rise, from its bier of stone.  It arose slowly like
+one who awakes from sleep, and presently it stood upright upon the
+mountain's brow, towering high into the air.  There it stood a
+giant and awakened corpse, its white wrappings stained with blood,
+and we trembled to see it.
+
+For a while the wraith remained thus gazing towards the city of
+Tenoctitlan, then suddenly it threw its vast arms upward as though
+in grief, and at that moment the night rushed in upon it and
+covered it, while the sound of wailing died slowly away.
+
+'Say, Teule,' gasped the emperor, 'do I not well to be afraid when
+such portents as these meet my eyes day by day?  Hearken to the
+lamentations in the city; we have not seen this sight alone.
+Listen how the people cry aloud with fear and the priests beat
+their drums to avert the omen.  Weep on, ye people, and ye priests
+pray and do sacrifice; it is very fitting, for the day of your doom
+is upon you.  O Tenoctitlan, queen of cities, I see you ruined and
+desolate, your palaces blackened with fire, your temples
+desecrated, your pleasant gardens a wilderness.  I see your
+highborn women the wantons of stranger lords, and your princes
+their servants; the canals run red with the blood of your children,
+your gateways are blocked with their bones.  Death is about you
+everywhere, dishonour is your daily bread, desolation is your
+portion.  Farewell to you, queen of the cities, cradle of my
+forefathers in which I was nursed!'
+
+Thus Montezuma lamented in the darkness, and as he cried aloud the
+great moon rose over the edge of the world and poured its level
+light through the boughs of the cedars clothed in their ghostly
+robe of moss.  It struck upon Montezuma's tall shape, on his
+distraught countenance and thin hands as he waved them to and fro
+in his prophetic agony, on my glittering garments, and the terror-
+stricken band of courtiers, and the musicians who had ceased from
+their music.  A little wind sprang up also, moaning sadly in the
+mighty trees above and against the rocks of Chapoltepec.  Never did
+I witness a scene more strange or more pregnant with mystery and
+the promise of unborn horror, than that of this great monarch
+mourning over the downfall of his race and power.  As yet no
+misfortune had befallen the one or the other, and still he knew
+that both were doomed, and these words of lamentation burst from a
+heart broken by a grief of which the shadow only lay upon it.
+
+But the wonders of that night were not yet done with.
+
+When Montezuma had made an end of crying his prophecies, I asked
+him humbly if I should summon to him the lords who were in
+attendance on him, but who stood at some distance.
+
+'Nay,' he answered, 'I will not have them see me thus with grief
+and terror upon my face.  Whoever fears, at least I must seem
+brave.  Walk with me a while, Teule, and if it is in your mind to
+murder me I shall not grieve.'
+
+I made no answer, but followed him as he led the way down the
+darkest of the winding paths that run between the cedar trees,
+where it would have been easy for me to kill him if I wished, but I
+could not see how I should be advantaged by the deed; also though I
+knew that Montezuma was my enemy, my heart shrank from the thought
+of murder.  For a mile or more he walked on without speaking, now
+beneath the shadow of the trees, and now through open spaces of
+garden planted with lovely flowers, till at last we came to the
+gates of the place where the royal dead are laid to rest.  Now in
+front of these gates was an open space of turf on which the
+moonlight shone brightly, and in the centre of this space lay
+something white, shaped like a woman.  Here Montezuma halted and
+looked at the gates, then said:
+
+'These gates opened four days since for Papantzin, my sister; how
+long, I wonder, will pass before they open for me?'
+
+As he spoke, the white shape upon the grass which I had seen and he
+had not seen, stirred like an awakening sleeper.  As the snow shape
+upon the mountain had stirred, so this shape stirred; as it had
+arisen, so this one arose; as it threw its arms upwards, so this
+one threw up her arms.  Now Montezuma saw and stood still
+trembling, and I trembled also.
+
+Then the woman--for it was a woman--advanced slowly towards us, and
+as she came we saw that she was draped in graveclothes.  Presently
+she lifted her head and the moonlight fell full upon her face.  Now
+Montezuma groaned aloud and I groaned, for we saw that the face was
+the thin pale face of the princess Papantzin--Papantzin who had
+lain four days in the grave.  On she came toward us, gliding like
+one who walks in her sleep, till she stopped before the bush in the
+shadow of which we stood.  Now Papantzin, or the ghost of
+Papantzin, looked at us with blind eyes, that is with eyes that
+were open and yet did not seem to see.
+
+'Are you there, Montezuma, my brother?' she said in the voice of
+Papantzin; 'surely I feel your presence though I cannot see you.'
+
+Now Montezuma stepped from the shadow and stood face to face with
+the dead.
+
+'Who are you?' he said, 'who wear the shape of one dead and are
+dressed in the garments of the dead?'
+
+'I am Papantzin,' she answered, 'and I am risen out of death to
+bring you a message, Montezuma, my brother.'
+
+'What message do you bring me?' he asked hoarsely.
+
+'I bring you a message of doom, my brother.  Your empire shall fall
+and soon you shall be accompanied to death by tens of thousands of
+your people.  For four days I have lived among the dead, and there
+I have seen your false gods which are devils.  There also I have
+seen the priests that served them, and many of those who worshipped
+them plunged into torment unutterable.  Because of the worship of
+these demon gods the people of Anahuac is destined to destruction.'
+
+'Have you no word of comfort for me, Papantzin, my sister?' he
+asked.
+
+'None,' she answered.  'Perchance if you abandon the worship of the
+false gods you may save your soul; your life you cannot save, nor
+the lives of your people.'
+
+Then she turned and passed away into the shadow of the trees; I
+heard her graveclothes sweep upon the grass.
+
+
+Now a fury seized Montezuma and he raved aloud, saying:
+
+'Curses on you, Papantzin, my sister!  Why then do you come back
+from the dead to bring me such evil tidings?  Had you brought hope
+with you, had you shown a way of escape, then I would have welcomed
+you.  May you go back into darkness and may the earth lie heavy on
+your heart for ever.  As for my gods, my fathers worshipped them
+and I will worship them till the end; ay, if they desert me, at
+least I will never desert them.  The gods are angry because the
+sacrifices are few upon their altars, henceforth they shall be
+doubled; ay, the priests of the gods shall themselves be sacrificed
+because they neglect their worship.'
+
+Thus he raved on, after the fashion of a weak man maddened with
+terror, while his nobles and attendants who had followed him at a
+distance, clustered about him, fearful and wondering.  At length
+there came an end, for tearing with his thin hands at his royal
+robes and at his hair and beard, Montezuma fell and writhed in a
+fit upon the ground.
+
+Then they carried him into the palace and none saw him for three
+days and nights.  But he made no idle threat as to the sacrifices,
+for from that night forward they were doubled throughout the land.
+Already the shadow of the Cross lay deep upon the altars of
+Anahuac, but still the smoke of their offerings went up to heaven
+and the cry of the captives rang round the teocallis.  The hour of
+the demon gods was upon them indeed, but now they reaped their last
+red harvest, and it was rich.
+
+
+Now I, Thomas Wingfield, saw these portents with my own eyes, but I
+cannot say whether they were indeed warnings sent from heaven or
+illusions springing from the accidents of nature.  The land was
+terror-struck, and it may happen that the minds of men thus smitten
+can find a dismal meaning in omens which otherwise had passed
+unnoticed.  That Papantzin rose from the dead is true, though
+perhaps she only swooned and never really died.  At the least she
+did not go back there for a while, for though I never saw her
+again, it is said that she lived to become a Christian and told
+strange tales of what she had seen in the land of Death.*
+
+
+* For the history of the resurrection of Papantzin, see note to
+Jourdanet's translation of Sahagun, page 870.--AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE NAMING OF THE BRIDES
+
+
+Now some months passed between the date of my naming as the god
+Tezcat and the entry of the Spaniards into Mexico, and during all
+this space the city was in a state of ferment.  Again and again
+Montezuma sent embassies to Cortes, bearing with them vast
+treasures of gold and gems as presents, and at the same time
+praying him to withdraw, for this foolish prince did not understand
+that by displaying so much wealth he flew a lure which must surely
+bring the falcon on himself.  To these ambassadors Cortes returned
+courteous answers together with presents of small value, and that
+was all.
+
+Then the advance began and the emperor learned with dismay of the
+conquest of the warlike tribe of the Tlascalans, who, though they
+were Montezuma's bitter and hereditary foes, yet made a stand
+against the white man.  Next came the tidings that from enemies the
+conquered Tlascalans had become the allies and servants of the
+Spaniard, and that thousands of their fiercest warriors were
+advancing with him upon the sacred city of Cholula.  A while passed
+and it was known that Cholula also had been given to massacre, and
+that the holy, or rather the unholy gods, had been torn from their
+shrines.  Marvellous tales were told of the Spaniards, of their
+courage and their might, of the armour that they wore, the thunder
+that their weapons made in battle, and the fierce beasts which they
+bestrode.  Once two heads of white men taken in a skirmish were
+sent to Montezuma, fierce-looking heads, great and hairy, and with
+them the head of a horse.  When Montezuma saw these ghastly relics
+he almost fainted with fear, still he caused them to be set up on
+pinnacles of the great temple and proclamation to be made that this
+fate awaited every invader of the land.
+
+Meanwhile all was confusion in his policies.  Day by day councils
+were held of the nobles, of high priests, and of neighbouring and
+friendly kings.  Some advised one thing, some another, and the end
+of it was hesitation and folly.  Ah! had Montezuma but listened to
+the voice of that great man Guatemoc, Anahuac would not have been a
+Spanish fief to-day.  For Guatemoc prayed him again and yet again
+to put away his fears and declare open war upon the Teules before
+it was too late; to cease from making gifts and sending embassies,
+to gather his countless armies and smite the foe in the mountain
+passes.
+
+But Montezuma would answer, 'To what end, nephew?  How can I
+struggle against these men when the gods themselves have declared
+for them?  Surely the gods can take their own parts if they wish
+it, and if they will not, for myself and my own fate I do not care,
+but alas! for my people, alas! for the women and the children, the
+aged and the weak.'
+
+Then he would cover his face and moan and weep like a child, and
+Guatemoc would pass from his presence dumb with fury at the folly
+of so great a king, but helpless to remedy it.  For like myself,
+Guatemoc believed that Montezuma had been smitten with a madness
+sent from heaven to bring the land to ruin.
+
+Now it must be understood that though my place as a god gave me
+opportunities of knowing all that passed, yet I Thomas Wingfield,
+was but a bubble on that great wave of events which swept over the
+world of Anahuac two generations since.  I was a bubble on the
+crest of the wave indeed, but at that time I had no more power than
+the foam has over the wave.  Montezuma distrusted me as a spy, the
+priests looked on me as a god and future victim and no more, only
+Guatemoc my friend, and Otomie who loved me secretly, had any faith
+in me, and with these two I often talked, showing them the true
+meaning of those things that were happening before our eyes.  But
+they also were strengthless, for though his reason was no longer
+captain, still the unchecked power of Montezuma guided the ship of
+state first this way and then that, just as a rudder directs a
+vessel to its ruin when the helmsman has left it, and it swings at
+the mercy of the wind and tide.
+
+The people were distraught with fear of the future, but not the
+less on that account, or perhaps because of it, they plunged with
+fervour into pleasures, alternating them with religious ceremonies.
+In those days no feast was neglected and no altar lacked its
+victim.  Like a river that quickens its flow as it draws near the
+precipice over which it must fall, so the people of Mexico,
+foreseeing ruin, awoke as it were and lived as they had never lived
+before.  All day long the cries of victims came from a hundred
+temple tops, and all night the sounds of revelry were heard among
+the streets.  'Let us eat and drink,' they said, 'for the gods of
+the sea are upon us and to-morrow we die.'  Now women who had been
+held virtuous proved themselves wantons, and men whose names were
+honest showed themselves knaves, and none cried fie upon them; ay,
+even children were seen drunken in the streets, which is an
+abomination among the Aztecs.
+
+The emperor had moved his household from Chapoltepec to the palace
+in the great square facing the temple, and this palace was a town
+in itself, for every night more than a thousand human beings slept
+beneath its roof, not to speak of the dwarfs and monsters, and the
+hundreds of wild birds and beasts in cages.  Here every day I
+feasted with whom I would, and when I was weary of feasting it was
+my custom to sally out into the streets playing on the lute, for by
+now I had in some degree mastered that hateful instrument, dressed
+in shining apparel and attended by a crowd of nobles and royal
+pages.  Then the people would rush from their houses shouting and
+doing me reverence, the children pelted me with flowers, and the
+maidens danced before me, kissing my hands and feet, till at length
+I was attended by a mob a thousand strong.  And I also danced and
+shouted like any village fool, for I think that a kind of mad
+humour, or perhaps it was the drunkenness of worship, entered into
+me in those days.  Also I sought to forget my griefs, I desired to
+forget that I was doomed to the sacrifice, and that every day
+brought me nearer to the red knife of the priest.
+
+I desired to forget, but alas! I could not.  The fumes of the
+mescal and the pulque that I had drunk at feasts would pass from my
+brain, the perfume of flowers, the sights of beauty and the
+adoration of the people would cease to move me, and I could only
+brood heavily upon my doom and think with longing of my distant
+love and home.  In those days, had it not been for the tender
+kindness of Otomie, I think that my heart would have broken or I
+should have slain myself.  But this great and beauteous lady was
+ever at hand to cheer me in a thousand ways, and now and again she
+would let fall some vague words of hope that set my pulses
+bounding.  It will be remembered that when first I came to the
+court of Montezuma, I had found Otomie fair and my fancy turned
+towards her.  Now I still found her fair, but my heart was so full
+of terror that there was no room in it for tender thoughts of her
+or of any other woman.  Indeed when I was not drunk with wine or
+adoration, I turned my mind to the making of my peace with heaven,
+of which I had some need.
+
+Still I talked much with Otomie, instructing her in the matters of
+my faith and many other things, as I had done by Marina, who we now
+heard was the mistress and interpreter of Cortes, the Spanish
+leader.  She for her part listened gravely, watching me the while
+with her tender eyes, but no more, for of all women Otomie was the
+most modest, as she was the proudest and most beautiful.
+
+
+So matters went on until the Spaniards had left Cholula on their
+road to Mexico.  It was then that I chanced one morning to be
+sitting in the gardens, my lute in hand, and having my attendant
+nobles and tutors gathered at a respectful distance behind me.
+From where I sat I could see the entrance to the court in which the
+emperor met his council daily, and I noted that when the princes
+had gone the priests began to come, and after them a number of very
+lovely girls attended by women of middle age.  Presently Guatemoc
+the prince, who now smiled but rarely, came up to me smiling, and
+asked me if I knew what was doing yonder.  I replied that I knew
+nothing and cared less, but I supposed that Montezuma was gathering
+a peculiar treasure to send to his masters the Spaniards.
+
+'Beware how you speak, Teule,' answered the prince haughtily.
+'Your words may be true, and yet did I not love you, you should rue
+them even though you hold the spirit of Tezcat.  Alas!' he added,
+stamping on the ground, 'alas! that my uncle's madness should make
+it possible that such words can be spoken.  Oh! were I emperor of
+Anahuac, in a single week the head of every Teule in Cholula should
+deck a pinnacle of yonder temple.'
+
+'Beware how you speak, prince,' I answered mocking him, 'for there
+are those who did they hear, might cause YOU to rue YOUR words.
+Still one day you may be emperor, and then we shall see how you
+will deal with the Teules, at least others will see though I shall
+not.  But what is it now?  Does Montezuma choose new wives?'
+
+'He chooses wives, but not for himself.  You know, Teule, that your
+time grows short.  Montezuma and the priests name those who must be
+given to you to wife.'
+
+'Given me to wife!' I said starting to my feet; 'to me whose bride
+is death!  What have I to do with love or marriage?  I who in some
+few short weeks must grace an altar?  Ah! Guatemoc, you say you
+love me, and once I saved you.  Did you love me, surely you would
+save me now as you swore to do.'
+
+'I swore that I would give my life for yours, Teule, if it lay in
+my power, and that oath I would keep, for all do not set so high a
+store on life as you, my friend.  But I cannot help you; you are
+dedicated to the gods, and did I die a hundred times, it would not
+save you from your fate.  Nothing can save you except the hand of
+heaven if it wills.  Therefore, Teule, make merry while you may,
+and die bravely when you must.  Your case is no worse than mine and
+that of many others, for death awaits us all.  Farewell.'
+
+When he had gone I rose, and leaving the gardens I passed into the
+chamber where it was my custom to give audience to those who wished
+to look upon the god Tezcat as they called me.  Here I sat upon my
+golden couch, inhaling the fumes of tobacco, and as it chanced I
+was alone, for none dared to enter that room unless I gave them
+leave.  Presently the chief of my pages announced that one would
+speak with me, and I bent my head, signifying that the person
+should enter, for I was weary of my thoughts.  The page withdrew,
+and presently a veiled woman stood before me.  I looked at her
+wondering, and bade her draw her veil and speak.  She obeyed, and I
+saw that my visitor was the princess Otomie.  Now I rose amazed,
+for it was not usual that she should visit me thus alone.  I
+guessed therefore that she had tidings, or was following some
+custom of which I was ignorant.
+
+'I pray you be seated,' she said confusedly; 'it is not fitting
+that you should stand before me.'
+
+'Why not, princess?' I answered.  'If I had no respect for rank,
+surely beauty must claim it.'
+
+'A truce to words,' she replied with a wave of her slim hand.  'I
+come here, O Tezcat, according to the ancient custom, because I am
+charged with a message to you.  Those whom you shall wed are
+chosen.  I am the bearer of their names.'
+
+'Speak on, princess of the Otomie.'
+
+'They are'--and she named three ladies whom I knew to be among the
+loveliest in the land.
+
+'I thought that there were four,' I said with a bitter laugh.  'Am
+I to be defrauded of the fourth?'
+
+'There is a fourth,' she answered, and was silent.
+
+'Give me her name,' I cried.  'What other slut has been found to
+marry a felon doomed to sacrifice?'
+
+'One has been found, O Tezcat, who has borne other titles than this
+you give her.'
+
+Now I looked at her questioningly, and she spoke again in a low
+voice.
+
+'I, Otomie, princess of the Otomie, Montezuma's daughter, am the
+fourth and the first.'
+
+'You!' I said, sinking back upon my cushions.  'YOU!'
+
+'Yes, I.  Listen: I was chosen by the priests as the most lovely in
+the land, however unworthily.  My father, the emperor, was angry
+and said that whatever befell, I should never be the wife of a
+captive who must die upon the altar of sacrifice.  But the priests
+answered that this was no time for him to claim exception for his
+blood, now when the gods were wroth.  Was the first lady in the
+land to be withheld from the god? they asked.  Then my father
+sighed and said that it should be as I willed.  And I said with the
+priests, that now in our sore distress the proud must humble
+themselves to the dust, even to the marrying of a captive slave who
+is named a god and doomed to sacrifice.  So I, princess of the
+Otomie, have consented to become your wife, O Tezcat, though
+perchance had I known all that I read in your eyes this hour, I
+should not have consented.  It may happen that in this shame I
+hoped to find love if only for one short hour, and that I purposed
+to vary the custom of our people, and to complete my marriage by
+the side of the victim on the altar, as, if I will, I have the
+right to do.  But I see well that I am not welcome, and though it
+is too late to go back upon my word, have no fear.  There are
+others, and I shall not trouble you.  I have given my message, is
+it your pleasure that I should go?  The solemn ceremony of wedlock
+will be on the twelfth day from now, O Tezcat.'
+
+Now I rose from my seat and took her hand, saying:
+
+'I thank you, Otomie, for your nobleness of mind.  Had it not been
+for the comfort and friendship which you and Guatemoc your cousin
+have given me, I think that ere now I should be dead.  So you
+desire to comfort me to the last; it seems that you even purposed
+to die with me.  How am I to interpret this, Otomie?  In our land a
+woman would need to love a man after no common fashion before she
+consented to share such a bed as awaits me on yonder pyramid.  And
+yet I may scarcely think that you whom kings have sued for can
+place your heart so low.  How am I to read the writing of your
+words, princess of the Otomie?'
+
+'Read it with your heart,' she whispered low, and I felt her hand
+tremble in my own.
+
+I looked at her beauty, it was great; I thought of her devotion, a
+devotion that did not shrink from the most horrible of deaths, and
+a wind of feeling which was akin to love swept through my soul.
+But even as I looked and thought, I remembered the English garden
+and the English maid from whom I had parted beneath the beech at
+Ditchingham, and the words that we had spoken then.  Doubtless she
+still lived and was true to me; while I lived should I not keep
+true at heart to her?  If I must wed these Indian girls, I must wed
+them, but if once I told Otomie that I loved her, then I broke my
+troth, and with nothing less would she be satisfied.  As yet,
+though I was deeply moved and the temptation was great, I had not
+come to this.
+
+'Be seated, Otomie,' I said, 'and listen to me.  You see this
+golden token,' and I drew Lily's posy ring from my hand, 'and you
+see the writing within it.'
+
+She bent her head but did not speak, and I saw that there was fear
+in her eyes.
+
+'I will read you the words, Otomie,' and I translated into the
+Aztec tongue the quaint couplet:
+
+
+     Heart to heart,
+     Though far apart.
+
+
+Then at last she spoke.  'What does the writing mean?' she said.
+'I can only read in pictures, Teule.'
+
+'It means, Otomie, that in the far land whence I come, there is a
+woman who loves me, and who is my love.'
+
+'Is she your wife then?'
+
+'She is not my wife, Otomie, but she is vowed to me in marriage.'
+
+'She is vowed to you in marriage,' she answered bitterly: 'why,
+then we are equal, for so am I, Teule.  But there is this
+difference between us; you love her, and me you do not love.  That
+is what you would make clear to me.  Spare me more words, I
+understand all.  Still it seems that if I have lost, she is also in
+the path of loss.  Great seas roll between you and this love of
+yours, Teule, seas of water, and the altar of sacrifice, and the
+nothingness of death.  Now let me go.  Your wife I must be, for
+there is no escape, but I shall not trouble you over much, and it
+will soon be done with.  Then you may seek your desire in the
+Houses of the Stars whither you must wander, and it is my prayer
+that you shall win it.  All these months I have been planning to
+find hope for you, and I thought that I had found it.  But it was
+built upon a false belief, and it is ended.  Had you been able to
+say from your heart that you loved me, it might have been well for
+both of us; should you be able to say it before the end, it may
+still be well.  But I do not ask you to say it, and beware how you
+tell me a lie.  I leave you, Teule, but before I go I will say that
+I honour you more in this hour than I have honoured you before,
+because you have dared to speak the truth to me, Montezuma's
+daughter, when a lie had been so easy and so safe.  That woman
+beyond the seas should be grateful to you, but though I bear her no
+ill will, between me and her there is a struggle to the death.  We
+are strangers to each other, and strangers we shall remain, but she
+has touched your hand as I touch it now; you link us together and
+are our bond of enmity.  Farewell my husband that is to be.  We
+shall meet no more till that sorry day when a "slut" shall be given
+to a "felon" in marriage.  I use your own words, Teule!'
+
+Then rising, Otomie cast her veil about her face and passed slowly
+from the chamber, leaving me much disturbed.  It was a bold deed to
+have rejected the proffered love of this queen among women, and now
+that I had done so I was not altogether glad.  Would Lily, I
+wondered, have offered to descend from such state, to cast off the
+purple of her royal rank that she might lie at my side on the red
+stone of sacrifice?  Perhaps not, for this fierce fidelity is only
+to be found in women of another breed.  These daughters of the Sun
+love wholly when they love at all, and as they love they hate.
+They ask no priest to consecrate their vows, nor if these become
+hateful, will they be bound by them for duty's sake.  Their own
+desire is their law, but while it rules them they follow it
+unflinchingly, and if need be, they seek its consummation in the
+gates of death, or failing that, forgetfulness.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE FOUR GODDESSES
+
+
+Some weary time went by, and at last came the day of the entry into
+Mexico of Cortes and his conquerors.  Now of all the doings of the
+Spaniards after they occupied the city, I do not propose to speak
+at length, for these are matters of history, and I have my own
+story to tell.  So I shall only write of those of them with which I
+was concerned myself.  I did not see the meeting between Montezuma
+and Cortes, though I saw the emperor set out to it clad like
+Solomon in his glory and surrounded by his nobles.  But I am sure
+of this, that no slave being led to sacrifice carried a heavier
+heart in his breast than that of Montezuma on this unlucky day.
+For now his folly had ruined him, and I think he knew that he was
+going to his doom.
+
+Afterwards, towards evening, I saw the emperor come back in his
+golden litter, and pass over to the palace built by Axa his father,
+that stood opposite to and some five hundred paces from his own,
+facing the western gate of the temple.  Presently I heard the sound
+of a multitude shouting, and amidst it the tramp of horses and
+armed soldiers, and from a seat in my chamber I saw the Spaniards
+advance down the great street, and my heart beat at the sight of
+Christian men.  In front, clad in rich armour, rode their leader
+Cortes, a man of middle size but noble bearing, with thoughtful
+eyes that noted everything, and after him, some few on horseback
+but the most of them on foot, marched his little army of
+conquerors, staring about them with bold wondering eyes and jesting
+to each other in Castilian.  They were but a handful, bronzed with
+the sun and scarred by battle, some of them ill-armed and almost in
+rags, and looking on them I could not but marvel at the indomitable
+courage that had enabled them to pierce their way through hostile
+thousands, sickness, and war, even to the home of Montezuma's
+power.
+
+By the side of Cortes, holding his stirrup in her hand, walked a
+beautiful Indian woman dressed in white robes and crowned with
+flowers.  As she passed the palace she turned her face.  I knew her
+at once; it was my friend Marina, who now had attained to the
+greatness which she desired, and who, notwithstanding all the evil
+that she had brought upon her country, looked most happy in it and
+in her master's love.
+
+As the Spaniards went by I searched their faces one by one, with
+the vague hope of hate.  For though it might well chance that death
+had put us out of each other's reach, I half thought to see de
+Garcia among the number of the conquerors.  Such a quest as theirs,
+with its promise of blood, and gold, and rapine, would certainly
+commend itself to his evil heart should it be in his power to join
+it, and a strange instinct told me that he was NOT dead.  But
+neither dead nor living was he among those men who entered Mexico
+that day.
+
+That night I saw Guatemoc and asked him how things went.
+
+'Well for the kite that roosts in the dove's nest,' he answered
+with a bitter laugh, 'but very ill for the dove.  Montezuma, my
+uncle, has been cooing yonder,' and he pointed to the palace of
+Axa, 'and the captain of the Teules has cooed in answer, but though
+he tried to hide it, I could hear the hawk's shriek in his pigeon's
+note.  Ere long there will be merry doings in Tenoctitlan.'
+
+He was right.  Within a week Montezuma was treacherously seized by
+the Spaniards and kept a prisoner in their quarters, watched day
+and night by their soldiers.  Then came event upon event.  Certain
+lords in the coast lands having killed some Spaniards, were
+summoned to Mexico by the instigation of Cortes.  They came and
+were burned alive in the courtyard of the palace.  Nor was this
+all, for Montezuma, their monarch, was forced to witness the
+execution with fetters on his ankles.  So low had the emperor of
+the Aztecs fallen, that he must bear chains like a common felon.
+After this insult he swore allegiance to the King of Spain, and
+even contrived to capture Cacama, the lord of Tezcuco, by treachery
+and to deliver him into the hands of the Spaniards on whom he would
+have made war.  To them also he gave up all the hoarded gold and
+treasure of the empire, to the value of hundreds of thousands of
+English pounds.  All this the nation bore, for it was stupefied and
+still obeyed the commands of its captive king.  But when he
+suffered the Spaniards to worship the true God in one of the
+sanctuaries of the great temple, a murmur of discontent and sullen
+fury rose among the thousands of the Aztecs.  It filled the air, it
+could be heard wherever men were gathered, and its sound was like
+that of a distant angry sea.  The hour of the breaking of the
+tempest was at hand.
+
+Now all this while my life went on as before, save that I was not
+allowed to go outside the walls of the palace, for it was feared
+lest I should find some means of intercourse with the Spaniards,
+who did not know that a man of white blood was confined there and
+doomed to sacrifice.  Also in these days I saw little of the
+princess Otomie, the chief of my destined brides, who since our
+strange love scene had avoided me, and when we met at feasts or in
+the gardens spoke to me only on indifferent matters, or of the
+affairs of state.  At length came the day of my marriage.  It was,
+I remember, the night before the massacre of the six hundred Aztec
+nobles on the occasion of the festival of Huitzel.
+
+On this my wedding day I was treated with great circumstance and
+worshipped like a god by the highest in the city, who came in to do
+me reverence and burned incense before me, till I was weary of the
+smell of it, for though such sorrow was on the land, the priests
+would abate no jot of their ceremonies or cruelties, and great
+hopes were held that I being of the race of Teules, my sacrifice
+would avert the anger of the gods.  At sunset I was entertained
+with a splendid feast that lasted two hours or more, and at its end
+all the company rose and shouted as with one voice:
+
+'Glory to thee, O Tezcat!  Happy art thou here on earth, happy
+mayst thou be in the Houses of the Sun.  When thou comest thither,
+remember that we dealt well by thee, giving thee of our best, and
+intercede for us that our sins may be forgiven.  Glory to thee, O
+Tezcat!'
+
+Then two of the chief nobles came forward, and taking torches led
+me to a magnificent chamber that I had never seen before.  Here
+they changed my apparel, investing me in robes which were still
+more splendid than any that I had worn hitherto, being made of the
+finest embroidered cotton and of the glittering feathers of the
+humming bird.  On my head they set wreaths of flowers, and about my
+neck and wrists emeralds of vast size and value, and a sorry
+popinjay I looked in this attire, that seemed more suited to a
+woman's beauty than to me.
+
+When I was arrayed, suddenly the torches were extinguished and for
+a while there was silence.  Then in the distance I heard women's
+voices singing a bridal song that was beautiful enough after its
+fashion, though I forbear to write it down.  The singing ceased and
+there came a sound of rustling robes and of low whispering.  Then a
+man's voice spoke, saying:
+
+'Are ye there, ye chosen of heaven?'
+
+And a woman's voice, I thought it was that of Otomie, answered:
+
+'We are here.'
+
+'O maidens of Anahuac,' said the man speaking from the darkness,
+'and you, O Tezcat, god among the gods, listen to my words.
+Maidens, a great honour has been done to you, for by the very
+choice of heaven, you have been endowed with the names, the
+lovelinesses, and the virtues of the four great goddesses, and
+chosen to abide a while at the side of this god, your maker and
+your master, who has been pleased to visit us for a space before he
+seeks his home in the habitations of the Sun.  See that you show
+yourselves worthy of this honour.  Comfort him and cherish him,
+that he may forget his glory in your kindness, and when he returns
+to his own place may take with him grateful memories and a good
+report of your people.  You have but a little while to live at his
+side in this life, for already, like those of a caged bird, the
+wings of his spirit beat against the bars of the flesh, and soon he
+will shake himself free from us and you.  Yet if you will, it is
+allowed to one of you to accompany him to his home, sharing his
+flight to the Houses of the Sun.  But to all of you, whether you go
+also, or whether you stay to mourn him during your life days, I say
+love and cherish him, be tender and gentle towards him, for
+otherwise ruin shall overtake you here and hereafter, and you and
+all of us will be ill spoken of in heaven.  And you, O Tezcat, we
+pray of you to accept these maidens, who bear the names and wear
+the charms of your celestial consorts, for there are none more
+beautiful or better born in the realms of Anahuac, and among them
+is numbered the daughter of our king.  They are not perfect indeed,
+for perfection is known to you in the heavenly kingdoms only, since
+these ladies are but shadows and symbols of the divine goddesses
+your true wives, and here there are no perfect women.  Alas, we
+have none better to offer you, and it is our hope that when it
+pleases you to pass hence you will think kindly of the women of
+this land, and from on high bless them with your blessing, because
+your memory of these who were called your wives on earth is
+pleasant.'
+
+The voice paused, then spoke again:
+
+'Women, in your own divine names of Xochi, Xilo, Atla, and Clixto,
+and in the name of all the gods, I wed you to Tezcat, the creator,
+to sojourn with him during his stay on earth.  The god incarnate
+takes you in marriage whom he himself created, that the symbol may
+be perfect and the mystery fulfilled.  Yet lest your joy should be
+too full--look now on that which shall be.'
+
+As the voice spoke these words, many torches sprang into flame at
+the far end of the great chamber, revealing a dreadful sight.  For
+there, stretched upon a stone of sacrifice, was the body of a man,
+but whether the man lived or was modelled in wax I do not know to
+this hour, though unless he was painted, I think that he must have
+been fashioned in wax, since his skin shone white like mine.  At
+the least his limbs and head were held by five priests, and a sixth
+stood over him clasping a knife of obsidian in his two hands.  It
+flashed on high, and as it gleamed the torches were extinguished.
+Then came the dull echo of a blow and a sound of groans, and all
+was still, till once more the brides broke out into their marriage
+song, a strange chant and a wild and sweet, though after what I had
+seen and heard it had little power to move me.
+
+They sang on in the darkness ever more loudly, till presently a
+single torch was lit at the end of the chamber, then another and
+another, though I could not see who lit them, and the room was a
+flare of light.  Now the altar, the victim, and the priests were
+all gone, there was no one left in the place except myself and the
+four brides.  They were tall and lovely women all of them, clad in
+white bridal robes starred over with gems and flowers, and wearing
+on their brows the emblems of the four goddesses, but Otomie was
+the stateliest and most beautiful of the four, and seemed in truth
+a goddess.  One by one they drew near to me, smiling and sighing,
+and kneeling before me kissed my hand, saying:
+
+'I have been chosen to be your wife for a space, Tezcat, happy maid
+that I am.  May the good gods grant that I become pleasing to your
+sight, so that you may love me as I worship you.'
+
+Then she who had spoken would draw back again out of earshot, and
+the next would take her place.
+
+Last of all came Otomie.  She knelt and said the words, then added
+in a low voice,
+
+'Having spoken to you as the bride and goddess to the husband and
+the god Tezcat, now, O Teule, I speak as the woman to the man.  You
+do not love me, Teule, therefore, if it is your will, let us be
+divorced of our own act who were wed by the command of others, for
+so I shall be spared some shame.  These are friends to me and will
+not betray us;' and she nodded towards her companion brides.
+
+'As you will, Otomie,' I answered briefly.
+
+'I thank you for your kindness, Teule,' she said smiling sadly, and
+withdrew making obeisance, looking so stately and so sweet as she
+went, that again my heart was shaken as though with love.  Now from
+that night till the dreadful hour of sacrifice, no kiss or tender
+word passed between me and the princess of the Otomie.  And yet our
+friendship and affection grew daily, for we talked much together,
+and I sought to turn her heart to the true King of Heaven.  But
+this was not easy, for like her father Montezuma, Otomie clung to
+the gods of her people, though she hated the priests, and save when
+the victims were the foes of her country, shrank from the rites of
+human sacrifice, which she said were instituted by the pabas, since
+in the early days there were no men offered on the altars of the
+gods, but flowers only.  Daily it grew and ripened till, although I
+scarcely knew it, at length in my heart, after Lily, I loved her
+better than anyone on earth.  As for the other women, though they
+were gentle and beautiful, I soon learned to hate them.  Still I
+feasted and revelled with them, partly since I must, or bring them
+to a miserable death because they failed to please me, and partly
+that I might drown my terrors in drink and pleasure, for let it be
+remembered that the days left to me on earth were few, and the
+awful end drew near.
+
+
+The day following the celebration of my marriage was that of the
+shameless massacre of six hundred of the Aztec nobles by the order
+of the hidalgo Alvarado, whom Cortes had left in command of the
+Spaniards.  For at this time Cortes was absent in the coast lands,
+whither he had gone to make war on Narvaez, who had been sent to
+subdue him by his enemy Velasquez, the governor of Cuba.
+
+On this day was celebrated the feast of Huitzel, that was held with
+sacrifice, songs, and dances in the great court of the temple, that
+court which was surrounded by a wall carved over with the writhing
+shapes of snakes.  It chanced that on this morning before he went
+to join in the festival, Guatemoc, the prince, came to see me on a
+visit of ceremony.
+
+I asked him if he intended to take part in the feast, as the
+splendour of his apparel brought me to believe.
+
+'Yes,' he answered, 'but why do you ask?'
+
+'Because, were I you, Guatemoc, I would not go.  Say now, will the
+dancers be armed?'
+
+'No, it is not usual.'
+
+'They will be unarmed, Guatemoc, and they are the flower of the
+land.  Unarmed they will dance in yonder enclosed space, and the
+Teules will watch them armed.  Now, how would it be if these
+chanced to pick a quarrel with the nobles?'
+
+'I do not know why you should speak thus, Teule, for surely these
+white men are not cowardly murderers, still I take your words as an
+omen, and though the feast must be held, for see already the nobles
+gather, I will not share in it.'
+
+'You are wise, Guatemoc,' I said.  'I am sure that you are wise.'
+
+Afterwards Otomie, Guatemoc, and I went into the garden of the
+palace and sat upon the crest of a small pyramid, a teocalli in
+miniature that Montezuma had built for a place of outlook on the
+market and the courts of the temple.  From this spot we saw the
+dancing of the Aztec nobles, and heard the song of the musicians.
+It was a gay sight, for in the bright sunlight their feather
+dresses flashed like coats of gems, and none would have guessed how
+it was to end.  Mingling with the dancers were groups of Spaniards
+clad in mail and armed with swords and matchlocks, but I noted
+that, as the time went on, these men separated themselves from the
+Indians and began to cluster like bees about the gates and at
+various points under the shadow of the Wall of Serpents.
+
+'Now what may this mean?' I said to Guatemoc, and as I spoke, I saw
+a Spaniard wave a white cloth in the air.  Then, in an instant,
+before the cloth had ceased to flutter, a smoke arose from every
+side, and with it came the sound of the firing of matchlocks.
+Everywhere among the dancers men fell dead or wounded, but the mass
+of them, unharmed as yet, huddled themselves together like
+frightened sheep, and stood silent and terror-stricken.  Then the
+Spaniards, shouting the name of their patron saint, as it is their
+custom to do when they have some such wickedness in hand, drew
+their swords, and rushing on the unarmed Aztec nobles began to kill
+them.  Now some shrieked and fled, and some stood still till they
+were cut down, but whether they stayed or ran the end was the same,
+for the gates were guarded and the wall was too high to climb.
+There they were slaughtered every man of them, and may God, who
+sees all, reward their murderers!  It was soon over; within ten
+minutes of the waving of the cloth, those six hundred men were
+stretched upon the pavement dead or dying, and with shouts of
+victory the Spaniards were despoiling their corpses of the rich
+ornaments they had worn.
+
+Then I turned to Guatemoc and said, 'It seems that you did well not
+to join in yonder revel.'
+
+But Guatemoc made no answer.  He stared at the dead and those who
+had murdered them, and said nothing.  Only Otomie spoke: 'You
+Christians are a gentle people,' she said with a bitter laugh; 'it
+is thus that you repay our hospitality.  Now I trust that
+Montezuma, my father, is pleased with his guests.  Ah! were I he,
+every man of them should lie on the stone of sacrifice.  If our
+gods are devils as you say, what are those who worship yours?'
+
+Then at length Guatemoc said, 'Only one thing remains to us, and
+that is vengeance.  Montezuma has become a woman, and I heed him no
+more, nay, if it were needful, I would kill him with my own hand.
+But two men are still left in the land, Cuitlahua, my uncle, and
+myself.  Now I go to summon our armies.'  And he went.
+
+All that night the city murmured like a swarm of wasps, and next
+day at dawn, so far as the eye could reach, the streets and market
+place were filled with tens of thousands of armed warriors.  They
+threw themselves like a wave upon the walls of the palace of Axa,
+and like a wave from a rock they were driven back again by the fire
+of the guns.  Thrice they attacked, and thrice they were repulsed.
+Then Montezuma, the woman king, appeared upon the walls, praying
+them to desist because, forsooth, did they succeed, he himself
+might perish.  Even then they obeyed him, so great was their
+reverence for his sacred royalty, and for a while attacked the
+Spaniards no more.  But further than this they would not go.  If
+Montezuma forbade them to kill the Spaniards, at least they
+determined to starve them out, and from that hour a strait blockade
+was kept up against the palace.  Hundreds of the Aztec soldiers had
+been slain already, but the loss was not all upon their side, for
+some of the Spaniards and many of the Tlascalans had fallen into
+their hands.  As for these unlucky prisoners, their end was swift,
+for they were taken at once to the temples of the great teocalli,
+and sacrificed there to the gods in the sight of their comrades.
+
+Now it was that Cortes returned with many more men, for he had
+conquered Narvaez, whose followers joined the standard of Cortes,
+and with them others, one of whom I had good reason to know.
+Cortes was suffered to rejoin his comrades in the palace of Axa
+without attack, I do not know why, and on the following day
+Cuitlahua, Montezuma's brother, king of Palapan, was released by
+him that he might soothe the people.  But Cuitlahua was no coward.
+Once safe outside his prison walls, he called the council together,
+of whom the chief was Guatemoc.
+
+There they resolved on war to the end, giving it out that Montezuma
+had forfeited his kingdom by his cowardice, and on that resolve
+they acted.  Had it been taken but two short months before, by this
+date no Spaniard would have been left alive in Tenoctitlan.  For
+after Marina, the love of Cortes, whose subtle wit brought about
+his triumph, it was Montezuma who was the chief cause of his own
+fall, and of that of the kingdom of Anahuac.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+OTOMIE'S COUNSEL
+
+
+On the day after the return of Cortes to Mexico, before the hour of
+dawn I was awakened from my uneasy slumbers by the whistling cries
+of thousands of warriors and the sound of atabals and drums.
+
+Hurrying to my post of outlook on the little pyramid, where Otomie
+joined me, I saw that the whole people were gathered for war.  So
+far as the eye could reach, in square, market place, and street,
+they were massed in thousands and tens of thousands.  Some were
+armed with slings, some with bows and arrows, others with javelins
+tipped with copper, and the club set with spikes of obsidian that
+is called maqua, and yet others, citizens of the poorer sort, with
+stakes hardened in the fire.  The bodies of some were covered with
+golden coats of mail and mantles of featherwork, and their skulls
+protected by painted wooden helms, crested with hair, and fashioned
+like the heads of pumas, snakes, or wolves--others wore escaupils,
+or coats of quilted cotton, but the most of them were naked except
+for a cloth about the loins.  On the flat azoteas, or roofs of
+houses also, and even on the top of the teocalli of sacrifice, were
+bands of men whose part it was to rain missiles into the Spanish
+quarters.  It was a strange sight to see in that red sunrise, and
+one never to be forgotten, as the light flashed from temples and
+palace walls, on to the glittering feather garments and gay
+banners, the points of countless spears and the armour of the
+Spaniards, who hurried to and fro behind their battlements making
+ready their defence.
+
+So soon as the sun was up, a priest blew a shrill note upon a
+shell, which was answered by a trumpet call from the Spanish
+quarters.  Then with a shriek of rage the thousands of the Aztecs
+rushed to the attack, and the air grew dark with missiles.
+Instantly a wavering line of fire and smoke, followed by a sound as
+of thunder, broke from the walls of the palace of Axa, and the
+charging warriors fell like autumn leaves beneath the cannon and
+arquebuss balls of the Christians.
+
+For a moment they wavered and a great groan went up to heaven, but
+I saw Guatemoc spring forward, a banner in his hand, and forming up
+again they rushed after him.  Now they were beneath the wall of the
+palace, and the assault began.  The Aztecs fought furiously.  Time
+upon time they strove to climb the wall, piling up the bodies of
+the dead to serve them as ladders, and time upon time they were
+repulsed with cruel loss.  Failing in this, they set themselves to
+battering it down with heavy beams, but when the breach was made
+and they clustered in it like herded sheep, the cannon opened fire
+on them, tearing long lanes through their mass and leaving them
+dead by scores.  Then they took to the shooting of flaming arrows,
+and by this means fired the outworks, but the palace was of stone
+and would not burn.  Thus for twelve long hours the struggle raged
+unceasingly, till the sudden fall of darkness put an end to it, and
+the only sight to be seen was the flare of countless torches
+carried by those who sought out the dead, and the only sounds to be
+heard were the voice of women lamenting, and the groans of the
+dying.
+
+On the morrow the fight broke out again at dawn, when Cortes
+sallied forth with the greater part of his soldiers, and some
+thousands of his Tlascalan allies.  At first I thought that he
+aimed his attack at Montezuma's palace, and a breath of hope went
+through me, since then it might become possible for me to escape in
+the confusion.  But this was not so, his object being to set fire
+to the houses, from the flat roofs of which numberless missiles
+were hailed hourly upon his followers.  The charge was desperate
+and it succeeded, for the Indians could not withstand the shock of
+horsemen any more than their naked skins could turn the Spaniards'
+steel.  Presently scores of houses were in flames, and thick
+columns of smoke rolled up like those that float from the mouth of
+Popo.  But many of those who rode and ran from the gates of Axa did
+not come back thither, for the Aztecs clung to the legs of the
+horses and dragged their riders away living.  That very day these
+captives were sacrificed on the altar of Huitzel, and in the sight
+of their comrades, and with them a horse was offered up, which had
+been taken alive, and was borne and dragged with infinite labour up
+the steep sides of the pyramid.  Indeed never had the sacrifices
+been so many as during these days of combat.  All day long the
+altars ran red, and all day long the cries of the victims rang in
+my ears, as the maddened priests went about their work.  For thus
+they thought to please the gods who should give them victory over
+the Teules.
+
+Even at night the sacrifices continued by the light of the sacred
+fires, that from below gave those who wrought them the appearance
+of devils flitting through the flames of hell, and inflicting its
+torments on the damned, much as they are depicted in the 'Doom'
+painting of the resurrection of the dead that is over the chancel
+arch in this church of Ditchingham.  And hour by hour through the
+darkness, a voice called out threats and warnings to the Spaniards,
+saying, 'Huitzel is hungry for your blood, ye Teules, ye shall
+surely follow where ye have seen your fellows go: the cages are
+ready, the knives are sharp, and the irons are hot for the torture.
+Prepare, ye Teules, for though ye slay many, ye cannot escape.'
+
+Thus the struggle went on day after day, till thousands of the
+Aztecs were dead, and the Spaniards were well nigh worn out with
+hunger, war, and wounds, for they could not rest a single hour.  At
+length one morning, when the assault was at its hottest, Montezuma
+himself appeared upon the central tower of the palace, clad in
+splendid robes and wearing the diadem.  Before him stood heralds
+bearing golden wands, and about him were the nobles who attended
+him in his captivity, and a guard of Spaniards.  He stretched out
+his hand, and suddenly the fighting was stayed and a silence fell
+upon the place, even the wounded ceased from their groaning.  Then
+he addressed the multitude.  What he said I was too far off to
+hear, though I learned its purport afterwards.  He prayed his
+people to cease from war, for the Spaniards were his friends and
+guests and would presently leave the city of Tenoctitlan.  When
+these cowardly words had passed his lips, a fury took his subjects,
+who for long years had worshipped him as a god, and a shriek rent
+the air that seemed to say two words only:
+
+'Woman!  Traitor!'
+
+Then I saw an arrow rush upwards and strike the emperor, and after
+the arrow a shower of stones, so that he fell down there upon the
+tower roof.
+
+Now a voice cried, 'We have slain our king.  Montezuma is dead,'
+and instantly with a dreadful wailing the multitude fled this way
+and that, so that presently no living man could be seen where there
+had been thousands.
+
+I turned to comfort Otomie, who was watching at my side, and had
+seen her royal father fall, and led her weeping into the palace.
+Here we met Guatemoc, the prince, and his mien was fierce and wild.
+He was fully armed and carried a bow in his hand.
+
+'Is Montezuma dead?' I asked.
+
+'I neither know nor care,' he answered with a savage laugh, then
+added:
+
+'Now curse me, Otomie my cousin, for it was my arrow that smote him
+down, this king who has become a woman and a traitor, false to his
+manhood and his country.'
+
+Then Otomie ceased weeping and answered:
+
+'I cannot curse you, Guatemoc, for the gods have smitten my father
+with a madness as you smote him with your arrow, and it is best
+that he should die, both for his own sake and for that of his
+people.  Still, Guatemoc, I am sure of this, that your crime will
+not go unpunished, and that in payment for this sacrilege, you
+shall yourself come to a shameful death.'
+
+'It may be so,' said Guatemoc, 'but at least I shall not die
+betraying my trust;' and he went.
+
+
+Now I must tell that, as I believed, this was my last day on earth,
+for on the morrow my year of godhead expired, and I, Thomas
+Wingfield, should be led out to sacrifice.  Notwithstanding all the
+tumult in the city, the mourning for the dead and the fear that
+hung over it like a cloud, the ceremonies of religion and its
+feasts were still celebrated strictly, more strictly indeed than
+ever before.  Thus on this night a festival was held in my honour,
+and I must sit at the feast crowned with flowers and surrounded by
+my wives, while those nobles who remained alive in the city did me
+homage, and with them Cuitlahua, who, if Montezuma were dead, would
+now be emperor.  It was a dreary meal enough, for I could scarcely
+be gay though I strove to drown my woes in drink, and as for the
+guests, they had little jollity left in them.  Hundreds of their
+relatives were dead and with them thousands of the people; the
+Spaniards still held their own in the fortress, and that day they
+had seen their emperor, who to them was a god, smitten down by one
+of their own number, and above all they felt that doom was upon
+themselves.  What wonder that they were not merry?  Indeed no
+funeral feast could have been more sad, for flowers and wine and
+fair women do not make pleasure, and after all it was a funeral
+feast--for me.
+
+At length it came to an end and I fled to my own apartments,
+whither my three wives followed me, for Otomie did not come,
+calling me most happy and blessed who to-morrow should be with
+myself, that is with my own godhead, in heaven.  But I did not call
+them blessed, for, rising in wrath, I drove them away, saying that
+I had but one comfort left, and it was that wherever I might go I
+should leave them behind.
+
+Then I cast myself upon the cushions of my bed and mourned in my
+fear and bitterness of heart.  This was the end of the vengeance
+which I had sworn to wreak on de Garcia, that I myself must have my
+heart torn from my breast and offered to a devil.  Truly Fonseca,
+my benefactor, had spoken words of wisdom when he counselled me to
+take my fortune and forget my oath.  Had I done so, to-day I might
+have been my betrothed's husband and happy in her love at home in
+peaceful England, instead of what I was, a lost soul in the power
+of fiends and about to be offered to a fiend.  In the bitterness of
+the thought and the extremity of my anguish I wept aloud and prayed
+to my Maker that I might be delivered from this cruel death, or at
+the least that my sins should be forgiven me, so that to-morrow
+night I might rest at peace in heaven.
+
+Thus weeping and praying I sank into a half sleep, and dreamed that
+I walked on the hillside near the church path that runs through the
+garden of the Lodge at Ditchingham.  The whispers of the wind were
+in the trees which clothe the bank of the Vineyard Hills, the scent
+of the sweet English flowers was in my nostrils and the balmy air
+of June blew on my brow.  It was night in this dream of mine, and I
+thought that the moon shone sweetly on the meadows and the river,
+while from every side came the music of the nightingale.  But I was
+not thinking of these delightful sights and sounds, though they
+were present in my mind, for my eyes watched the church path which
+goes up the hill at the back of the house, and my heart listened
+for a footstep that I longed to hear.  Then there came a sound of
+singing from beyond the hill, and the words of the song were sad,
+for they told of one who had sailed away and returned no more, and
+presently between the apple trees I saw a white figure on its
+crest.  Slowly it came towards me and I knew that it was she for
+whom I waited, Lily my beloved.  Now she ceased to sing, but drew
+on gently and her face seemed very sad.  Moreover it was the face
+of a woman in middle life, but still most beautiful, more beautiful
+indeed than it had been in the bloom of youth.  She had reached the
+foot of the hill and was turning towards the little garden gate,
+when I came forward from the shadow of the trees, and stood before
+her.  Back she started with a cry of fear, then grew silent and
+gazed into my face.
+
+'So changed,' she murmured; 'can it be the same?  Thomas, is it you
+come back to me from the dead, or is this but a vision?' and slowly
+and doubtingly the dream wraith stretched out her arms as though to
+clasp me.
+
+Then I awoke.  I awoke and lo! before me stood a fair woman clothed
+in white, on whom the moonlight shone as in my dream, and her arms
+were stretched towards me lovingly.
+
+'It is I, beloved, and no vision,' I cried, springing from my bed
+and clasping her to my breast to kiss her.  But before my lips
+touched hers I saw my error, for she whom I embraced was not Lily
+Bozard, my betrothed, but Otomie, princess of the Otomie, who was
+called my wife.  Then I knew that this was the saddest and the most
+bitter of dreams that had been sent to mock me, for all the truth
+rushed into my mind.  Losing my hold of Otomie, I fell back upon
+the bed and groaned aloud, and as I fell I saw the flush of shame
+upon her brow and breast.  For this woman loved me, and thus my act
+and words were an insult to her, who could guess well what prompted
+them.  Still she spoke gently.
+
+'Pardon me, Teule, I came but to watch and not to waken you.  I
+came also that I may see you alone before the daybreak, hoping that
+I might be of service, or at the least, of comfort to you, for the
+end draws near.  Say then, in your sleep did you mistake me for
+some other woman dearer and fairer than I am, that you would have
+embraced me?'
+
+'I dreamed that you were my betrothed whom I love, and who is far
+away across the sea,' I answered heavily.  'But enough of love and
+such matters.  What have I to do with them who go down into
+darkness?'
+
+'In truth I cannot tell, Teule, still I have heard wise men say
+that if love is to be found anywhere, it is in this same darkness
+of death, that is light indeed.  Grieve not, for if there is truth
+in the faith of which you have told me or in our own, either on
+this earth or beyond it, with the eyes of the spirit you will see
+your dear before another sun is set, and I pray that you may find
+her faithful to you.  Tell me now, how much does she love you?
+Would SHE have lain by your side on the bed of sacrifice as, had
+things gone otherwise between us, Teule, it was my hope to do?'
+
+'No,' I answered, 'it is not the custom of our women to kill
+themselves because their husbands chance to die.'
+
+'Perhaps they think it better to live and wed again,' answered
+Otomie very quietly, but I saw her eyes flash and her breast heave
+in the moonlight as she spoke.
+
+'Enough of this foolish talk,' I said.  'Listen, Otomie; if you had
+cared for me truly, surely you would have saved me from this
+dreadful doom, or prevailed on Guatemoc to save me.  You are
+Montezuma's daughter, could you not have brought it about during
+all these months that he issued his royal mandate, commanding that
+I should be spared?'
+
+'Do you, then, take me for so poor a friend, Teule?' she answered
+hotly.  'Know that for all these months, by day and by night, I
+have worked and striven to find a means to rescue you.  Before he
+became a prisoner I importuned my father the emperor, till he
+ordered me from his presence.  I have sought to bribe the priests,
+I have plotted ways of escape, ay, and Guatemoc has helped, for he
+loves you.  Had it not been for the coming of these accursed
+Teules, and the war that they have levied in the city, I had surely
+saved you, for a woman's thought leaps far, and can find a path
+where none seems possible.  But this war has changed everything,
+and moreover the star-readers and diviners of auguries have given a
+prophecy which seals your fate.  For they have prophesied that if
+your blood flows, and your heart is offered at the hour of noon to-
+morrow on the altar of Tezcat, our people shall be victorious over
+the Teules, and utterly destroy them.  But if the sacrifice is
+celebrated one moment before or after that propitious hour, then
+the doom of Tenoctitlan is sealed.  Also they have declared that
+you must die, not, according to custom, at the Temple of Arms
+across the lake, but on the great pyramid before the chief statue
+of the god.  All this is known throughout the land; thousands of
+priests are now offering up prayers that the sacrifice may be
+fortunate, and a golden ring has been hung over the stone of
+slaughter in such a fashion that the light of the sun must strike
+upon the centre of your breast at the very moment of mid-day.  For
+weeks you have been watched as a jaguar watches its prey, for it
+was feared that you would escape to the Teules, and we, your wives,
+have been watched also.  At this moment there is a triple ring of
+guards about the palace, and priests are set without your doors and
+beneath the window places.  Judge, then, what chance there is of
+escape, Teule.'
+
+'Little indeed,' I said, 'and yet I know a road.  If I kill myself,
+they cannot kill me.'
+
+'Nay,' she answered hastily, 'what shall that avail you?  While you
+live you may hope, but once dead, you are dead for ever.  Also if
+you must die, it is best that you should die by the hand of the
+priest.  Believe me, though the end is horrible,' and she
+shuddered, 'it is almost painless, so they say, and very swift.
+They will not torture you, that we have saved you, Guatemoc and I,
+though at first they wished thus to honour the god more
+particularly on this great day.'
+
+'O Teule,' Otomie went on, seating herself by me on the bed, and
+taking my hand, 'think no more of these brief terrors, but look
+beyond them.  Is it so hard a thing to die, and swiftly?  We all
+must die, to-day, or to-night, or the next day, it matters little
+when--and your faith, like ours, teaches that beyond the grave is
+endless blessedness.  Think then, my friend, to-morrow you will
+have passed far from this strife and turmoil; the struggle and the
+sorrows and the daily fears for the future that make the soul sick
+will be over for you, you will be taken to your peace, where no one
+shall disturb you for ever.  There you will find that mother whom
+you have told me of, and who loved you, and there perhaps one will
+join you who loves you better than your mother, mayhap even I may
+meet you there, friend,' and she looked up at me strangely.  'The
+road that you are doomed to walk is dark indeed, but surely it must
+be well-trodden, and there is light shining beyond it.  So be a
+man, my friend, and do not grieve; rejoice rather that at so early
+an age you have done with woes and doubts, and come to the gates of
+joy, that you have passed the thorny, unwatered wilderness and see
+the smiling lakes and gardens, and among them the temples of your
+eternal city.
+
+'And now farewell.  We meet no more till the hour of sacrifice, for
+we women who masquerade as wives must accompany you to the first
+platforms of the temple.  Farewell, dear friend, and think upon my
+words; whether they are acceptable to you or no, I am sure of this,
+that both for the sake of your own honour and because I ask it of
+you, you will die bravely as though the eyes of your own people
+were watching all.'  And bending suddenly, Otomie kissed me on the
+forehead gently as a sister might, and was gone.
+
+The curtains swung behind her, but the echoes of her noble words
+still dwelt in my heart.  Nothing can make man look on death
+lovingly, and that awaiting me was one from which the bravest would
+shrink, yet I felt that Otomie had spoken truth, and that, terrible
+as it seemed, it might prove less terrible than life had shewn
+itself to be.  An unnatural calm fell upon my soul like some dense
+mist upon the face of the ocean.  Beneath that mist the waters
+might foam, above it the sun might shine, yet around was one grey
+peace.  In this hour I seemed to stand outside of my earthly self,
+and to look on all things with a new sense.  The tide of life was
+ebbing away from me, the shore of death loomed very near, and I
+understood then, as in extreme old age I understand to-day, how
+much more part we mortals have in death than in this short accident
+of life.  I could consider all my past, I could wonder on the
+future of my spirit, and even marvel at the gentleness and wisdom
+of the Indian woman, who was able to think such thoughts and utter
+them.
+
+Well, whatever befell, in one thing I would not disappoint her, I
+would die bravely as an Englishman should do, leaving the rest to
+God.  These barbarians should never say of me that the foreigner
+was a coward.  Who was I that I should complain?  Did not hundreds
+of men as good as I was perish daily in yonder square, and without
+a murmur?  Had not my mother died also at the hand of a murderer?
+Was not that unhappy lady, Isabella de Siguenza, walled up alive
+because she had been mad enough to love a villain who betrayed her?
+The world is full of terrors and sorrows such as mine, who was I
+that I should complain?
+
+
+So I mused on till at length the day dawned, and with the rising
+sun rose the clamour of men making ready for battle.  For now the
+fight raged from day to day, and this was to be one of the most
+terrible.  But I thought little then of the war between the Aztecs
+and the Spaniards, who must prepare myself for the struggle of my
+own death that was now at hand.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE KISS OF LOVE
+
+
+Presently there was a sound of music, and, accompanied by certain
+artists, my pages entered, bearing with them apparel more gorgeous
+than any that I had worn hitherto.  First, these pages having
+stripped me of my robes, the artists painted all my body in hideous
+designs of red, and white, and blue, till I resembled a flag, not
+even sparing my face and lips, which they coloured with carmine
+hues.  Over my heart also they drew a scarlet ring with much care
+and measurement.  Then they did up my hair that now hung upon my
+shoulders, after the fashion in which it was worn by generals among
+the Indians, tying it on the top of my head with an embroidered
+ribbon red in colour, and placed a plume of cock's feathers above
+it.  Next, having arrayed my body in gorgeous vestments not unlike
+those used by popish priests at the celebration of the mass, they
+set golden earrings in my ears, golden bracelets on my wrists and
+ankles, and round my neck a collar of priceless emeralds.  On my
+breast also they hung a great gem that gleamed like moonlit water,
+and beneath my chin a false beard made from pink sea shells.  Then
+having twined me round with wreaths of flowers till I thought of
+the maypole on Bungay Common, they rested from their labours,
+filled with admiration at their handiwork.
+
+Now the music sounded again and they gave me two lutes, one of
+which I must hold in either hand, and conducted me to the great
+hall of the palace.  Here a number of people of rank were gathered,
+all dressed in festal attire, and here also on a dais to which I
+was led, stood my four wives clad in the rich dresses of the four
+goddesses Xochi, Xilo, Atla, and Clixto, after whom they were named
+for the days of their wifehood, Atla being the princess Otomie.
+When I had taken my place upon the dais, my wives came forward one
+by one, and kissing me on the brow, offered me sweetmeats and meal
+cakes in golden platters, and cocoa and mescal in golden cups.  Of
+the mescal I drank, for it is a spirit and I needed inward comfort,
+but the other dainties I could not touch.  These ceremonies being
+finished, there was silence for a while, till presently a band of
+filthy priests entered at the far end of the chamber, clad in their
+scarlet sacrificial robes.  Blood was on them everywhere, their
+long locks were matted with it, their hands were red with it, even
+their fierce eyes seemed full of it.  They advanced up the chamber
+till they stood before the dais, then suddenly the head priest
+lifted up his hands, crying aloud:
+
+'Adore the immortal god, ye people,' and all those gathered there
+prostrated themselves shouting:
+
+'We adore the god.'
+
+Thrice the priest cried aloud, and thrice they answered him thus,
+prostrating themselves at every answer.  Then they rose again, and
+the priest addressed me, saying:
+
+'Forgive us, O Tezcat, that we cannot honour you as it is meet, for
+our sovereign should have been here to worship you with us.  But
+you know, O Tezcat, how sore is the strait of your servants, who
+must wage war in their own city against those who blaspheme you and
+your brother gods.  You know that our beloved emperor lies wounded,
+a prisoner in their unholy hands.  When we have gratified your
+longing to pass beyond the skies, O Tezcat, and when in your
+earthly person you have taught us the lesson that human prosperity
+is but a shadow which flees away; in memory of our love for you
+intercede for us, we beseech you, that we may smite these wicked
+ones and honour you and them by the rite of their own sacrifice.  O
+Tezcat, you have dwelt with us but a little while, and now you will
+not suffer that we hold you longer from your glory, for your eyes
+have longed to see this happy day, and it is come at last.  We have
+loved you, Tezcat, and ministered to you, grant in return that we
+may see you in your splendour, we who are your little children, and
+till we come, watch well over our earthly welfare, and that of the
+people among whom you have deigned to sojourn.'
+
+Having spoken some such words as these, that at times could
+scarcely be heard because of the sobbing of the people, and of my
+wives who wept loudly, except Otomie alone, this villainous priest
+made a sign and once more the music sounded.  Then he and his band
+placed themselves about me, my wives the goddesses going before and
+after, and led me down the hall and on to the gateways of the
+palace, which were thrown wide for us to pass.  Looking round me
+with a stony wonder, for in this my last hour nothing seemed to
+escape my notice, I saw that a strange play was being played about
+us.  Some hundreds of paces away the attack on the palace of Axa,
+where the Spaniards were entrenched, raged with fury.  Bands of
+warriors were attempting to scale the walls and being driven back
+by the deadly fire of the Spaniards and the pikes and clubs of
+their Tlascalan allies, while from the roofs of such of the
+neighbouring houses as remained unburned, and more especially from
+the platform of the great teocalli, on which I must presently give
+up the ghost, arrows, javelins, and stones were poured by thousands
+into the courtyards and outer works of the Spanish quarters.
+
+Five hundred yards away or so, raged this struggle to the death,
+but about me, around the gates of Montezuma's palace on the hither
+side of the square, was a different scene.  Here were gathered a
+vast crowd, among them many women and children, waiting to see me
+die.  They came with flowers in their hands, with the sound of
+music and joyous cries, and when they saw me they set up such a
+shout of welcome that it almost drowned the thunder of the guns and
+the angry roar of battle.  Now and again an ill-aimed cannon ball
+would plough through them, killing some and wounding others, but
+the rest took no heed, only crying the more, 'Welcome, Tezcat, and
+farewell.  Blessings on you, our deliverer, welcome and farewell!'
+
+We went slowly through the press, treading on a path of flowers,
+till we came across the courtyard to the base of the pyramid.  Here
+at the outer gate there was a halt because of the multitude of the
+people, and while we waited a warrior thrust his way through the
+crowd and bowed before me.  Glancing up I saw that it was Guatemoc.
+
+'Teule,' he whispered to me, 'I leave my charge yonder,' and he
+nodded towards the force who strove to break a way into the palace
+of Axa, 'to bid you farewell.  Doubtless we shall meet again ere
+long.  Believe me, Teule, I would have helped you if I could, but
+it cannot be.  I wish that I might change places with you.  My
+friend, farewell.  Twice you have saved my life, but yours I cannot
+save.'
+
+'Farewell, Guatemoc,' I answered 'heaven prosper you, for you are a
+true man.'
+
+Then we passed on.
+
+At the foot of the pyramid the procession was formed, and here one
+of my wives bade me adieu after weeping on my neck, though I did
+not weep on hers.  Now the road to the summit of the teocalli winds
+round and round the pyramid, ever mounting higher as it winds, and
+along this road we went in solemn state.  At each turn we halted
+and another wife bade me a last good-bye, or one of my instruments
+of music, which I did not grieve to see the last of, or some
+article of my strange attire, was taken from me.  At length after
+an hour's march, for our progress was slow, we reached the flat top
+of the pyramid that is approached by a great stair, a space larger
+than the area of the churchyard here at Ditchingham, and unfenced
+at its lofty edge.  Here on this dizzy place stood the temples of
+Huitzel and of Tezcat, soaring structures of stone and wood, within
+which were placed the horrid effigies of the gods, and dreadful
+chambers stained with sacrifice.  Here, too, were the holy fires
+that burned eternally, the sacrificial stones, the implements of
+torment, and the huge drum of snakes' skin, but for the rest the
+spot was bare.  It was bare but not empty, for on that side of it
+which looked towards the Spanish quarters were stationed some
+hundreds of men who hurled missiles into their camp without
+ceasing.  On the other side also were gathered a concourse of
+priests awaiting the ceremony of my death.  Below the great square,
+fringed round with burnt-out houses, was crowded with thousands of
+people, some of them engaged in combat with the Spaniards, but the
+larger part collected there to witness my murder.
+
+Now we reached the top of the pyramid, two hours before midday, for
+there were still many rites to be carried out ere the moment of
+sacrifice.  First I was led into the sanctuary of Tezcat, the god
+whose name I bore.  Here was his statue or idol, fashioned in black
+marble and covered with golden ornaments.  In the hand of this idol
+was a shield of burnished gold on which its jewelled eyes were
+fixed, reading there, as his priests fabled, all that passed upon
+the earth he had created.  Before him also was a plate of gold,
+which with muttered invocations the head priest cleansed as I
+watched, rubbing it with his long and matted locks.  This done he
+held it to my lips that I might breathe on it, and I turned faint
+and sick, for I knew that it was being made ready to receive the
+heart which I felt beating in my breast.
+
+Now what further ceremonies were to be carried out in this unholy
+place I do not know, for at that moment a great tumult arose in the
+square beneath, and I was hurried from the sanctuary by the
+priests.  Then I perceived this: galled to madness by the storm of
+missiles rained upon them from its crest, the Spaniards were
+attacking the teocalli.  Already they were pouring across the
+courtyard in large companies, led by Cortes himself, and with them
+came many hundreds of their allies the Tlascalans.  On the other
+hand some thousands of the Aztecs were rushing to the foot of the
+first stairway to give the white men battle there.  Five minutes
+passed and the fight grew fierce.  Again and again, covered by the
+fire of the arquebusiers, the Spaniards charged the Aztecs, but
+their horses slipping upon the stone pavement, at length they
+dismounted and continued the fray on foot.  Slowly and with great
+slaughter the Indians were pushed back and the Spaniards gained a
+footing on the first stairway.  But hundreds of warriors still
+crowded the lofty winding road, and hundreds more held the top, and
+it was plain that if the Spaniards won through at all, the task
+would be a hard one.  Still a fierce hope smote me like a blow when
+I saw what was toward.  If the Spaniards took the temple there
+would be no sacrifice.  No sacrifice could be offered till midday,
+so Otomie had told me, and that was not for hard upon two hours.
+It came to this then, if the Spaniards were victorious within two
+hours, there was a chance of life for me, if not I must die.
+
+Now when I was led out of the sanctuary of Tezcat, I wondered
+because the princess Otomie, or rather the goddess Atla as she was
+then called, was standing among the chief priests and disputing
+with them, for I had seen her bow her head at the door of the holy
+place, and thought that it was in token of farewell, seeing that
+she was the last of the four women to leave me.  Of what she
+disputed I could not hear because of the din of battle, but the
+argument was keen and it seemed to me that the priests were
+somewhat dismayed at her words, and yet had a fierce joy in them.
+It appeared also that she won her cause, for presently they bowed
+in obeisance to her, and turning slowly she swept to my side with a
+peculiar majesty of gait that even then I noted.  Glancing up at
+her face also, I saw that it was alight as though with a great and
+holy purpose, and moreover that she looked like some happy bride
+passing to her husband's arms.
+
+'Why are you not gone, Otomie?' I said.  'Now it is too late.  The
+Spaniards surround the teocalli and you will be killed or taken
+prisoner.'
+
+'I await the end whatever it may be,' she answered briefly, and we
+spoke no more for a while, but watched the progress of the fray,
+which was fierce indeed.  Grimly the Aztec warriors fought before
+the symbols of their gods, and in the sight of the vast concourse
+of the people who crowded the square beneath and stared at the
+struggle in silence.  They hurled themselves upon the Spanish
+swords, they gripped the Spaniards with their hands and screaming
+with rage dragged them to the steep sides of the roadway, purposing
+to cast them over.  Sometimes they succeeded, and a ball of men
+clinging together would roll down the slope and be dashed to pieces
+on the stone flooring of the courtyard, a Spaniard being in the
+centre of the ball.  But do what they would, like some vast and
+writhing snake, still the long array of Teules clad in their
+glittering mail ploughed its way upward through the storm of spears
+and arrows.  Minute by minute and step by step they crept on,
+fighting as men fight who know the fate that awaits the desecrators
+of the gods of Anahuac, fighting for life, and honour, and safety
+from the stone of sacrifice.  Thus an hour went by, and the
+Spaniards were half way up the pyramid.  Louder and louder grew the
+fearful sounds of battle, the Spaniards cheered and called on their
+patron saints to aid them, the Aztecs yelled like wild beasts, the
+priests screamed invocations to their gods and cries of
+encouragement to the warriors, while above all rose the rattle of
+the arquebusses, the roar of the cannon, and the fearful note of
+the great drum of snake's skin on which a half-naked priest beat
+madly.  Only the multitudes below never moved, nor shouted.  They
+stood silent gazing upward, and I could see the sunlight flash on
+the thousands of their staring eyes.
+
+Now all this while I was standing near the stone of sacrifice with
+Otomie at my side.  Round me were a ring of priests, and over the
+stone was fixed a square of black cloth supported upon four poles,
+which were set in sockets in the pavement.  In the centre of this
+black cloth was sewn a golden funnel measuring six inches or so
+across at its mouth, and the sunbeams passing through this funnel
+fell in a bright patch, the size of an apple, upon the space of
+pavement that was shaded by the cloth.  As the sun moved in the
+heavens, so did this ring of light creep across the shadow till at
+length it climbed the stone of sacrifice and lay upon its edge.
+
+Then at a sign from the head priest, his ministers laid hold of me
+and plucked what were left of my fine clothes from me as cruel boys
+pluck a living bird, till I stood naked except for the paint upon
+my body and a cloth about my loins.  Now I knew that my hour had
+come, and strange to tell, for the first time this day courage
+entered into me, and I rejoiced to think that soon I should have
+done with my tormentors.  Turning to Otomie I began to bid her
+farewell in a clear voice, when to my amaze I saw that as I had
+been served so she was being served, for her splendid robes were
+torn off her and she stood before me arrayed in nothing except her
+beauty, her flowing hair, and a broidered cotton smock.
+
+'Do not wonder, Teule,' she said in a low voice, answering the
+question my tongue refused to frame, 'I am your wife and yonder is
+our marriage bed, the first and last.  Though you do not love me,
+to-day I die your death and at your side, as I have the right to
+do.  I could not save you, Teule, but at least I can die with you.'
+
+At the moment I made no answer, for I was stricken silent by my
+wonder, and before I could find my tongue the priests had cast me
+down, and for the second time I lay upon the stone of doom.  As
+they held me a yell fiercer and longer than any which had gone
+before, told that the Spaniards had got foot upon the last stair of
+the ascent.  Scarcely had my body been set upon the centre of the
+great stone, when that of Otomie was laid beside it, so close that
+our sides touched, for I must lie in the middle of the stone and
+there was no great place for her.  Then the moment of sacrifice not
+being come, the priests made us fast with cords which they knotted
+to copper rings in the pavement, and turned to watch the progress
+of the fray.
+
+For some minutes we lay thus side by side, and as we lay a great
+wonder and gratitude grew in my heart, wonder that a woman could be
+so brave, gratitude for the love she gave me, sealing it with her
+life-blood.  Because Otomie loved me she had chosen this fearful
+death, because she loved me so well that she desired to die thus at
+my side rather than to live on in greatness and honour without me.
+Of a sudden, in a moment while I thought of this marvel, a new
+light shone upon my heart and it was changed towards her.  I felt
+that no woman could ever be so dear to me as this glorious woman,
+no, not even my betrothed.  I felt--nay, who can say what I did
+feel?  But I know this, that the tears rushed to my eyes and ran
+down my painted face, and I turned my head to look at her.  She was
+lying as much upon her left side as her hands would allow, her long
+hair fell from the stone to the paving where it lay in masses, and
+her face was towards me.  So close was it indeed that there was not
+an inch between our lips.
+
+'Otomie,' I whispered, 'listen to me.  I love you, Otomie.'  Now I
+saw her breast heave beneath the bands and the colour come upon her
+brow.
+
+'Then I am repaid,' she answered, and our lips clung together in a
+kiss, the first, and as we thought the last.  Yes, there we kissed,
+on the stone of sacrifice, beneath the knife of the priest and the
+shadow of death, and if there has been a stranger love scene in the
+world, I have never heard its story.
+
+'Oh! I am repaid,' she said again; 'I would gladly die a score of
+deaths to win this moment, indeed I pray that I may die before you
+take back your words.  For, Teule, I know well that there is one
+who is dearer to you than I am, but now your heart is softened by
+the faithfulness of an Indian girl, and you think that you love
+her.  Let me die then believing that the dream is true.'
+
+'Talk not so,' I answered heavily, for even at that moment the
+memory of Lily came into my mind.  'You give your life for me and I
+love you for it.'
+
+'My life is nothing and your love is much,' she answered smiling.
+'Ah! Teule, what magic have you that you can bring me, Montezuma's
+daughter, to the altar of the gods and of my own free will?  Well,
+I desire no softer bed, and for the why and wherefore it will soon
+be known by both of us, and with it many other things.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE TRIUMPH OF THE CROSS
+
+
+'Otomie,' I said presently, 'when will they kill us?'
+
+'When the point of light lies within the ring that is painted over
+your heart,' she answered.
+
+Now I turned my head from her, and looked at the sunbeam which
+pierced the shadow above us like a golden pencil.  It rested at my
+side about six inches from me, and I reckoned that it would lie in
+the scarlet ring painted upon my breast within some fifteen
+minutes.  Meanwhile the clamour of battle grew louder and nearer.
+Shifting myself so far as the cords would allow, I strained my head
+upwards and saw that the Spaniards had gained the crest of the
+pyramid, since the battle now raged upon its edge, and I have
+rarely seen so terrible a fight, for the Aztecs fought with the
+fury of despair, thinking little of their own lives if they could
+only bring a Spaniard to his death.  But for the most part their
+rude weapons would not pierce the coats of mail, so that there
+remained only one way to compass their desire, namely, by casting
+the white men over the edge of the teocalli to be crushed like
+eggshells upon the pavement two hundred feet below.  Thus the fray
+broke itself up into groups of foes who rent and tore at each other
+upon the brink of the pyramid, now and again to vanish down its
+side, ten or twelve of them together.  Some of the priests also
+joined in the fight, thinking less of their own deaths than of the
+desecration of their temples, for I saw one of them, a man of huge
+strength and stature, seize a Spanish soldier round the middle and
+leap with him into space.  Still, though very slowly, the Spaniards
+and Tlascalans forced their way towards the centre of the platform,
+and as they came the danger of this dreadful end grew less, for the
+Aztecs must drag them further.
+
+Now the fight drew near to the stone of sacrifice, and all who
+remained alive of the Aztecs, perhaps some two hundred and fifty of
+them, besides the priests, ringed themselves round us and it in a
+circle.  Also the outer rim of the sunbeam that fell through the
+golden funnel, creeping on remorselessly, touched my painted side
+which it seemed to burn as hot iron might, for alas, I could not
+command the sun to stand still while the battle raged, as did
+Joshua in the valley of Ajalon.  When it touched me, five priests
+seized my limbs and head, and the father of them, he who had
+conducted me from the palace, clasped his flint knife in both
+hands.  Now a deathly sickness took me and I shut my eyes dreaming
+that all was done, but at that moment I heard a wild-eyed man, the
+chief of the astronomers whom I had noted standing by, call out to
+the minister of death:
+
+'Not yet, O priest of Tezeat!  If you smite before the sunbeam lies
+upon the victim's heart, your gods are doomed and doomed are the
+people of Anahuac.'
+
+The priest gnashed his teeth with rage, and glared first at the
+creeping point of light and then over his shoulder at the advancing
+battle.  Slowly the ring of warriors closed in upon us, slowly the
+golden ray crept up my breast till its outer rim touched the red
+circle painted upon my heart.  Again the priest heaved up his awful
+knife, again I shut my eyes, and again I heard the shrill scream of
+the astronomer, 'Not yet, not yet, or your gods are doomed!'
+
+Then I heard another sound.  It was the voice of Otomie crying for
+help.
+
+'Save us, Teules; they murder us!' she shrieked in so piercing a
+note that it reached the ears of the Spaniards, for one shouted in
+answer and in the Castilian tongue, 'On, my comrades, on!  The dogs
+do murder on their altars!'
+
+Then there was a mighty rush and the defending Aztecs were swept in
+upon the altar, lifting the priest of sacrifice from his feet and
+throwing him across my body.  Thrice that rush came like a rush of
+the sea, and each time the stand of the Aztecs weakened.  Now their
+circle was broken and the swords of the Spaniards flashed up on
+every side, and now the red ray lay within the ring upon my heart.
+
+'Smite, priest of Tezcat,' screamed the voice of the astronomer;
+'smite home for the glory of your gods!'
+
+With a fearful yell the priest lifted the knife; I saw the golden
+sunbeam that rested full upon my heart shine on it.  Then as it was
+descending I saw the same sunbeam shine upon a yard of steel that
+flashed across me and lost itself in the breast of the murderer
+priest.  Down came the great flint knife, but its aim was lost.  It
+struck indeed, but not upon my bosom, though I did not escape it
+altogether.  Full upon the altar of sacrifice it fell and was
+shattered there, piercing between my side and that of Otomie, and
+gashing the flesh of both so that our blood was mingled upon the
+stone, making us one indeed.  Down too came the priest across our
+bodies for the second time, but to rise no more, for he writhed
+dying on those whom he would have slain.
+
+Then as in a dream I heard the wail of the astronomer singing the
+dirge of the gods of Anahuac.
+
+'The priest is dead and his gods are fallen,' he cried.  'Tezcat
+has rejected his victim and is fallen; doomed are the gods of
+Anahuac!  Victory is to the Cross of the Christians!'
+
+Thus he wailed, then came the sound of sword blows and I knew that
+this prophet was dead also.
+
+Now a strong arm pulled the dying priest from off us, and he
+staggered back till he fell over the altar where the eternal fire
+burned, quenching it with his blood and body after it had flared
+for many generations, and a knife cut the rope that bound us.
+
+I sat up staring round me wildly, and a voice spoke above me in
+Castilian, not to me indeed but to some comrade.
+
+'These two went near to it, poor devils,' said the voice.  'Had my
+cut been one second later, that savage would have drilled a hole in
+him as big as my head.  By all the saints! the girl is lovely, or
+would be if she were washed.  I shall beg her of Cortes as my
+prize.'
+
+The voice spoke and I knew the voice.  None other ever had that
+hard clear ring.  I knew it even then and looked up, slipping off
+the death-stone as I looked.  Now I saw.  Before me fully clad in
+mail was my enemy, de Garcia.  It was HIS sword that by the good
+providence of God had pierced the breast of the priest.  He had
+saved me who, had he known, would as soon have turned his steel
+against his own heart as on that of my destroyer.
+
+I gazed at him, wondering if I dreamed, then my lips spoke, without
+my will as it were:
+
+'DE GARCIA!'
+
+He staggered back at the sound of my voice, like a man struck by a
+shot, then stared at me, rubbed his eyes with his hand, and stared
+again.  Now at length he knew me through my paint.
+
+'Mother of God!' he gasped, 'it is that knave Thomas Wingfield, AND
+I HAVE SAVED HIS LIFE!'
+
+By this time my senses had come back to me, and knowing all my
+folly, I turned seeking escape.  But de Garcia had no mind to
+suffer this.  Lifting his sword, he sprang at me with a beastlike
+scream of rage and hate.  Swiftly as thought I slipped round the
+stone of sacrifice and after me came the uplifted sword of my
+enemy.  It would have overtaken me soon enough, for I was weak with
+fear and fasting, and my limbs were cramped with bonds, but at that
+moment a cavalier whom by his dress and port I guessed to be none
+other than Cortes himself, struck up de Garcia's sword, saying:
+
+'How now, Sarceda?  Are you mad with the lust of blood that you
+would take to sacrificing victims like an Indian priest?  Let the
+poor devil go.'
+
+'He is no Indian, he is an English spy,' cried de Garcia, and once
+more struggled to get at me.
+
+'Decidedly our friend is mad,' said Cortes, scanning me; 'he says
+that this wretched creature is an Englishman.  Come, be off both of
+you, or somebody else may make the same mistake,' and he waved his
+sword in token to us to go, deeming that I could not understand his
+words; then added angrily, as de Garcia, speechless with rage, made
+a new attempt to get at me:
+
+'No, by heaven!  I will not suffer it.  We are Christians and come
+to save victims, not to slay them.  Here, comrades, hold this fool
+who would stain his soul with murder.'
+
+Now the Spaniards clutched de Garcia by the arms, and he cursed and
+raved at them, for as I have said, his rage was that of a beast
+rather than of a man.  But I stood bewildered, not knowing whither
+to fly.  Fortunate it was for me indeed that one was by who though
+she understood no Spanish, yet had a quicker wit.  For while I
+stood thus, Otomie clasped my hand, and whispering, 'Fly, fly
+swiftly!' led me away from the stone of sacrifice.
+
+'Whither shall we go?' I said at length.  'Were it not better to
+trust to the mercy of the Spaniards?'
+
+'To the mercy of that man-devil with the sword?' she answered.
+'Peace, Teule, and follow me.'
+
+Now she led me on, and the Spaniards let us by unharmed, ay, and
+even spoke words of pity as we passed, for they knew that we were
+victims snatched from sacrifice.  Indeed, when a certain brute, a
+Tlascalan Indian, rushed at us, purposing to slay us with a club,
+one of the Spaniards ran him through the shoulder so that he fell
+wounded to the pavement.
+
+So we went on, and at the edge of the pyramid we glanced back and
+saw that de Garcia had broken from those who held him, or perhaps
+he found his tongue and had explained the truth to them.  At the
+least he was bounding from the altar of sacrifice nearly fifty
+yards away, and coming towards us with uplifted sword.  Then fear
+gave us strength, and we fled like the wind.  Along the steep path
+we rushed side by side, leaping down the steps and over the
+hundreds of dead and dying, only pausing now and again to save
+ourselves from being smitten into space by the bodies of the
+priests whom the Spaniards were hurling from the crest of the
+teocalli.  Once looking up, I caught sight of de Garcia pursuing
+far above us, but after that we saw him no more; doubtless he
+wearied of the chase, or feared to fall into the hands of such of
+the Aztec warriors as still clustered round the foot of the
+pyramid.
+
+We had lived through many dangers that day, the princess Otomie and
+I, but one more awaited us before ever we found shelter for awhile.
+After we had reached the foot of the pyramid and turned to mingle
+with the terrified rabble that surged and flowed through the
+courtyard of the temple, bearing away the dead and wounded as the
+sea at flood reclaims its waste and wreckage, a noise like thunder
+caught my ear.  I looked up, for the sound came from above, and saw
+a huge mass bounding down the steep side of the pyramid.  Even then
+I knew it again; it was the idol of the god Tezcat that the
+Spaniards had torn from its shrine, and like an avenging demon it
+rushed straight on to me.  Already it was upon us, there was no
+retreat from instant death, we had but escaped sacrifice to the
+spirit of the god to be crushed to powder beneath the bulk of his
+marble emblem.  On he came while on high the Spaniards shouted in
+triumph.  His base had struck the stone side of the pyramid fifty
+feet above us, now he whirled round and round in the air to strike
+again within three paces of where we stood.  I felt the solid
+mountain shake beneath the blow, and next instant the air was
+filled with huge fragments of marble, that whizzed over us and past
+us as though a mine of powder had been fired beneath our feet,
+tearing the rocks from their base.  The god Tezcat had burst into a
+score of pieces, and these fell round us like a flight of arrows,
+and yet we were not touched.  My head was grazed by his head, his
+feet dug a pit before my feet, but I stood there unhurt, the false
+god had no power over the victim who had escaped him!
+
+After that I remember nothing till I found myself once more in my
+apartments in Montezuma's palace, which I never hoped to see again.
+Otomie was by me, and she brought me water to wash the paint from
+my body and the blood from my wound, which, leaving her own
+untended, she dressed skilfully, for the cut of the priest's knife
+was deep and I had bled much.  Also she clothed herself afresh in a
+white robe and brought me raiment to wear, with food and drink, and
+I partook of them.  Then I bade her eat something herself, and when
+she had done so I gathered my wits together and spoke to her.
+
+'What next?' I said.  'Presently the priests will be on us, and we
+shall be dragged back to sacrifice.  There is no hope for me here,
+I must fly to the Spaniards and trust to their mercy.'
+
+'To the mercy of that man with the sword?  Say, Teule, who is he?'
+
+'He is that Spaniard of whom I have spoken to you, Otomie; he is my
+mortal enemy whom I have followed across the seas.'
+
+'And now you would put yourself into his power.  Truly, you are
+foolish, Teule.'
+
+'It is better to fall into the hands of Christian men than into
+those of your priests,' I answered.
+
+'Have no fear,' she said; 'the priests are harmless for you.  You
+have escaped them and there's an end.  Few have ever come alive
+from their clutches before, and he who does so is a wizard indeed.
+For the rest I think that your God is stronger than our gods, for
+surely He must have cast His mantle over us when we lay yonder on
+the stone.  Ah! Teule, to what have you brought me that I should
+live to doubt my gods, ay, and to call upon the foes of my country
+for succour in your need.  Believe me, I had not done it for my own
+sake, since I would have died with your kiss upon my lips and your
+word of love echoing in my ears, who now must live knowing that
+these joys have passed from me.'
+
+'How so?' I answered.  'What I have said, I have said.  Otomie, you
+would have died with me, and you saved my life by your wit in
+calling on the Spaniards.  Henceforth it is yours, for there is no
+other woman in the world so tender and so brave, and I say it
+again, Otomie, my wife, I love you.  Our blood has mingled on the
+stone of sacrifice and there we kissed; let these be our marriage
+rites.  Perhaps I have not long to live, but till I die I am yours,
+Otomie my wife.'
+
+Thus I spoke from the fulness of my heart, for my strength and
+courage were shattered, horror and loneliness had taken hold of me.
+But two things were left to me in the world, my trust in Providence
+and the love of this woman, who had dared so much for me.
+Therefore I forgot my troth and clung to her as a child clings to
+its mother.  Doubtless it was wrong, but I will be bold to say that
+few men so placed would have acted otherwise.  Moreover, I could
+not take back the fateful words that I had spoken on the stone of
+sacrifice.  When I said them I was expecting death indeed, but to
+renounce them now that its shadow was lifted from me, if only for a
+little while, would have been the act of a coward.  For good or
+evil I had given myself to Montezuma's daughter, and I must abide
+by it or be shamed.  Still such was the nobleness of this Indian
+lady that even then she would not take me at my word.  For a little
+while she stood smiling sadly and drawing a lock of her long hair
+through the hollow of her hand.  Then she spoke:
+
+'You are not yourself, Teule, and I should be base indeed if I made
+so solemn a compact with one who does not know what he sells.
+Yonder on the altar and in a moment of death you said that you
+loved me, and doubtless it was true.  But now you have come back to
+life, and say, lord, who set that golden ring upon your hand and
+what is written in its circle?  Yet even if the words are true that
+you have spoken and you love me a little, there is one across the
+sea whom you love better.  That I could bear, for my heart is fixed
+on you alone among men, and at the least you would be kind to me,
+and I should move in the sunlight of your presence.  But having
+known the light, I cannot live to wander in the darkness.  You do
+not understand.  I will tell you what I fear.  I fear that if--if
+we were wed, you would weary of me as men do, and that memory would
+grow too strong for you.  Then by and by it might be possible for
+you to find your way back across the waters to your own land and
+your own love, and so you would desert me, Teule.  This is what I
+could not bear, Teule.  I can forego you now, ay, and remain your
+friend.  But I cannot be put aside like a dancing girl, the
+companion of a month, I, Montezuma's daughter, a lady of my own
+land.  Should you wed me, it must be for my life, Teule, and that
+is perhaps more than you would wish to promise, though you could
+kiss me on yonder stone and there is blood fellowship between us,'
+and she glanced at the red stain in the linen robe that covered the
+wound upon her side.
+
+'And now, Teule, I leave you a while, that I may find Guatemoc, if
+he still lives, and others who, now that the strength of the
+priests is shattered, have power to protect you and advance you to
+honour.  Think then on all that I have said, and do not be hasty to
+decide.  Or would you make an end at once and fly to the white men
+if I can find a means of escape?'
+
+'I am too weary to fly anywhere,' I answered, 'even if I could.
+Moreover, I forget.  My enemy is among the Spaniards, he whom I
+have sworn to kill, therefore his friends are my foes and his foes
+my friends.  I will not fly, Otomie.'
+
+'There you are wise,' she said, 'for if you come among the Teules
+that man will murder you; by fair means or foul he will murder you
+within a day, I saw it in his eyes.  Now rest while I seek your
+safety, if there is any safety in this blood-stained land.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THOMAS IS MARRIED
+
+
+Otomie turned and went.  I watched the golden curtains close behind
+her; then I sank back upon the couch and instantly was lost in
+sleep, for I was faint and weak, and so dazed with weariness, that
+at the time I scarcely knew what had happened, or the purpose of
+our talk.  Afterwards, however, it came back to me.  I must have
+slept for many hours, for when I awoke it was far on into the
+night.  It was night but not dark, for through the barred window
+places came the sound of tumult and fighting, and red rays of light
+cast by the flames of burning houses.  One of these windows was
+above my couch, and standing on the bed I seized the sill with my
+hands.  With much pain, because of the flesh wound in my side, I
+drew myself up till I could look through the bars.  Then I saw that
+the Spaniards, not content with the capture of the teocalli, had
+made a night attack and set fire to hundreds of houses in the city.
+The glare of the flames was that of a lurid day, and by it I could
+see the white men retreating to their quarters, pursued by
+thousands of Aztecs, who hung upon their flanks, shooting at them
+with stones and arrows.
+
+Now I dropped down from the window place and began to think as to
+what I should do, for again my mind was wavering.  Should I desert
+Otomie and escape to the Spaniards if that were possible, taking my
+chance of death at the hands of de Garcia?  Or should I stay among
+the Aztecs if they would give me shelter, and wed Otomie?  There
+was a third choice, indeed, to stay with them and leave Otomie
+alone, though it would be difficult to do this and keep my honour.
+One thing I understood, if I married Otomie it must be at her own
+price, for then I must become an Indian and give over all hope of
+returning to England and to my betrothed.  Of this, indeed, there
+was little chance, still, while my life remained to me, it might
+come about if I was free.  But once my hands were tied by this
+marriage it could never be during Otomie's lifetime, and so far as
+Lily Bozard was concerned I should be dead.  How could I be thus
+faithless to her memory and my troth, and on the other hand, how
+could I discard the woman who had risked all for me, and who, to
+speak truth, had grown so dear to me, though there was one yet
+dearer?  A hero or an angel might find a path out of this tangle,
+but alas! I was neither the one nor the other, only a man afflicted
+as other men are with human weakness, and Otomie was at hand, and
+very sweet and fair.  Still, almost I determined that I would avail
+myself of her nobleness, that I would go back upon my words, and
+beg her to despise me and see me no more, in order that I might not
+be forced to break the troth that I had pledged beneath the beech
+at Ditchingham.  For I greatly dreaded this oath of life-long
+fidelity which I should be forced to swear if I chose any other
+path.
+
+Thus I thought on in pitiable confusion of mind, not knowing that
+all these matters were beyond my ordering, since a path was already
+made ready to my feet, which I must follow or die.  And let this be
+a proof of the honesty of my words, since, had I been desirous of
+glozing the truth, I need have written nothing of these struggles
+of conscience, and of my own weakness.  For soon it was to come to
+this, though not by her will, that I must either wed Otomie or die
+at once, and few would blame me for doing the first and not the
+last.  Indeed, though I did wed her, I might still have declared
+myself to my affianced and to all the world as a slave of events
+from which there was no escape.  But it is not all the truth, since
+my mind was divided, and had it not been settled for me, I cannot
+say how the struggle would have ended.
+
+Now, looking back on the distant past, and weighing my actions and
+character as a judge might do, I can see, however, that had I found
+time to consider, there was another matter which would surely have
+turned the scale in favour of Otomie.  De Garcia was among the
+Spaniards, and my hatred of de Garcia was the ruling passion of my
+life, a stronger passion even than my love for the two dear women
+who have been its joy.  Indeed, though he is dead these many years
+I still hate him, and evil though the desire be, even in my age I
+long that my vengeance was still to wreak.  While I remained among
+the Aztecs de Garcia would be their enemy and mine, and I might
+meet him in war and kill him there.  But if I succeeded in reaching
+the Spanish camp, then it was almost sure that he would bring about
+my instant death.  Doubtless he had told such a tale of me already,
+that within an hour I should be hung as a spy, or otherwise made
+away with.
+
+But I will cease from these unprofitable wonderings which have but
+one value, that of setting out my strange necessity of choice
+between an absent and a present love, and go on with the story of
+an event in which there was no room to balance scruples.
+
+
+While I sat musing on the couch the curtain was drawn, and a man
+entered bearing a torch.  It was Guatemoc as he had come from the
+fray, which, except for its harvest of burning houses, was finished
+for that night.  The plumes were shorn from his head, his golden
+armour was hacked by the Spanish swords, and he bled from a shot
+wound in the neck.
+
+'Greeting, Teule,' he said.  'Certainly I never thought to see you
+alive to-night, or myself either for that matter.  But it is a
+strange world, and now, if never before in Tenoctitlan, those
+things happen for which we look the least.  But I have no time for
+words.  I came to summon you before the council.'
+
+'What is to be my fate?' I asked.  'To be dragged back to the stone
+of sacrifice?'
+
+'Nay, have no fear of that.  But for the rest I cannot say.  In an
+hour you may be dead or great among us, if any of us can be called
+great in these days of shame.  Otomie has worked well for you among
+the princes and the counsellors, so she says, and if you have a
+heart, you should be grateful to her, for it seems to me that few
+women have loved a man so much.  As for me, I have been employed
+elsewhere,' and he glanced at his rent armour, 'but I will lift up
+my voice for you.  Now come, friend, for the torch burns low.  By
+this time you must be well seasoned in dangers; one more or less
+will matter as little to you as to me.'
+
+Then I rose and followed him into the great cedar-panelled hall,
+where that very morning I had received adoration as a god.  Now I
+was a god no longer, but a prisoner on trial for his life.  Upon
+the dais where I had stood in the hour of my godhead were gathered
+those of the princes and counsellors who were left alive.  Some of
+them, like Guatemoc, were clad in rent and bloody mail, others in
+their customary dress, and one in a priest's robe.  They had only
+two things in common among them, the sternness of their faces and
+the greatness of their rank, and they sat there this night not to
+decide my fate, which was but a little thing, but to take counsel
+as to how they might expel the Spaniards before the city was
+destroyed.
+
+When I entered, a man in mail, who sat in the centre of the half
+circle, and in whom I knew Cuitlahua, who would be emperor should
+Montezuma die, looked up quickly and said:
+
+'Who is this, Guatemoc, that you bring with you?  Ah! I remember;
+the Teule that was the god Tezcat, and who escaped the sacrifice
+to-day.  Listen, nobles.  What is to be done with this man?  Say,
+is it lawful that he be led back to sacrifice?'
+
+Then the priest answered: 'I grieve to say that it is not lawful
+most noble prince.  This man has lain on the altar of the god, he
+has even been wounded by the holy knife.  But the god rejected him
+in a fateful hour, and he must lie there no more.  Slay him if you
+will, but not upon the stone of sacrifice.'
+
+'What then shall be done with him?' said the prince again.
+
+'He is of the blood of the Teules, and therefore an enemy.  One
+thing is certain; he must not be suffered to join the white devils
+and give them tidings of our distresses.  Is it not best that he be
+put away forthwith?'
+
+Now several of the council nodded their heads, but others sat
+silent, making no sign.
+
+'Come,' said Cuitlahua, 'we have no time to waste over this man
+when the lives of thousands are hourly at stake.  The question is,
+Shall the Teule be slain?'
+
+Then Guatemoc rose and spoke, saying: 'Your pardon, noble kinsman,
+but I hold that we may put this prisoner to better use than to kill
+him.  I know him well; he is brave and loyal, as I have proved,
+moreover, he is not all a Teule, but half of another race that
+hates them as he hates them.  Also he has knowledge of their
+customs and mode of warfare, which we lack, and I think that he may
+be able to give us good counsel in our strait.'
+
+'The counsel of the wolf to the deer perhaps,' said Cuitlahua,
+coldly; 'counsel that shall lead us to the fangs of the Teules.
+Who shall answer for this foreign devil, that he will not betray us
+if we trust him?'
+
+'I will answer with my life,' answered Guatemoc.
+
+'Your life is of too great worth to be set on such a stake, nephew.
+Men of this white breed are liars, and his own word is of no value
+even if he gives it.  I think that it will be best to kill him and
+have done with doubts.'
+
+'This man is wed to Otomie, princess of the Otomie, Montezuma's
+daughter, your niece,' said Guatemoc again, 'and she loves him so
+well that she offered herself upon the stone of sacrifice with him.
+Unless I mistake she will answer for him also.  Shall she be
+summoned before you?'
+
+'If you wish, nephew; but a woman in love is a blind woman, and
+doubtless he has deceived her also.  Moreover, she was his wife
+according to the rule of religion only.  Is it your desire that the
+princess should be summoned before you, comrades?'
+
+Now some said nay, but the most, those whose interest Otomie had
+gained, said yea, and the end of it was that one of their number
+was sent to summon her.
+
+Presently she came, looking very weary, but proud in mien and
+royally attired, and bowed before the council.
+
+'This is the question, princess,' said Cuitlahua.  'Whether this
+Teule shall be slain forthwith, or whether he shall be sworn as one
+of us, should he be willing to take the oath?  The prince Guatemoc
+here vouches for him, and he says, moreover, that you will vouch
+for him also.  A woman can do this in one way only, by taking him
+she vouches as her husband.  You are already wed to this foreigner
+by the rule of religion.  Are you willing to marry him according to
+the custom of our land, and to answer for his faith with your own
+life?'
+
+'I am willing,' Otomie answered quietly, 'if he is willing.'
+
+'In truth it is a great honour that you would do this white dog,'
+said Cuitlahua.  'Bethink you, you are princess of the Otomie and
+one of our master's daughters, it is to you that we look to bring
+back the mountain clans of the Otomie, of whom you are
+chieftainess, from their unholy alliance with the accursed
+Tlascalans, the slaves of the Teules.  Is not your life too
+precious to be set on such a stake as this foreigner's faith? for
+learn, Otomie, if he proves false your rank shall not help you.'
+
+'I know it all,' she replied quietly.  'Foreigner or not, I love
+this man and I will answer for him with my blood.  Moreover, I look
+to him to assist me to win back the people of the Otomie to their
+allegiance.  But let him speak for himself, my lord.  It may happen
+that he has no desire to take me in marriage.'
+
+Cuitlahua smiled grimly and said, 'When the choice lies between the
+breast of death and those fair arms of yours, niece, it is easy to
+guess his answer.  Still, speak, Teule, and swiftly.'
+
+'I have little to say, lord.  If the princess Otomie is willing to
+wed me, I am willing to wed her,' I answered, and thus in the
+moment of my danger all my doubts and scruples vanished.  As
+Cuitlahua had said, it was easy to guess the choice of one set
+between death and Otomie.
+
+She heard and looked at me warningly, saying in a low voice:
+'Remember our words, Teule.  In such a marriage you renounce your
+past and give me your future.'
+
+'I remember,' I answered, and while I spoke, there came before my
+eyes a vision of Lily's face as it had been when I bade her
+farewell.  This then was the end of the vows that I had sworn.
+Cuitlahua looked at me with a glance which seemed to search my
+heart and said:
+
+'I hear your words, Teule.  You, a white wanderer, are graciously
+willing to take this princess to wife, and by her to be lifted high
+among the great lords of this land.  But say, how can we trust you?
+If you fail us your wife dies indeed, but that may be naught to
+you.'
+
+'I am ready to swear allegiance,' I answered.  'I hate the
+Spaniards, and among them is my bitterest enemy whom I followed
+across the sea to kill--the man who strove to murder me this very
+day.  I can say no more, if you doubt my words it were best to make
+an end of me.  Already I have suffered much at the hands of your
+people; it matters little if I die or live.'
+
+'Boldly spoken, Teule.  Now, lords, I ask your judgment.  Shall
+this man be given to Otomie as husband and be sworn as one of us,
+or shall he be killed instantly?  You know the matter.  If he can
+be trusted, as Guatemoc and Otomie believe, he will be worth an
+army to us, for he is acquainted with the language, the customs,
+the weapons, and the modes of warfare of these white devils whom
+the gods have let loose upon us.  If on the other hand he is not to
+be trusted, and it is hard for us to put faith in one of his blood,
+he may do us much injury, for in the end he will escape to the
+Teules, and betray our counsels and our strength, or the lack of
+it.  It is for you to judge, lords.'
+
+Now the councillors consulted together, and some said one thing and
+some another, for they were not by any means of a mind in the
+matter.  At length growing weary, Cuitlahua called on them to put
+the question to the vote, and this they did by a lifting of hands.
+First those who were in favour of my death held up their hands,
+then those who thought that it would be wise to spare me.  There
+were twenty-six councillors present, not counting Cuitlahua, and of
+these thirteen voted for my execution and thirteen were for saving
+me alive.
+
+'Now it seems that I must give a casting vote,' said Cuitlahua when
+the tale had been rendered, and my blood turned cold at his words,
+for I had seen that his mind was set against me.  Then it was that
+Otomie broke in, saying:
+
+'Your pardon, my uncle, but before you speak I have a word to say.
+You need my services, do you not? for if the people of the Otomie
+will listen to any and suffer themselves to be led from their evil
+path, it is to me.  My mother was by birth their chieftainess, the
+last of a long line, and I am her only child, moreover my father is
+their emperor.  Therefore my life is of no small worth now in this
+time of trouble, for though I am nothing in myself, yet it may
+chance that I can bring thirty thousand warriors to your standard.
+The priests knew this on yonder pyramid, and when I claimed my
+right to lie at the side of the Teule, they gainsayed me, nor would
+they suffer it, though they hungered for the royal blood, till I
+called down the vengeance of the gods upon them.  Now my uncle, and
+you, lords, I tell you this: Slay yonder man if you will, but know
+that then you must find another than me to lure the Otomie from
+their rebellion, for then I complete what I began to-day, and
+follow him to the grave.'
+
+She ceased and a murmur of amazement went round the chamber, for
+none had looked to find such love and courage in this lady's heart.
+Only Cuitlahua grew angry.
+
+'Disloyal girl,' he said; 'do you dare to set your lover before
+your country?  Shame upon you, shameless daughter of our king.
+Why, it is in the blood--as the father is so is the daughter.  Did
+not Montezuma forsake his people and choose to lie among these
+Teules, the false children of Quetzal?  And now this Otomie follows
+in his path.  Tell us how is it, woman, that you and your lover
+alone escaped from the teocalli yonder when all the rest were
+killed.  Are you then in league with these Teules?  I say to you,
+niece, that if things were otherwise and I had my way, you should
+win your desire indeed, for you should be slain at this man's side
+and within the hour.'  And he ceased for lack of breath, and looked
+upon her fiercely.
+
+But Otomie never quailed; she stood before him pale and quiet, with
+folded hands and downcast eyes, and answered:
+
+'Forbear to reproach me because my love is strong, or reproach me
+if you will, I have spoken my last word.  Condemn this man to die
+and Prince you must seek some other envoy to win back the Otomie to
+the cause of Anahuac.'
+
+Now Cuitlahua pondered, staring into the gloom above him and
+pulling at his beard, and the silence was great, for none knew what
+his judgment would be.  At last he spoke:
+
+'So be it.  We have need of Otomie, my niece, and it is of no avail
+to fight against a woman's love.  Teule, we give you life, and with
+the life honour and wealth, and the greatest of our women in
+marriage, and a place in our councils.  Take these gifts and her,
+but I say to you both, beware how you use them.  If you betray us,
+nay, if you do but think on treachery, I swear to you that you
+shall die a death so slow and horrible that the very name of it
+would turn your heart to water; you and your wife, your children
+and your servants.  Come, let him be sworn!'
+
+I heard and my head swam, and a mist gathered before my eyes.  Once
+again I was saved from instant death.
+
+Presently it cleared, and looking up my eyes met those of the woman
+who had saved me, Otomie my wife, who smiled upon me somewhat
+sadly.  Then the priest came forward bearing a wooden bowl, carved
+about with strange signs, and a flint knife, and bade me bare my
+arm.  He cut my flesh with the knife, so that blood ran from it
+into the bowl.  Some drops of this blood he emptied on to the
+ground, muttering invocations the while.  Then he turned and looked
+at Cuitlahua as though in question, and Cuitlahua answered with a
+bitter laugh:
+
+'Let him be baptized with the blood of the princess Otomie my
+niece, for she is bail for him.'
+
+'Nay, lord,' said Guatemoc, 'these two have mingled bloods already
+upon the stone of sacrifice, and they are man and wife.  But I also
+have vouched for him, and I offer mine in earnest of my faith.'
+
+'This Teule has good friends,' said Cuitlahua; 'you honour him
+overmuch.  But so be it.'
+
+Then Guatemoc came forward, and when the priest would have cut him
+with the knife, he laughed and said, pointing to the bullet wound
+upon his neck:
+
+'No need for that, priest.  Blood runs here that was shed by the
+Teules.  None can be fitter for this purpose.'
+
+So the priest drew away the bandage and suffered the blood of
+Guatemoc to drop into a second smaller bowl.  Then he came to me
+and dipping his finger into the blood, he drew the sign of a cross
+upon my forehead as a Christian priest draws it upon the forehead
+of an infant, and said:
+
+'In the presence and the name of god our lord, who is everywhere
+and sees all things, I sign you with this blood and make you of
+this blood.  In the presence and the name of god our lord, who is
+everywhere and sees all things, I pour forth your blood upon the
+earth!' (here he poured as he spoke).  'As this blood of yours
+sinks into the earth, so may the memory of your past life sink and
+be forgotten, for you are born again of the people of Anahuac.  In
+the presence and the name of god our lord, who is everywhere and
+sees all things, I mingle these bloods' (here he poured from one
+bowl into the other), 'and with them I touch your tongue' (here
+dipping his finger into the bowl he touched the tip of my tongue
+with it) 'and bid you swear thus:
+
+'"May every evil to which the flesh of man is subject enter into my
+flesh, may I live in misery and die in torment by the dreadful
+death, may my soul be rejected from the Houses of the Sun, may it
+wander homeless for ever in the darkness that is behind the Stars,
+if I depart from this my oath.  I, Teule, swear to be faithful to
+the people of Anahuac and to their lawful governors.  I swear to
+wage war upon their foes and to compass their destruction, and more
+especially upon the Teules till they are driven into the sea.  I
+swear to offer no affront to the gods of Anahuac.  I swear myself
+in marriage to Otomie, princess of the Otomie, the daughter of
+Montezuma my lord, for so long as her life shall endure.  I swear
+to attempt no escape from these shores.  I swear to renounce my
+father and my mother, and the land where I was born, and to cling
+to this land of my new birth; and this my oath shall endure till
+the volcan Popo ceases to vomit smoke and fire, till there is no
+king in Tenoctitlan, till no priest serves the altars of the gods,
+and the people of Anahuac are no more a people."
+
+'Do you swear these things, one and all?'
+
+'One and all I swear them,' I answered because I must, though there
+was much in the oath that I liked little enough.  And yet mark how
+strangely things came to pass.  Within fifteen years from that
+night the volcan Popo had ceased to vomit smoke and fire, the kings
+had ceased to reign in Tenoctitlan, the priests had ceased to serve
+the altars of the gods, the people of Anahuac were no more a
+people, and my vow was null and void.  Yet the priests who framed
+this form chose these things as examples of what was immortal!
+
+When I had sworn Guatemoc came forward and embraced me, saying:
+'Welcome, Teule, my brother in blood and heart.  Now you are one of
+us, and we look to you for help and counsel.  Come, be seated by
+me.'
+
+I looked towards Cuitlahua doubtfully, but he smiled graciously,
+and said: 'Teule, your trial is over.  We have accepted you, and
+you have sworn the solemn oath of brotherhood, to break which is to
+die horribly in this world, and to be tortured through eternity by
+demons in the next.  Forget all that may have been said in the hour
+of your weighing, for the balance is in your favour, and be sure
+that if you give us no cause to doubt you, you shall find none to
+doubt us.  Now as the husband of Otomie, you are a lord among the
+lords, having honour and great possessions, and as such be seated
+by your brother Guatemoc, and join our council.'
+
+I did as he bade me, and Otomie withdrew from our presence.  Then
+Cuitlahua spoke again, no longer of me and my matters, but of the
+urgent affairs of state.  He spoke in slow words and weighty, and
+more than once his voice broke in his sorrow.  He told of the
+grievous misfortunes that had overcome the country, of the death of
+hundreds of its bravest warriors, of the slaughter of the priests
+and soldiers that day on the teocalli, and the desecration of his
+nation's gods.  What was to be done in this extremity? he asked.
+Montezuma lay dying, a prisoner in the camp of the Teules, and the
+fire that he had nursed with his breath devoured the land.  No
+efforts of theirs could break the iron strength of these white
+devils, armed as they were with strange and terrible weapons.  Day
+by day disaster overtook the arms of the Aztecs.  What wisdom had
+they now that the protecting gods were shattered in their very
+shrines, when the altars ran red with the blood of their
+ministering priests, when the oracles were dumb or answered only in
+the accents of despair?
+
+Then one by one princes and generals arose and gave counsel
+according to their lights.  At length all had spoken, and Cuitlahua
+said, looking towards me:
+
+'We have a new counsellor among us, who is skilled in the warfare
+and customs of the white men, who till an hour ago was himself a
+white man.  Has he no word of comfort for us?'
+
+'Speak, my brother?' said Guatemoc.
+
+Then I spoke.  'Most noble Cuitlahua, and you lords and princes.
+You honour me by asking my counsel, and it is this in few words and
+brief.  You waste your strength by hurling your armies continually
+against stone walls and the weapons of the Teules.  So you shall
+not prevail against them.  Your devices must be changed if you
+would win victory.  The Spaniards are like other men; they are no
+gods as the ignorant imagine, and the creatures on which they ride
+are not demons but beasts of burden, such as are used for many
+purposes in the land where I was born.  The Spaniards are men I
+say, and do not men hunger and thirst?  Cannot men be worn out by
+want of sleep, and be killed in many ways?  Are not these Teules
+already weary to the death?  This then is my word of comfort to
+you.  Cease to attack the Spaniards and invest their camp so
+closely that no food can reach them and their allies the
+Tlascalans.  If this is done, within ten days from now, either they
+will surrender or they will strive to break their way back to the
+coast.  But to do this, first they must win out of the city, and if
+dykes are cut through the causeways, that will be no easy matter.
+Then when they strive to escape cumbered with the gold they covet
+and came here to seek, then I say will be the hour to attack them
+and to destroy them utterly.'
+
+I ceased, and a murmur of applause went round the council.
+
+'It seems that we came to a wise judgment when we determined to
+spare this man's life,' said Cuitlahua, 'for all that he tells us
+is true, and I would that we had followed this policy from the
+first.  Now, lords, I give my voice for acting as our brother
+points the way.  What say you?'
+
+'We say with you that our brother's words are good,' answered
+Guatemoc presently, 'and now let us follow them to the end.'
+
+Then, after some further talk, the council broke up and I sought my
+chamber well nigh blind with weariness and crushed by the weight of
+all that I had suffered on that eventful day.  The dawn was flaring
+in the eastern sky, and by its glimmer I found my path down the
+empty corridors, till at length I came to the curtains of my
+sleeping place.  I drew them and passed through.  There, far up the
+room, the faint light gleaming on her snowy dress, her raven hair
+and ornaments of gold, stood Otomie my bride.
+
+I went towards her, and as I came she glided to meet me with
+outstretched arms.  Presently they were about my neck and her kiss
+was on my brow.
+
+'Now all is done, my love and lord,' she whispered, 'and come good
+or ill, or both, we are one till death, for such vows as ours
+cannot be broken.'
+
+'All is done indeed, Otomie, and our oaths are lifelong, though
+other oaths have been broken that they might be sworn,' I answered.
+
+
+Thus then I, Thomas Wingfield, was wed to Otomie, princess of the
+Otomie, Montezuma's daughter.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE NIGHT OF FEAR
+
+
+Long before I awoke that day the commands of the council had been
+carried out, and the bridges in the great causeways were broken
+down wherever dykes crossed the raised roads that ran through the
+waters of the lake.  That afternoon also I went dressed as an
+Indian warrior with Guatemoc and the other generals, to a parley
+which was held with Cortes, who took his stand on the same tower of
+the palace that Montezuma had stood on when the arrow of Guatemoc
+struck him down.  There is little to be said of this parley, and I
+remember it chiefly because it was then for the first time since I
+had left the Tobascans that I saw Marina close, and heard her sweet
+and gentle voice.  For now as ever she was by the side of Cortes,
+translating his proposals of peace to the Aztecs.  Among those
+proposals was one which showed me that de Garcia had not been idle.
+It asked that the false white man who had been rescued from the
+altars of the gods upon the teocalli should be given in exchange
+for certain Aztec prisoners, in order that he might be hung
+according to his merits as a spy and deserter, a traitor to the
+emperor of Spain.  I wondered as I heard, if Marina knew when she
+spoke the words, that 'the false white man' was none other than the
+friend of her Tobascan days.
+
+'You see that you are fortunate in having found place among us
+Aztecs, Teule,' said Guatemoc with a laugh, 'for your own people
+would greet you with a rope.'
+
+Then he answered Cortes, saying nothing of me, but bidding him and
+all the Spaniards prepare for death:
+
+'Many of us have perished,' he said; 'you also must perish, Teules.
+You shall perish of hunger and thirst, you shall perish on the
+altars of the gods.  There is no escape for you Teules; the bridges
+are broken.'
+
+And all the multitude took up the words and thundered out, 'There
+is no escape for you Teules; the bridges are broken!'
+
+Then the shooting of arrows began, and I sought the palace to tell
+Otomie my wife what I had gathered of the state of her father
+Montezuma, who the Spaniards said still lay dying, and of her two
+sisters who were hostages in their quarters.  Also I told her how
+my surrender had been sought, and she kissed me, and said smiling,
+that though my life was now burdened with her, still it was better
+so than that I should fall into the hands of the Spaniards.
+
+Two days later came the news that Montezuma was dead, and shortly
+after it his body, which the Spaniards handed over to the Aztecs
+for burial, attired in the gorgeous robes of royalty.  They laid it
+in the hall of the palace, whence it was hurried secretly and at
+night to Chapoltepec, and there hidden away with small ceremony,
+for it was feared that the people might rend it limb from limb in
+their rage.  With Otomie weeping at my side, I looked for the last
+time on the face of that most unhappy king, whose reign so glorious
+in its beginning had ended thus.  And while I looked I wondered
+what suffering could have equalled his, as fallen from his estate
+and hated by the subjects whom he had betrayed, he lay dying, a
+prisoner in the power of the foreign wolves who were tearing out
+his country's heart.  It is little wonder indeed that Montezuma
+rent the bandages from his wounds and would not suffer them to tend
+his hurts.  For the real hurt was in his soul; there the iron had
+entered deeply, and no leech could cure it except one called Death.
+And yet the fault was not all his, the devils whom he worshipped as
+gods were revenged upon him, for they had filled him with the
+superstitions of their wicked faith, and because of these the gods
+and their high priest must sink into a common ruin.  Were it not
+for these unsubstantial terrors that haunted him, the Spaniards had
+never won a foothold in Tenoctitlan, and the Aztecs would have
+remained free for many a year to come.  But Providence willed it
+otherwise, and this dead and disgraced monarch was but its
+instrument.
+
+Such were the thoughts that passed through my mind as I gazed upon
+the body of the great Montezuma.  But Otomie, ceasing from her
+tears, kissed his clay and cried aloud:
+
+'O my father, it is well that you are dead, for none who loved you
+could desire to see you live on in shame and servitude.  May the
+gods you worshipped give me strength to avenge you, or if they be
+no gods, then may I find it in myself.  I swear this, my father,
+that while a man is left to me I will not cease from seeking to
+avenge you.'
+
+Then taking my hand, without another word she turned and passed
+thence.  As will be seen, she kept her oath.
+
+
+On that day and on the morrow there was fighting with the
+Spaniards, who sallied out to fill up the gaps in the dykes of the
+causeway, a task in which they succeeded, though with some loss.
+But it availed them nothing, for so soon as their backs were turned
+we opened the dykes again.  It was on these days that for the first
+time I had experience of war, and armed with my bow made after the
+English pattern, I did good service.  As it chanced, the very first
+arrow that I drew was on my hated foe de Garcia, but here my common
+fortune pursued me, for being out of practice, or over-anxious, I
+aimed too high, though the mark was an easy one, and the shaft
+pierced the iron of his casque, causing him to reel in his saddle,
+but doing him no further hurt.  Still this marksmanship, poor as it
+was, gained me great renown among the Aztecs, who were but feeble
+archers, for they had never before seen an arrow pierce through the
+Spanish mail.  Nor would mine have done so had I not collected the
+iron barbs off the crossbow bolts of the Spaniards, and fitted them
+to my own shafts.  I seldom found the mail that would withstand
+arrows made thus, when the range was short and the aim good.
+
+After the first day's fight I was appointed general over a body of
+three thousand archers, and was given a banner to be borne before
+me and a gorgeous captain's dress to wear.  But what pleased me
+better was a chain shirt which came from the body of a Spanish
+cavalier.  For many years I always wore this shirt beneath my
+cotton mail, and it saved my life more than once, for even bullets
+would not pierce the two of them.
+
+I had taken over the command of my archers but forty-eight hours, a
+scant time in which to teach them discipline whereof they had
+little, though they were brave enough, when the occasion came to
+use them in good earnest, and with it the night of disaster that is
+still known among the Spaniards as the noche triste.  On the
+afternoon before that night a council was held in the palace at
+which I spoke, saying, I was certain that the Teules thought of
+retreat from the city, and in the dark, for otherwise they would
+not have been so eager to fill up the canals in the causeway.  To
+this Cuitlahua, who now that Montezuma was dead would be emperor,
+though he was not yet chosen and crowned, answered that it might
+well be that the Teules meditated flight, but that they could never
+attempt it in the darkness, since in so doing they must become
+entangled in the streets and dykes.
+
+I replied that though it was not the Aztec habit to march and fight
+at night, such things were common enough among white men as they
+had seen already, and that because the Spaniards knew it was not
+their habit, they would be the more likely to attempt escape under
+cover of the darkness, when they thought their enemies asleep.
+Therefore I counselled that sentries should be set at all the
+entrances to every causeway.  To this Cuitlahua assented, and
+assigned the causeway of Tlacopan to Guatemoc and myself, making us
+the guardians of its safety.  That night Guatemoc and I, with some
+soldiers, went out towards midnight to visit the guard that we had
+placed upon the causeway.  It was very dark and a fine rain fell,
+so that a man could see no further before his eyes than he can at
+evening through a Norfolk roke in autumn.  We found and relieved
+the guard, which reported that all was quiet, and we were returning
+towards the great square when of a sudden I heard a dull sound as
+of thousands of men tramping.
+
+'Listen,' I said.
+
+'It is the Teules who escape,' whispered Guatemoc.
+
+Quickly we ran to where the street from the great square opens on
+to the causeway, and there even through the darkness and rain we
+caught the gleam of armour.  Then I cried aloud in a great voice,
+'To arms!  To arms!  The Teules escape by the causeway of
+Tlacopan.'
+
+Instantly my words were caught up by the sentries and passed from
+post to post till the city rang with them.  They were cried in
+every street and canal, they echoed from the roofs of houses, and
+among the summits of a hundred temples.  The city awoke with a
+murmur, from the lake came the sound of water beaten by ten
+thousand oars, as though myriads of wild-fowl had sprung suddenly
+from their reedy beds.  Here, there, and everywhere torches flashed
+out like falling stars, wild notes were blown on horns and shells,
+and above all arose the booming of the snakeskin drum which the
+priests upon the teocalli beat furiously.
+
+Presently the murmur grew to a roar, and from this direction and
+from that, armed men poured towards the causeway of Tlacopan.  Some
+came on foot, but the most of them were in canoes which covered the
+waters of the lake further than the ear could hear.  Now the
+Spaniards to the number of fifteen hundred or so, accompanied by
+some six or eight thousand Tlascalans, were emerging on the
+causeway in a long thin line.  Guatemoc and I rushed before them,
+collecting men as we went, till we came to the first canal, where
+canoes were already gathering by scores.  The head of the Spanish
+column reached the canal and the fight began, which so far as the
+Aztecs were concerned was a fray without plan or order, for in that
+darkness and confusion the captains could not see their men or the
+men hear their captains.  But they were there in countless numbers
+and had only one desire in their breasts, to kill the Teules.  A
+cannon roared, sending a storm of bullets through us, and by its
+flash we saw that the Spaniards carried a timber bridge with them,
+which they were placing across the canal.  Then we fell on them,
+every man fighting for himself.  Guatemoc and I were swept over
+that bridge by the first rush of the enemy, as leaves are swept in
+a gale, and though both of us won through safely we saw each other
+no more that night.  With us and after us came the long array of
+Spaniards and Tlascalans, and from every side the Aztecs poured
+upon them, clinging to their struggling line as ants cling to a
+wounded worm.
+
+How can I tell all that came to pass that night?  I cannot, for I
+saw but little of it.  All I know is that for two hours I was
+fighting like a madman.  The foe crossed the first canal, but when
+all were over the bridge was sunk so deep in the mud that it could
+not be stirred, and three furlongs on ran a second canal deeper and
+wider than the first.  Over this they could not cross till it was
+bridged with the dead.  It seemed as though all hell had broken
+loose upon that narrow ridge of ground.  The sound of cannons and
+of arquebusses, the shrieks of agony and fear, the shouts of the
+Spanish soldiers, the war-cries of the Aztecs, the screams of
+wounded horses, the wail of women, the hiss of hurtling darts and
+arrows, and the dull noise of falling blows went up to heaven in
+one hideous hurly-burly.  Like a frightened mob of cattle the long
+Spanish array swayed this way and that, bellowing as it swayed.
+Many rolled down the sides of the causeway to be slaughtered in the
+water of the lake, or borne away to sacrifice in the canoes, many
+were drowned in the canals, and yet more were trampled to death in
+the mud.  Hundreds of the Aztecs perished also, for the most part
+beneath the weapons of their own friends, who struck and shot not
+knowing on whom the blow should fall or in whose breast the arrow
+would find its home.
+
+For my part I fought on with a little band of men who had gathered
+about me, till at last the dawn broke and showed an awful sight.
+The most of those who were left alive of the Spaniards and their
+allies had crossed the second canal upon a bridge made of the dead
+bodies of their fellows mixed up with a wreck of baggage, cannon,
+and packages of treasure.  Now the fight was raging beyond it.  A
+mob of Spaniards and Tlascalans were still crossing the second
+breach, and on these I fell with such men as were with me.  I
+plunged right into the heart of them, and suddenly before me I saw
+the face of de Garcia.  With a shout I rushed at him.  He heard my
+voice and knew me.  With an oath he struck at my head.  The heavy
+sword came down upon my helmet of painted wood, shearing away one
+side of it and felling me, but ere I fell I smote him on the breast
+with the club I carried, tumbling him to the earth.  Now half
+stunned and blinded I crept towards him through the press.  All
+that I could see was a gleam of armour in the mud.  I threw myself
+upon it, gripping at the wearer's throat, and together we rolled
+down the side of the causeway into the shallow water at the edge of
+the lake.  I was uppermost, and with a fierce joy I dashed the
+blood from my eyes that I might see to kill my enemy caught at
+last.  His body was in the lake but his head lay upon the sloping
+bank, and my plan was to hold him beneath the water till he was
+drowned, for I had lost my club.
+
+'At length, de Garcia!' I cried in Spanish as I shifted my grip.
+
+'For the love of God let me go!' gasped a rough voice beneath me.
+'Fool, I am no Indian dog.'
+
+Now I peered into the man's face bewildered.  I had seized de
+Garcia, but the voice was not his voice, nor was the face his face,
+but that of a rough Spanish soldier.
+
+'Who are you?' I asked, slackening my hold.  'Where is de Garcia--
+he whom you name Sarceda?'
+
+'Sarceda?  I don't know.  A minute ago he was on his back on the
+causeway.  The fellow pulled me down and rolled behind me.  Let me
+be I say.  I am not Sarceda, and if I were, is this a time to
+settle private quarrels?  I am your comrade, Bernal Diaz.  Holy
+Mother! who are you?  An Aztec who speaks Castilian?'
+
+'I am no Aztec,' I answered.  'I am an Englishman and I fight with
+the Aztecs that I may slay him whom you name Sarceda.  But with you
+I have no quarrel, Bernal Diaz.  Begone and escape if you can.  No,
+I will keep the sword with your leave.'
+
+'Englishman, Spaniard, Aztec, or devil,' grunted the man as he drew
+himself from his bed of ooze, 'you are a good fellow, and I promise
+you that if I live through this, and it should ever come about that
+I get YOU by the throat, I will remember the turn you did me.
+Farewell;' and without more ado he rushed up the bank and plunged
+into a knot of his flying countrymen, leaving his good sword in my
+hand.  I strove to follow him that I might find my enemy, who once
+more had escaped me by craft, but my strength failed me, for de
+Garcia's sword had bitten deep and I bled much.  So I must sit
+where I was till a canoe came and bore me back to Otomie to be
+nursed, and ten days went by before I could walk again.
+
+This was my share in the victory of the noche triste.  Alas! it was
+a barren triumph, though more than five hundred of the Spaniards
+were slain and thousands of their allies.  For there was no warlike
+skill or discipline among the Aztecs, and instead of following the
+Spaniards till not one of them remained alive, they stayed to
+plunder the dead and drag away the living to sacrifice.  Also this
+day of revenge was a sad one to Otomie, seeing that two of her
+brothers, Montezuma's sons whom the Spaniards held in hostage,
+perished with them in the fray.
+
+As for de Garcia I could not learn what had become of him, nor
+whether he was dead or living.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE BURYING OF MONTEZUMA'S TREASURE
+
+
+Cuitlahua was crowned Emperor of the Aztecs in succession to his
+brother Montezuma, while I lay sick with the wound given me by the
+sword of de Garcia, and also with that which I had received on the
+altar of sacrifice.  This hurt had found no time to heal, and in
+the fierce fighting on the Night of Fear it burst open and bled
+much.  Indeed it gave me trouble for years, and to this hour I feel
+it in the autumn season.  Otomie, who nursed me tenderly, and so
+strange is the heart of woman, even seemed to be consoled in her
+sorrow at the loss of her father and nearest kin, because I had
+escaped the slaughter and won fame, told me of the ceremony of the
+crowning, which was splendid enough.  Indeed the Aztecs were almost
+mad with rejoicing because the Teules had gone at last.  They
+forgot, or seemed to forget, the loss of thousands of their bravest
+warriors and of the flower of their rank, and as yet, at any rate,
+they did not look forward to the future.  From house to house and
+street to street ran troops of young men and maidens garlanded with
+flowers, crying, 'The Teules are gone, rejoice with us; the Teules
+are fled!' and woe to them who were not merry, ay, even though
+their houses were desolate with death.  Also the statues of the
+gods were set up again on the great pyramid and their temples
+rebuilt, the holy crucifix that the Spaniards had placed there
+being served as the idols Huitzel and Tezcat had been served, and
+tumbled down the sides of the teocalli, and that after sacrifice of
+some Spanish prisoners had been offered in its presence.  It was
+Guatemoc himself who told me of this sacrilege, but not with any
+exultation, for I had taught him something of our faith, and though
+he was too sturdy a heathen to change his creed, in secret he
+believed that the God of the Christians was a true and mighty God.
+Moreover, though he was obliged to countenance them, because of the
+power of the priests, like Otomie, Guatemoc never loved the horrid
+rites of human sacrifice.
+
+Now when I heard this tale my anger overcame my reason, and I spoke
+fiercely, saying:
+
+'I am sworn to your cause, Guatemoc, my brother, and I am married
+to your blood, but I tell you that from this hour it is an accursed
+cause; because of your bloodstained idols and your priests, it is
+accursed.  That God whom you have desecrated, and those who serve
+Him shall come back in power, and He shall sit where your idols sat
+and none shall stir Him for ever.'
+
+Thus I spoke, and my words were true, though I do not know what put
+them into my heart, since I spoke at random in my wrath.  For to-
+day Christ's Church stands upon the site of the place of sacrifice
+in Mexico, a sign and a token of His triumph over devils, and there
+it shall stand while the world endures.
+
+'You speak rashly, my brother,' Guatemoc answered, proudly enough,
+though I saw him quail at the evil omen of my words.  'I say you
+speak rashly, and were you overheard there are those,
+notwithstanding the rank we have given you, the honour which you
+have won in war and council, and that you have passed the stone of
+sacrifice, who might force you to look again upon the faces of the
+beings you blaspheme.  What worse thing has been done to your
+Christian God than has been done again and again to our gods by
+your white kindred?  But let us talk no more of this matter, and I
+pray you, my brother, do not utter such ill-omened words to me
+again, lest it should strain our love.  Do you then believe that
+the Teules will return?'
+
+'Ay, Guatemoc, so surely as to-morrow's sun shall rise.  When you
+held Cortes in your hand you let him go, and since then he has won
+a victory at Otompan.  Is he a man, think you, to sheathe the sword
+that he has once drawn, and go down into darkness and dishonour?
+Before a year is past the Spaniards will be back at the gates of
+Tenoctitlan.'
+
+'You are no comforter to-night, my brother,' said Guatemoc, 'and
+yet I fear that your words are true.  Well, if we must fight, let
+us strive to win.  Now, at least, there is no Montezuma to take the
+viper to his breast and nurse it till it stings him.'  Then he rose
+and went in silence, and I saw that his heart was heavy.
+
+On the morrow of this talk I could leave my bed, and within a week
+I was almost well.  Now it was that Guatemoc came to me again,
+saying that he had been bidden by Cuitlahua the emperor, to command
+me to accompany him, Guatemoc, on a service of trust and secrecy.
+And indeed the nature of the service showed how great a confidence
+the leaders of the Aztecs now placed in me, for it was none other
+than the hiding away of the treasure that had been recaptured from
+the Spaniards on the Night of Fear, and with it much more from the
+secret stores of the empire.
+
+At the fall of darkness we started, some of the great lords,
+Guatemoc and I, and coming to the water's edge, we found ten large
+canoes, each laden with something that was hidden by cotton cloths.
+Into these canoes we entered secretly, thinking that none saw us,
+three to a canoe, for there were thirty of us in all, and led by
+Guatemoc, we paddled for two hours or more across the Lake Tezcuco,
+till we reached the further shore at a spot where this prince had a
+fair estate.  Here we landed, and the cloths were withdrawn from
+the cargoes of the canoes, which were great jars and sacks of gold
+and jewels, besides many other precious objects, among them a
+likeness of the head of Montezuma, fashioned in solid gold, which
+was so heavy that it was as much as Guatemoc and I could do to lift
+it between us.  As for the jars, of which, if my memory serves me,
+there were seventeen, six men must carry each of them by the help
+of paddles lashed on either side, and then the task was not light.
+All this priceless stuff we bore in several journeys to the crest
+of a rise some six hundred paces distant from the water, setting it
+down by the mouth of a shaft behind the shelter of a mound of
+earth.  When everything was brought up from the boats, Guatemoc
+touched me and another man, a great Aztec noble, born of a
+Tlascalan mother, on the shoulder, asking us if we were willing to
+descend with him into the hole, and there to dispose of the
+treasure.
+
+'Gladly,' I answered, for I was curious to see the place, but the
+noble hesitated awhile, though in the end he came with us, to his
+ill-fortune.
+
+Then Guatemoc took torches in his hand, and was lowered into the
+shaft by a rope.  Next came my turn, and down I went, hanging to
+the cord like a spider to its thread, and the hole was very deep.
+At length I found myself standing by the side of Guatemoc at the
+foot of the shaft, round which, as I saw by the light of the torch
+he carried, an edging of dried bricks was built up to the height of
+a man above our heads.  Resting on this edging and against the wall
+of the shaft, was a massive block of stone sculptured with the
+picture writing of the Aztecs.  I glanced at the writing, which I
+could now read well, and saw that it recorded the burying of the
+treasure in the first year of Cuitlahua, Emperor of Mexico, and
+also a most fearful curse on him who should dare to steal it.
+Beyond us and at right angles to the shaft ran another passage, ten
+paces in length and high enough for a man to walk in, which led to
+a chamber hollowed in the earth, as large as that wherein I write
+to-day at Ditchingham.  By the mouth of this chamber were placed
+piles of adobe bricks and mortar, much as the blocks of hewn stone
+had been placed in that underground vault at Seville where Isabella
+de Siguenza was bricked up living.
+
+'Who dug this place?' I asked.
+
+'Those who knew not what they dug,' answered Guatemoc.  'But see,
+here is our companion.  Now, my brother, I charge you be surprised
+at nothing which comes to pass, and be assured I have good reason
+for anything that I may do.'
+
+Before I could speak again the Aztec noble was at our side.  Then
+those above began to lower the jars and sacks of treasure, and as
+they reached us one by one, Guatemoc loosed the ropes and checked
+them, while the Aztec and I rolled them down the passage into the
+chamber, as here in England men roll a cask of ale.  For two hours
+and more we worked, till at length all were down and the tale was
+complete.  The last parcel to be lowered was a sack of jewels that
+burst open as it came, and descended upon us in a glittering rain
+of gems.  As it chanced, a great necklace of emeralds of surpassing
+size and beauty fell over my head and hung upon my shoulders.
+
+'Keep it, brother,' laughed Guatemoc, 'in memory of this night,'
+and nothing loth, I hid the bauble in my breast.  That necklace I
+have yet, and it was a stone of it--the smallest save one--that I
+gave to our gracious Queen Elizabeth.  Otomie wore it for many
+years, and for this reason it shall be buried with me, though its
+value is priceless, so say those who are skilled in gems.  But
+priceless or no, it is doomed to lie in the mould of Ditchingham
+churchyard, and may that same curse which is graved upon the stone
+that hides the treasure of the Aztecs fall upon him who steals it
+from my bones.
+
+Now, leaving the chamber, we three entered the tunnel and began the
+work of building the adobe wall.  When it was of a height of
+between two and three feet, Guatemoc paused from his labour and
+bade me hold a torch aloft.  I obeyed wondering what he wished to
+see.  Then he drew back some three paces into the tunnel and spoke
+to the Aztec noble, our companion, by name.
+
+'What is the fate of discovered traitors, friend?' he said in a
+voice that, quiet though it was, sounded very terrible; and, as he
+spoke, he loosed from his side the war club set with spikes of
+glass that hung there by a thong.
+
+Now the Aztec turned grey beneath his dusky skin and trembled in
+his fear.
+
+'What mean you, lord?' he gasped.
+
+'You know well what I mean,' answered Guatemoc in the same terrible
+voice, and lifted the club.
+
+Then the doomed man fell upon his knees crying for mercy, and his
+wailing sounded so awful in that deep and lonely place that in my
+horror I went near to letting the torch fall.
+
+'To a foe I can give mercy--to a traitor, none,' answered Guatemoc,
+and whirling the club aloft, he rushed upon the noble and killed
+him with a blow.  Then, seizing the body in his strong embrace, he
+cast it into the chamber with the treasure, and there it lay still
+and dreadful among the gems and gold, the arms, as it chanced,
+being wound about two of the great jars as though the dead man
+would clasp them to his heart.
+
+Now I looked at Guatemoc who had slain him, wondering if my hour
+was at hand also, for I knew well that when princes bury their
+wealth they hold that few should share the secret.
+
+'Fear not, my brother,' said Guatemoc.  'Listen: this man was a
+thief, a dastard, and a traitor.  As we know now, he strove twice
+to betray us to the Teules.  More, it was his plan to show this
+nest of wealth to them, should they return again, and to share the
+spoil.  All this we learned from a woman whom he thought his love,
+but who was in truth a spy set to worm herself into the secrets of
+his wicked heart.  Now let him take his fill of gold; look how he
+grips it even in death, a white man could not hug the stuff more
+closely to his breast.  Ah! Teule, would that the soil of Anahuac
+bore naught but corn for bread and flint and copper for the points
+of spears and arrows, then had her sons been free for ever.  Curses
+on yonder dross, for it is the bait that sets these sea sharks
+tearing at our throats.  Curses on it, I say; may it never glitter
+more in the sunshine, may it be lost for ever!'  And he fell
+fiercely to the work of building up the wall.
+
+Soon it was almost done; but before we set the last bricks, which
+were shaped in squares like the clay lump that we use for the
+building of farmeries and hinds' houses in Norfolk, I thrust a
+torch through the opening and looked for the last time at the
+treasure chamber that was also a dead-house.  There lay the
+glittering gems; there, stood upon a jar, gleamed the golden head
+of Montezuma, of which the emerald eyes seemed to glare at me, and
+there, his back resting against this same jar, and his arms
+encircling two others to the right and left, was the dead man.  But
+he was no longer dead, or so it seemed to me; at the least his eyes
+that were shut had opened, and they stared at me like the emerald
+eyes of the golden statue above him, only more fearfully.
+
+Very hastily I withdrew the torch, and we finished in silence.
+When it was done we withdrew to the end of the passage and looked
+up the shaft, and I for one was glad to see the stars shining in
+heaven above me.  Then we made a double loop in the rope, and at a
+signal were hauled up till we hung over the ledge where the black
+mass of marble rested, the tombstone of Montezuma's treasure, and
+of him who sleeps among it.
+
+This stone, that was nicely balanced, we pushed with our hands and
+feet till presently it fell forward with a heavy sound, and
+catching on the ridge of brick which had been prepared to receive
+it, shut the treasure shaft in such a fashion that those who would
+enter it again must take powder with them.
+
+Then we were dragged up, and came to the surface of the earth in
+safety.
+
+Now one asked of the Aztec noble who had gone down with us and
+returned no more.
+
+'He has chosen to stay and watch the treasure, like a good and
+loyal man, till such time as his king needs it,' answered Guatemoc
+grimly, and the listeners nodded, understanding all.
+
+Then they fell to and filled up the narrow shaft with the earth
+that lay ready, working without cease, and the dawn broke before
+the task was finished.  When at length the hole was full, one of
+our companions took seeds from a bag and scattered them on the
+naked earth, also he set two young trees that he had brought with
+him in the soil of the shaft, though why he did this I do not know,
+unless it was to mark the spot.  All being done we gathered up the
+ropes and tools, and embarking in the canoes, came back to Mexico
+in the morning, leaving the canoes at a landing-place outside the
+city, and finding our way to our homes by ones and twos, as we
+thought unnoticed of any.
+
+Thus it was that I helped in the burying of Montezuma's treasure,
+for the sake of which I was destined to suffer torture in days to
+come.  Whether any will help to unbury it I do not know, but till I
+left the land of Anahuac the secret had been kept, and I think that
+then, except myself, all those were dead who laboured with me at
+this task.  It chanced that I passed the spot as I came down to
+Mexico for the last time, and knew it again by the two trees that
+were growing tall and strong, and as I went by with Spaniards at my
+side, I swore in my heart that they should never finger the gold by
+my help.  It is for this reason that even now I do not write of the
+exact bearings of the place where it lies buried with the bones of
+the traitor, though I know them well enough, seeing that in days to
+come what I set down here might fall into the hands of one of their
+nation.
+
+
+And now, before I go on to speak of the siege of Mexico, I must
+tell of one more matter, namely of how I and Otomie my wife went up
+among the people of the Otomie, and won a great number of them back
+to their allegiance to the Aztec crown.  It must be known, if my
+tale has not made this clear already, that the Aztec power was not
+of one people, but built up of several, and that surrounding it
+were many other tribes, some of whom were in alliance with it or
+subject to it, and some of whom were its deadly enemies.  Such for
+instance were the Tlascalans, a small but warlike people living
+between Mexico and the coast, by whose help Cortes overcame
+Montezuma and Guatemoc.  Beyond the Tlascalans and to the west, the
+great Otomie race lived or lives among its mountains.  They are a
+braver nation than the Aztecs, speaking another language, of a
+different blood, and made up of many clans.  Sometimes they were
+subject to the great Aztec empire, sometimes in alliance, and
+sometimes at open war with it and in close friendship with the
+Tlascalans.  It was to draw the tie closer between the Aztecs and
+the Otomies, who were to the inhabitants of Anahuac much what the
+Scottish clans are to the people of England, that Montezuma took to
+wife the daughter and sole legitimate issue of their great chief or
+king.  This lady died in childbirth, and her child was Otomie my
+wife, hereditary princess of the Otomie.  But though her rank was
+so great among her mother's people, as yet Otomie had visited them
+but twice, and then as a child.  Still, she was well skilled in
+their language and customs, having been brought up by nurses and
+tutors of the tribes, from which she drew a great revenue every
+year and over whom she exercised many rights of royalty that were
+rendered to her far more freely than they had been to Montezuma her
+father.
+
+Now as has been said, some of these Otomie clans had joined the
+Tlascalans, and as their allies had taken part in the war on the
+side of the Spaniards, therefore it was decided at a solemn council
+that Otomie and I her husband should go on an embassy to the chief
+town of the nation, that was known as the City of Pines, and strive
+to win it back to the Aztec standard.
+
+Accordingly, heralds having been sent before us, we started upon
+our journey, not knowing how we should be received at the end of
+it.  For eight days we travelled in great pomp and with an ever-
+increasing escort, for when the tribes of the Otomie learned that
+their princess was come to visit them in person, bringing with her
+her husband, a man of the Teules who had espoused the Aztec cause,
+they flocked in vast numbers to swell her retinue, so that it came
+to pass that before we reached the City of Pines we were
+accompanied by an army of at least ten thousand mountaineers, great
+men and wild, who made a savage music as we marched.  But with them
+and with their chiefs as yet we held no converse except by way of
+formal greeting, though every morning when we started on our
+journey, Otomie in a litter and I on a horse that had been captured
+from the Spaniards, they set up shouts of salutation and made the
+mountains ring.  Ever as we went the land like its people grew
+wilder and more beautiful, for now we were passing through forests
+clad with oak and pine and with many a lovely plant and fern.
+Sometimes we crossed great and sparkling rivers and sometimes we
+wended through gorges and passes of the mountains, but every hour
+we mounted higher, till at length the climate became like that of
+England, only far more bright.  At last on the eighth day we passed
+through a gorge riven in the red rock, which was so narrow in
+places that three horsemen could scarcely have ridden there
+abreast.  This gorge, that is five miles long, is the high road to
+the City of Pines, to which there was no other access except by
+secret paths across the mountains, and on either side of it are
+sheer and towering cliffs that rise to heights of between one and
+two thousand feet.
+
+'Here is a place where a hundred men might hold an army at bay,' I
+said to Otomie, little knowing that it would be my task to do so in
+a day to come.
+
+Presently the gorge took a turn and I reined up amazed, for before
+me was the City of Pines in all its beauty.  The city lay in a
+wheelshaped plain that may measure twelve miles across, and all
+around this plain are mountains clad to their summits with forests
+of oak and cedar trees.  At the back of the city and in the centre
+of the ring of mountains is one, however, that is not green with
+foliage but black with lava, and above the lava white with snow,
+over which again hangs a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of
+fire by night.  This was the volcan Xaca, or the Queen, and though
+it is not so lofty as its sisters Orizaba, Popo, and Ixtac, to my
+mind it is the loveliest of them all, both because of its perfect
+shape, and of the colours, purple and blue, of the fires that it
+sends forth at night or when its heart is troubled.  The Otomies
+worshipped this mountain as a god, offering human sacrifice to it,
+which was not wonderful, for once the lava pouring from its bowels
+cut a path through the City of Pines.  Also they think it holy and
+haunted, so that none dare set foot upon its loftier snows.
+Nevertheless I was destined to climb them--I and one other.
+
+Now in the lap of this ring of mountains and watched over by the
+mighty Xaca, clad in its robe of snow, its cap of smoke, and its
+crown of fire, lies, or rather lay the City of Pines, for now it is
+a ruin, or so I left it.  As to the city itself, it was not so
+large as some others that I have seen in Anahuac, having only a
+population of some five and thirty thousand souls, since the
+Otomie, being a race of mountaineers, did not desire to dwell in
+cities.  But if it was not great, it was the most beautiful of
+Indian towns, being laid out in straight streets that met at the
+square in its centre.  All along these streets were houses each
+standing in a garden, and for the most part built of blocks of lava
+and roofed with a cement of white lime.  In the midst of the square
+stood the teocalli or pyramid of worship, crowned with temples that
+were garnished with ropes of skulls, while beyond the pyramid and
+facing it, was the palace, the home of Otomie's forefathers, a
+long, low, and very ancient building having many courts, and
+sculptured everywhere with snakes and grinning gods.  Both the
+palace and the pyramid were cased with a fine white stone that
+shone like silver in the sunlight, and contrasted strangely with
+the dark-hued houses that were built of lava.
+
+Such was the City of Pines when I saw it first.  When I saw it last
+it was but a smoking ruin, and now doubtless it is the home of bats
+and jackals; now it is 'a court for owls,' now 'the line of
+confusion is stretched out upon it and the stones of emptiness fill
+its streets.'
+
+
+Passing from the mouth of the gorge we travelled some miles across
+the plain, every foot of which was cultivated with corn, maguey or
+aloe, and other crops, till we came to one of the four gates of the
+city.  Entering it we found the flat roofs on either side of the
+wide street crowded with hundreds of women and children who threw
+flowers on us as we passed, and cried, 'Welcome, princess!
+Welcome, Otomie, princess of the Otomie!'  And when at length we
+reached the great square, it seemed as though all the men in
+Anahuac were gathered there, and they too took up the cry of
+'Welcome, Otomie, princess of the Otomie!' till the earth shook
+with the sound.  Me also they saluted as I passed, by touching the
+earth with their right hands and then holding the hand above the
+head, but I think that the horse I rode caused them more wonder
+than I did, for the most of them had never seen a horse and looked
+on it as a monster or a demon.  So we went on through the shouting
+mass, followed and preceded by thousands of warriors, many of them
+decked in glittering feather mail and bearing broidered banners,
+till we had passed the pyramid, where I saw the priests at their
+cruel work above us, and were come to the palace gates.  And here
+in a strange chamber sculptured with grinning demons we found rest
+for a while.
+
+On the morrow in the great hall of the palace was held a council of
+the chiefs and head men of the Otomie clans, to the number of a
+hundred or more.  When all were gathered, dressed as an Aztec noble
+of the first rank, I came out with Otomie, who wore royal robes and
+looked most beautiful in them, and the council rose to greet us.
+Otomie bade them be seated and addressed them thus:
+
+'Hear me, you chiefs and captains of my mother's race, who am your
+princess by right of blood, the last of your ancient rulers, and
+who am moreover the daughter of Montezuma, Emperor of Anahuac, now
+dead to us but living evermore in the Mansions of the Sun.  First I
+present to you this my husband, the lord Teule, to whom I was given
+in marriage when he held the spirit of the god Tezcat, and whom,
+when he had passed the altar of the god, being chosen by heaven to
+aid us in our war, I wedded anew after the fashion of the earth,
+and by the will of my royal brethren.  Know, chiefs and captains,
+that this lord, my husband, is not of our Indian blood, nor is he
+altogether of the blood of the Teules with whom we are at war, but
+rather of that of the true children of Quetzal, the dwellers in a
+far off northern sea who are foes to the Teules.  And as they are
+foes, so this my lord is their foe, and as doubtless you have
+heard, of all the deeds of arms that were wrought upon the night of
+the slaying of the Teules, none were greater than his, and it was
+he who first discovered their retreat.
+
+'Chiefs and captains of the great and ancient people of the Otomie,
+I your princess have been sent to you by Cuitlahua, my king and
+yours, together with my lord, to plead with you on a certain
+matter.  Our king has heard, and I also have heard with shame, that
+many of the warriors of our blood have joined the Tlascalans, who
+were ever foes to the Aztecs, in their unholy alliance with the
+Teules.  Now for a while the white men are beaten back, but they
+have touched the gold they covet, and they will return again like
+bees to a half-drained flower.  They will return, yet of themselves
+they can do nothing against the glory of Tenoctitlan.  But how
+shall it go if with them come thousands and tens of thousands of
+the Indian peoples?  I know well that now in this time of trouble,
+when kingdoms crumble, when the air is full of portents, and the
+very gods seem impotent, there are many who would seize the moment
+and turn it to their profit.  There are many men and tribes who
+remember ancient wars and wrongs, and who cry, "Now is the hour of
+vengeance, now we will think on the widows that the Aztec spears
+have made, on the tribute which they have wrung from our poverty to
+swell their wealth, and on the captives who have decked the altars
+of their sacrifice!"
+
+'Is it not so?  Ay, it is so, and I cannot wonder at it.  Yet I ask
+you to remember this, that the yoke you would help to set upon the
+neck of the queen of cities will fit your neck also.  O foolish
+men, do you think that you shall be spared when by your aid
+Tenoctitlan is a ruin and the Aztecs are no more a people?  I say
+to you never.  The sticks that the Teules use to beat out the life
+of Tenoctitlan shall by them be broken one by one and cast into the
+fire to burn.  If the Aztecs fall, then early or late every tribe
+within this wide land shall fall.  They shall be slain, their
+cities shall be stamped flat, their wealth shall be wrung from
+them, and their children shall eat the bread of slavery and drink
+the water of affliction.  Choose, ye people of the Otomie.  Will
+you stand by the men of your own customs and country, though they
+have been your foes at times, or will you throw in your lot with
+the stranger?  Choose, ye people of the Otomie, and know this, that
+on your choice and that of the other men of Anahuac, depends the
+fate of Anahuac.  I am your princess, and you should obey me, but
+to-day I issue no command.  I say choose between the alliance of
+the Aztec and the yoke of the Teule, and may the god above the
+gods, the almighty, the invisible god, direct your choice.'
+
+Otomie ceased and a murmur of applause went round the hall.  Alas,
+I can do no justice to the fire of her words, any more than I can
+describe the dignity and loveliness of her person as it seemed in
+that hour.  But they went to the hearts of the rude chieftains who
+listened.  Many of them despised the Aztecs as a womanish people of
+the plains and the lakes, a people of commerce.  Many had blood
+feuds against them dating back for generations.  But still they
+knew that their princess spoke truth, and that the triumph of the
+Teule in Tenoctitlan would mean his triumph over every city
+throughout the land.  So then and there they chose, though in after
+days, in the stress of defeat and trouble, many went back upon
+their choice as is the fashion of men.
+
+'Otomie,' cried their spokesman, after they had taken counsel
+together, 'we have chosen.  Princess, your words have conquered us.
+We throw in our lot with the Aztecs and will fight to the last for
+freedom from the Teule.'
+
+'Now I see that you are indeed my people, and I am indeed your
+ruler,' answered Otomie.  'So the great lords who are gone, my
+forefathers, your chieftains, would have spoken in a like case.
+May you never regret this choice, my brethren, Men of the Otomie.'
+
+
+And so it came to pass that when we left the City of Pines we took
+from it to Cuitlahua the emperor, a promise of an army of twenty
+thousand men vowed to serve him to the death in his war against the
+Spaniard.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE CROWNING OF GUATEMOC
+
+
+Our business with the people of the Otomie being ended for a while,
+we returned to the city of Tenoctitlan, which we reached safely,
+having been absent a month and a day.  It was but a little time,
+and yet long enough for fresh sorrows to have fallen on that most
+unhappy town.  For now the Almighty had added to the burdens which
+were laid upon her.  She had tasted of death by the sword of the
+white man, now death was with her in another shape.  For the
+Spaniard had brought the foul sicknesses of Europe with him, and
+small-pox raged throughout the land.  Day by day thousands perished
+of it, for these ignorant people treated the plague by pouring cold
+water upon the bodies of those smitten, driving the fever inwards
+to the vitals, so that within two days the most of them died.*  It
+was pitiful to see them maddened with suffering, as they wandered
+to and fro about the streets, spreading the distemper far and wide.
+They were dying in the houses, they lay dead by companies in the
+market places awaiting burial, for the sickness took its toll of
+every family, the very priests were smitten by it at the altar as
+they sacrificed children to appease the anger of the gods.  But the
+worst is still to tell; Cuitlahua, the emperor, was struck down by
+the illness, and when we reached the city he lay dying.  Still, he
+desired to see us, and sent commands that we should be brought to
+his bedside.  In vain did I pray Otomie not to obey; she, who was
+without fear, laughed at me, saying, 'What, my husband, shall I
+shrink from that which you must face?  Come, let us go and make
+report of our mission.  If the sickness takes me and I die, it will
+be because my hour has come.'
+
+
+* This treatment is followed among the Indians of Mexico to this
+day, but if the writer may believe what he heard in that country,
+the patient is frequently cured by it.
+
+
+So we went and were ushered into a chamber where Cuitlahua lay
+covered by a sheet, as though he were already dead, and with
+incense burning round him in golden censers.  When we entered he
+was in a stupor, but presently he awoke, and it was announced to
+him that we waited.
+
+'Welcome, niece,' he said, speaking through the sheet and in a
+thick voice; 'you find me in an evil case, for my days are
+numbered, the pestilence of the Teules slays those whom their
+swords spared.  Soon another monarch must take my throne, as I took
+your father's, and I do not altogether grieve, for on him will rest
+the glory and the burden of the last fight of the Aztecs.  Your
+report, niece; let me hear it swiftly.  What say the clans of the
+Otomie, your vassals?'
+
+'My lord,' Otomie answered, speaking humbly and with bowed head,
+'may this distemper leave you, and may you live to reign over us
+for many years!  My lord, my husband Teule and I have won back the
+most part of the people of the Otomie to our cause and standard.
+An army of twenty thousand mountain men waits upon your word, and
+when those are spent there are more to follow.'
+
+'Well done, daughter of Montezuma, and you, white man,' gasped the
+dying king.  'The gods were wise when they refused you both upon
+the stone of sacrifice, and I was foolish when I would have slain
+you, Teule.  To you and all I say be of a steadfast heart, and if
+you must die, then die with honour.  The fray draws on, but I shall
+not share it, and who knows its end?'
+
+Now he lay silent for a while, then of a sudden, as though an
+inspiration had seized him, he cast the sheet from his face and sat
+upon his couch, no pleasant sight to see, for the pestilence had
+done its worst with him.
+
+'Alas!' he wailed, 'and alas!  I see the streets of Tenoctitlan red
+with blood and fire, I see her dead piled up in heaps, and the
+horses of the Teules trample them.  I see the Spirit of my people,
+and her voice is sighing and her neck is heavy with chains.  The
+children are visited because of the evil of the fathers.  Ye are
+doomed, people of Anahuac, whom I would have nurtured as an eagle
+nurtures her young.  Hell yawns for you and Earth refuses you
+because of your sins, and the remnant that remains shall be slaves
+from generation to generation, till the vengeance is accomplished!'
+
+Having cried thus with a great voice, Cuitlahua fell back upon the
+cushions, and before the frightened leech who tended him could lift
+his head, he had passed beyond the troubles of this earth.  But the
+words which he had spoken remained fixed in the hearts of those who
+heard them, though they were told to none except to Guatemoc.
+
+
+Thus then in my presence and in that of Otomie died Cuitlahua,
+emperor of the Aztecs, when he had reigned but fifteen weeks.  Once
+more the nation mourned its king, the chief of many a thousand of
+its children whom the pestilence swept with him to the 'Mansions of
+the Sun,' or perchance to the 'darkness behind the Stars.'
+
+But the mourning was not for long, for in the urgency of the times
+it was necessary that a new emperor should be crowned to take
+command of the armies and rule the nation.  Therefore on the morrow
+of the burial of Cuitlahua the council of the four electors was
+convened, and with them lesser nobles and princes to the number of
+three hundred, and I among them in the right of my rank as general,
+and as husband of the princess Otomie.  There was no great need of
+deliberation, indeed, for though the names of several were
+mentioned, the princes knew that there was but one man who by
+birth, by courage, and nobility of mind, was fitted to cope with
+the troubles of the nation.  That man was Guatemoc, my friend and
+blood brother, the nephew of the two last emperors and the husband
+of my wife's sister, Montezuma's daughter, Tecuichpo.  All knew it,
+I say, except, strangely enough, Guatemoc himself, for as we passed
+into the council he named two other princes, saying that without
+doubt the choice lay between them.
+
+It was a splendid and a solemn sight, that gathering of the four
+great lords, the electors, dressed in their magnificent robes, and
+of the lesser council of confirmation of three hundred lords and
+princes, who sat without the circle but in hearing of all that
+passed.  Very solemn also was the prayer of the high priest, who,
+clad in his robes of sable, seemed like a blot of ink dropped on a
+glitter of gold.  Thus he prayed:
+
+'O god, thou who art everywhere and seest all, knowest that
+Cuitlahua our king is gathered to thee.  Thou hast set him beneath
+thy footstool and there he rests in his rest.  He has travelled
+that road which we must travel every one, he has reached the royal
+inhabitations of our dead, the home of everlasting shadows.  There
+where none shall trouble him he is sunk in sleep.  His brief
+labours are accomplished, and soiled with sin and sorrow, he has
+gone to thee.  Thou gavest him joys to taste but not to drink; the
+glory of empire passed before his eyes like the madness of a dream.
+With tears and with prayers to thee he took up his load, with
+happiness he laid it down.  Where his forefathers went, thither he
+has followed, nor can he return to us.  Our fire is an ash and our
+lamp is darkness.  Those who wore his purple before him bequeathed
+to him the intolerable weight of rule, and he in his turn bequeaths
+it to another.  Truly, he should give thee praise, thou king of
+kings, master of the stars, that standest alone, who hast lifted
+from his shoulders so great a burden, and from his brow this crown
+of woes, paying him peace for war and rest for labour.
+
+'O god our hope, choose now a servant to succeed him, a man after
+thine own heart, who shall not fear nor falter, who shall toil and
+not be weary, who shall lead thy people as a mother leads her
+children.  Lord of lords, give grace to Guatemoc thy creature, who
+is our choice.  Seal him to thy service, and as thy priest let him
+sit upon thy earthly throne for his life days.  Let thy foes become
+his footstool, let him exalt thy glory, proclaim thy worship, and
+protect thy kingdom.  Thus have I prayed to thee in the name of the
+nation.  O god, thy will be done!'
+
+When the high priest had made an end of his prayer, the first of
+the four great electors rose, saying:
+
+'Guatemoc, in the name of god and with the voice of the people of
+Anahuac, we summon you to the throne of Anahuac.  Long may you live
+and justly may you rule, and may the glory be yours of beating back
+into the sea those foes who would destroy us.  Hail to you,
+Guatemoc, Emperor of the Aztecs and of their vassal tribes.'  And
+all the three hundred of the council of confirmation repeated in a
+voice of thunder, 'Hail to you, Guatemoc, Emperor!'
+
+Now the prince himself stood forward and spoke:
+
+'You lords of election, and you, princes, generals, nobles and
+captains of the council of confirmation, hear me.  May the gods be
+my witness that when I entered this place I had no thought or
+knowledge that I was destined to so high an honour as that which
+you would thrust upon me.  And may the gods be my witness again
+that were my life my own, and not a trust in the hands of this
+people, I would say to you, "Seek on and find one worthier to fill
+the throne."  But my life is not my own.  Anahuac calls her son and
+I obey the call.  War to the death threatens her, and shall I hang
+back while my arm has strength to smite and my brain has power to
+plan?  Not so.  Now and henceforth I vow myself to the service of
+my country and to war against the Teules.  I will make no peace
+with them, I will take no rest till they are driven back whence
+they came, or till I am dead beneath their swords.  None can say
+what the gods have in store for us, it may be victory or it may be
+destruction, but be it triumph or death, let us swear a great oath
+together, my people and my brethren.  Let us swear to fight the
+Teules and the traitors who abet them, for our cities, our hearths
+and our altars; till the cities are a smoking ruin, till the
+hearths are cumbered with their dead, and the altars run red with
+the blood of their worshippers.  So, if we are destined to conquer,
+our triumph shall be made sure, and if we are doomed to fail, at
+least there will be a story to be told of us.  Do you swear, my
+people and my brethren?'
+
+'We swear,' they answered with a shout.
+
+'It is well,' said Guatemoc.  'And now may everlasting shame
+overtake him who breaks this oath.'
+
+
+Thus then was Guatemoc, the last and greatest of the Aztec
+emperors, elected to the throne of his forefathers.  It was happy
+for him that he could not foresee that dreadful day when he, the
+noblest of men, must meet a felon's doom at the hand of these very
+Teules.  Yet so it came about, for the destiny that lay upon the
+land smote all alike, indeed the greater the man the more certain
+was his fate.
+
+When all was done I hurried to the palace to tell Otomie what had
+come to pass, and found her in our sleeping chamber lying on her
+bed.
+
+'What ails you, Otomie?' I asked.
+
+'Alas! my husband,' she answered, 'the pestilence has stricken me.
+Come not near, I pray you, come not near.  Let me be nursed by the
+women.  You shall not risk your life for me, beloved.'
+
+'Peace,' I said and came to her.  It was too true, I who am a
+physician knew the symptoms well.  Indeed had it not been for my
+skill, Otomie would have died.  For three long weeks I fought with
+death at her bedside, and in the end I conquered.  The fever left
+her, and thanks to my treatment, there was no single scar upon her
+lovely face.  During eight days her mind wandered without ceasing,
+and it was then I learned how deep and perfect was her love for me.
+For all this while she did nothing but rave of me, and the secret
+terror of her heart was disclosed--that I should cease to care for
+her, that her beauty and love might pall upon me so that I should
+leave her, that 'the flower maid,' for so she named Lily, who dwelt
+across the sea should draw me back to her by magic; this was the
+burden of her madness.  At length her senses returned and she
+spoke, saying:
+
+'How long have I lain ill, husband?'
+
+I told her and she said, 'And have you nursed me all this while,
+and through so foul a sickness?'
+
+'Yes, Otomie, I have tended you.'
+
+'What have I done that you should be so good to me?' she murmured.
+Then some dreadful thought seemed to strike her, for she moaned as
+though in pain, and said, 'A mirror!  Swift, bring me a mirror!'
+
+I gave her one, and rising on her arm, eagerly she scanned her face
+in the dim light of the shadowed room, then let the plate of
+burnished gold fall, and sank back with a faint and happy cry:
+
+'I feared,' she said, 'I feared that I had become hideous as those
+are whom the pestilence has smitten, and that you would cease to
+love me, than which it had been better to die.'
+
+'For shame,' I said.  'Do you then think that love can be
+frightened away by some few scars?'
+
+'Yes,' Otomie answered, 'that is the love of a man; not such love
+as mine, husband.  Had I been thus--ah! I shudder to think of it--
+within a year you would have hated me.  Perhaps it had not been so
+with another, the fair maid of far away, but me you would have
+hated.  Nay, I know it, though I know this also, that I should not
+have lived to feel your hate.  Oh! I am thankful, thankful.'
+
+Then I left her for a while, marvelling at the great love which she
+had given me, and wondering also if there was any truth in her
+words, and if the heart of man could be so ungrateful and so vile.
+Supposing that Otomie was now as many were who walked the streets
+of Tenoctitlan that day, a mass of dreadful scars, hairless, and
+with blind and whitened eyeballs, should I then have shrunk from
+her?  I do not know, and I thank heaven that no such trial was put
+upon my constancy.  But I am sure of this; had I become a leper
+even, Otomie would not have shrunk from me.
+
+So Otomie recovered from her great sickness, and shortly afterwards
+the pestilence passed away from Tenoctitlan.  And now I had many
+other things to think of, for the choosing of Guatemoc--my friend
+and blood brother--as emperor meant much advancement to me, who was
+made a general of the highest class, and a principal adviser in his
+councils.  Nor did I spare myself in his service, but laboured by
+day and night in the work of preparing the city for siege, and in
+the marshalling of the troops, and more especially of that army of
+Otomies, who came, as they had promised, to the number of twenty
+thousand.  The work was hard indeed, for these Indian tribes lacked
+discipline and powers of unity, without which their thousands were
+of little avail in a war with white men.  Also there were great
+jealousies between their leaders which must be overcome, and I was
+myself an object of jealousy.  Moreover, many tribes took this
+occasion of the trouble of the Aztecs to throw off their allegiance
+or vassalage, and even if they did not join the Spaniards, to
+remain neutral watching for the event of the war.  Still we
+laboured on, dividing the armies into regiments after the fashion
+of Europe, and stationing each in its own quarter drilling them to
+the better use of arms, provisioning the city for a siege, and
+weeding out as many useless mouths as we might; and there was but
+one man in Tenoctitlan who toiled at these tasks more heavily than
+I, and that was Guatemoc the emperor, who did not rest day or
+night.  I tried even to make powder with sulphur which was brought
+from the throat of the volcan Popo, but, having no knowledge of
+that art, I failed.  Indeed, it would have availed us little had I
+succeeded, for having neither arquebusses nor cannons, and no skill
+to cast them, we could only have used it in mining roads and
+gateways, and, perhaps, in grenades to be thrown with the hand.
+
+And so the months went on, till at length spies came in with the
+tidings that the Spaniards were advancing in numbers, and with them
+countless hosts of allies.
+
+Now I would have sent Otomie to seek safety among her own people,
+but she laughed me to scorn, and said:
+
+'Where you are, there I will be, husband.  What, shall it be
+suffered that you face death, perhaps to find him, when I am not at
+your side to die with you?  If that is the fashion of white women,
+I leave it to them, beloved, and here with you I stay.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+THE FALL OF TENOCTITLAN
+
+
+Now shortly after Christmas, having marched from the coast with a
+great array of Spaniards, for many had joined his banner from over
+sea, and tens of thousands of native allies, Cortes took up his
+head quarters at Tezcuco in the valley of Mexico.  This town is
+situated near the borders of the lake, at a distance of several
+leagues from Tenoctitlan, and being on the edge of the territory of
+the Tlascalans his allies, it was most suitable to Cortes as a base
+of action.  And then began one of the most terrible wars that the
+world has seen.  For eight months it raged, and when it ceased at
+length, Tenoctitlan, and with it many other beautiful and populous
+towns, were blackened ruins, the most of the Aztecs were dead by
+sword and famine, and their nation was crushed for ever.  Of all
+the details of this war I do not purpose to write, for were I to do
+so, there would be no end to this book, and I have my own tale to
+tell.  These, therefore, I leave to the maker of histories.  Let it
+be enough to say that the plan of Cortes was to destroy all her
+vassal and allied cities and peoples before he grappled with
+Mexico, queen of the valley, and this he set himself to do with a
+skill, a valour, and a straightness of purpose, such as have
+scarcely been shown by a general since the days of Caesar.
+
+Iztapalapan was the first to fall, and here ten thousand men,
+women, and children were put to the sword or burned alive.  Then
+came the turn of the others; one by one Cortes reduced the cities
+till the whole girdle of them was in his hand, and Tenoctitlan
+alone remained untouched.  Many indeed surrendered, for the nations
+of Anahuac being of various blood were but as a bundle of reeds and
+not as a tree.  Thus when the power of Spain cut the band of empire
+that bound them together, they fell this way and that, having no
+unity.  So it came about that as the power of Guatemoc weakened
+that of Cortes increased, for he garnered these loosened reeds into
+his basket.  And, indeed, now that the people saw that Mexico had
+met her match, many an ancient hate and smouldering rivalry broke
+into flame, and they fell upon her and tore her, like half-tamed
+wolves upon their master when his scourge is broken.  It was this
+that brought about the fall of Anahuac.  Had she remained true to
+herself, had she forgotten her feuds and jealousies and stood
+against the Spaniards as one man, then Tenoctitlan would never have
+fallen, and Cortes with every Teule in his company had been
+stretched upon the stone of sacrifice.
+
+Did I not say when I took up my pen to write this book that every
+wrong revenges itself at last upon the man or the people that
+wrought it?  So it was now.  Mexico was destroyed because of the
+abomination of the worship of her gods.  These feuds between the
+allied peoples had their root in the horrible rites of human
+sacrifice.  At some time in the past, from all these cities
+captives have been dragged to the altars of the gods of Mexico,
+there to be slaughtered and devoured by the cannibal worshippers.
+Now these outrages were remembered, now when the arm of the queen
+of the valley was withered, the children of those whom she had
+slain rose up to slay her and to drag HER children to their altars.
+
+By the month of May, strive as we would, and never was a more
+gallant fight made, all our allies were crushed or had deserted us,
+and the siege of the city began.  It began by land and by water,
+for with incredible resource Cortes caused thirteen brigantines of
+war to be constructed in Tlascala, and conveyed in pieces for
+twenty leagues across the mountains to his camp, whence they were
+floated into the lake through a canal, which was hollowed out by
+the labour of ten thousand Indians, who worked at it without cease
+for two months.  The bearers of these brigantines were escorted by
+an army of twenty thousand Tlascalans, and if I could have had my
+way that army should have been attacked in the mountain passes.  So
+thought Guatemoc also, but there were few troops to spare, for the
+most of our force had been despatched to threaten a city named
+Chalco, that, though its people were of the Aztec blood, had not
+been ashamed to desert the Aztec cause.  Still I offered to lead
+the twenty thousand Otomies whom I commanded against the Tlascalan
+convoy, and the matter was debated hotly at a council of war.  But
+the most of the council were against the risking of an engagement
+with the Spaniards and their allies so far from the city, and thus
+the opportunity went by to return no more.  It was an evil fortune
+like the rest, for in the end these brigantines brought about the
+fall of Tenoctitlan by cutting off the supply of food, which was
+carried in canoes across the lake.  Alas! the bravest can do
+nothing against the power of famine.  Hunger is a very great man,
+as the Indians say.
+
+Now the Aztecs fighting alone were face to face with their foes and
+the last struggle began.  First the Spaniards cut the aqueduct
+which supplied the city with water from the springs at the royal
+house of Chapoltepec, whither I was taken on being brought to
+Mexico.  Henceforth till the end of the siege, the only water that
+we found to drink was the brackish and muddy fluid furnished by the
+lake and wells sunk in the soil.  Although it might be drunk after
+boiling to free it of the salt, it was unwholesome and filthy to
+the taste, breeding various painful sicknesses and fevers.  It was
+on this day of the cutting of the aqueduct that Otomie bore me a
+son, our first-born.  Already the hardships of the siege were so
+great and nourishing food so scarce, that had she been less strong,
+or had I possessed less skill in medicine, I think that she would
+have died.  Still she recovered to my great thankfulness and joy,
+and though I am no clerk I baptized the boy into the Christian
+Church with my own hand, naming him Thomas after me.
+
+Now day by day and week by week the fighting went on with varying
+success, sometimes in the suburbs of the city, sometimes on the
+lake, and sometimes in the very streets.  Time on time the
+Spaniards were driven back with loss, time on time they advanced
+again from their different camps.  Once we captured sixty of them
+and more than a thousand of their allies.  All these were
+sacrificed on the altar of Huitzel, and given over to be devoured
+by the Aztecs according to the beastlike custom which in Anahuac
+enjoined the eating of the bodies of those who were offered to the
+gods, not because the Indians love such meat but for a secret
+religious reason.
+
+In vain did I pray Guatemoc to forego this horror.
+
+'Is this a time for gentleness?' he answered fiercely.  'I cannot
+save them from the altar, and I would not if I could.  Let the dogs
+die according to the custom of the land, and to you, Teule my
+brother, I say presume not too far.'
+
+Alas! the heart of Guatemoc grew ever fiercer as the struggle wore
+on, and indeed it was little to be wondered at.
+
+This was the dreadful plan of Cortes: to destroy the city piecemeal
+as he advanced towards its heart, and it was carried out without
+mercy.  So soon as the Spaniards got footing in a quarter,
+thousands of the Tlascalans were set to work to fire the houses and
+burn all in them alive.  Before the siege was done Tenoctitlan,
+queen of the valley, was but a heap of blackened ruins.  Cortes
+might have cried over Mexico with Isaiah the prophet: 'Thy pomp is
+brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is
+spread under thee and the worms cover thee.  How art thou fallen
+from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down
+to the ground which didst weaken the nations!'
+
+In all these fights I took my part, though it does not become me to
+boast my prowess.  Still the Spaniards knew me well and they had
+good reason.  Whenever they saw me they would greet me with
+revilings, calling me 'traitor and renegade,' and 'Guatemoc's white
+dog,' and moreover, Cortes set a price upon my head, for he knew
+through his spies that some of Guatemoc's most successful attacks
+and stratagems had been of my devising.  But I took no heed even
+when their insults pierced me like arrows, for though many of the
+Aztecs were my friends and I hated the Spaniards, it was a shameful
+thing that a Christian man should be warring on the side of
+cannibals who made human sacrifice.  I took no heed, since always I
+was seeking for my foe de Garcia.  He was there I knew, for I saw
+him many times, but I could never come at him.  Indeed, if I
+watched for him he also watched for me, but with another purpose,
+to avoid me.  For now as of old de Garcia feared me, now as of old
+he believed that I should bring his death upon him.
+
+It was the custom of warriors in the opposing armies to send
+challenges to single combat, one to another, and many such duels
+were fought in the sight of all, safe conduct being given to the
+combatants and their seconds.  Upon a day, despairing of meeting
+him face to face in battle, I sent a challenge to de Garcia by a
+herald, under his false name of Sarceda.  In an hour the herald
+returned with this message written on paper in Spanish:
+
+'Christian men do not fight duels with renegade heathen dogs, white
+worshippers of devils and eaters of human flesh.  There is but one
+weapon which such cannot defile, a rope, and it waits for you,
+Thomas Wingfield.'
+
+I tore the writing to pieces and stamped upon it in my rage, for
+now, to all his other crimes against me, de Garcia had added the
+blackest insult.  But wrath availed me nothing, for I could never
+come near him, though once, with ten of my Otomies, I charged into
+the heart of the Spanish column after him.
+
+From that rush I alone escaped alive, the ten Otomies were
+sacrificed to my hate.
+
+How shall I paint the horrors that day by day were heaped upon the
+doomed city?  Soon all the food was gone, and men, ay, and worse
+still, tender women and children, must eat such meat as swine would
+have turned from, striving to keep life in them for a little
+longer.  Grass, the bark of trees, slugs and insects, washed down
+with brackish water from the lake, these were their best food,
+these and the flesh of captives offered in sacrifice.  Now they
+began to die by hundreds and by thousands, they died so fast that
+none could bury them.  Where they perished, there they lay, till at
+length their bodies bred a plague, a black and horrible fever that
+swept off thousands more, who in turn became the root of
+pestilence.  For one who was killed by the Spaniards and their
+allies, two were swept off by hunger and plague.  Think then what
+was the number of dead when not less than seventy thousand perished
+beneath the sword and by fire alone.  Indeed, it is said that forty
+thousand died in this manner in a single day, the day before the
+last of the siege.
+
+
+One night I came back to the lodging where Otomie dwelt with her
+royal sister Tecuichpo, the wife of Guatemoc, for now all the
+palaces had been burnt down.  I was starving, for I had scarcely
+tasted food for forty hours, but all that my wife could set before
+me were three little meal cakes, or tortillas, mixed with bark.
+She kissed me and bade me eat them, but I discovered that she
+herself had touched no food that day, so I would not till she
+shared them.  Then I noted that she could scarcely swallow the
+bitter morsels, and also that she strove to hide tears which ran
+down her face.
+
+'What is it, wife?' I asked.
+
+Then Otomie broke out into a great and bitter crying and said:
+
+'This, my beloved: for two days the milk has been dry in my breast--
+hunger has dried it--and our babe is dead!  Look, he lies dead!'
+and she drew aside a cloth and showed me the tiny body.
+
+'Hush,' I said, 'he is spared much.  Can we then desire that a
+child should live to see such days as we have seen, and after all,
+to die at last?'
+
+'He was our son, our first-born,' she cried again.  'Oh! why must
+we suffer thus?'
+
+'We must suffer, Otomie, because we are born to it.  Just so much
+happiness is given to us as shall save us from madness and no more.
+Ask me not why, for I cannot answer you!  There is no answer in my
+faith or in any other.'
+
+And then, looking on that dead babe, I wept also.  Every hour in
+those terrible months it was my lot to see a thousand sights more
+awful, and yet this sight of a dead infant moved me the most of all
+of them.  The child was mine, my firstborn, its mother wept beside
+me, and its stiff and tiny fingers seemed to drag at my heart
+strings.  Seek not the cause, for the Almighty Who gave the heart
+its infinite power of pain alone can answer, and to our ears He is
+dumb.
+
+Then I took a mattock and dug a hole outside the house till I came
+to water, which in Tenoctitlan is found at a depth of two feet or
+so.  And, having muttered a prayer over him, there in the water I
+laid the body of our child, burying it out of sight.  At the least
+he was not left for the zapilotes, as the Aztecs call the vultures,
+like the rest of them.
+
+After that we wept ourselves to sleep in each other's arms, Otomie
+murmuring from time to time, 'Oh! my husband, I would that we were
+asleep and forgotten, we and the babe together.'
+
+'Rest now,' I answered, 'for death is very near to us.'
+
+The morrow came, and with it a deadlier fray than any that had gone
+before, and after it more morrows and more deaths, but still we
+lived on, for Guatemoc gave us of his food.  Then Cortes sent his
+heralds demanding our surrender, and now three-fourths of the city
+was a ruin, and three-fourths of its defenders were dead.  The dead
+were heaped in the houses like bees stifled in a hive, and in the
+streets they lay so thick that we walked upon them.
+
+The council was summoned--fierce men, haggard with hunger and with
+war, and they considered the offer of Cortes.
+
+'What is your word, Guatemoc?' said their spokesman at last.
+
+'Am I Montezuma, that you ask me?  I swore to defend this city to
+the last,' he answered hoarsely, 'and, for my part, I will defend
+it.  Better that we should all die, than that we should fall living
+into the hands of the Teules.'
+
+'So say we,' they replied, and the war went on.
+
+
+At length there came a day when the Spaniards made a new attack and
+gained another portion of the city.  There the people were huddled
+together like sheep in a pen.  We strove to defend them, but our
+arms were weak with famine.  They fired into us with their pieces,
+mowing us down like corn before the sickle.  Then the Tlascalans
+were loosed upon us, like fierce hounds upon a defenceless buck,
+and on this day it is said that there died forty thousand people,
+for none were spared.  On the morrow, it was the last day of the
+siege, came a fresh embassy from Cortes, asking that Guatemoc
+should meet him.  The answer was the same, for nothing could
+conquer that noble spirit.
+
+'Tell him,' said Guatemoc, 'that I will die where I am, but that I
+will hold no parley with him.  We are helpless, let Cortes work his
+pleasure on us.'
+
+By now all the city was destroyed, and we who remained alive within
+its bounds were gathered on the causeways and behind the ruins of
+walls; men, women, and children together.
+
+Here they attacked us again.  The great drum on the teocalli beat
+for the last time, and for the last time the wild scream of the
+Aztec warriors went up to heaven.  We fought our best; I killed
+four men that day with my arrows which Otomie, who was at my side,
+handed me as I shot.  But the most of us had not the strength of a
+child, and what could we do?  They came among us like seamen among
+a flock of seals, and slaughtered us by hundreds.  They drove us
+into the canals and trod us to death there, till bridges were made
+of our bodies.  How we escaped I do not know.
+
+At length a party of us, among whom was Guatemoc with his wife
+Tecuichpo, were driven to the shores of the lake where lay canoes,
+and into these we entered, scarcely knowing what we did, but
+thinking that we might escape, for now all the city was taken.  The
+brigantines saw us and sailed after us with a favouring wind--the
+wind always favoured the foe in that war--and row as we would, one
+of them came up with us and began to fire into us.  Then Guatemoc
+stood up and spoke, saying:
+
+'I am Guatemoc.  Bring me to Malinche.  But spare those of my
+people who remain alive.'
+
+'Now,' I said to Otomie at my side, 'my hour has come, for the
+Spaniards will surely hang me, and it is in my mind, wife, that I
+should do well to kill myself, so that I may be saved from a death
+of shame.'
+
+'Nay, husband,' she answered sadly, 'as I said in bygone days,
+while you live there is hope, but the dead come back no more.
+Fortune may favour us yet; still, if you think otherwise, I am
+ready to die.'
+
+'That I will not suffer, Otomie.'
+
+'Then you must hold your hand, husband, for now as always, where
+you go, I follow.'
+
+'Listen,' I whispered; 'do not let it be known that you are my
+wife; pass yourself as one of the ladies of Tecuichpo, the queen,
+your sister.  If we are separated, and if by any chance I escape, I
+will try to make my way to the City of Pines.  There, among your
+own people, we may find refuge.'
+
+'So be it, beloved,' she answered, smiling sadly.  'But I do not
+know how the Otomie will receive me, who have led twenty thousand
+of their bravest men to a dreadful death.'
+
+Now we were on the deck of the brigantine and must stop talking,
+and thence, after the Spaniards had quarrelled over us a while, we
+were taken ashore and led to the top of a house which still stood,
+where Cortes had made ready hurriedly to receive his royal
+prisoner.  Surrounded by his escort, the Spanish general stood, cap
+in hand, and by his side was Marina, grown more lovely than before,
+whom I now met for the first time since we had parted in Tobasco.
+
+Our eyes met and she started, thereby showing that she knew me
+again, though it must have been hard for Marina to recognise her
+friend Teule in the blood-stained, starving, and tattered wretch
+who could scarcely find strength to climb the azotea.  But at that
+time no words passed between us, for all eyes were bent on the
+meeting between Cortes and Guatemoc, between the conqueror and the
+conquered.
+
+Still proud and defiant, though he seemed but a living skeleton,
+Guatemoc walked straight to where the Spaniard stood, and spoke,
+Marina translating his words.
+
+'I am Guatemoc, the emperor, Malinche,' he said.  'What a man might
+do to defend his people, I have done.  Look on the fruits of my
+labour,' and he pointed to the blackened ruins of Tenoctitlan that
+stretched on every side far as the eye could reach.  'Now I have
+come to this pass, for the gods themselves have been against me.
+Deal with me as you will, but it will be best that you kill me
+now,' and he touched the dagger of Cortes with his hand, 'and thus
+rid me swiftly of the misery of life.'
+
+'Fear not, Guatemoc,' answered Cortes.  'You have fought like a
+brave man, and such I honour.  With me you are safe, for we
+Spaniards love a gallant foe.  See, here is food,' and he pointed
+to a table spread with such viands as we had not seen for many a
+week; 'eat, you and your companions together, for you must need it.
+Afterwards we will talk.'
+
+So we ate, and heartily, I for my part thinking that it would be
+well to die upon a full stomach, having faced death so long upon an
+empty one, and while we devoured the meat the Spaniards stood on
+one side scanning us, not without pity.  Presently, Tecuichpo was
+brought before Cortes, and with her Otomie and some six other
+ladies.  He greeted her graciously, and they also were given to
+eat.  Now, one of the Spaniards who had been watching me whispered
+something into the ear of Cortes, and I saw his face darken.
+
+'Say,' he said to me in Castilian, 'are you that renegade, that
+traitor who has aided these Aztecs against us?'
+
+'I am no renegade and no traitor, general,' I answered boldly, for
+the food and wine had put new life into me.  'I am an Englishman,
+and I have fought with the Aztecs because I have good cause to hate
+you Spaniards.'
+
+'You shall soon have better, traitor,' he said furiously.  'Here,
+lead this man away and hang him on the mast of yonder ship.'
+
+Now I saw that it was finished, and made ready to go to my death,
+when Marina spoke into the ear of Cortes.  All she said I could not
+catch, but I heard the words 'hidden gold.'  He listened, then
+hesitated, and spoke aloud: 'Do not hang this man to-day.  Let him
+be safely guarded.  Tomorrow I will inquire into his case.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+THOMAS IS DOOMED
+
+
+At the words of Cortes two Spaniards came forward, and seizing me
+one by either arm, they led me across the roof of the house towards
+the stairway.  Otomie had heard also, and though she did not
+understand the words, she read the face of Cortes, and knew well
+that I was being taken to imprisonment or death.  As I passed her,
+she started forward, a terror shining in her eyes.  Fearing that
+she was about to throw herself upon my breast, and thus to reveal
+herself as my wife, and bring my fate upon her, I glanced at her
+warningly, then making pretence to stumble, as though with fear and
+exhaustion, I fell at her feet.  The soldiers who led me laughed
+brutally, and one of them kicked me with his heavy boot.  But
+Otomie stooped down and held her hand to me to help me rise, and as
+I did so, we spoke low and swiftly.
+
+'Farewell, wife,' I said; 'whatever happens, keep silent.'
+
+'Farewell,' she answered; 'if you must die, await me in the gates
+of death, for I will join you there.'
+
+'Nay, live on.  Time shall bring comfort.'
+
+'You are my life, beloved.  With you time ends for me.'  Now I was
+on my feet again, and I think that none noted our whispered words,
+for all were listening to Cortes, who rated the man that had kicked
+me.
+
+'I bade you guard this traitor, not to kick him,' he said angrily
+in Castilian.  'Will you put us to open shame before these savages?
+Do so once more, and you shall pay for it smartly.  Learn a lesson
+in gentleness from that woman; she is starving, yet she leaves her
+food to help your prisoner to his feet.  Now take him away to the
+camp, and see that he comes to no harm, for he can tell me much.'
+
+Then the soldiers led me away, grumbling as they went, and the last
+thing that I saw was the despairing face of Otomie my wife, as she
+gazed after me, faint with the secret agony of our parting.  But
+when I came to the head of the stairway, Guatemoc, who stood near,
+took my hand and shook it.
+
+'Farewell, my brother,' he said with a heavy smile; 'the game we
+played together is finished, and now it is time for us to rest.  I
+thank you for your valour and your aid.'
+
+'Farewell, Guatemoc,' I answered.  'You are fallen, but let this
+comfort you, in your fall you have found immortal fame.'
+
+'On, on!' growled the soldiers, and I went, little thinking how
+Guatemoc and I should meet again.
+
+They took me to a canoe, and we were paddled across the lake by
+Tlascalans, till at length we came to the Spanish camp.  All the
+journey through, my guards, though they laid no hand on me, fearing
+the anger of Cortes, mocked and taunted me, asking me how I liked
+the ways of the heathen, and whether I ate the flesh of the
+sacrifices raw or cooked; and many another such brutal jest they
+made at my expense.  For a while I bore it, for I had learned to be
+patient from the Indians, but at last I answered them in few words
+and bitter.
+
+'Peace, cowards,' I said; 'remember that I am helpless, and that
+were I before you strong and armed, either I should not live to
+listen to such words, or you would not live to repeat them.'
+
+Then they were silent, and I also was silent.
+
+When we reached their camp I was led through it, followed by a
+throng of fierce Tlascalans and others, who would have torn me limb
+from limb had they not feared to do so.  I saw some Spaniards also,
+but the most of these were so drunk with mescal, and with joy at
+the tidings that Tenoctitlan had fallen, and their labours were
+ended at last, that they took no heed of me.  Never did I see such
+madness as possessed them, for these poor fools believed that
+henceforth they should eat their very bread off plates of gold.  It
+was for gold that they had followed Cortes; for gold they had
+braved the altar of sacrifice and fought in a hundred fights, and
+now, as they thought, they had won it.
+
+The room of the stone house where they prisoned me had a window
+secured by bars of wood, and through these bars I could see and
+hear the revellings of the soldiers during the time of my
+confinement.  All day long, when they were not on duty, and most of
+the night also, they gambled and drank, staking tens of pesos on a
+single throw, which the loser must pay out of his share of the
+countless treasures of the Aztecs.  Little did they care if they
+won or lost, they were so sure of plunder, but played on till drink
+overpowered them, and they rolled senseless beneath the tables, or
+till they sprang up and danced wildly to and fro, catching at the
+sunbeams and screaming 'Gold! gold! gold!'
+
+Listening at this window also I gathered some of the tidings of the
+camp.  I learned that Cortes had come back, bringing Guatemoc and
+several of the princes with him, together with many of the noble
+Aztec ladies.  Indeed I saw and heard the soldiers gambling for
+these women when they were weary of their play for money, a
+description of each of them being written on a piece of paper.  One
+of these ladies answered well to Otomie, my wife, and she was put
+up to auction by the brute who won her in the gamble, and sold to a
+common soldier for a hundred pesos.  For these men never doubted
+but that the women and the gold would be handed over to them.
+
+Thus things went for several days, during which I sat and slept in
+my prison untroubled by any, except the native woman who waited on
+me and brought me food in plenty.  During those days I ate as I
+have never eaten before or since, and I slept much, for my sorrows
+could not rid my body of its appetites and commanding need for food
+and rest.  Indeed I verily believe that at the end of a week, I had
+increased in weight by a full half; also my weariness was conquered
+at length, and I was strong again.
+
+But when I was neither sleeping nor eating I watched at my window,
+hoping, though in vain, to catch some sight of Otomie or of
+Guatemoc.  If I might not see my friends, however, at least I saw
+my foe, for one evening de Garcia came and stared at my prison.  He
+could not see me, but I saw him, and the devilish smile that
+flickered on his face as he went away like a wolf, made me shiver
+with a presage of woes to come.  For ten minutes or more he stood
+gazing at my window hungrily, as a cat gazes at a caged bird, and I
+felt that he was waiting for the door to be opened, and KNEW that
+it would soon be opened.
+
+This happened on the eve of the day upon which I was put to
+torture.
+
+Meanwhile, as time went on, I noticed that a change came over the
+temper of the camp.  The soldiers ceased to gamble for untold
+wealth, they even ceased from drinking to excess and from their
+riotous joy, but took to hanging together in knots discussing
+fiercely I could not learn of what.  On the day when de Garcia came
+to look at my prison there was a great gathering in the square
+opposite my prison, to which I saw Cortes ride up on a white horse
+and richly dressed.  The meeting was too far away for me to
+overhear what passed, but I noted that several officers addressed
+Cortes angrily, and that their speeches were loudly cheered by the
+soldiers.  At length the great captain answered them at some
+length, and they broke up in silence.  Next morning after I had
+breakfasted, four soldiers came into my prison and ordered me to
+accompany them.
+
+'Whither?' I asked.
+
+'To the captain, traitor,' their leader answered.
+
+'It has come at last,' I thought to myself, but I said only:
+
+'It is well.  Any change from this hole is one for the better.'
+
+'Certainly,' he replied; 'and it is your last shift.'
+
+Then I knew that the man believed that I was going to my death.  In
+five minutes I was standing before Cortes in his private house.  At
+his side was Marina and around him were several of his companions
+in arms.  The great man looked at me for a while, then spoke.
+
+'Your name is Wingfield; you are of mixed blood, half English and
+half Spanish.  You were cast away in the Tobasco River and taken to
+Tenoctitlan.  There you were doomed to personate the Aztec god
+Tezcat, and were rescued by us when we captured the great teocalli.
+Subsequently you joined the Aztecs and took part in the attack and
+slaughter of the noche triste.  You were afterwards the friend and
+counsellor of Guatemoc, and assisted him in his defence of
+Tenoctitlan.  Is this true, prisoner?'
+
+'It is all true, general,' I answered.
+
+'Good.  You are now our prisoner, and had you a thousand lives, you
+have forfeited them all because of your treachery to your race and
+blood.  Into the circumstances that led you to commit this horrible
+treason I cannot enter; the fact remains.  You have slain many of
+the Spaniards and their allies; that is, being in a state of
+treason you have murdered them.  Wingfield, your life is forfeit
+and I condemn you to die by hanging as a traitor and an apostate.'
+
+'Then there is nothing more to be said,' I answered quietly, though
+a cold fear froze my blood.
+
+'There is something,' answered Cortes.  'Though your crimes have
+been so many, I am ready to give you your life and freedom upon a
+condition.  I am ready to do more, to find you a passage to Europe
+on the first occasion, where you may perchance escape the echoes of
+your infamy if God is good to you.  The condition is this.  We have
+reason to believe that you are acquainted with the hiding place of
+the gold of Montezuma, which was unlawfully stolen from us on the
+night of the noche triste.  Nay, we know that this is so, for you
+were seen to go with the canoes that were laden with it.  Choose
+now, apostate, between a shameful death and the revealing to us of
+the secret of this treasure.'
+
+For a moment I wavered.  On the one hand was the loss of honour
+with life and liberty and the hope of home, on the other a dreadful
+end.  Then I remembered my oath and Otomie, and what she would
+think of me living or dead, if I did this thing, and I wavered no
+more.
+
+'I know nothing of the treasure, general,' I answered coldly.
+'Send me to my death.'
+
+'You mean that you will say nothing of it, traitor.  Think again.
+If you have sworn any oaths they are broken by God.  The empire of
+the Aztecs is at an end, their king is my prisoner, their great
+city is a ruin.  The true God has triumphed over these devils by my
+hand.  Their wealth is my lawful spoil, and I must have it to pay
+my gallant comrades who cannot grow rich on desolation.  Think
+again.'
+
+'I know nothing of this treasure, general.'
+
+'Yet memory sometimes wakens, traitor.  I have said that you shall
+die if yours should fail you, and so you shall to be sure.  But
+death is not always swift.  There are means, doubtless you who have
+lived in Spain have heard of them,' and he arched his brows and
+glared at me meaningly, 'by which a man may die and yet live for
+many weeks.  Now, loth as I am to do it, it seems that if your
+memory still sleeps, I must find some such means to rouse it--
+before you die.'
+
+'I am in your power, general,' I answered.  'You call me traitor
+again and again.  I am no traitor.  I am a subject of the King of
+England, not of the King of Spain.  I came hither following a
+villain who has wrought me and mine bitter wrong, one of your
+company named de Garcia or Sarceda.  To find him and for other
+reasons I joined the Aztecs.  They are conquered and I am your
+prisoner.  At the least deal with me as a brave man deals with a
+fallen enemy.  I know nothing of the treasure; kill me and make an
+end.'
+
+'As a man I might wish to do this, Wingfield, but I am more than a
+man, I am the hand of the Church here in Anahuac.  You have
+partaken with the worshippers of idols, you have seen your fellow
+Christians sacrificed and devoured by your brute comrades.  For
+this alone you deserve to be tortured eternally, and doubtless that
+will be so after we have done with you.  As for the hidalgo Don
+Sarceda, I know him only as a brave companion in arms, and
+certainly I shall not listen to tales told against him by a
+wandering apostate.  It is, however, unlucky for you,' and here a
+gleam of light shot across the face of Cortes, 'that there should
+be any old feud between you, seeing that it is to his charge that I
+am about to confide you.  Now for the last time I say choose.  Will
+you reveal the hiding place of the treasure and go free, or will
+you be handed over to the care of Don Sarceda till such time as he
+shall find means to make you speak?'
+
+Now a great faintness seized me, for I knew that I was condemned to
+be tortured, and that de Garcia was to be the torturer.  What mercy
+had I to expect from his cruel heart when I, his deadliest foe, lay
+in his power to wreak his vengeance on?  But still my will and my
+honour prevailed against my terrors, and I answered:
+
+'I have told you, general, that I know nothing of this treasure.
+Do your worst, and may God forgive you for your cruelty.'
+
+'Dare not to speak that holy Name, apostate and worshipper of
+idols, eater of human flesh.  Let Sarceda be summoned.'
+
+A messenger went out, and for a while there was silence.  I caught
+Marina's glance and saw pity in her gentle eyes.  But she could not
+help me here, for Cortes was mad because no gold had been found,
+and the clamour of the soldiers for reward had worn him out and
+brought him to this shameful remedy, he who was not cruel by
+nature.  Still she strove to plead for me with him, whispering
+earnestly in his ear.  For a while Cortes listened, then he pushed
+her from him roughly.
+
+'Peace, Marina,' he said.  'What, shall I spare this English dog
+some pangs, when my command, and perchance my very life, hangs upon
+the finding of the gold?  Nay, he knows well where it lies hid; you
+said it yourself when I would have hung him for a traitor, and
+certainly he was one of those whom the spy saw go out with it upon
+the lake.  Our friend was with them also, but he came back no more;
+doubtless they murdered him.  What is this man to you that you
+should plead for him?  Cease to trouble me, Marina, am I not
+troubled enough already?' and Cortes put his hands to his face and
+remained lost in thought.  As for Marina, she looked at me sadly
+and sighed as though to say, 'I have done my best,' and I thanked
+her with my eyes.
+
+Presently there was a sound of footsteps and I looked up to see de
+Garcia standing before me.  Time and hardship had touched him
+lightly, and the lines of silver in his curling hair and peaked
+beard did but add dignity to his noble presence.  Indeed, when I
+looked at him in his dark Spanish beauty, his rich garments decked
+with chains of gold, as he bowed before Cortes hat in hand, I was
+fain to confess that I had never seen a more gallant cavalier, or
+one whose aspect gave the lie so wholly to the black heart within.
+But knowing him for what he was, my very blood quivered with hate
+at the sight of him, and when I thought of my own impotence and of
+the errand on which he had come, I ground my teeth and cursed the
+day that I was born.  As for de Garcia, he greeted me with a little
+cruel smile, then spoke to Cortes.
+
+'Your pleasure, general?'
+
+'Greeting to you, comrade,' answered Cortes.  'You know this
+renegade?'
+
+'But too well, general.  Three times he has striven to murder me.'
+
+'Well, you have escaped and it is your hour now, Sarceda.  He says
+that he has a quarrel with you; what is it?'
+
+De Garcia hesitated, stroking his peaked beard, then answered: 'I
+am loth to tell it because it is a tale of error for which I have
+often sorrowed and done penance.  Yet I will speak for fear you
+should think worse of me than I deserve.  This man has some cause
+to mislike me, since to be frank, when I was younger than I am to-
+day and given to the follies of youth, it chanced that in England I
+met his mother, a beautiful Spanish lady who by ill fortune was
+wedded to an Englishman, this man's father and a clown of clowns,
+who maltreated her.  I will be short; the lady learned to love me
+and I worsted her husband in a duel.  Hence this traitor's hate of
+me.'
+
+I heard and thought that my heart must burst with fury.  To all his
+wickedness and offences against me, de Garcia now had added slander
+of my dead mother's honour.
+
+'You lie, murderer,' I gasped, tearing at the ropes that bound me.
+
+'I must ask you to protect me from such insult, general,' de Garcia
+answered coldly.  'Were the prisoner worthy of my sword, I would
+ask further that his bonds should be loosed for a little space, but
+my honour would be tarnished for ever were I to fight with such as
+he.'
+
+'Dare to speak thus once more to a gentleman of Spain,' said Cortes
+coldly, 'and, you heathen dog, your tongue shall be dragged from
+you with red-hot pincers.  For you, Sarceda, I thank you for your
+confidence.  If you have no worse crime than a love affair upon
+your soul, I think that our good chaplain Olmedo will frank you
+through the purgatorial fires.  But we waste words and time.  This
+man has the secret of the treasure of Guatemoc and of Montezuma.
+If Guatemoc and his nobles will not tell it, he at least may be
+forced to speak, for the torments that an Indian can endure without
+a groan will soon bring truth bubbling from the lips of this white
+heathen.  Take him, Sarceda, and hearken, let him be your especial
+care.  First let him suffer with the others, and afterwards, should
+he prove obdurate, alone.  The method I leave to you.  Should he
+confess, summon me.'
+
+'Pardon me, general, but this is no task for an hidalgo of Spain.
+I have been more wont to pierce my enemies with the sword than to
+tear them with pincers,' said de Garcia, but as he spoke I saw a
+gleam of triumph shine in his black eyes, and heard the ring of
+triumph through the mock anger of his voice.
+
+'I know it, comrade.  But this must be done; though I hate it, it
+must be done, there is no other way.  The gold is necessary to me--
+by the Mother of God! the knaves say that I have stolen it!--and I
+doubt these stubborn Indian dogs will ever speak, however great
+their agony.  This man knows and I give him over to you because you
+are acquainted with his wickedness, and that knowledge will steel
+your heart against all pity.  Spare not, comrade; remember that he
+must be forced to speak.'
+
+'It is your command, Cortes, and I will obey it, though I love the
+task little; with one proviso, however, that you give me your
+warrant in writing.'
+
+'It shall be made out at once,' answered the general.  'And now
+away with him.'
+
+'Where to?'
+
+'To the prison that he has left.  All is ready and there he will
+find his comrades.'
+
+Then a guard was summoned and I was dragged back to my own place,
+de Garcia saying as I went that he would be with me presently.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+DE GARCIA SPEAKS HIS MIND
+
+
+At first I was not taken into the chamber that I had left, but
+placed in a little room opening out of it where the guard slept.
+Here I waited a while, bound hand and foot and watched by two
+soldiers with drawn swords.  As I waited, torn by rage and fear, I
+heard the noise of hammering through the wall, followed by a sound
+of groans.  At length the suspense came to an end; a door was
+opened, and two fierce Tlascalan Indians came through it and seized
+me by the hair and ears, dragging me thus into my own chamber.
+
+'Poor devil!' I heard one of the Spanish soldiers say as I went.
+'Apostate or no, I am sorry for him; this is bloody work.'
+
+Then the door closed and I was in the place of torment.  The room
+was darkened, for a cloth had been hung in front of the window
+bars, but its gloom was relieved by certain fires that burned in
+braziers.  It was by the light of these fires chiefly that I saw
+the sight.  On the floor of the chamber were placed three solid
+chairs, one of them empty.  The other two were filled by none other
+than Guatemoc, Emperor of the Aztecs, and by his friend and mine
+the cacique of Tacuba.  They were bound in the chairs, the burning
+braziers were placed at their feet, behind them stood a clerk with
+paper and an inkhorn, and around them Indians were busy at some
+dreadful task, directed to it by two Spanish soldiers.  Near the
+third chair stood another Spaniard who as yet took no part in the
+play; it was de Garcia.  As I looked, an Indian lifted one of the
+braziers and seizing the naked foot of the Tacuban prince, thrust
+it down upon the glowing coals.  For a while there was silence,
+then the Tacuban broke into groans.  Guatemoc turned his head
+towards him and spoke, and as he spoke I saw that his foot also was
+resting in the flames of a brazier.  'Why do you complain, friend,'
+he said, in a steady voice, 'when I keep silence?  Am I then taking
+my pleasure in a bed?  Follow me now as always, friend, and be
+silent beneath your sufferings.'
+
+The clerk wrote down his words, for I heard the quill scratching on
+the paper, and as he wrote, Guatemoc turned his head and saw me.
+His face was grey with pain, still he spoke as a hundred times I
+had heard him speak at council, slowly and clearly.  'Alas! are you
+also here, my friend Teule?' he said; 'I hoped that they had spared
+you.  See how these Spaniards keep faith.  Malinche swore to treat
+me with all honour; behold how he honours me, with hot coals for my
+feet and pincers for my flesh.  They think that we have buried
+treasure, Teule, and would wring its secret from us.  You know that
+it is a lie.  If we had treasure would we not give it gladly to our
+conquerors, the god-born sons of Quetzal?  You know that there is
+nothing left except the ruins of our cities and the bones of our
+dead.'
+
+Here he ceased suddenly, for the demon who tormented him struck him
+across the mouth saying, 'Silence, dog.'
+
+But I understood, and I swore in my heart that I would die ere I
+revealed my brother's secret.  This was the last triumph that
+Guatemoc could win, to keep his gold from the grasp of the greedy
+Spaniard, and that victory at least he should not lose through me.
+So I swore, and very soon my oath must be put to the test, for at a
+motion from de Garcia the Tlascalans seized me and bound me to the
+third chair.
+
+Then he spoke into my ear in Castilian: 'Strange are the ways of
+Providence, Cousin Wingfield.  You have hunted me across the world,
+and several times we have met, always to your sorrow.  I thought I
+had you in the slave ship, I thought that the sharks had you in the
+water, but somehow you escaped me whom you came to hunt.  When I
+knew it I grieved, but now I grieve no more, for I see that you
+were reserved for this moment.  Cousin Wingfield, it shall go hard
+if you escape me this time, and yet I think that we shall spend
+some days together before we part.  Now I will be courteous with
+you.  You may have a choice of evils.  How shall we begin?  The
+resources at my command are not all that we could wish, alas! the
+Holy Office is not yet here with its unholy armoury, but still I
+have done my best.  These fellows do not understand their art: hot
+coals are their only inspiration.  I, you see, have several,' and
+he pointed to various instruments of torture.  'Which will you
+select?'
+
+I made no answer, for I had determined that I would speak no word
+and utter no cry, do what they might with me.
+
+'Let me think, let me think,' went on de Garcia, smoothing his
+beard.  'Ah, I have it.  Here, slaves.'
+
+Now I will not renew my own agonies, or awake the horror of any who
+may chance to read what I have written by describing what befell me
+after this.  Suffice it to say that for two hours and more this
+devil, helped in his task by the Tlascalans, worked his wicked will
+upon me.  One by one torments were administered to me with a skill
+and ingenuity that cannot often have been surpassed, and when at
+times I fainted I was recovered by cold water being dashed upon me
+and spirits poured down my throat.  And yet, I say it with some
+pride, during those two dreadful hours I uttered no groan however
+great my sufferings, and spoke no word good or bad.
+
+Nor was it only bodily pain that I must bear, for all this while my
+enemy mocked me with bitter words, which tormented my soul as his
+instruments and hot coals tormented my body.  At length he paused
+exhausted, and cursed me for an obstinate pig of an Englishman, and
+at that moment Cortes entered the shambles and with him Marina.
+
+'How goes it?' he said lightly, though his face turned pale at the
+sight of horror.
+
+'The cacique of Tacuba has confessed that gold is buried in his
+garden, the other two have said nothing, general,' the clerk
+answered, glancing down his paper.
+
+'Brave men, indeed!' I heard Cortes mutter to himself; then said
+aloud, 'Let the cacique be carried to-morrow to the garden of which
+he speaks, that he may point out the gold.  As for the other two,
+cease tormenting them for this day.  Perhaps they may find another
+mind before to-morrow.  I trust so, for their own sakes I trust
+so!'
+
+Then he drew to the corner of the room and consulted with Sarceda
+and the other torturers, leaving Marina face to face with Guatemoc
+and with me.  For a while she stared at the prince as though in
+horror, then a strange light came into her beautiful eyes, and she
+spoke to him in a low voice, saying in the Aztec tongue:
+
+'Do you remember how once you rejected me down yonder in Tobasco,
+Guatemoc, and what I told you then?--that I should grow great in
+spite of you?  You see it has all come true and more than true, and
+you are brought to this.  Are you not sorry, Guatemoc?  I am sorry,
+though were I as some women are, perchance I might rejoice to see
+you thus.'
+
+'Woman,' the prince answered in a thick voice, 'you have betrayed
+your country and you have brought me to shame and torment.  Yes,
+had it not been for you, these things had never been.  I am sorry,
+indeed I am sorry--that I did not kill you.  For the rest, may your
+name be shameful for ever in the ears of honest men and your soul
+be everlastingly accursed, and may you yourself, even before you
+die, know the bitterness of dishonour and betrayal!  Your words
+were fulfilled, and so shall mine be also.'
+
+She heard and turned away trembling, and for a while was silent.
+Then her glance fell upon me and she began to weep.
+
+'Alas! poor man,' she said; 'alas! my friend.'
+
+'Weep not over me, Marina,' I answered, speaking in Aztec, 'for our
+tears are of no worth, but help me if you may.'
+
+'Ah that I could!' she sobbed, and turning fled from the place,
+followed presently by Cortes.
+
+Now the Spaniards came in again and removed Guatemoc and the
+cacique of Tacuba, carrying them in their arms, for they could not
+walk, and indeed the cacique was in a swoon.
+
+'Farewell, Teule,' said Guatemoc as he passed me; 'you are indeed a
+true son of Quetzal and a gallant man.  May the gods reward you in
+times to come for all that you have suffered for me and mine, since
+I cannot.'
+
+Then he was borne out and these were the last words that I ever
+heard him utter.
+
+Now I was left alone with the Tlascalans and de Garcia, who mocked
+me as before.
+
+'A little tired, eh, friend Wingfield?' he said sneering.  'Well,
+the play is rough till you get used to it.  A night's sleep will
+refresh you, and to-morrow you will be a new man.  Perhaps you
+believe that I have done my worst.  Fool, this is but a beginning.
+Also you think doubtless that your obstinacy angers me?  Wrong
+again, my friend, I only pray that you may keep your lips sealed to
+the last.  Gladly would I give my share of this hidden gold in
+payment for two more such days with you.  I have still much to pay
+you back, and look you, I have found a way to do it.  There are
+more ways of hurting a man than through his own flesh--for
+instance, when I wished to be revenged upon your father, I struck
+him through her whom he loved.  Now I have touched you and you
+wonder what I mean.  Well, I will tell you.  Perhaps you may know
+an Aztec lady of royal blood who is named Otomie?'
+
+'Otomie, what of her?' I cried, speaking for the first time, since
+fear for her stirred me more than all the torments I had borne.
+
+'A triumph indeed; I have found a way to make you speak at last;
+why, then, to-morrow you will be full of words.  Only this, Cousin
+Wingfield; Otomie, Montezuma's daughter, a very lovely woman by the
+way, is your wife according to the Indian customs.  Well, I know
+all the story and--she is in my power.  I will prove it to you, for
+she shall be brought here presently and then you can console each
+other.  For listen, dog, to-morrow she will sit where you are
+sitting, and before your eyes she shall be dealt with as you have
+been dealt with.  Ah! then you will talk fast enough, but perhaps
+it will be too late.'
+
+And now for the first time I broke down and prayed for mercy even
+of my foe.
+
+'Spare her,' I groaned; 'do what you will with me, but spare her!
+Surely you must have a heart, even you, for you are human.  You can
+never do this thing, and Cortes would not suffer it.'
+
+'As for Cortes,' he answered, 'he will know nothing of it--till it
+is done.  I have my warrant that charges me to use every means in
+my power to force the truth from you.  Torture has failed; this
+alone is left.  And for the rest, you must read me ill.  You know
+what it is to hate, for you hate me; multiply your hate by ten and
+you may find the sum of mine for you.  I hate you for your blood, I
+hate you because you have your mother's eyes, but much more do I
+hate you for yourself, for did you not beat me, a gentleman of
+Spain, with a stick as though I were a hound?  Shall I then shrink
+from such a deed when I can satisfy my hate by it?  Also perhaps,
+though you are a brave man, at this moment you know what it is to
+fear, and are tasting of its agony.  Now I will be open with you;
+Thomas Wingfield, I fear you.  When first I saw you I feared you as
+I had reason to do, and that is why I tried to kill you, and as
+time has gone by I have feared you more and more, so much indeed,
+that at times I cannot rest because of a nameless terror that dogs
+me and which has to do with you.  Because of you I fled from Spain,
+because of you I have played the coward in more frays than one.
+The luck has always been mine in this duel between us, and yet I
+tell you that even as you are, I fear you still.  If I dared I
+would kill you at once, only then you would haunt me as your mother
+haunts me, and also I must answer for it to Cortes.  Fear, Cousin
+Wingfield, is the father of cruelty, and mine makes me cruel to
+you.  Living or dead, I know that you will triumph over me at the
+last, but it is my turn now, and while you breathe, or while one
+breathes who is dear to you, I will spend my life to bring you and
+them to shame and misery and death, as I brought your mother, my
+cousin, though she forced me to it to save myself.  Why not?  There
+is no forgiveness for me, I cannot undo the past.  You came to take
+vengeance on me, and soon or late by you, or through you, it will
+be glutted, but till then I triumph, ay, even when I must sink to
+this butcher's work to do it,' and suddenly he turned and left the
+place.
+
+Then weakness and suffering overcame me and I swooned away.  When I
+awoke it was to find that my bonds had been loosed and that I lay
+on some sort of bed, while a woman bent over me, tending me with
+murmured words of pity and love.  The night had fallen, but there
+was light in the chamber, and by it I saw that the woman was none
+other than Otomie, no longer starved and wretched, but almost as
+lovely as before the days of siege and hunger.
+
+'Otomie! you here!' I gasped through my wounded lips, for with my
+senses came the memory of de Garcia's threats.
+
+'Yes, beloved, it is I,' she murmured; 'they have suffered that I
+nurse you, devils though they are.  Oh! that I must see you thus
+and yet be helpless to avenge you,' and she burst into weeping.
+
+'Hush,' I said, 'hush.  Have we food?'
+
+'In plenty.  A woman brought it from Marina.'
+
+'Give me to eat, Otomie.'
+
+Now for a while she fed me and the deadly sickness passed from me,
+though my poor flesh burned with a hundred agonies.
+
+'Listen, Otomie: have you seen de Garcia?'
+
+'No, husband.  Two days since I was separated from my sister
+Tecuichpo and the other ladies, but I have been well treated and
+have seen no Spaniard except the soldiers who led me here, telling
+me that you were sick.  Alas! I knew not from what cause,' and
+again she began to weep.
+
+'Still some have seen you and it is reported that you are my wife.'
+
+'It is likely enough,' she answered, 'for it was known throughout
+the Aztec hosts, and such secrets cannot be kept.  But why have
+they treated you thus?  Because you fought against them?'
+
+'Are we alone?' I asked.
+
+'The guard is without, but there are none else in the chamber.'
+
+'Then bend down your head and I will tell you,' and I told her all.
+
+When I had done so she sprang up with flashing eyes and her hand
+pressed upon her breast, and said:
+
+'Oh! if I loved you before, now I love you more if that is
+possible, who could suffer thus horribly and yet be faithful to the
+fallen and your oath.  Blessed be the day when first I looked upon
+your face, O my husband, most true of men.  But they who could do
+this--what of them?  Still it is done with and I will nurse you
+back to health.  Surely it is done with, or they had not suffered
+me to come to you?'
+
+'Alas! Otomie, I must tell all--it is NOT done with,' and with
+faltering voice I went on with the tale, yes, and since I must, I
+told her for what purpose she had been brought here.  She listened
+without a word, though her lips turned pale.
+
+'Truly,' she said when I had done, 'these Teules far surpass the
+pabas of our people, for if the priests torture and sacrifice, it
+is to the gods and not for gold and secret hate.  Now, husband,
+what is your counsel?  Surely you have some counsel.'
+
+'I have none that I dare offer, wife,' I groaned.
+
+'You are timid as a girl who will not utter the love she burns to
+tell,' Otomie answered with a proud and bitter laugh.  'Well, I
+will speak it for you.  It is in your mind that we must die to-
+night.'
+
+'It is,' I said; 'death now, or shame and agony to-morrow and then
+death at last, that is our choice.  Since God will not protect us,
+we must protect ourselves if we can find the means.'
+
+'God! there is no God.  At times I have doubted the gods of my
+people and turned to yours; now I renounce and reject Him.  If
+there were a God of mercy such as you cling to, could He suffer
+that such things be?  You are my god, husband, to you and for you I
+pray, and you alone.  Let us have done now with pleading to those
+who are not, or who, if they live, are deaf to our cries and blind
+to our misery, and befriend ourselves.  Yonder lies rope, that
+window has bars, very soon we can be beyond the sun and the cruelty
+of Teules, or sound asleep.  But there is time yet; let us talk a
+while, they will scarcely begin their torments before the dawn, and
+ere dawn we shall be far.'
+
+So we talked as well as my sufferings would allow.  We talked of
+how we first had met, of how Otomie had been vowed to me as the
+wife of Tezcat, Soul of the World, of that day when we had lain
+side by side upon the stone of sacrifice, of our true marriage
+thereafter, of the siege of Tenoctitlan and the death of our first-
+born.  Thus we talked till midnight was two hours gone.  Then there
+came a silence.
+
+'Husband,' said Otomie at last in a hushed and solemn voice, 'you
+are worn with suffering, and I am weary.  It is time to do that
+which must be done.  Sad is our fate, but at least rest is before
+us.  I thank you, husband, for your gentleness, I thank you more
+for your faithfulness to my house and people.  Shall I make ready
+for our last journey?'
+
+'Make ready!' I answered.
+
+Then she rose and soon was busy with the ropes.  At length all was
+prepared and the moment of death was at hand.
+
+'You must aid me, Otomie,' I said; 'I cannot walk by myself.'
+
+She came and lifted me with her strong and tender arms, till I
+stood upon a stool beneath the window bars.  There she placed the
+rope about my throat, then taking her stand by me she fitted the
+second rope upon her own.  Now we kissed in solemn silence, for
+there was nothing more to say.  Yet Otomie said something, asking:
+
+'Of whom do you think in this moment, husband?  Of me and of my
+dead child, or of that lady who lives far across the sea?  Nay, I
+will not ask.  I have been happy in my love, it is enough.  Now
+love and life must end together, and it is well for me, but for you
+I grieve.  Say, shall I thrust away the stool?'
+
+'Yes, Otomie, since there is no hope but death.  I cannot break my
+faith with Guatemoc, nor can I live to see you shamed and
+tortured.'
+
+'Then kiss me first and for the last time.'
+
+We kissed again and then, as she was in the very act of pushing the
+stool from beneath us, the door opened and shut, and a veiled woman
+stood before us, bearing a torch in one hand and a bundle in the
+other.  She looked, and seeing us and our dreadful purpose, ran to
+us.
+
+'What do you?' she cried, and I knew the voice for that of Marina.
+'Are you then mad, Teule?'
+
+'Who is this who knows you so well, husband, and will not even
+suffer that we die in peace?' asked Otomie.
+
+'I am Marina,' answered the veiled woman, 'and I come to save you
+if I can.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE ESCAPE
+
+
+Now Otomie put the rope off her neck, and descending from the
+stool, stood before Marina.
+
+'You are Marina,' she said coldly and proudly, 'and you come to
+save us, you who have brought ruin on the land that bore you, and
+have given thousands of her children to death, and shame, and
+torment.  Now, if I had my way, I would have none of your
+salvation, nay, I would rather save myself as I was about to do.'
+
+Thus Otomie spoke, and never had she looked more royal than in this
+moment, when she risked her last chance of life that she might pour
+out her scorn upon one whom she deemed a traitress, no, one who was
+a traitress, for had it not been for Marina's wit and aid, Cortes
+would never have conquered Anahuac.  I trembled as I heard her
+angry words, for, all I suffered notwithstanding, life still seemed
+sweet to me, who, ten seconds ago, had stood upon the verge of
+death.  Surely Marina would depart and leave us to our doom.  But
+it was not so.  Indeed, she shrank and trembled before Otomie's
+contempt.  They were a strange contrast in their different
+loveliness as they stood face to face in the torture den, and it
+was strange also to see the spirit of the lady of royal blood,
+threatened as she was with a shameful death, or still more shameful
+life, triumph over the Indian girl whom to-day fortune had set as
+far above her as the stars.
+
+'Say, royal lady,' asked Marina in her gentle voice, 'for what
+cause did you, if tales are true, lie by the side of yonder white
+man upon the stone of sacrifice?'
+
+'Because I love him, Marina.'
+
+'And for this same cause have I, Marina, laid my honour upon a
+different altar, for this same cause I have striven against the
+children of my people, because I love another such as he.  It is
+for love of Cortes that I have aided Cortes, therefore despise me
+not, but let your love plead for mine, seeing that, to us women,
+love is all.  I have sinned, I know, but doubtless in its season my
+sin shall find a fitting punishment.'
+
+'It had need be sharp,' answered Otomie.  'My love has harmed none,
+see before you but one grain of the countless harvest of your own.
+In yonder chair Guatemoc your king was this day tortured by your
+master Cortes, who swore to treat him with all honour.  By his side
+sat Teule, my husband and your friend; him Cortes gave over to has
+private enemy, de Garcia, whom you name Sarceda.  See how he has
+left him.  Nay, do not shudder, gentle lady; look now at his
+wounds!  Consider to what a pass we are driven when you find us
+about to die thus like dogs, he, my husband, that he may not live
+to see me handled as he has been, and I with him, because a
+princess of the Otomie and of Montezuma's blood cannot submit to
+such a shame while death has one door through which to creep.  It
+is but a single grain of your harvest, outcast and traitress, the
+harvest of misery and death that is stored yonder in the ruins of
+Tenoctitlan.  Had I my will, I tell you that I had sooner die a
+score of times than take help from a hand so stained with the blood
+of my people and of yours--I--'
+
+'Oh! cease, lady, cease,' groaned Marina, covering her eyes with
+her hand, as though the sight of Otomie were dreadful to her.
+'What is done is done; do not add to my remorse.  What did you say,
+that you, the lady Otomie, were brought here to be tortured?'
+
+'Even so, and before my husband's eyes.  Why should Montezuma's
+daughter and the princess of the Otomie escape the fate of the
+emperor of the Aztecs?  If her womanhood does not protect her, has
+she anything to hope of her lost rank?'
+
+'Cortes knows nothing of this, I swear it,' said Marina.  'To the
+rest he has been driven by the clamour of the soldiers, who taunt
+him with stealing treasure that he has never found.  But of this
+last wickedness he is innocent.'
+
+'Then let him ask his tool Sarceda of it.'
+
+'As for Sarceda, I promise you, princess, that if I can I will
+avenge this threat upon him.  But time is short, I am come here
+with the knowledge of Cortes, to see if I can win the secret of the
+treasure from Teule, your husband, and for my friendship's sake I
+am about to betray my trust and help him and you to fly.  Do you
+refuse my aid?'
+
+Otomie said nothing, but I spoke for the first time.
+
+'Nay, Marina, I have no love for this thief's fate if I can escape
+it, but how is it to be done?'
+
+'The chance is poor enough, Teule, but I bethought me that once out
+of this prison you might slip away disguised.  Few will be stirring
+at dawn, and of them the most will not be keen to notice men or
+things.  See, I have brought you the dress of a Spanish soldier;
+your skin is dark, and in the half light you might pass as one; and
+for the princess your wife, I have brought another dress, indeed I
+am ashamed to offer it, but it is the only one that will not be
+noted at this hour; also, Teule, I bring you a sword, that which
+was taken from you, though I think that once it had another owner.'
+
+Now while she spoke Marina undid her bundle, and there in it were
+the dresses and the sword, the same that I had taken from the
+Spaniard Diaz in the massacre of the noche triste.  First she drew
+out the woman's robe and handed it to Otomie, and I saw that it was
+such a robe as among the Indians is worn by the women who follow
+camps, a robe with red and yellow in it.  Otomie saw it also and
+drew back.
+
+'Surely, girl, you have brought a garment of your own in error,'
+she said quietly, but in such a fashion as showed more of the
+savage heart that is native to her race than she often suffered to
+be seen; 'at the least I cannot wear such robes.'
+
+'It seems that I must bear too much,' answered Marina, growing
+wroth at last, and striving to keep back the tears that started to
+her eyes.  'I will away and leave you;' and she began to roll up
+her bundle.
+
+'Forgive her, Marina,' I said hastily, for the desire to escape
+grew on me every minute; 'sorrow has set an edge upon her tongue.'
+Then turning to Otomie I added, 'I pray you be more gentle, wife,
+for my sake if not for your own.  Marina is our only hope.'
+
+'Would that she had left us to die in peace, husband.  Well, so be
+it, for your sake I will put on these garments of a drab.  But how
+shall we escape out of this place and the camp?  Will the door be
+opened to us, and the guards removed, and if we pass them, can you
+walk, husband?'
+
+'The doors will not be opened, lady,' said Marina, 'for those wait
+without, who will see that they are locked when I have passed them.
+But there will be nothing to fear from the guard, trust to me for
+it.  See, the bars of this window are but of wood, that sword will
+soon sever them, and if you are seen you must play the part of a
+drunken soldier being guided to his quarters by a woman.  For the
+rest I know nothing, save that I run great risk for your sakes,
+since if it is discovered that I have aided you, then I shall find
+it hard to soften the rage of Cortes, who, the war being won,' and
+she sighed, 'does not need me now so much as once he did.'
+
+'I can make shift to hop on my right foot,' I said, 'and for the
+rest we must trust to fortune.  It can give us no worse gifts than
+those we have already.'
+
+'So be it, Teule, and now farewell, for I dare stay no longer.  I
+can do nothing more.  May your good star shine on you and lead you
+hence in safety; and Teule, if we never meet again, I pray you
+think of me kindly, for there are many in the world who will do
+otherwise in the days to come.'
+
+'Farewell, Marina,' I said, and she was gone.
+
+We heard the doors close behind her, and the distant voices of
+those who bore her litter, then all was silence.  Otomie listened
+at the window for a while, but the guards seemed to be gone, where
+or why I do not know to this hour, and the only sound was that of
+distant revelry from the camp.
+
+'And now to the work,' I said to Otomie.
+
+'As you wish, husband, but I fear it will be profitless.  I do not
+trust that woman.  Faithless in all, without doubt she betrays us.
+Still at the worst you have the sword, and can use it.'
+
+'It matters little,' I answered.  'Our plight cannot be worse than
+it is now; life has no greater evils than torment and death, and
+they are with us already.'
+
+Then I sat upon the stool, and my arms being left sound and strong,
+I hacked with the sharp sword at the wooden bars of the window,
+severing them one by one till there was a space big enough for us
+to creep through.  This being done and no one having appeared to
+disturb us, Otomie clad me in the clothes of a Spanish soldier
+which Marina had brought, for I could not dress myself.  What I
+suffered in the donning of those garments, and more especially in
+the pulling of the long boot on to my burnt foot, can never be
+told, but more than once I stopped, pondering whether it would not
+be better to die rather than to endure such agonies.  At last it
+was done, and Otomie must put on the red and yellow robe, a garb of
+shame such as many honest Indian women would die sooner than be
+seen in, and I think that as she did this, her agony was greater
+than mine, though of another sort, for to her proud heart, that
+dress was a very shirt of Nessus.  Presently she was clad, and
+minced before me with savage mockery, saying:
+
+'Prithee, soldier, do I look my part?'
+
+'A peace to such fooling,' I answered; 'our lives are at stake,
+what does it matter how we disguise ourselves?'
+
+'It matters much, husband, but how can you understand, who are a
+man and a foreigner?  Now I will clamber through the window, and
+you must follow me if you can, if not I will return to you and we
+will end this masquerade.'
+
+Then she passed through the hole swiftly, for Otomie was agile and
+strong as an ocelot, and mounting the stool I made shift to follow
+her as well as my hurts would allow.  In the end I was able to
+throw myself upon the sill of the window, and there I was stretched
+out like a dead cat till she drew me across it, and I fell with her
+to the ground on the further side, and lay groaning.  She lifted me
+to my feet, or rather to my foot, for I could use but one of them,
+and we stared round us.  No one was to be seen, and the sound of
+revelry had died away, for the crest of Popo was already red with
+the sunlight and the dawn grew in the valley.
+
+'Where to?' I said.
+
+Now Otomie had been allowed to walk in the camp with her sister,
+the wife of Guatemoc, and other Aztec ladies, and she had this gift
+in common with most Indians, that where she had once passed there
+she could pass again, even in the darkest night.
+
+'To the south gate,' she whispered; 'perhaps it is unguarded now
+that the war is done, at the least I know the road thither.'
+
+So we started, I leaning on her shoulder and hopping on my right
+foot, and thus very painfully we traversed some three hundred yards
+meeting nobody.  But now our good luck failed us, for passing round
+the corner of some buildings, we came face to face with three
+soldiers returning to their huts from a midnight revel, and with
+them some native servants.
+
+'Whom have we here?' said the first of these.  'Your name,
+comrade?'
+
+'Good-night, brother, good-night,' I answered in Spanish, speaking
+with the thick voice of drunkenness.
+
+'Good morning, you mean,' he said, for the dawn was breaking.
+'Your name.  I don't know your face, though it seems that you have
+been in the wars,' and he laughed.
+
+'You mustn't ask a comrade his name,' I said solemnly and swinging
+to and fro.  'The captain might send for me and he's a temperate
+man.  Your arm, girl; it is time to go to sleep, the sun sets.'
+
+They laughed, but one of them addressed Otomie, saying:
+
+'Leave the sot, my pretty, and come and walk with us,' and he
+caught her by the arm.  But she turned on him with so fierce a look
+that he let her go again astonished, and we staggered on till the
+corner of another house hid us from their view.  Here I sank to the
+ground overcome with pain, for while the soldiers were in sight, I
+was obliged to use my wounded foot lest they should suspect.  But
+Otomie pulled me up, saying:
+
+'Alas! beloved, we must pass on or perish.'
+
+I rose groaning, and by what efforts I reached the south gate I
+cannot describe, though I thought that I must die before I came
+there.  At last it was before us, and as chance would have it, the
+Spanish guard were asleep in the guardhouse.  Three Tlascalans only
+were crouched over a little fire, their zerapes or blankets about
+their heads, for the dawn was chilly.
+
+'Open the gates, dogs!' I said in a proud voice.
+
+Seeing a Spanish soldier one of them rose to obey, then paused and
+said:
+
+'Why, and by whose orders?'
+
+I could not see the man's face because of the blanket, but his
+voice sounded familiar to me and I grew afraid.  Still I must
+speak.
+
+'Why?--because I am drunk and wish to lie without till I grow
+sober.  By whose orders?  By mine, I am an officer of the day, and
+if you disobey I'll have you flogged till you never ask another
+question.'
+
+'Shall I call the Teules within?' said the man sulkily to his
+companion.
+
+'No,' he answered; 'the lord Sarceda is weary and gave orders that
+he should not be awakened without good cause.  Keep them in or let
+them through as you will, but do not wake him.'
+
+I trembled in every limb; de Garcia was in the guardhouse!  What if
+he awoke, what if he came out and saw me?  More--now I guessed
+whose voice it was that I knew again; it was that of one of those
+Tlascalans who had aided in tormenting me.  What if he should see
+my face?  He could scarcely fail to know that on which he had left
+his mark so recently.  I was dumb with fear and could say nothing,
+and had it not been for the wit of Otomie, there my story would
+have ended.  But now she played her part and played it well, plying
+the man with the coarse raillery of the camp, till at length she
+put him in a good humour, and he opened the gate, bidding her
+begone and me with her.  Already we had passed the gate when a
+sudden faintness seized me, and I stumbled and fell, rolling over
+on to my back as I touched the earth.
+
+'Up, friend, up!' said Otomie, with a harsh laugh.  'If you must
+sleep, wait till you find some friendly bush,' and she dragged at
+me to lift me.  The Tlascalan, still laughing, came forward to help
+her, and between them I gained my feet again, but as I rose, my
+cap, which fitted me but ill, fell off.  He picked it up and gave
+it to me and our eyes met, my face being somewhat in the shadow.
+Next instant I was hobbling on, but looking back, I saw the
+Tlascalan staring after us with a puzzled air, like that of a man
+who is not sure of the witness of his senses.
+
+'He knows me,' I said to Otomie, 'and presently when he has found
+his wits, he will follow us.'
+
+'On, on!' answered Otomie; 'round yonder corner are aloe bushes
+where we may hide.'
+
+'I am spent, I can no more;' and again I began to fall.
+
+Then Otomie caught me as I fell, and of a sudden she put out her
+strength, and lifting me from the ground, as a mother lifts her
+child, staggered forward holding me to her breast.  For fifty paces
+or more she carried me thus, love and despair giving her strength,
+till at last we reached the edge of the aloe plants and there we
+sank together to the earth.  I cast my eyes back over the path
+which we had travelled.  Round the corner came the Tlascalan, a
+spiked club in his hand, seeking us to solve his doubts.
+
+'It is finished,' I gasped; 'the man comes.'
+
+For answer Otomie drew my sword from its scabbard and hid it in the
+grass.  'Now feign sleep,' she said; 'it is our last chance.'
+
+I cast my arm over my face and pretended to be asleep.  Presently I
+heard the sound of a man passing through the bushes, and the
+Tlascalan stood over me.
+
+'What would you?' asked Otomie.  'Can you not see that he sleeps?
+Let him sleep.'
+
+'I must look on his face first, woman,' he answered, dragging aside
+my arm.  'By the gods, I thought so!  This is that Teule whom we
+dealt with yesterday and who escapes.'
+
+'You are mad,' she said laughing.  'He has escaped from nowhere,
+save from a brawl and a drinking bout.'
+
+'You lie, woman, or if you do not lie, you know nothing.  This man
+has the secret of Montezuma's treasure, and is worth a king's
+ransom,' and he lifted his club.
+
+'And yet you wish to slay him!  Well, I know nothing of him.  Take
+him back whence he came.  He is but a drunken sot and I shall be
+well rid of him.'
+
+'Well said.  It would be foolish to kill him, but by bearing him
+alive to the lord Sarceda, I shall win honour and reward.  Come,
+help me.'
+
+'Help yourself,' she answered sullenly.  'But first search his
+pouch; there may be some trifle there which we can divide.'
+
+'Well said, again,' he answered, and kneeling down he bent over me
+and began to fumble at the fastenings of the pouch.
+
+Otomie was behind him.  I saw her face change and a terrible light
+came into her eyes, such a light as shines in the eyes of the
+priest at sacrifice.  Quick as thought she drew the sword from the
+grass and smote with all her strength upon the man's bent neck.
+Down he fell, making no sound, and she also fell beside him.  In a
+moment she was on her feet again, staring at him wildly--the naked
+sword in her hand.
+
+'Up,' she said, 'before others come to seek him.  Nay, you must.'
+
+Now, again we were struggling forward through the bushes, my mind
+filled with a great wonder that grew slowly to a whirling
+nothingness.  For a while it seemed to me as though I were lost in
+an evil dream and walking on red hot irons in my dream.  Then came
+a vision of armed men with lifted spears, and of Otomie running
+towards them with outstretched arms.
+
+I knew no more.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+OTOMIE PLEADS WITH HER PEOPLE
+
+
+When I awoke it was to find myself in a cave, where the light shone
+very dimly.  Otomie leant over me, and not far away a man was
+cooking a pot over a fire made of dry aloe leaves.
+
+'Where am I and what has happened?' I asked.
+
+'You are safe, beloved,' she answered, 'at least for awhile.  When
+you have eaten I will tell you more.'
+
+She brought me broth and food and I ate eagerly, and when I was
+satisfied she spoke.
+
+'You remember how the Tlascalan followed us and how--I was rid of
+him?'
+
+'I remember, Otomie, though how you found strength to kill him I do
+not understand.'
+
+'Love and despair gave it to me, and I pray that I may never have
+such another need.  Do not speak of it, husband, for this is more
+horrible to me than all that has been before.  One thing comforts
+me, however; I did not kill him, the sword twisted in my hand and I
+believe that he was but stunned.  Then we fled a little way, and
+looking back I saw that two other Tlascalans, companions of the
+senseless man, were following us and him.  Presently, they came up
+to where he lay and stared at him.  Then they started on our
+tracks, running hard, and very soon they must have caught us, for
+now you could scarcely stir, your mind was gone, and I had no more
+strength to carry you.  Still we stumbled on till presently, when
+the pursuers were within fifty paces of us, I saw armed men, eight
+of them, rushing at us from the bushes.  They were of my own
+people, the Otomies, soldiers that had served under you, who
+watched the Spanish camp, and seeing a Spaniard alone they came to
+slay him.  They very nearly did so indeed, for at first I was so
+breathless that I could scarcely speak, but at last in few words I
+made shift to declare my name and rank, and your sad plight.  By
+now the two Tlascalans were upon us, and I called to the men of the
+Otomie to protect us, and falling on the Tlascalans before they
+knew that enemies were there, they killed one of them and took the
+other prisoner.  Then they made a litter, and placing you on it,
+bore you without rest twenty leagues into the mountains, till they
+reached this secret hiding place, and here you have lain three days
+and nights.  The Teules have searched for you far and wide, but
+they have searched in vain.  Only yesterday two of them with ten
+Tlascalans, passed within a hundred paces of this cave and I had
+much ado to prevent our people from attacking them.  Now they are
+gone whence they came, and I think that we are safe for a time.
+Soon you will be better and we can go hence.'
+
+'Where can we go to, Otomie?  We are birds without a nest.'
+
+'We must seek shelter in the City of Pines, or fly across the
+water; there is no other choice, husband.'
+
+'We cannot try the sea, Otomie, for all the ships that come here
+are Spanish, and I do not know how they will greet us in the City
+of Pines now that our cause is lost, and with it so many thousands
+of their warriors.'
+
+'We must take the risk, husband.  There are still true hearts in
+Anahuac, who will stand by us in our sorrow and their own.  At the
+least we have escaped from greater dangers.  Now let me dress your
+wounds and rest awhile.'
+
+So for three more days I lay in the cave of the mountains and
+Otomie tended me, and at the end of that time my state was such
+that I could travel in a litter, though for some weeks I was unable
+to set foot to the ground.  On the fourth day we started by night,
+and I was carried on men's shoulders till at length we passed up
+the gorge that leads to the City of Pines.  Here we were stopped by
+sentries to whom Otomie told our tale, bidding some of them go
+forward and repeat it to the captains of the city.  We followed the
+messengers slowly, for my bearers were weary, and came to the gates
+of the beautiful town just as the red rays of sunset struck upon
+the snowy pinnacle of Xaca that towers behind it, turning her cap
+of smoke to a sullen red, like that of molten iron.
+
+The news of our coming had spread about, and here and there knots
+of people were gathered to watch us pass.  For the most part they
+stood silent, but now and again some woman whose husband or son had
+perished in the siege, would hiss a curse at us.
+
+Alas! how different was our state this day to what it had been when
+not a year before we entered the City of Pines for the first time.
+Then we were escorted by an army ten thousand strong, then
+musicians had sung before us and our path was strewn with flowers.
+And now!  Now we came two fugitives from the vengeance of the
+Teules, I borne in a litter by four tired soldiers, while Otomie,
+the princess of this people, still clad in her wanton's robe, at
+which the women mocked, for she had been able to come by no other,
+tramped at my side, since there were none to carry her, and the
+inhabitants of the place cursed us as the authors of their woes.
+Nor did we know if they would stop at words.
+
+At length we crossed the square beneath the shadow of the teocalli,
+and reached the ancient and sculptured palace as the light failed,
+and the smoke on Xaca, the holy hill, began to glow with the fire
+in its heart.  Here small preparation had been made to receive us,
+and that night we supped by the light of a torch upon tortillas or
+meal cakes and water, like the humblest in the land.  Then we crept
+to our rest, and as I lay awake because of the pain of my hurts, I
+heard Otomie, who thought that I slept, break into low sobbing at
+my side.  Her proud spirit was humbled at last, and she, whom I had
+never known to weep except once, when our firstborn died in the
+siege, wept bitterly.
+
+'Why do you sorrow thus, Otomie?' I asked at length.
+
+'I did not know that you were awake, husband,' she sobbed in
+answer, 'or I would have checked my grief.  Husband, I sorrow over
+all that has befallen us and my people--also, though these are but
+little things, because you are brought low and treated as a man of
+no estate, and of the cold comfort that we find here.'
+
+'You have cause, wife,' I answered.  'Say, what will these Otomies
+do with us--kill us, or give us up to the Teules?'
+
+'I do not know; to-morrow we shall learn, but for my part I will
+not be surrendered living.'
+
+'Nor I, wife.  Death is better than the tender mercies of Cortes
+and his minister, de Garcia.  Is there any hope?'
+
+'Yes, there is hope, beloved.  Now the Otomie are cast down and
+they remember that we led the flower of their land to death.  But
+they are brave and generous at heart, and if I can touch them
+there, all may yet be well.  Weariness, pain and memory make us
+weak, who should be full of courage, having escaped so many ills.
+Sleep, my husband, and leave me to think.  All shall yet go well,
+for even misfortune has an end.'
+
+So I slept, and woke in the morning somewhat refreshed and with a
+happier mind, for who is there that is not bolder when the light
+shines on him and he is renewed by rest?
+
+
+When I opened my eyes the sun was already high, but Otomie had
+risen with the dawn and she had not been idle during those three
+hours.  For one thing she had contrived to obtain food and fresh
+raiment more befitting to our rank than the rags in which we were
+clothed.  Also she had brought together certain men of condition
+who were friendly and loyal to her in misfortune, and these she
+sent about the city, letting it be known that she would address the
+people at mid-day from the steps of the palace, for as Otomie knew
+well, the heartstrings of a crowd are touched more easily than
+those of cold and ancient counsellors.
+
+'Will they come to listen?' I asked.
+
+'Have no fear,' she answered.  'The desire to look upon us who have
+survived the siege, and to know the truth of what has happened,
+will bring them.  Moreover, some will be there seeking vengeance on
+us.'
+
+Otomie was right, for as the morning drew on towards mid-day, I saw
+the dwellers in the City of Pines gathering in thousands, till the
+space between the steps of the palace and the face of the pyramid
+was black with them.  Now Otomie combed her curling hair and placed
+flowers in it, and set a gleaming feather cloak about her
+shoulders, so that it hung down over her white robes, and on her
+breast that splendid necklace of emeralds which Guatemoc had given
+to me in the treasure chamber, and which she had preserved safely
+through all our evil fortune, and a golden girdle about her waist.
+In her hand also she took a little sceptre of ebony tipped with
+gold, that was in the palace, with other ornaments and emblems of
+rank, and thus attired, though she was worn with travel and
+suffering, and grief had dimmed her beauty for a while, she seemed
+the queenliest woman that my eyes have seen.  Next she caused me to
+be laid upon my rude litter, and when the hour of noon was come,
+she commanded those soldiers who had borne me across the mountains
+to carry me by her side.  Thus we issued from the wide doorway of
+the palace and took our stand upon the platform at the head of the
+steps.  As we came a great cry rose from the thousands of the
+people, a fierce cry like that of wild beasts howling for their
+prey.  Higher and higher it rose, a sound to strike terror into the
+bravest heart, and by degrees I caught its purport.
+
+'Kill them!' said the cry.  'Give the liars to the Teules.'
+
+Otomie stepped forward to the edge of the platform, and lifting the
+ebony sceptre she stood silent, the sunlight beating on her lovely
+face and form.  But the multitude screamed a thousand taunts and
+threats at us, and still the tumult grew.  Once they rushed towards
+her as though to tear her to pieces, but fell back at the last
+stair, as a wave falls from a rock, and once a spear was thrown
+that passed between her neck and shoulder.
+
+Now the soldiers who had carried me, making certain that our death
+was at hand, and having no wish to share it, set my litter down
+upon the stones and slipped back into the palace, but all this
+while Otomie never so much as moved, no, not even when the spear
+hissed past her.  She stood before them stately and scornful, a
+very queen among women, and little by little the majesty of her
+presence and the greatness of her courage hushed them to silence.
+When there was quiet at length, she spoke in a clear voice that
+carried far.
+
+'Am I among my own people of the Otomie?' she asked bitterly, 'or
+have we lost our path and wandered perchance among some savage
+Tlascalan tribe?  Listen, people of the Otomie.  I have but one
+voice and none can reason with a multitude.  Choose you a tongue to
+speak for you, and let him set out the desire of your hearts.'
+
+Now the tumult began again, for some shouted one name and some
+another, but in the end a priest and noble named Maxtla stepped
+forward, a man of great power among the Otomie, who, above all had
+favoured an alliance with the Spaniards and opposed the sending of
+an army to aid Guatemoc in the defence of Tenoctitlan.  Nor did he
+come alone, for with him were four chiefs, whom by their dress I
+knew to be Tlascalans and envoys from Cortes.  Then my heart sank,
+for it was not difficult to guess the object of their coming.
+
+'Speak on, Maxtla,' said Otomie, 'for we must hear what there is
+for us to answer, and you, people of the Otomie, I pray you keep
+silence, that you may judge between us when there is an end of
+talking.'
+
+Now a great silence fell upon the multitude, who pressed together
+like sheep in a pen, and strained their ears to catch the words of
+Maxtla.
+
+'My speech with you, princess, and the Teule your outlawed husband,
+shall be short and sharp,' he began roughly.  'A while hence you
+came hither to seek an army to aid Cuitlahua, Emperor of the
+Aztecs, in his struggle with the Teules, the sons of Quetzal.  That
+army was given you, against the wishes of many of us, for you won
+over the council by the honey of your words, and we who urged
+caution, or even an alliance with the white men, the children of
+god, were overruled.  You went hence, and twenty thousand men, the
+flower of our people, followed you to Tenoctitlan.  Where are they
+now?  I will tell you.  Some two hundred of them have crept back
+home, the rest fly to and fro through the air in the gizzards of
+the zaphilotes, or crouch on the earth in the bellies of jackals.
+Death has them all, and you led them to their deaths.  Is it then
+much that we should seek the lives of you two in payment for those
+of twenty thousand of our sons, our husbands, and our fathers?  But
+we do not even ask this.  Here beside me stand ambassadors from
+Malinche, the captain of the Teules, who reached our city but an
+hour ago.  This is the demand that they bring from Malinche, and in
+his own words:
+
+'"Deliver back to me Otomie, the daughter of Montezuma, and the
+renegade her paramour, who is known as Teule, and who has fled from
+the justice due to his crimes, and it shall be well with you,
+people of the Otomie.  Hide them or refuse to deliver them, and the
+fate of the City of Pines shall be as the fate of Tenoctitlan,
+queen of the valley.  Choose then between my love and my wrath,
+people of the Otomie.  If you obey, the past shall be forgiven and
+my yoke will be light upon you; if you refuse, your city shall be
+stamped flat and your very name wiped out of the records of the
+world."
+
+'Say, messengers of Malinche, are not these the words of Malinche?'
+
+'They are his very words, Maxtla,' said the spokesman of the
+embassy.
+
+Now again there was a tumult among the people, and voices cried,
+'Give them up, give them to Malinche as a peace offering.'  Otomie
+stood forward to speak and it died away, for all desired to hear
+her words.  Then she spoke:
+
+'It seems, people of the Otomie, that I am on my trial before my
+own vassals, and my husband with me.  Well, I will plead our cause
+as well as a woman may, and having the power, you shall judge
+between us and Maxtla and his allies, Malinche and the Tlascalans.
+What is our offence?  It is that we came hither by the command of
+Cuitlahua to seek your aid in his war with the Teules.  What did I
+tell you then?  I told you that if the people of Anahuac would not
+stand together against the white men, they must be broken one by
+one like the sticks of an unbound faggot, and cast into the flames.
+Did I speak lies?  Nay, I spoke truth, for through the treason of
+her tribes, and chiefly through the treason of the Tlascalans,
+Anahuac is fallen, and Tenoctitlan is a ruin sown with dead like a
+field with corn.'
+
+'It is true,' cried a voice.
+
+'Yes, people of the Otomie, it is true, but I say that had all the
+warriors of the nations of Anahuac played the part that your sons
+played, the tale had run otherwise.  They are dead, and because of
+their death you would deliver us to our foes and yours, but I for
+one do not mourn them, though among their number are many of my
+kin.  Nay, be not wroth, but listen.  It is better that they should
+lie dead in honour, having earned for themselves a wreath of fame,
+and an immortal dwelling in the Houses of the Sun, than that they
+should live to be slaves, which it seems is your desire, people of
+the Otomie.  There is no false word in what I said to you.  Now the
+sticks that Malinche has used to beat out the brains of Guatemoc
+shall be broken and burnt to cook the pot of the Teules.  Already
+these false children are his slaves.  Have you not heard his
+command, that the tribes his allies shall labour in the quarries
+and the streets till the glorious city which he has burned rises
+afresh upon the face of the waters?  Will you not hasten to take
+your share in the work, people of the Otomie, the work that knows
+no rest and no reward except the lash of the overseer and the curse
+of the Teule?  Surely you will hasten, people of the mountains!
+Your hands are shaped to the spade and the trowel, not to the bow
+and the spear, and it will be sweeter to toil to do the will and
+swell the wealth of Malinche in the sun of the valley or the shadow
+of the mine, than to bide here free upon your hills where as yet no
+foe has set his foot!'
+
+Again she paused, and a murmur of doubt and unrest went through the
+thousands who listened.  Maxtla stepped forward and would have
+spoken, but the people shouted him down, crying: 'Otomie, Otomie!
+Let us hear the words of Otomie.'
+
+'I thank you, my people,' she said, 'for I have still much to tell
+you.  Our crime is then, that we drew an army after us to fight
+against the Teules.  And how did we draw this army?  Did I command
+you to muster your array?  Nay, I set out my case and I said "Now
+choose."  You chose, and of your own free will you despatched those
+glorious companies that now are dead.  My crime is therefore that
+you chose wrongly as you say, but as I still hold, most rightly,
+and because of this crime I and my husband are to be given as a
+peace offering to the Teules.  Listen: let me tell you something of
+those wars in which we have fought before you give us to the Teules
+and our mouths are silent for ever.  Where shall I begin?  I know
+not.  Stay, I bore a child--had he lived he would have been your
+prince to-day.  That child I saw starve to death before my eyes,
+inch by inch and day by day I saw him starve.  But it is nothing;
+who am I that I should complain because I have lost my son, when so
+many of your sons are dead and their blood is required at my hands?
+Listen again:' and she went on to tell in burning words of the
+horrors of the siege, of the cruelties of the Spaniards, and of the
+bravery of the men of the Otomie whom I had commanded.  For a full
+hour she spoke thus, while all that vast audience hung upon her
+words.  Also she told of the part that I played in the struggle,
+and of the deeds which I had done, and now and again some soldier
+in the crowd who served under me, and who had escaped the famine
+and the massacre, cried out:
+
+'It is true; we saw it with our eyes.'
+
+'And so,' she said, 'at last it was finished, at last Tenoctitlan
+was a ruin and my cousin and my king, the glorious Guatemoc, lay a
+prisoner in the hands of Malinche, and with him my husband Teule,
+my sister, I myself, and many another.  Malinche swore that he
+would treat Guatemoc and his following with all honour.  Do you
+know how he treated him?  Within a few days Guatemoc our king was
+seated in the chair of torment, while slaves burned him with hot
+irons to cause him to declare the hiding place of the treasure of
+Montezuma!  Ay, you may well cry "Shame upon him," you shall cry it
+yet more loudly before I have done, for know that Guatemoc did not
+suffer alone, one lies there who suffered with him and spoke no
+word, and I also, your princess, was doomed to torment.  We escaped
+when death was at our door, for I told my husband that the people
+of the Otomie had true hearts, and would shelter us in our sorrow,
+and for his sake I, Otomie, disguised myself in the robe of a
+wanton and fled with him hither.  Could I have known what I should
+live to see and hear, could I have dreamed that you would receive
+us thus, I had died a hundred deaths before I came to stand and
+plead for pity at your hands.
+
+'Oh! my people, my people, I beseech of you, make no terms with the
+false Teule, but remain bold and free.  Your necks are not fitted
+to the yoke of the slave, your sons and daughters are of too high a
+blood to serve the foreigner in his needs and pleasures.  Defy
+Malinche.  Some of our race are dead, but many thousands remain.
+Here in your mountain nest you can beat back every Teule in
+Anahuac, as in bygone years the false Tlascalans beat back the
+Aztecs.  Then the Tlascalans were free, now they are a race of
+serfs.  Say, will you share their serfdom?  My people, my people,
+think not that I plead for myself, or even for the husband who is
+more dear to me than aught save honour.  Do you indeed dream that
+we will suffer you to hand us living to these dogs of Tlascalans,
+whom Malinche insults you by sending as his messengers?  Look,' and
+she walked to where the spear that had been hurled at her lay upon
+the pavement and lifted it, 'here is a means of death that some
+friend has sent us, and if you will not listen to my pleading you
+shall see it used before your eyes.  Then, if you will, you may
+send our bodies to Malinche as a peace offering.  But for your own
+sakes I plead with you.  Defy Malinche, and if you must die at
+last, die as free men and not as the slaves of the Teule.  Behold
+now his tender mercies, and see the lot that shall be yours if you
+take another counsel, the counsel of Maxtla;' and coming to the
+litter on which I lay, swiftly Otomie rent my robes from me leaving
+me almost naked to the waist, and unwound the bandages from my
+wounded limb, then lifted me up so that I rested upon my sound
+foot.
+
+'Look!' she cried in a piercing voice, and pointing to the scars
+and unhealed wounds upon my face and leg; 'look on the work of the
+Teule and the Tlascalan, see how the foe is dealt with who
+surrenders to them.  Yield if you will, desert us if you will, but
+I say that then your own bodies shall be marked in a like fashion,
+till not an ounce of gold is left that can minister to the greed of
+the Teule, or a man or a maiden who can labour to satisfy his
+indolence.'
+
+Then she ceased, and letting me sink gently to the ground, for I
+could not stand alone, she stood over me, the spear in her hand, as
+though waiting to plunge it to my heart should the people still
+demand our surrender to the messengers of Cortes.
+
+
+For one instant there was silence, then of a sudden the clamour and
+the tumult broke out again ten times more furiously than at first.
+But it was no longer aimed at us.  Otomie had conquered.  Her noble
+words, her beauty, the tale of our sorrows and the sight of my
+torments, had done their work, and the heart of the people was
+filled with fury against the Teules who had destroyed their army,
+and the Tlascalans that had aided them.  Never did the wit and
+eloquence of a woman cause a swifter change.  They screamed and
+tore their robes and shook their weapons in the air.  Maxtla strove
+to speak, but they pulled him down and presently he was flying for
+his life.  Then they turned upon the Tlascalan envoys and beat them
+with sticks, crying:
+
+'This is our answer to Malinche.  Run, you dogs, and take it!' till
+they were driven from the town.
+
+Now at length the turmoil ceased, and some of the great chiefs came
+forward and, kissing the hand of Otomie, said:
+
+'Princess, we your children will guard you to the death, for you
+have put another heart into us.  You are right; it is better to die
+free than to live as slaves.'
+
+'See, my husband,' said Otomie, 'I was not mistaken when I told you
+that my people were loyal and true.  But now we must make ready for
+war, for they have gone too far to turn back, and when this tidings
+comes to the ears of Malinche he will be like a puma robbed of her
+young.  Now, let us rest, I am very weary.'
+
+'Otomie,' I answered, 'there has lived no greater woman than you
+upon this earth.'
+
+'I cannot tell, husband,' she said, smiling; 'if I have won your
+praise and safety, it is enough for me.'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+THE END OF GUATEMOC
+
+
+Now for a while we dwelt in quiet at the City of Pines, and by slow
+degrees and with much suffering I recovered from the wounds that
+the cruel hand of de Garcia had inflicted upon me.  But we knew
+that this peace could not last, and the people of the Otomie knew
+it also, for had they not scourged the envoys of Malinche out of
+the gates of their city?  Many of them were now sorry that this had
+been done, but it was done, and they must reap as they had sown.
+
+So they made ready for war, and Otomie was the president of their
+councils, in which I shared.  At length came news that a force of
+fifty Spaniards with five thousand Tlascalan allies were advancing
+on the city to destroy us.  Then I took command of the tribesmen of
+the Otomie--there were ten thousand or more of them, all well-armed
+after their own fashion--and advanced out of the city till I was
+two-thirds of the way down the gorge which leads to it.  But I did
+not bring all my army down this gorge, since there was no room for
+them to fight there, and I had another plan.  I sent some seven
+thousand men round the mountains, of which the secret paths were
+well known to them, bidding them climb to the crest of the
+precipices that bordered either side of the gorge, and there, at
+certain places where the cliff is sheer and more than one thousand
+feet in height, to make a great provision of stones.
+
+The rest of my army, excepting five hundred whom I kept with me, I
+armed with bows and throwing spears, and stationed them in ambush
+in convenient places where the sides of the cliff were broken, and
+in such fashion that rocks from above could not be rolled on them.
+Then I sent trusty men as spies to warn me of the approach of the
+Spaniards, and others whose mission it was to offer themselves to
+them as guides.
+
+Now I thought my plan good, and everything looked well, and yet it
+missed failure but by a very little.  For Maxtla, our enemy and the
+friend of the Spaniards, was in my camp--indeed, I had brought him
+with me that I might watch him--and he had not been idle.
+
+For when the Spaniards were half a day's march from the mouth of
+the defile, one of those men whom I had told off to watch their
+advance, came to me and made it known that Maxtla had bribed him to
+go to the leader of the Spaniards and disclose to him the plan of
+the ambuscade.  This man had taken the bribe and started on his
+errand of treachery, but his heart failed him and, returning, he
+told me all.  Then I caused Maxtla to be seized, and before
+nightfall he had paid the price of his wickedness.
+
+On the morning after his death the Spanish array entered the pass.
+Half-way down it I met them with my five hundred men and engaged
+them, but suffered them to drive us back with some loss.  As they
+followed they grew bolder and we fled faster, till at length we
+flew down the defile followed by the Spanish horse.  Now, some
+three furlongs from its mouth that leads to the City of Pines, this
+pass turns and narrows, and here the cliffs are so sheer and high
+that a twilight reigns at the foot of them.
+
+Down the narrow way we ran in seeming rout, and after us came the
+Spaniards shouting on their saints and flushed with victory.  But
+scarcely had we turned the corner when they sang another song, for
+those who were watching a thousand feet above us gave the signal,
+and down from on high came a rain of stones and boulders that
+darkened the air and crashed among them, crushing many of them.  On
+they struggled, seeing a wider way in front where the cliffs
+sloped, and perhaps half of them won through.  But here the archers
+were waiting, and now, in the place of stones, arrows were hailed
+upon them, till at length, utterly bewildered and unable to strike
+a blow in their own defence, they turned to fly towards the open
+country.  This finished the fight, for now we assailed their flank,
+and once more the rocks thundered on them from above, and the end
+of it was that those who remained of the Spaniards and their Indian
+allies were driven in utter rout back to the plain beyond the Pass
+of Pines.
+
+After this battle the Spaniards troubled us no more for many years
+except by threats, and my name grew great among the people of the
+Otomie.
+
+One Spaniard I rescued from death and afterwards I gave him his
+liberty.  From him I inquired of the doings of de Garcia or
+Sarceda, and learned that he was still in the service of Cortes,
+but that Marina had been true to her word, and had brought disgrace
+upon him because he had threatened to put Otomie to the torture.
+Moreover Cortes was angry with him because of our escape, the
+burden of which Marina had laid upon his shoulders, hinting that he
+had taken a bribe to suffer us to pass the gate.
+
+
+Of the fourteen years of my life which followed the defeat of the
+Spaniards I can speak briefly, for compared to the time that had
+gone before they were years of quiet.  In them children were born
+to me and Otomie, three sons, and these children were my great joy,
+for I loved them dearly and they loved me.  Indeed, except for the
+strain of their mother's blood, they were English boys and not
+Indian, for I christened them all, and taught them our English
+tongue and faith, and their mien and eyes were more English than
+Indian, though their skins were dark.  But I had no luck with these
+dear children of mine, any more than I have had with that which
+Lily bore me.  Two of them died--one from a fever that all my skill
+would not avail to cure, and another by a fall from a lofty cedar
+tree, which he climbed searching for a kite's nest.  Thus of the
+three of them--since I do not speak now of that infant, my
+firstborn, who perished in the siege--there remained to me only the
+eldest and best beloved of whom I must tell hereafter.
+
+For the rest, jointly with Otomie I was named cacique of the City
+of Pines at a great council that was held after I had destroyed the
+Spaniards and their allies, and as such we had wide though not
+absolute power.  By the exercise of this power, in the end I
+succeeded in abolishing the horrible rites of human sacrifice,
+though, because of this, a large number of the outlying tribes fell
+away from our rule, and the enmity of the priests was excited
+against me.  The last sacrifice, except one only, the most terrible
+of them all, of which I will tell afterwards, that was ever
+celebrated on the teocalli in front of the palace, took place after
+the defeat of the Spaniards in the pass.
+
+When I had dwelt three years in the City of Pines and two sons had
+been born to me there, secret messengers arrived that were sent by
+the friends of Guatemoc, who had survived the torture and was still
+a prisoner in the hands of Cortes.  From these messengers we
+learned that Cortes was about to start upon an expedition to the
+Gulf of Honduras, across the country that is now known as Yucatan,
+taking Guatemoc and other Aztec nobles with him for he feared to
+leave them behind.  We heard also that there was much murmuring
+among the conquered tribes of Anahuac because of the cruelties and
+extortions of the Spaniards, and many thought that the hour had
+come when a rising against them might be carried to a successful
+issue.
+
+This was the prayer of those who sent the envoys, that I should
+raise a force of Otomies and travel with it across the country to
+Yucatan, and there with others who would be gathered, wait a
+favourable opportunity to throw myself upon the Spaniards when they
+were entangled in the forests and swamps, putting them to the sword
+and releasing Guatemoc.  Such was the first purpose of the plot,
+though it had many others of which it is useless to speak, seeing
+that they came to nothing.
+
+When the message had been delivered I shook my head sadly, for I
+could see no hope in such a scheme, but the chief of the messengers
+rose and led me aside, saying that he had a word for my ear.
+
+'Guatemoc sends these words,' he said; 'I hear that you, my
+brother, are free and safe with my cousin Otomie in the mountains
+of the Otomie.  I, alas! linger in the prisons of the Teules like a
+crippled eagle in a cage.  My brother, if it is in your power to
+help me, do so I conjure you by the memory of our ancient
+friendship, and of all that we have suffered together.  Then a time
+may still come when I shall rule again in Anahuac, and you shall
+sit at my side.'
+
+I heard and my heart was stirred, for then, as to this hour, I
+loved Guatemoc as a brother.
+
+'Go back,' I said, 'and find means to tell Guatemoc that if I can
+save him I will, though I have small hopes that way.  Still, let
+him look for me in the forests of Yucatan.'
+
+Now when Otomie heard of this promise of mine she was vexed, for
+she said that it was foolish and would only end in my losing my
+life.  Still, having given it she held with me that it must be
+carried out, and the end of it was that I raised five hundred men,
+and with them set out upon my long and toilsome march, which I
+timed so as to meet Cortes in the passes of Yucatan.  At the last
+moment Otomie wished to accompany me, but I forbade it, pointing
+out that she could leave neither her children nor her people, and
+we parted with bitter grief for the first time.
+
+Of all the hardships that I underwent I will not write.  For two
+and a half months we struggled on across mountains and rivers and
+through swamps and forests, till at last we reached a mighty
+deserted city, that is called Palenque by the Indians of those
+parts, which has been uninhabited for many generations.  This city
+is the most marvellous place that I have seen in all my travels,
+though much of it is hidden in bush, for wherever the traveller
+wanders there he finds vast palaces of marble, carven within and
+without, and sculptured teocallis and the huge images of grinning
+gods.  Often have I wondered what nation was strong enough to build
+such a capital, and who were the kings that dwelt in it.  But these
+are secrets belonging to the past, and they cannot be answered till
+some learned man has found the key to the stone symbols and
+writings with which the walls of the buildings are covered over.
+
+In this city I hid with my men, though it was no easy task to
+persuade them to take up their habitation among so many ghosts of
+the departed, not to speak of the noisome fevers and the wild
+beasts and snakes that haunted it, for I had information that the
+Spaniards would pass through the swamp that lies between the ruins
+and the river, and there I hoped to ambush them.  But on the eighth
+day of my hiding I learned from spies that Cortes had crossed the
+great river higher up, and was cutting his way through the forest,
+for of swamps he had passed more than enough.  So I hurried also to
+the river intending to cross it.  But all that day and all that
+night it rained as it can rain nowhere else in the world that I
+have seen, till at last we waded on our road knee deep in water,
+and when we came to the ford of the river it was to find a wide
+roaring flood, that no man could pass in anything less frail than a
+Yarmouth herring boat.  So there on the bank we must stay in
+misery, suffering many ills from fever, lack of food, and plenitude
+of water, till at length the stream ran down.
+
+Three days and nights we waited there, and on the fourth morning I
+made shift to cross, losing four men by drowning in the passage.
+Once over, I hid my force in the bush and reeds, and crept forward
+with six men only, to see if I could discover anything of the
+whereabouts of the Spaniards.  Within an hour I struck the trail
+that they had cut through the forest, and followed it cautiously.
+Presently we came to a spot where the forest was thin, and here
+Cortes had camped, for there was heat left in the ashes of his
+fires, and among them lay the body of an Indian who had died from
+sickness.  Not fifty yards from this camp stood a huge ceiba, a
+tree that has a habit of growth not unlike that of our English oak,
+though it is soft wooded and white barked, and will increase more
+in bulk in twenty years than any oak may in a hundred.  Indeed I
+never yet saw an oak tree so large as this ceiba of which I write,
+either in girth or in its spread of top, unless it be the Kirby oak
+or the tree that is called the 'King of Scoto' which grows at
+Broome, that is the next parish to this of Ditchingham in Norfolk.
+On this ceiba tree many zaphilotes or vultures were perched, and as
+we crept towards it I saw what it was they came to seek, for from
+the lowest branches of the ceiba three corpses swung in the breeze.
+'Here are the Spaniard's footprints,' I said.  'Let us look at
+them,' and we passed beneath the shadow of the tree.
+
+As I came, a zaphilote alighted on the head of the body that hung
+nearest to me, and its weight, or the wafting of the fowl's wing,
+caused the dead man to turn round so that he came face to face with
+me.  I looked, started back, then looked again and sank to the
+earth groaning.  For here was he whom I had come to seek and save,
+my friend, my brother, Guatemoc the last emperor of Anahuac.  Here
+he hung in the dim and desolate forest, dead by the death of a
+thief, while the vulture shrieked upon his head.  I sat bewildered
+and horror-stricken, and as I sat I remembered the proud sign of
+Aztec royalty, a bird of prey clasping an adder in its claw.  There
+before me was the last of the stock, and behold! a bird of prey
+gripped his hair in its talons, a fitting emblem indeed of the fall
+of Anahuac and the kings of Anahuac.
+
+I sprang to my feet with an oath, and lifting the bow I held I sent
+an arrow through the vulture and it fell to the earth fluttering
+and screaming.  Then I bade those with me to cut down the corpses
+of Guatemoc and of the prince of Tacuba and another noble who hung
+with him, and hollow a deep grave beneath the tree.  There I laid
+them, and there I left them to sleep for ever in its melancholy
+shadow, and thus for the last time I saw Guatemoc my brother, whom
+I came from far to save and found made ready for burial by the
+Spaniard.
+
+Then I turned my face homewards, for now Anahuac had no king to
+rescue, but it chanced that before I went I caught a Tlascalan who
+could speak Spanish, and who had deserted from the army of Cortes
+because of the hardships that he suffered in their toilsome march.
+This man was present at the murder of Guatemoc and his companions,
+and heard the Emperor's last words.  It seems that some knave had
+betrayed to Cortes that an attempt would be made to rescue the
+prince, and that thereon Cortes commanded that he should be hung.
+It seems also that Guatemoc met his death as he had met the
+misfortunes of his life, proudly and without fear.  These were his
+last words: 'I did ill, Malinche, when I held my hand from taking
+my own life before I surrendered myself to you.  Then my heart told
+me that all your promises were false, and it has not lied to me.  I
+welcome my death, for I have lived to know shame and defeat and
+torture, and to see my people the slaves of the Teule, but still I
+say that God will reward you for this deed.'
+
+Then they murdered him in the midst of a great silence.
+
+
+And so farewell to Guatemoc, the most brave, the best and the
+noblest Indian that ever breathed, and may the shadow of his
+tormentings and shameful end lie deep upon the fame of Cortes for
+so long as the names of both of them are remembered among men!
+
+
+For two more months I journeyed homeward and at length I reached
+the City of Pines, well though wearied, and having lost only forty
+men by various misadventures of travel, to find Otomie in good
+health, and overjoyed to know me safe whom she thought never to see
+again.  But when I told her what was the end of her cousin Guatemoc
+she grieved bitterly, both for his sake and because the last hope
+of the Aztec was gone, and she would not be comforted for many
+days.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+ISABELLA DE SIGUENZA IS AVENGED
+
+
+For many years after the death of Guatemoc I lived with Otomie at
+peace in the City of Pines.  Our country was poor and rugged, and
+though we defied the Spaniards and paid them no tribute, now that
+Cortes had gone back to Spain, they had no heart to attempt our
+conquest.  Save some few tribes that lived in difficult places like
+ourselves, all Anahuac was in their power, and there was little to
+gain except hard blows in the bringing of a remnant of the people
+of the Otomie beneath their yoke, so they let us be till a more
+convenient season.  I say of a remnant of the Otomie, for as time
+went on many clans submitted to the Spaniards, till at length we
+ruled over the City of Pines alone and some leagues of territory
+about it.  Indeed it was only love for Otomie and respect for the
+shadow of her ancient race and name, together with some reverence
+for me as one of the unconquerable white men, and for my skill as a
+general, that kept our following together.
+
+And now it may be asked was I happy in those years?  I had much to
+make me happy--no man could have been blessed with a wife more
+beautiful and loving, nor one who had exampled her affection by
+more signal deeds of sacrifice.  This woman of her own free will
+had lain by my side on the stone of slaughter; overriding the
+instincts of her sex she had not shrunk from dipping her hands in
+blood to secure my safety, her wit had rescued me in many a
+trouble, her love had consoled me in many a sorrow: surely
+therefore if gratitude can conquer the heart of man, mine should
+have been at her feet for ever and a day, and so indeed it was, and
+in a sense is still.  But can gratitude, can love itself, or any
+passion that rules our souls, make a man forget the house where he
+was born?  Could I, an Indian chief struggling with a fallen people
+against an inevitable destiny, forget my youth and all its hopes
+and fears, could I forget the valley of the Waveney and that Flower
+who dwelt therein, and forsworn though I might be, could I forget
+the oath that I once had sworn?  Chance had been against me,
+circumstances overpowered me, and I think that there are few who,
+could they read this story, would not find in it excuse for all
+that I had done.  Certainly there are very few who, standing where
+I stood, surrounded as I was by doubts, difficulties, and dangers,
+would not have acted as I did.
+
+And yet memory would rise up against me, and time upon time I would
+lie awake at night, even by the side of Otomie, and remember and
+repent, if a man may repent of that over which he has no control.
+For I was a stranger in a strange land, and though my home was
+there and my children were about me, the longing for my other home
+was yet with me, and I could not put away the memory of that Lily
+whom I had lost.  Her ring was still upon my hand, but nothing else
+of her remained to me.  I did not know if she were married or
+single, living or dead.  The gulf between us widened with the
+widening years, but still the thought of her went with me like my
+shadow; it shone across the stormy love of Otomie, I remembered it
+even in my children's kiss.  And worst of all I despised myself for
+these regrets.  Nay, if the worst can have a worse, there was one
+here, for though she never spoke of it, I feared that Otomie had
+read my mind.
+
+
+     Heart to heart,
+     Though far apart,
+
+
+so ran the writing upon Lily's betrothal ring, and so it was with
+me.  Far apart we were indeed, so far that no bridge that I might
+imagine could join that distance, and yet I could not say that we
+had ceased from being 'heart to heart.'  Her heart might throb no
+more, but mine beat still toward it.  Across the land, across the
+sea, across the gulf of death--if she were dead--still in secret
+must I desire the love that I had forsworn.
+
+And so the years rolled on, bringing little of change with them,
+till I grew sure that here in this far place I should live and die.
+But that was not to be my fate.
+
+
+If any should read this, the story of my early life, he will
+remember that the tale of the death of a certain Isabella de
+Siguenza is pieced into its motley.  He will remember how this
+Isabella, in the last moments of her life, called down a curse upon
+that holy father who added outrage and insult to her torment,
+praying that he might also die by the hands of fanatics and in a
+worse fashion.  If my memory does not play me false, I have said
+that this indeed came to pass, and very strangely.  For after the
+conquest of Anahuac by Cortes, among others this same fiery priest
+came from Spain to turn the Indians to the love of God by torment
+and by sword.  Indeed, of all of those who entered on this mission
+of peace, he was the most zealous.  The Indian pabas wrought
+cruelties enough when, tearing out the victim's heart, they offered
+it like incense to Huitzel or to Quetzal, but they at least
+dismissed his soul to the Mansions of the Sun.  With the Christian
+priests the thumb-screw and the stake took the place of the stone
+of sacrifice, but the soul which they delivered from its earthly
+bondage they consigned to the House of Hell.
+
+Of these priests a certain Father Pedro was the boldest and the
+most cruel.  To and fro he passed, marking his path with the
+corpses of idolaters, until he earned the name of the 'Christian
+Devil.'  At length he ventured too far in his holy fervour, and was
+seized by a clan of the Otomie that had broken from our rule upon
+this very question of human sacrifice, but which was not yet
+subjugated by the Spaniards.  One day, it was when we had ruled for
+some fourteen years in the City of Pines, it came to my knowledge
+that the pabas of this clan had captured a Christian priest, and
+designed to offer him to the god Tezcat.
+
+Attended by a small guard only, I passed rapidly across the
+mountains, purposing to visit the cacique of this clan with whom,
+although he had cast off his allegiance to us, I still kept up a
+show of friendship, and if I could, to persuade him to release the
+priest.  But swiftly as I travelled the vengeance of the pabas had
+been more swift, and I arrived at the village only to find the
+'Christian Devil' in the act of being led to sacrifice before the
+image of a hideous idol that was set upon a stake and surrounded
+with piles of skulls.  Naked to the waist, his hands bound behind
+him, his grizzled locks hanging about his breast, his keen eyes
+fixed upon the faces of his heathen foes in menace rather than in
+supplication, his thin lips muttering prayers, Father Pedro passed
+on to the place of his doom, now and again shaking his head
+fiercely to free himself from the torment of the insects which
+buzzed about it.
+
+I looked upon him and wondered.  I looked again and knew.  Suddenly
+there rose before my mind a vision of that gloomy vault in Seville,
+of a woman, young and lovely, draped in cerements, and of a thin-
+faced black-robed friar who smote her upon the lips with his ivory
+crucifix and cursed her for a blaspheming heretic.  There before me
+was the man.  Isabella de Siguenza had prayed that a fate like to
+her own fate should befall him, and it was upon him now.  Nor
+indeed, remembering all that had been, was I minded to avert it,
+even if it had been in my power to do so.  I stood by and let the
+victim pass, but as he passed I spoke to him in Spanish, saying:
+
+'Remember that which it may well be you have forgotten, holy
+father, remember now the dying prayer of Isabella de Siguenza whom
+many years ago you did to death in Seville.'
+
+The man heard me; he turned livid beneath his bronzed skin and
+staggered until I thought that he would have fallen.  He stared
+upon me, with terror in his eye, to see as he believed a common
+sight enough, that of an Indian chief rejoicing at the death of one
+of his oppressors.
+
+'What devil are you,' he said hoarsely, 'sent from hell to torment
+me at the last?'
+
+'Remember the dying prayer of Isabella de Siguenza, whom you struck
+and cursed,' I answered mocking.  'Seek not to know whence I am,
+but remember this only, now and for ever.'
+
+For a moment he stood still, heedless of the urgings of his
+tormentors.  Then his courage came to him again, and he cried with
+a great voice: 'Get thee behind me, Satan, what have I to fear from
+thee?  I remember that dead sinner well--may her soul have peace--
+and her curse has fallen upon me.  I rejoice that it should be so,
+for on the further side of yonder stone the gates of heaven open to
+my sight.  Get thee behind me, Satan, what have I to fear from
+thee?'
+
+Crying thus he staggered forward saying, 'O God, into Thy hand I
+commend my spirit!'  May his soul have peace also, for if he was
+cruel, at least he was brave, and did not shrink beneath those
+torments which he had inflicted on many others.
+
+
+Now this was a little matter, but its results were large.  Had I
+saved Father Pedro from the hands of the pabas of the Otomie, it is
+likely enough that I should not to-day be writing this history here
+in the valley of the Waveney.  I do not know if I could have saved
+him, I only know that I did not try, and that because of his death
+great sorrows came upon me.  Whether I was right or wrong, who can
+say?  Those who judge my story may think that in this as in other
+matters I was wrong; had they seen Isabella de Siguenza die within
+her living tomb, certainly they would hold that I was right.  But
+for good or ill, matters came about as I have written.
+
+And it came about also, that the new viceroy sent from Spain was
+stirred to anger at the murder of the friar by the rebellious and
+heathen people of the Otomie, and set himself to take vengeance on
+the tribe that wrought the deed.
+
+Soon tidings reached me that a great force of Tlascalan and other
+Indians were being collected to put an end to us, root and branch,
+and that with them marched more than a hundred Spaniards, the
+expedition being under the command of none other than the Captain
+Bernal Diaz, that same soldier whom I had spared in the slaughter
+of the noche triste, and whose sword to this day hung at my side.
+
+Now we must needs prepare our defence, for our only hope lay in
+boldness.  Once before the Spaniards had attacked us with thousands
+of their allies, and of their number but few had lived to look
+again on the camp of Cortes.  What had been done could be done a
+second time--so said Otomie in the pride of her unconquerable
+heart.  But alas! in fourteen years things had changed much with
+us.  Fourteen years ago we held sway over a great district of
+mountains, whose rude clans would send up their warriors in
+hundreds at our call.  Now these clans had broken from our yoke,
+which was acknowledged by the people of the City of Pines alone and
+those of some adjacent villages.  When the Spaniards came down on
+me the first time, I was able to muster an army of ten thousand
+soldiers to oppose them, now with much toil I could collect no more
+than between two and three thousand men, and of these some slipped
+away as the hour of danger drew nigh.
+
+Still I must put a bold face on my necessities, and make what play
+I might with such forces as lay at my command, although in my heart
+I feared much for the issue.  But of my fears I said nothing to
+Otomie, and if she felt any she, on her part, buried them in her
+breast.  In truth I do believe her faith in me was so great, that
+she thought my single wit enough to over-match all the armies of
+the Spaniards.
+
+Now at length the enemy drew near, and I set my battle as I had
+done fourteen years before, advancing down the pass by which alone
+they could approach us with a small portion of my force, and
+stationing the remainder in two equal companies upon either brow of
+the beetling cliffs that overhung the road, having command to
+overwhelm the Spaniards with rocks, hurled upon them from above, so
+soon as I should give the signal by flying before them down the
+pass.  Other measures I took also, for seeing that do what I would
+it well might happen that we should be driven back upon the city, I
+caused its walls and gates to be set in order, and garrisoned them.
+As a last resource too, I stored the lofty summit of the teocalli,
+which now that sacrifices were no longer offered there was used as
+an arsenal for the material of war, with water and provisions, and
+fortified its sides by walls studded with volcanic glass and by
+other devices, till it seemed well nigh impossible that any should
+be able to force them while a score of men still lived to offer a
+defence.
+
+It was on one night in the early summer, having bid farewell to
+Otomie and taking my son with me, for he was now of an age when,
+according to the Indian customs, lads are brought face to face with
+the dangers of battle, that I despatched the appointed companies to
+their stations on the brow of the precipice, and sallied into the
+darksome mouth of the pass with the few hundred men who were left
+to me.  I knew by my spies that the Spaniards who were encamped on
+the further side would attempt its passage an hour before the
+daylight, trusting to finding me asleep.  And sure enough, on the
+following morning, so early that the first rays of the sun had not
+yet stained the lofty snows of the volcan Xaca that towered behind
+us, a distant murmuring which echoed through the silence of the
+night told me that the enemy had begun his march.  I moved down the
+pass to meet him easily enough; there was no stone in it that was
+not known to me and my men.  But with the Spaniards it was
+otherwise, for many of them were mounted, and moreover they dragged
+with them two carronades.  Time upon time these heavy guns remained
+fast in the boulder-strewn roadway, for in the darkness the slaves
+who drew them could find no places for the wheels to run on, till
+in the end the captains of the army, unwilling to risk a fight at
+so great a disadvantage, ordered them to halt until the day broke.
+
+At length the dawn came, and the light fell dimly down the depths
+of the vast gulf, revealing the long ranks of the Spaniards clad in
+their bright armour, and the yet more brilliant thousands of their
+native allies, gorgeous in their painted helms and their glittering
+coats of feathers.  They saw us also, and mocking at our poor
+array, their column twisted forward like some huge snake in the
+crack of a rock, till they came to within a hundred paces of us.
+Then the Spaniards raised their battle cry of Saint Peter, and
+lance at rest, they charged us with their horse.  We met them with
+a rain of arrows that checked them a little, but not for long.
+Soon they were among us, driving us back at the point of their
+lances, and slaying many, for our Indian weapons could work little
+harm to men and horses clad in armour.  Therefore we must fly, and
+indeed, flight was my plan, for by it I hoped to lead the foe to
+that part of the defile where the road was narrow and the cliffs
+sheer, and they might be crushed by the stones which should hail on
+them from above.  All went well; we fled, the Spaniards followed
+flushed with victory, till they were fairly in the trap.  Now a
+single boulder came rushing from on high, and falling on a horse,
+killed him, then rebounding, carried dismay and wounds to those
+behind.  Another followed, and yet another, and I grew glad at
+heart, for it seemed to me that the danger was over, and that for
+the second time my strategy had succeeded.
+
+But suddenly from above there came a sound other than that of the
+rushing rocks, the sound of men joining in battle, that grew and
+grew till the air was full of its tumult, then something whirled
+down from on high.  I looked; it was no stone, but a man, one of my
+own men.  Indeed he was but as the first rain-drop of a shower.
+
+Alas! I saw the truth; I had been outwitted.  The Spaniards, old in
+war, could not be caught twice by such a trick; they advanced down
+the pass with the carronades indeed because they must, but first
+they sent great bodies of men to climb the mountain under shelter
+of the night, by secret paths which had been discovered to them,
+and there on its summit to deal with those who would stay their
+passage by hurling rocks upon them.  And in truth they dealt with
+them but too well, for my men of the Otomie, lying on the verge of
+the cliff among the scrub of aloes and other prickly plants that
+grew there, watching the advance of the foe beneath, and never for
+one moment dreaming that foes might be upon their flank, were
+utterly surprised.  Scarcely had they time to seize their weapons,
+which were laid at their sides that they might have the greater
+freedom in the rolling of heavy masses of rock, when the enemy, who
+outnumbered them by far, were upon them with a yell.  Then came a
+fight, short but decisive.
+
+Too late I saw it all, and cursed the folly that had not provided
+against such chances, for, indeed, I never thought it possible that
+the forces of the Spaniards could find the secret trails upon the
+further side of the mountain, forgetting that treason makes most
+things possible.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+THE SIEGE OF THE CITY OF PINES
+
+
+The battle was already lost.  From a thousand feet above us swelled
+the shouts of victory.  The battle was lost, and yet I must fight
+on.  As swiftly as I could I withdrew those who were left to me to
+a certain angle in the path, where a score of desperate men might,
+for a while, hold back the advance of an army.  Here I called for
+some to stand at my side, and many answered to my call.  Out of
+them I chose fifty men or more, bidding the rest run hard for the
+City of Pines, there to warn those who were left in garrison that
+the hour of danger was upon them, and, should I fall, to conjure
+Otomie my wife to make the best resistance in her power, till, if
+it were possible, she could wring from the Spaniards a promise of
+safety for herself, her child, and her people.  Meanwhile I would
+hold the pass so that time might be given to shut the gates and man
+the walls.  With the main body of those who were left to me I sent
+back my son, though he prayed hard to be allowed to stay with me.
+But, seeing nothing before me except death, I refused him.
+
+Presently all were gone, and fearing a snare the Spaniards came
+slowly and cautiously round the angle of the rock, and seeing so
+few men mustered to meet them halted, for now they were certain
+that we had set a trap for them, since they did not think it
+possible that such a little band would venture to oppose their
+array.  Here the ground lay so that only a few of them could come
+against us at one time, nor could they bring their heavy pieces to
+bear on us, and even their arquebusses helped them but little.
+Also the roughness of the road forced them to dismount from their
+horses, so that if they would attack at all, it must be on foot.
+This in the end they chose to do.  Many fell upon either side,
+though I myself received no wound, but in the end they drove us
+back.  Inch by inch they drove us back, or rather those who were
+left of us, at the point of their long lances, till at length they
+forced us into the mouth of the pass, that is some five furlongs
+distant from what was once the wall of the City of Pines.
+
+To fight further was of no avail, here we must choose between death
+and flight, and as may be guessed, for wives' and children's sake
+if not for our own, we chose to fly.  Across the plain we fled like
+deer, and after us came the Spaniards and their allies like hounds.
+Happily the ground was rough with stones so that their horses could
+not gallop freely, and thus it happened that some of us, perhaps
+twenty, gained the gates in safety.  Of my army not more than five
+hundred in all lived to enter them again, and perchance there were
+as many left within the city.
+
+The heavy gates swung to, and scarcely were they barred with the
+massive beams of oak, when the foremost of the Spaniards rode up to
+them.  My bow was still in my hand and there was one arrow left in
+my quiver.  I set it on the string, and drawing the bow with my
+full strength, I loosed the shaft through the bars of the gate at a
+young and gallant looking cavalier who rode the first of all.  It
+struck him truly between the joint of his helm and neck piece, and
+stretching his arms out wide he fell backward over the crupper of
+his horse, to move no more.  Then they withdrew, but presently one
+of their number came forward bearing a flag of truce.  He was a
+knightly looking man, clad in rich armour, and watching him, it
+seemed to me that there was something in his bearing, and in the
+careless grace with which he sat his horse, that was familiar to
+me.  Reining up in front of the gates he raised his visor and began
+to speak.
+
+I knew him at once; before me was de Garcia, my ancient enemy, of
+whom I had neither heard nor seen anything for hard upon twelve
+years.  Time had touched him indeed, which was scarcely to be
+wondered at, for now he was a man of sixty or more.  His peaked
+chestnut-coloured beard was streaked with grey, his cheeks were
+hollow, and at that distance his lips seemed like two thin red
+lines, but the eyes were as they had always been, bright and
+piercing, and the same cold smile played about his mouth.  Without
+a doubt it was de Garcia, who now, as at every crisis of my life,
+appeared to shape my fortunes to some evil end, and I felt as I
+looked upon him that the last and greatest struggle between us was
+at hand, and that before many days were sped, the ancient and
+accumulated hate of one or of both of us would be buried for ever
+in the silence of death.  How ill had fate dealt with me, now as
+always.  But a few minutes before, when I set that arrow on the
+string, I had wavered for a moment, doubting whether to loose it at
+the young cavalier who lay dead, or at the knight who rode next to
+him; and see! I had slain one with whom I had no quarrel and left
+my enemy unharmed.
+
+'Ho there!' cried de Garcia in Spanish.  'I desire to speak with
+the leader of the rebel Otomie on behalf of the Captain Bernal
+Diaz, who commands this army.'
+
+Now I mounted on the wall by means of a ladder which was at hand,
+and answered, 'Speak on, I am the man you seek.'
+
+'You know Spanish well, friend,' said de Garcia, starting and
+looking at me keenly beneath his bent brows.  'Say now, where did
+you learn it?  And what is your name and lineage?'
+
+'I learned it, Juan de Garcia, from a certain Donna Luisa, whom you
+knew in your days of youth.  And my name is Thomas Wingfield.'
+
+Now de Garcia reeled in his saddle and swore a great oath.
+
+'Mother of God!' he said, 'years ago I was told that you had taken
+up your abode among some savage tribe, but since then I have been
+far, to Spain and back indeed, and I deemed that you were dead,
+Thomas Wingfield.  My luck is good in truth, for it has been one of
+the great sorrows of my life that you have so often escaped me,
+renegade.  Be sure that this time there shall be no escape.'
+
+'I know well that there will be no escape for one or other of us,
+Juan de Garcia,' I answered.  'Now we play the last round of the
+game, but do not boast, for God alone knows to whom the victory
+shall be given.  You have prospered long, but a day may be at hand
+when your prosperity shall cease with your breath.  To your errand,
+Juan de Garcia.'
+
+For a moment he sat silent, pulling at his pointed beard, and
+watching him I thought that I could see the shadow of a half-
+forgotten fear creep into his eyes.  If so, it was soon gone, for
+lifting his head, he spoke boldly and clearly.
+
+'This is my message to you, Thomas Wingfield, and to such of the
+Otomie dogs with whom you herd as we have left alive to-day.  The
+Captain Bernal Diaz offers you terms on behalf of his Excellency
+the viceroy.'
+
+'What are his terms?' I asked.
+
+'Merciful enough to such pestilent rebels and heathens,' he
+answered sneering.  'Surrender your city without condition, and the
+viceroy, in his clemency, will accept the surrender.  Nevertheless,
+lest you should say afterwards that faith has been broken with you,
+be it known to you, that you shall not go unpunished for your many
+crimes.  This is the punishment that shall be inflicted on you.
+All those who had part or parcel in the devilish murder of that
+holy saint Father Pedro, shall be burned at the stake, and the eyes
+of all those who beheld it shall be put out.  Such of the leaders
+of the Otomie as the judges may select shall be hanged publicly,
+among them yourself, Cousin Wingfield, and more particularly the
+woman Otomie, daughter of Montezuma the late king.  For the rest,
+the dwellers in the City of Pines must surrender their wealth into
+the treasury of the viceroy, and they themselves, men, women and
+children, shall be led from the city and be distributed according
+to the viceroy's pleasure upon the estates of such of the Spanish
+settlers as he may select, there to learn the useful arts of
+husbandry and mining.  These are the conditions of surrender, and I
+am commanded to say that an hour is given you in which to decide
+whether you accept or reject them.'
+
+'And if we reject them?'
+
+'Then the Captain Bernal Diaz has orders to sack and destroy this
+city, and having given it over for twelve hours to the mercy of the
+Tlascalans and other faithful Indian allies, to collect those who
+may be left living within it, and bring them to the city of Mexico,
+there to be sold as slaves.'
+
+'Good,' I said; 'you shall have your answer in an hour.'  Now,
+leaving the gate guarded, I hurried to the palace, sending
+messengers as I went to summon such of the council of the city as
+remained alive.  At the door of the palace I met Otomie, who
+greeted me fondly, for after hearing of our disaster she had hardly
+looked to see me again.
+
+'Come with me to the Hall of Assembly,' I said; 'there I will speak
+to you.'
+
+We went to the hall, where the members of the council were already
+gathering.  So soon as the most of them were assembled, there were
+but eight in all, I repeated to them the words of de Garcia without
+comment.  Then Otomie spoke, as being the first in rank she had a
+right to do.  Twice before I had heard her address the people of
+the Otomie upon these questions of defence against the Spaniards.
+The first time, it may be remembered, was when we came as envoys
+from Cuitlahua, Montezuma her father's successor, to pray the aid
+of the children of the mountain against Cortes and the Teules.  The
+second time was when, some fourteen years ago, we had returned to
+the City of Pines as fugitives after the fall of Tenoctitlan, and
+the populace, moved to fury by the destruction of nearly twenty
+thousand of their soldiers, would have delivered us as a peace
+offering into the hands of the Spaniards.
+
+On each of these occasions Otomie had triumphed by her eloquence,
+by the greatness of her name and the majesty of her presence.  Now
+things were far otherwise, and even had she not scorned to use
+them, such arts would have availed us nothing in this extremity.
+Now her great name was but a shadow, one of many waning shadows
+cast by an empire whose glory had gone for ever; now she used no
+passionate appeal to the pride and traditions of a doomed race, now
+she was no longer young and the first splendour of her womanhood
+had departed from her.  And yet, as with her son and mine at her
+side, she rose to address those seven councillors, who, haggard
+with fear and hopeless in the grasp of fate, crouched in silence
+before her, their faces buried in their hands, I thought that
+Otomie had never seemed more beautiful, and that her words, simple
+as they were, had never been more eloquent.
+
+'Friends,' she said, 'you know the disaster that has overtaken us.
+My husband has given you the message of the Teules.  Our case is
+desperate.  We have but a thousand men at most to defend this city,
+the home of our forefathers, and we alone of all the peoples of
+Anahuac still dare to stand in arms against the white men.  Years
+ago I said to you, Choose between death with honour and life with
+shame!  To-day again I say to you, Choose!  For me and mine there
+is no choice left, since whatever you decide, death must be our
+portion.  But with you it is otherwise.  Will you die fighting, or
+will you and your children serve your remaining years as slaves?'
+
+For a while the seven consulted together, then their spokesman
+answered.
+
+'Otomie, and you, Teule, we have followed your counsels for many
+years and they have brought us but little luck.  We do not blame
+you, for the gods of Anahuac have deserted us as we have deserted
+them, and the gods alone stand between men and their evil destiny.
+Whatever misfortunes we may have borne, you have shared in them,
+and so it is now at the end.  Nor will we go back upon our words in
+this the last hour of the people of the Otomie.  We have chosen; we
+have lived free with you, and still free, we will die with you.
+For like you we hold that it is better for us and ours to perish as
+free men than to drag out our days beneath the yoke of the Teule.'
+
+'It is well,' said Otomie; 'now nothing remains for us except to
+seek a death so glorious that it shall be sung of in after days.
+Husband, you have heard the answer of the council.  Let the
+Spaniards hear it also.'
+
+So I went back to the wall, a white flag in my hand, and presently
+an envoy advanced from the Spanish camp to speak with me--not de
+Garcia, but another.  I told him in few words that those who
+remained alive of the people of the Otomie would die beneath the
+ruins of their city like the children of Tenoctitlan before them,
+but that while they had a spear to throw and an arm to throw it,
+they would never yield to the tender mercies of the Spaniard.
+
+
+The envoy returned to the camp, and within an hour the attack
+began.  Bringing up their pieces of ordnance, the Spaniards set
+them within little more than an hundred paces of the gates, and
+began to batter us with iron shot at their leisure, for our spears
+and arrows could scarcely harm them at such a distance.  Still we
+were not idle, for seeing that the wooden gates must soon be down,
+we demolished houses on either side of them and filled up the
+roadway with stones and rubbish.  At the rear of the heap thus
+formed I caused a great trench to be dug, which could not be passed
+by horsemen and ordnance till it was filled in again.  All along
+the main street leading to the great square of the teocalli I threw
+up other barricades, protected in the front and rear by dykes cut
+through the roadway, and in case the Spaniards should try to turn
+our flank and force a passage through the narrow and tortuous lanes
+to the right and left, I also barricaded the four entrances to the
+great square or market place.
+
+Till nightfall the Spaniards bombarded the shattered remains of the
+gates and the earthworks behind them, doing no great damage beyond
+the killing of about a score of people by cannon shot and arquebuss
+balls.  But they attempted no assault that day.  At length the
+darkness fell and their fire ceased, but not so our labours.  Most
+of the men must guard the gates and the weak spots in the walls,
+and therefore the building of the barricades was left chiefly to
+the women, working under my command and that of my captains.
+Otomie herself took a share in the toil, an example that was
+followed by every lady and indeed by every woman in the city, and
+there were many of them, for the women outnumbered the men among
+the Otomie, and moreover not a few of them had been made widows on
+that same day.
+
+It was a strange sight to see them in the glare of hundreds of
+torches split from the resin pine that gave its name to the city,
+as all night long they moved to and fro in lines, each of them
+staggering beneath the weight of a basket of earth or a heavy
+stone, or dug with wooden spades at the hard soil, or laboured at
+the pulling down of houses.  They never complained, but worked on
+sullenly and despairingly; no groan or tear broke from them, no,
+not even from those whose husbands and sons had been hurled that
+morning from the precipices of the pass.  They knew that resistance
+would be useless and that their doom was at hand, but no cry arose
+among them of surrender to the Spaniards.  Those of them who spoke
+of the matter at all said with Otomie, that it was better to die
+free than to live as slaves, but the most did not speak; the old
+and the young, mother, wife, widow, and maid, they laboured in
+silence and the children laboured at their sides.
+
+Looking at them it came into my mind that these silent patient
+women were inspired by some common and desperate purpose, that all
+knew of, but which none of them chose to tell.
+
+'Will you work so hard for your masters the Teules?' cried a man in
+bitter mockery, as a file of them toiled past beneath their loads
+of stone.
+
+'Fool!' answered their leader, a young and lovely lady of rank; 'do
+the dead labour?'
+
+'Nay,' said this ill jester, 'but such as you are too fair for the
+Teules to kill, and your years of slavery will be many.  Say, how
+shall you escape them?'
+
+'Fool!' answered the lady again, 'does fire die from lack of fuel
+only, and must every man live till age takes him?  We shall escape
+them thus,' and casting down the torch she carried, she trod it
+into the earth with her sandal, and went on with her load.  Then I
+was sure that they had some purpose, though I did not guess how
+desperate it was, and Otomie would tell me nothing of this woman's
+secret.
+
+'Otomie,' I said to her that night, when we met by chance, 'I have
+ill news for you.'
+
+'It must be bad indeed, husband, to be so named in such an hour,'
+she answered.
+
+'De Garcia is among our foes.'
+
+'I knew it, husband.'
+
+'How did you know it?'
+
+'By the hate written in your eyes,' she answered.
+
+'It seems that his hour of triumph is at hand,' I said.
+
+'Nay, beloved, not HIS but YOURS.  You shall triumph over de
+Garcia, but victory will cost you dear.  I know it in my heart; ask
+me not how or why.  See, the Queen puts on her crown,' and she
+pointed to the volcan Xaca, whose snows grew rosy with the dawn,
+'and you must go to the gate, for the Spaniards will soon be
+stirring.'
+
+As Otomie spoke I heard a trumpet blare without the walls.
+Hurrying to the gates by the first light of day, I could see that
+the Spaniards were mustering their forces for attack.  They did not
+come at once, however, but delayed till the sun was well up.  Then
+they began to pour a furious fire upon our defences, that reduced
+the shattered beams of the gates to powder, and even shook down the
+crest of the earthwork beyond them.  Suddenly the firing ceased and
+again a trumpet called.  Now they charged us in column, a thousand
+or more Tlascalans leading the van, followed by the Spanish force.
+In two minutes I, who awaited them beyond it together with some
+three hundred warriors of the Otomie, saw their heads appear over
+the crest of the earthwork, and the fight began.  Thrice we drove
+them back with our spears and arrows, but at the fourth charge the
+wave of men swept over our defence, and poured into the dry ditch
+beyond.
+
+Now we were forced to fly to the next earthwork, for we could not
+hope to fight so many in the open street, whither, so soon as a
+passage had been made for their horse and ordnance, the enemy
+followed us.  Here the fight was renewed, and this barricade being
+very strong, we held it for hard upon two hours with much loss to
+ourselves and to the Spanish force.  Again we retreated and again
+we were assailed, and so the struggle went on throughout the live-
+long day.  Every hour our numbers grew fewer and our arms fainter,
+but still we fought on desperately.  At the two last barricades,
+hundreds of the women of the Otomie fought by the sides of their
+husbands and their brothers.
+
+The last earthwork was captured by the Spaniards just as the sun
+sank, and under the shadow of approaching darkness those of us that
+remained alive fled to the refuge which we had prepared upon the
+teocalli, nor was there any further fighting during that night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV
+
+THE LAST SACRIFICE OF THE WOMEN OF THE OTOMIE
+
+
+Here in the courtyard of the teocalli, by the light of burning
+houses, for as they advanced the Spaniards fired the town, we
+mustered our array to find that there were left to us in all some
+four hundred fighting men, together with a crowd of nearly two
+thousand women and many children.  Now although this teocalli was
+not quite so lofty as that of the great temple of Mexico, its sides
+were steeper and everywhere faced with dressed stone, and the open
+space upon its summit was almost as great, measuring indeed more
+than a hundred paces every way.  This area was paved with blocks of
+marble, and in its centre stood the temple of the war-god, where
+his statue still sat, although no worship had been offered to him
+for many years; the stone of sacrifice, the altar of fire, and the
+storehouses of the priests.  Moreover in front of the temple, and
+between it and the stone of sacrifice, was a deep cemented hole the
+size of a large room, which once had been used as a place for the
+safe keeping of grain in times of famine.  This pit I had caused to
+be filled with water borne with great toil to the top of the
+pyramid, and in the temple itself I stored a great quantity of
+food, so that we had no cause to fear present death from thirst or
+famine.
+
+But now we were face to face with a new trouble.  Large as was the
+summit of the pyramid, it would not give shelter to a half of our
+numbers, and if we desired to defend it some of the multitude
+herded round its base must seek refuge elsewhere.  Calling the
+leaders of the people together, I put the matter before them in few
+words, leaving them to decide what must be done.  They in turn
+consulted among themselves, and at length gave me this answer: that
+it was agreed that all the wounded and aged there, together with
+most of the children, and with them any others who wished to go,
+should leave the teocalli that night, to find their way out of the
+city if they could, or if not, to trust to the mercy of the
+Spaniards.
+
+I said that it was well, for death was on every side, and it
+mattered little which way men turned to meet it.  So they were
+sorted out, fifteen hundred or more of them, and at midnight the
+gates of the courtyard were thrown open, and they left.  Oh! it was
+dreadful to see the farewells that took place in that hour.  Here a
+daughter clung to the neck of her aged father, here husbands and
+wives bade each other a last farewell, here mothers kissed their
+little children, and on every side rose up the sounds of bitter
+agony, the agony of those who parted for ever.  I buried my face in
+my hands, wondering as I had often wondered before, how a God whose
+name is Mercy can bear to look upon sights that break the hearts of
+sinful men to witness.
+
+Presently I raised my eyes and spoke to Otomie, who was at my side,
+asking her if she would not send our son away with the others,
+passing him off as the child of common people.
+
+'Nay, husband,' she answered, 'it is better for him to die with us,
+than to live as a slave of the Spaniards.'
+
+At length it was over and the gates had shut behind the last of
+them.  Soon we heard the distant challenge of the Spanish sentries
+as they perceived them, and the sounds of some shots followed by
+cries.
+
+'Doubtless the Tlascalans are massacring them,' I said.  But it was
+not so.  When a few had been killed the leaders of the Spaniards
+found that they waged war upon an unarmed mob, made up for the most
+part of aged people, women and children, and their commander,
+Bernal Diaz, a merciful man if a rough one, ordered that the
+onslaught should cease.  Indeed he did more, for when all the able-
+bodied men, together with such children as were sufficiently strong
+to bear the fatigues of travel, had been sorted out to be sold as
+slaves, he suffered the rest of that melancholy company to depart
+whither they would.  And so they went, though what became of them I
+do not know.
+
+That night we spent in the courtyard of the teocalli, but before it
+was light I caused the women and children who remained with us,
+perhaps some six hundred in all, for very few of the former who
+were unmarried, or who being married were still young and comely,
+had chosen to desert our refuge, to ascend the pyramid, guessing
+that the Spaniards would attack us at dawn.  I stayed, however,
+with the three hundred fighting men that were left to me, a hundred
+or more having thrown themselves upon the mercy of the Spaniards,
+with the refugees, to await the Spanish onset under shelter of the
+walls of the courtyard.  At dawn it began, and by midday, do what
+we could to stay it, the wall was stormed, and leaving nearly a
+hundred dead and wounded behind me, I was driven to the winding way
+that led to the summit of the pyramid.  Here they assaulted us
+again, but the road was steep and narrow, and their numbers gave
+them no great advantage on it, so that the end of it was that we
+beat them back with loss, and there was no more fighting that day.
+
+The night which followed we spent upon the summit of the pyramid,
+and for my part I was so weary that after I had eaten I never slept
+more soundly.  Next morning the struggle began anew; and this time
+with better success to the Spaniards.  Inch by inch under cover of
+the heavy fire from their arquebusses and pieces, they forced us
+upward and backward.  All day long the fight continued upon the
+narrow road that wound from stage to stage of the pyramid.  At
+length, as the sun sank, a company of our foes, their advance
+guard, with shouts of victory, emerged upon the flat summit, and
+rushed towards the temple in its centre.  All this while the women
+had been watching, but now one of them sprang up, crying with a
+loud voice:
+
+'Seize them; they are but few.'
+
+Then with a fearful scream of rage, the mob of women cast
+themselves upon the weary Spaniards and Tlascalans, bearing them
+down by the weight of their numbers.  Many of them were slain
+indeed, but in the end the women conquered, ay, and made their
+victims captive, fastening them with cords to the rings of copper
+that were let into the stones of the pavement, to which in former
+days those doomed to sacrifice had been secured, when their numbers
+were so great that the priests feared lest they should escape.  I
+and the soldiers with me watched this sight wondering, then I cried
+out:
+
+'What! men of the Otomie, shall it be said that our women outdid us
+in courage?' and without further ado, followed by a hundred or more
+of my companions, I rushed desperately down the steep and narrow
+path.
+
+At the first corner we met the main array of Spaniards and their
+allies, coming up slowly, for now they were sure of victory, and so
+great was the shock of our encounter that many of them were hurled
+over the edge of the path, to roll down the steep sides of the
+pyramid.  Seeing the fate of their comrades, those behind them
+halted, then began to retreat.  Presently the weight of our rush
+struck them also, and they in turn pushed upon those below, till at
+length panic seized them, and with a great crying the long line of
+men that wound round and round the pyramid from its base almost to
+its summit, sought their safety in flight.  But some of them found
+none, for the rush of those above pressing with ever increasing
+force upon their friends below, drove many to their death, since
+here on the pyramid there was nothing to cling to, and if once a
+man lost his foothold on the path, his fall was broken only when
+his body reached the court beneath.  Thus in fifteen short minutes
+all that the Spaniards had won this day was lost again, for except
+the prisoners at its summit, none of them remained alive upon the
+teocalli; indeed so great a terror took them, that bearing with
+them their dead and wounded, they retreated under cover of the
+night to their camp without the walls of the courtyard.
+
+Now, weary but triumphant, we wended back towards the crest of the
+pyramid, but as I turned the corner of the second angle that was
+perhaps nearly one hundred feet above the level of the ground, a
+thought struck me and I set those with me at a task.  Loosening the
+blocks of stone that formed the edge of the roadway, we rolled them
+down the sides of the pyramid, and so laboured on removing layer
+upon layer of stones and of the earth beneath, till where the path
+had been, was nothing but a yawning gap thirty feet or more in
+width.
+
+'Now,' I said, surveying our handiwork by the light of the rising
+moon, 'that Spaniard who would win our nest must find wings to fly
+with.'
+
+'Ay, Teule,' answered one at my side, 'but say what wings shall WE
+find?'
+
+'The wings of Death,' I said grimly, and went on my upward way.
+
+
+It was near midnight when I reached the temple, for the labour of
+levelling the road took many hours and food had been sent to us
+from above.  As I drew nigh I was amazed to hear the sound of
+solemn chanting, and still more was I amazed when I saw that the
+doors of the temple of Huitzel were open, and that the sacred fire
+which had not shone there for many years once more flared fiercely
+upon his altar.  I stood still listening.  Did my ears trick me, or
+did I hear the dreadful song of sacrifice?  Nay, again its wild
+refrain rang out upon the silence:
+
+
+     To Thee we sacrifice!
+     Save us, O Huitzel,
+     Huitzel, lord god!
+
+
+I rushed forward, and turning the angle of the temple I found
+myself face to face with the past, for there as in bygone years
+were the pabas clad in their black robes, their long hair hanging
+about their shoulders, the dreadful knife of glass fixed in their
+girdles; there to the right of the stone of sacrifice were those
+destined to the god, and there being led towards it was the first
+victim, a Tlascalan prisoner, his limbs held by men clad in the
+dress of priests.  Near him, arrayed in the scarlet robe of
+sacrifice, stood one of my own captains, who I remembered had once
+served as a priest of Tezcat before idolatry was forbidden in the
+City of Pines, and around were a wide circle of women that watched,
+and from whose lips swelled the awful chant.
+
+Now I understood it all.  In their last despair, maddened by the
+loss of fathers, husbands, and children, by their cruel fate, and
+standing face to face with certain death, the fire of the old faith
+had burnt up in their savage hearts.  There was the temple, there
+were the stone and implements of sacrifice, and there to their
+hands were the victims taken in war.  They would glut a last
+revenge, they would sacrifice to their fathers' gods as their
+fathers had done before them, and the victims should be taken from
+their own victorious foes.  Ay, they must die, but at the least
+they would seek the Mansions of the Sun made holy by the blood of
+the accursed Teule.
+
+I have said that it was the women who sang this chant and glared so
+fiercely upon the victims, but I have not yet told all the horror
+of what I saw, for in the fore-front of their circle, clad in white
+robes, the necklet of great emeralds, Guatemoc's gift, flashing
+upon her breast, the plumes of royal green set in her hair, giving
+the time of the death chant with a little wand, stood Montezuma's
+daughter, Otomie my wife.  Never had I seen her look so beautiful
+or so dreadful.  It was not Otomie whom I saw, for where was the
+tender smile and where the gentle eyes?  Here before me was a
+living Vengeance wearing the shape of woman.  In an instant I
+guessed the truth, though I did not know it all.  Otomie, who
+although she was not of it, had ever favoured the Christian faith,
+Otomie, who for years had never spoken of these dreadful rites
+except with anger, whose every act was love and whose every word
+was kindness, was still in her soul an idolater and a savage.  She
+had hidden this side of her heart from me well through all these
+years, perchance she herself had scarcely known its secret, for but
+twice had I seen anything of the buried fierceness of her blood.
+The first time was when Marina had brought her a certain robe in
+which she might escape from the camp of Cortes, and she had spoken
+to Marina of that robe; and the second when on this same day she
+had played her part to the Tlascalan, and had struck him down with
+her own hand as he bent over me.
+
+All this and much more passed through my mind in that brief moment,
+while Otomie marked the time of the death chant, and the pabas
+dragged the Tlascalan to his doom.
+
+The next I was at her side.
+
+'What passes here?' I asked sternly.
+
+Otomie looked on me with a cold wonder, and empty eyes as though
+she did not know me.
+
+'Go back, white man,' she answered; 'it is not lawful for strangers
+to mingle in our rites.'
+
+I stood bewildered, not knowing what to do, while the flame burned
+and the chant went up before the effigy of Huitzel, of the demon
+Huitzel awakened after many years of sleep.
+
+Again and yet again the solemn chant arose, Otomie beating time
+with her little rod of ebony, and again and yet again the cry of
+triumph rose to the silent stars.
+
+Now I awoke from my dream, for as an evil dream it seemed to me,
+and drawing my sword I rushed towards the priest at the altar to
+cut him down.  But though the men stood still the women were too
+quick for me.  Before I could lift the sword, before I could even
+speak a word, they had sprung upon me like the jaguars of their own
+forests, and like jaguars they hissed and growled into my ear:
+
+'Get you gone, Teule,' they said, 'lest we stretch you on the stone
+with your brethren.'  And still hissing they pushed me thence.
+
+I drew back and thought for a while in the shadow of the temple.
+My eye fell upon the long line of victims awaiting their turn of
+sacrifice.  There were thirty and one of them still alive, and of
+these five were Spaniards.  I noted that the Spaniards were chained
+the last of all the line.  It seemed that the murderers would keep
+them till the end of the feast, indeed I discovered that they were
+to be offered up at the rising of the sun.  How could I save them,
+I wondered.  My power was gone.  The women could not be moved from
+their work of vengeance; they were mad with their sufferings.  As
+well might a man try to snatch her prey from a puma robbed of her
+whelps, as to turn them from their purpose.  With the men it was
+otherwise, however.  Some of them mingled in the orgie indeed, but
+more stood aloof watching with a fearful joy the spectacle in which
+they did not share.  Near me was a man, a noble of the Otomie, of
+something more than my own age.  He had always been my friend, and
+after me he commanded the warriors of the tribe.  I went to him and
+said, 'Friend, for the sake of the honour of your people, help me
+to end this.'
+
+'I cannot, Teule,' he answered, 'and beware how you meddle in the
+play, for none will stand by you.  Now the women have power, and
+you see they use it.  They are about to die, but before they die
+they will do as their fathers did, for their strait is sore, and
+though they have been put aside, the old customs are not
+forgotten.'
+
+'At the least can we not save these Teules?' I answered.
+
+'Why should you wish to save the Teules?  Will they save us some
+few days hence, when WE are in their power?'
+
+'Perhaps not,' I said, 'but if we must die, let us die clean from
+this shame.'
+
+'What then do you wish me to do, Teule?'
+
+'This: I would have you find some three or four men who are not
+fallen into this madness, and with them aid me to loose the Teules,
+for we cannot save the others.  If this may be done, surely we can
+lower them with ropes from that point where the road is broken
+away, down to the path beneath, and thus they may escape to their
+own people.'
+
+'I will try,' he answered, shrugging his shoulders, 'not from any
+tenderness towards the accursed Teules, whom I could well bear to
+see stretched upon the stone, but because it is your wish, and for
+the sake of the friendship between us.'
+
+Then he went, and presently I saw several men place themselves, as
+though by chance, between the spot where the last of the line of
+Indian prisoners, and the first of the Spaniards were made fast, in
+such a fashion as to hide them from the sight of the maddened
+women, engrossed as they were in their orgies.
+
+Now I crept up to the Spaniards.  They were squatted upon the
+ground, bound by their hands and feet to the copper rings in the
+pavement.  There they sat silently awaiting the dreadful doom,
+their faces grey with terror, and their eyes starting from their
+sockets.
+
+'Hist!' I whispered in Spanish into the ear of the first, an old
+man whom I knew as one who had taken part in the wars of Cortes.
+'Would you be saved?'
+
+He looked up quickly, and said in a hoarse voice:
+
+'Who are you that talk of saving us?  Who can save us from these
+she devils?'
+
+'I am Teule, a man of white blood and a Christian, and alas that I
+must say it, the captain of this savage people.  With the aid of
+some few men who are faithful to me, I purpose to cut your bonds,
+and afterwards you shall see.  Know, Spaniard, that I do this at
+great risk, for if we are caught, it is a chance but that I myself
+shall have to suffer those things from which I hope to rescue you.'
+
+'Be assured, Teule,' answered the Spaniard, 'that if we should get
+safe away, we shall not forget this service.  Save our lives now,
+and the time may come when we shall pay you back with yours.  But
+even if we are loosed, how can we cross the open space in this
+moonlight and escape the eyes of those furies?'
+
+'We must trust to chance for that,' I answered, and as I spoke,
+fortune helped us strangely, for by now the Spaniards in their camp
+below had perceived what was going forward on the crest of the
+teocalli.  A yell of horror rose from them and instantly they
+opened fire upon us with their pieces and arquebusses, though,
+because of the shape of the pyramid and of their position beneath
+it, the storm of shot swept over us, doing us little or no hurt.
+Also a great company of them poured across the courtyard, hoping to
+storm the temple, for they did not know that the road had been
+broken away.
+
+Now, though the rites of sacrifice never ceased, what with the roar
+of cannon, the shouts of rage and terror from the Spaniards, the
+hiss of musket balls, and the crackling of flames from houses which
+they had fired to give them more light, and the sound of chanting,
+the turmoil and confusion grew so great as to render the carrying
+out of my purpose easier than I had hoped.  By this time my friend,
+the captain of the Otomie, was at my side, and with him several men
+whom he could trust.  Stooping down, with a few swift blows of a
+knife I cut the ropes which bound the Spaniards.  Then we gathered
+ourselves into a knot, twelve of us or more, and in the centre of
+the knot we set the five Spaniards.  This done, I drew my sword and
+cried:
+
+'The Teules storm the temple!' which was true, for already their
+long line was rushing up the winding path.  'The Teules storm the
+temple, I go to stop them,' and straightway we sped across the open
+space.
+
+None saw us, or if they saw us, none hindered us, for all the
+company were intent upon the consummation of a fresh sacrifice;
+moreover, the tumult was such, as I afterwards discovered, that we
+were scarcely noticed.  Two minutes passed, and our feet were set
+upon the winding way, and now I breathed again, for we were beyond
+the sight of the women.  On we rushed swiftly as the cramped limbs
+of the Spaniards would carry them, till presently we reached that
+angle in the path where the breach began.  The attacking Spaniards
+had already come to the further side of the gap, for though we
+could not see them, we could hear their cries of rage and despair
+as they halted helplessly and understood that their comrades were
+beyond their aid.
+
+'Now we are sped,' said the Spaniard with whom I had spoken; 'the
+road is gone, and it must be certain death to try the side of the
+pyramid.'
+
+'Not so,' I answered; 'some fifty feet below the path still runs,
+and one by one we will lower you to it with this rope.'
+
+Then we set to work.  Making the cord fast beneath the arms of a
+soldier we let him down gently, till he came to the path, and was
+received there by his comrades as a man returned from the dead.
+The last to be lowered was that Spaniard with whom I had spoken.
+
+'Farewell,' he said, 'and may the blessing of God be on you for
+this act of mercy, renegade though you are.  Say, now, will you not
+come with me?  I set my life and honour in pledge for your safety.
+You tell me that you are still a Christian man.  Is that a place
+for Christians?' and he pointed upwards.
+
+'No, indeed,' I answered, 'but still I cannot come, for my wife and
+son are there, and I must return to die with them if need be.  If
+you bear me any gratitude, strive in return to save their lives,
+since for my own I care but little.'
+
+'That I will,' he said, and then we let him down among his friends,
+whom he reached in safety.
+
+Now we returned to the temple, giving it out that the Spaniards
+were in retreat, having failed to cross the breach in the roadway.
+Here before the temple the orgie still went on.  But two Indians
+remained alive; and the priests of sacrifice grew weary.
+
+'Where are the Teules?' cried a voice.  'Swift! strip them for the
+altar.'
+
+But the Teules were gone, nor, search where they would, could they
+find them.
+
+'Their God has taken them beneath His wing,' I said, speaking from
+the shadow and in a feigned voice.  'Huitzel cannot prevail before
+the God of the Teules.'
+
+Then I slipped aside, so that none knew that it was I who had
+spoken, but the cry was caught up and echoed far and wide.
+
+'The God of the Christians has hidden them beneath His wing.  Let
+us make merry with those whom He rejects,' said the cry, and the
+last of the captives were dragged away.
+
+Now I thought that all was finished, but this was not so.  I have
+spoken of the secret purpose which I read in the sullen eyes of the
+Indian women as they laboured at the barricades, and I was about to
+see its execution.  Madness still burned in the hearts of these
+women; they had accomplished their sacrifice, but their festival
+was still to come.  They drew themselves away to the further side
+of the pyramid, and, heedless of the shots which now and again
+pierced the breast of one of them--for here they were exposed to
+the Spanish fire--remained a while in preparation.  With them went
+the priests of sacrifice, but now, as before, the rest of the men
+stood in sullen groups, watching what befell, but lifting no hand
+or voice to hinder its hellishness.
+
+One woman did not go with them, and that woman was Otomie my wife.
+
+She stood by the stone of sacrifice, a piteous sight to see, for
+her frenzy or rather her madness had outworn itself, and she was as
+she had ever been.  There stood Otomie, gazing with wide and
+horror-stricken eyes now at the tokens of this unholy rite and now
+at her own hands--as though she thought to see them red, and
+shuddered at the thought.  I drew near to her and touched her on
+the shoulder.  She turned swiftly, gasping,
+
+'Husband! husband!'
+
+'It is I,' I answered, 'but call me husband no more.'
+
+'Oh! what have I done?' she wailed, and fell senseless in my arms.
+
+
+And here I will add what at the time I knew nothing of, for it was
+told me in after years by the Rector of this parish, a very learned
+man, though one of narrow mind.  Had I known it indeed, I should
+have spoken more kindly to Otomie my wife even in that hour, and
+thought more gently of her wickedness.  It seems, so said my friend
+the Rector, that from the most ancient times, those women who have
+bent the knee to demon gods, such as were the gods of Anahuac, are
+subject at any time to become possessed by them, even after they
+have abandoned their worship, and to be driven in their frenzy to
+the working of the greatest crimes.  Thus, among other instances,
+he told me that a Greek poet named Theocritus sets out in one of
+his idyls how a woman called Agave, being engaged in a secret
+religious orgie in honour of a demon named Dionysus, perceived her
+own son Pentheus watching the celebration of the mysteries, and
+thereon becoming possessed by the demon she fell on him and
+murdered him, being aided by the other women.  For this the poet,
+who was also a worshipper of Dionysus, gave her great honour and
+not reproach, seeing that she did the deed at the behest of this
+god, 'a deed not to be blamed.'
+
+Now I write of this for a reason, though it has nothing to do with
+me, for it seems that as Dionysus possessed Agave, driving her to
+unnatural murder, so did Huitzel possess Otomie, and indeed she
+said as much to me afterwards.  For I am sure that if the devils
+whom the Greeks worshipped had such power, a still greater strength
+was given to those of Anahuac, who among all fiends were the first.
+If this be so, as I believe, it was not Otomie that I saw at the
+rites of sacrifice, but rather the demon Huitzel whom she had once
+worshipped, and who had power, therefore, to enter into her body
+for awhile in place of her own spirit.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+THE SURRENDER
+
+
+Taking Otomie in my arms, I bore her to one of the storehouses
+attached to the temple.  Here many children had been placed for
+safety, among them my own son.
+
+'What ails our mother, father?' said the boy.  'And why did she
+shut me in here with these children when it seems that there is
+fighting without?'
+
+'Your mother has fainted,' I answered, 'and doubtless she placed
+you here to keep you safe.  Now do you tend her till I return.'
+
+'I will do so,' answered the boy, 'but surely it would be better
+that I, who am almost a man, should be without, fighting the
+Spaniards at your side rather than within, nursing sick women.'
+
+'Do as I bid you, son,' I said, 'and I charge you not to leave this
+place until I come for you again.'
+
+Now I passed out of the storehouse, shutting the door behind me.  A
+minute later I wished that I had stayed where I was, since on the
+platform my eyes were greeted by a sight more dreadful than any
+that had gone before.  For there, advancing towards us, were the
+women divided into four great companies, some of them bearing
+infants in their arms.  They came singing and leaping, many of them
+naked to the middle.  Nor was this all, for in front of them ran
+the pabas and such of the women themselves as were persons in
+authority.  These leaders, male and female, ran and leaped and
+sang, calling upon the names of their demon-gods, and celebrating
+the wickednesses of their forefathers, while after them poured the
+howling troops of women.
+
+To and fro they rushed, now making obeisance to the statue of
+Huitzel, now prostrating themselves before his hideous sister, the
+goddess of Death, who sat beside him adorned with her carven
+necklace of men's skulls and hands, now bowing around the stone of
+sacrifice, and now thrusting their bare arms into the flames of the
+holy fire.  For an hour or more they celebrated this ghastly
+carnival, of which even I, versed as I was in the Indian customs,
+could not fully understand the meaning, and then, as though some
+single impulse had possessed them, they withdrew to the centre of
+the open space, and, forming themselves into a double circle,
+within which stood the pabas, of a sudden they burst into a chant
+so wild and shrill that as I listened my blood curdled in my veins.
+
+Even now the burden of that chant with the vision of those who sang
+it sometimes haunts my sleep at night, but I will not write it
+here.  Let him who reads imagine all that is most cruel in the
+heart of man, and every terror of the evillest dream, adding to
+these some horror-ridden tale of murder, ghosts, and inhuman
+vengeance; then, if he can, let him shape the whole in words and,
+as in a glass darkly, perchance he may mirror the spirit of that
+last ancient song of the women of the Otomie, with its sobs, its
+cries of triumph, and its death wailings.
+
+Ever as they sang, step by step they drew backwards, and with them
+went the leaders of each company, their eyes fixed upon the statues
+of their gods.  Now they were but a segment of a circle, for they
+did not advance towards the temple; backward and outward they went
+with a slow and solemn tramp.  There was but one line of them now,
+for those in the second ring filled the gaps in the first as it
+widened; still they drew on till at length they stood on the sheer
+edge of the platform.  Then the priests and the women leaders took
+their place among them and for a moment there was silence, until at
+a signal one and all they bent them backwards.  Standing thus,
+their long hair waving on the wind, the light of burning houses
+flaring upon their breasts and in their maddened eyes, they burst
+into the cry of:
+
+'SAVE US, HUITZEL! RECEIVE US, LORD GOD, OUR HOME!'
+
+Thrice they cried it, each time more shrilly than before, then
+suddenly they were GONE, the women of the Otomie were no more!
+
+With their own self-slaughter they had consummated the last
+celebration of the rites of sacrifice that ever shall be held in
+the City of Pines.  The devil gods were dead and their worshippers
+with them.
+
+
+A low murmur ran round the lips of the men who watched, then one
+cried, and his voice rang strangely in the sudden silence: 'May our
+wives, the women of the Otomie, rest softly in the Houses of the
+Sun, for of a surety they teach us how to die.'
+
+'Ay,' I answered, 'but not thus.  Let women do self-murder, our
+foes have swords for the hearts of men.'
+
+I turned to go, and before me stood Otomie.
+
+'What has befallen?' she said.  'Where are my sisters?  Oh! surely
+I have dreamed an evil dream.  I dreamed that the gods of my
+forefathers were strong once more, and that once more they drank
+the blood of men.'
+
+'Your ill dream has a worse awakening, Otomie,' I answered.  'The
+gods of hell are still strong indeed in this accursed land, and
+they have taken your sisters into their keeping.'
+
+'Is it so?' she said softly, 'yet in my dream it seemed to me that
+this was their last strength ere they sink into death unending.
+Look yonder!' and she pointed toward the snowy crest of the volcan
+Xaca.
+
+I looked, but whether I saw the sight of which I am about to tell
+or whether it was but an imagining born of the horrors of that most
+hideous night, in truth I cannot say.  At the least I seemed to see
+this, and afterwards there were some among the Spaniards who swore
+that they had witnessed it also.
+
+On Xaca's lofty summit, now as always stood a pillar of fiery
+smoke, and while I gazed, to my vision the smoke and the fire
+separated themselves.  Out of the fire was fashioned a cross of
+flame, that shone like lightning and stretched for many a rod
+across the heavens, its base resting on the mountain top.  At its
+foot rolled the clouds of smoke, and now these too took forms vast
+and terrifying, such forms indeed as those that sat in stone within
+the temple behind me, but magnified a hundredfold.
+
+'See,' said Otomie again, 'the cross of your God shines above the
+shapes of mine, the lost gods whom to-night I worshipped though not
+of my own will.'  Then she turned and went.
+
+For some few moments I stood very much afraid, gazing upon the
+vision on Xaca's snow, then suddenly the rays of the rising sun
+smote it and it was gone.
+
+
+Now for three days more we held out against the Spaniards, for they
+could not come at us and their shot swept over our heads
+harmlessly.  During these days I had no talk with Otomie, for we
+shrank from one another.  Hour by hour she would sit in the
+storehouse of the temple a very picture of desolation.  Twice I
+tried to speak with her, my heart being moved to pity by the dumb
+torment in her eyes, but she turned her head from me and made no
+answer.
+
+Soon it came to the knowledge of the Spaniards that we had enough
+food and water upon the teocalli to enable us to live there for a
+month or more, and seeing that there was no hope of capturing the
+place by force of arms, they called a parley with us.
+
+I went down to the breach in the roadway and spoke with their
+envoy, who stood upon the path below.  At first the terms offered
+were that we should surrender at discretion.  To this I answered
+that sooner than do so we would die where we were.  Their reply was
+that if we would give over all who had any part in the human
+sacrifice, the rest of us might go free.  To this I said that the
+sacrifice had been carried out by women and some few men, and that
+all of these were dead by their own hands.  They asked if Otomie
+was also dead.  I told them no, but that I would never surrender
+unless they swore that neither she nor her son should be harmed,
+but rather that together with myself they should be given a safe-
+conduct to go whither we willed.  This was refused, but in the end
+I won the day, and a parchment was thrown up to me on the point of
+a lance.  This parchment, which was signed by the Captain Bernal
+Diaz, set out that in consideration of the part that I and some men
+of the Otomie had played in rescuing the Spanish captives from
+death by sacrifice, a pardon was granted to me, my wife and child,
+and all upon the teocalli, with liberty to go whither-soever we
+would unharmed, our lands and wealth being however declared forfeit
+to the viceroy.
+
+With these terms I was well content, indeed I had never hoped to
+win any that would leave us our lives and liberty.
+
+And yet for my part death had been almost as welcome, for now
+Otomie had built a wall between us that I could never climb, and I
+was bound to her, to a woman who, willingly or no, had stained her
+hands with sacrifice.  Well, my son was left to me and with him I
+must be satisfied; at the least he knew nothing of his mother's
+shame.  Oh! I thought to myself as I climbed the teocalli, oh! that
+I could but escape far from this accursed land and bear him with me
+to the English shores, ay, and Otomie also, for there she might
+forget that once she had been a savage.  Alas! it could scarcely
+be!
+
+Coming to the temple, I and those with me told the good tidings to
+our companions, who received it silently.  Men of a white race
+would have rejoiced thus to escape, for when death is near all
+other loss seems as nothing.  But with these Indian people it is
+not so, since when fortune frowns upon them they do not cling to
+life.  These men of the Otomie had lost their country, their wives,
+their wealth, their brethren, and their homes; therefore life, with
+freedom to wander whither they would, seemed no great thing to
+them.  So they met the boon that I had won from the mercy of our
+foes, as had matters gone otherwise they would have met the bane,
+in sullen silence.
+
+I came to Otomie, and to her also I told the news.
+
+'I had hoped to die here where I am,' she answered.  'But so be it;
+death is always to be found.'
+
+Only my son rejoiced, because he knew that God had saved us all
+from death by sword or hunger.
+
+'Father,' he said, 'the Spaniards have given us life, but they take
+our country and drive us out of it.  Where then shall we go?'
+
+'I do not know, my son,' I answered.
+
+'Father,' the lad said again, 'let us leave this land of Anahuac
+where there is nothing but Spaniards and sorrow.  Let us find a
+ship and sail across the seas to England, our own country.'
+
+The boy spoke my very thought and my heart leapt at his words,
+though I had no plan to bring the matter about.  I pondered a
+moment, looking at Otomie.
+
+'The thought is good, Teule,' she said, answering my unspoken
+question; 'for you and for our son there is no better, but for
+myself I will answer in the proverb of my people, "The earth that
+bears us lies lightest on our bones."'
+
+Then she turned, making ready to quit the storehouse of the temple
+where we had been lodged during the siege, and no more was said
+about the matter.
+
+Before the sun set a weary throng of men, with some few women and
+children, were marching across the courtyard that surrounded the
+pyramid, for a bridge of timbers taken from the temple had been
+made over the breach in the roadway that wound about its side.
+
+At the gates the Spaniards were waiting to receive us.  Some of
+them cursed us, some mocked, but those of the nobler sort said
+nothing, for they pitied our plight and respected us for the
+courage we had shown in the last struggle.  Their Indian allies
+were there also, and these grinned like unfed pumas, snarling and
+whimpering for our lives, till their masters kicked them to
+silence.  The last act of the fall of Anahuac was as the first had
+been, dog still ate dog, leaving the goodly spoil to the lion who
+watched.
+
+At the gates we were sorted out; the men of small condition,
+together with the children, were taken from the ruined city by an
+escort and turned loose upon the mountains, while those of note
+were brought to the Spanish camp, to be questioned there before
+they were set free.  I, with my wife and son, was led to the
+palace, our old home, there to learn the will of the Captain Diaz.
+
+It is but a little way to go, and yet there was something to be
+seen in the path.  For as we walked I looked up, and before me,
+standing with folded arms and apart from all men, was de Garcia.  I
+had scarcely thought of him for some days, so full had my mind been
+of other matters, but at the sight of his evil face I remembered
+that while this man lived, sorrow and danger must be my bedfellows.
+
+He watched us pass, taking note of all, then he called to me who
+walked last:
+
+'Farewell, Cousin Wingfield.  You have lived through this bout also
+and won a free pardon, you, your woman and your brat together.  If
+the old war-horse who is set over us as a captain had listened to
+me you should have been burned at the stake, every one of you, but
+so it is.  Farewell for a while, friend.  I am away to Mexico to
+report these matters to the viceroy, who may have a word to say.'
+
+I made no answer, but asked of our conductor, that same Spaniard
+whom I had saved from the sacrifice, what the senor meant by his
+words.
+
+'This, Teule; that there has been a quarrel between our comrade
+Sarceda and our captain.  The former would have granted you no
+terms, or failing this would have decoyed you from your stronghold
+with false promises, and then have put you to the sword as infidels
+with whom no oath is binding.  But the captain would not have it
+so, for he said that faith must be kept even with the heathen, and
+we whom you had saved cried shame on him.  And so words ran high,
+and in the end the Senor Sarceda, who is third in command among us,
+declared that he would be no party to this peacemaking, but would
+be gone to Mexico with his servants, there to report to the
+viceroy.  Then the Captain Diaz bade him begone to hell if he
+wished and report to the devil, saying that he had always believed
+that he had escaped thence by mistake, and they parted in wrath
+who, since the day of noche triste, never loved each other much;
+the end of it being that Sarceda rides for Mexico within an hour,
+to make what mischief he can at the viceroy's court, and I think
+that you are well rid of him.'
+
+'Father,' said my son to me, 'who is that Spaniard who looks so
+cruelly upon us?'
+
+'That is he of whom I have told you, son, de Garcia, who has been
+the curse of our race for two generations, who betrayed your
+grandfather to the Holy Office, and murdered your grandmother, who
+put me to torture, and whose ill deeds are not done with yet.
+Beware of him, son, now and ever, I beseech you.'
+
+
+Now we were come to the palace, almost the only house that was left
+standing in the City of Pines.  Here an apartment was given to us
+at the end of the long building, and presently a command was
+brought to us that I and my wife should wait upon the Spanish
+captain Diaz.
+
+So we went, though Otomie desired to stay behind, leaving our son
+alone in the chamber where food had been brought to him.  I
+remember that I kissed him before I left, though I do not know what
+moved me to do so, unless it was because I thought that he might be
+asleep when I returned.  The Captain Diaz had his quarters at the
+other end of the palace, some two hundred paces away.  Presently we
+stood before him.  He was a rough-looking, thick-set man well on in
+years, with bright eyes and an ugly honest face, like the face of a
+peasant who has toiled a lifetime in all weathers, only the fields
+that Diaz tilled were fields of war, and his harvest had been the
+lives of men.  Just then he was joking with some common soldiers in
+a strain scarcely suited to nice ears, but so soon as he saw us he
+ceased and came forward.  I saluted him after the Indian fashion by
+touching the earth with my hand, for what was I but an Indian
+captive?
+
+'Your sword,' he said briefly, as he scanned me with his quick
+eyes.
+
+I unbuckled it from my side and handed it to him, saying in
+Spanish:
+
+'Take it, Captain, for you have conquered, also it does but come
+back to its owner.'  For this was the same sword that I had
+captured from one Bernal Diaz in the fray of the noche triste.
+
+He looked at it, then swore a great oath and said:
+
+'I thought that it could be no other man.  And so we meet again
+thus after so many years.  Well, you gave me my life once, and I am
+glad that I have lived to pay the debt.  Had I not been sure that
+it was you, you had not won such easy terms, friend.  How are you
+named?  Nay, I know what the Indians call you.'
+
+'I am named Wingfield.'
+
+'Friend Wingfield then.  For I tell you that I would have sat
+beneath yonder devil's house,' and he nodded towards the teocalli,
+'till you starved upon its top.  Nay, friend Wingfield, take back
+the sword.  I suited myself with another many years ago, and you
+have used this one gallantly; never have I seen Indians make a
+better fight.  And so that is Otomie, Montezuma's daughter and your
+wife, still handsome and royal, I see.  Lord!  Lord! it is many
+years ago, and yet it seems but yesterday that I saw her father
+die, a Christian-hearted man, though no Christian, and one whom we
+dealt ill with.  May God forgive us all!  Well, Madam, none can say
+that YOU have a Christian heart.  If a certain tale that I have
+heard of what passed yonder, some three nights since, is true.  But
+we will speak no more of it, for the savage blood will show, and
+you are pardoned for your husband's sake who saved my comrades from
+the sacrifice.'
+
+To all this Otomie listened, standing still like a statue, but she
+never answered a word.  Indeed she had spoken very rarely since
+that dreadful night of her unspeakable shame.
+
+'And now, friend Wingfield,' went on the Captain Diaz, 'what is
+your purpose?  You are free to go where you will, whither then will
+you go?'
+
+'I do not know,' I answered.  'Years ago, when the Aztec emperor
+gave me my life and this princess my wife in marriage, I swore to
+be faithful to him and his cause, and to fight for them till Popo
+ceased to vomit smoke, till there was no king in Tenoctitlan, and
+the people of Anahuac were no more a people.'
+
+'Then you are quit of your oath, friend, for all these things have
+come about, and there has been no smoke on Popo for these two
+years.  Now, if you will be advised by me, you will turn Christian
+again and enter the service of Spain.  But come, let us to supper,
+we can talk of these matters afterwards.'
+
+So we sat down to eat by the light of torches in the banqueting
+hall with Bernal Diaz and some other of the Spaniards.  Otomie
+would have left us, and though the captain bade her stay she ate
+nothing, and presently slipped away from the chamber.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII
+
+VENGEANCE
+
+
+During that meal Bernal Diaz spoke of our first meeting on the
+causeway, and of how I had gone near to killing him in error,
+thinking that he was Sarceda, and then he asked me what was my
+quarrel with Sarceda.
+
+In as few words as possible I told him the story of my life, of all
+the evil that de Garcia or Sarceda had worked upon me and mine, and
+of how it was through him that I was in this land that day.  He
+listened amazed.
+
+'Holy Mother!' he said at length, 'I always knew him for a villain,
+but that, if you do not lie, friend Wingfield, he could be such a
+man as this, I did not know.  Now by my word, had I heard this tale
+an hour ago, Sarceda should not have left this camp till he had
+answered it or cleared himself by combat with you.  But I fear it
+is too late; he was to leave for Mexico at the rising of the moon,
+to stir up mischief against me because I granted you terms--not
+that I fear him there, where his repute is small.'
+
+'I do not lie indeed,' I answered.  'Much of this tale I can prove
+if need be, and I tell you that I would give half the life that is
+left to me to stand face to face in open fight with him again.
+Ever he has escaped me, and the score between us is long.'
+
+Now as I spoke thus it seemed to me that a cold and dreadful air
+played upon my hands and brow and a warning sense of present evil
+crept into my soul, overcoming me so that I could not stir or speak
+for a while.
+
+'Let us go and see if he has gone,' said Diaz presently, and
+summoning a guard, he was about to leave the chamber.  It was at
+this moment that I chanced to look up and see a woman standing in
+the doorway.  Her hand rested on the doorpost; her head, from which
+the long hair streamed, was thrown back, and on her face was a look
+of such anguish that at first, so much was she changed, I did not
+know her for Otomie.  When I knew her, I knew all; one thing only
+could conjure up the terror and agony that shone in her deep eyes.
+
+'What has chanced to our son?' I asked.
+
+'DEAD, DEAD!' she answered in a whisper that seemed to pierce my
+marrow.
+
+I said nothing, for my heart told me what had happened, but Diaz
+asked, 'Dead--why, what has killed him?'
+
+'De Garcia!  I saw him go,' replied Otomie; then she tossed her
+arms high, and without another sound fell backwards to the earth.
+
+In that moment I think that my heart broke--at least I know that
+nothing has had the power to move me greatly since, though this
+memory moves me day by day and hour by hour, till I die and go to
+seek my son.
+
+'Say, Bernal Diaz,' I cried, with a hoarse laugh, 'did I lie to you
+concerning this comrade of yours?'
+
+Then, springing over Otomie's body I left the chamber, followed by
+Bernal Diaz and the others.
+
+Without the door I turned to the left towards the camp.  I had not
+gone a hundred paces when, in the moonlight, I saw a small troop of
+horsemen riding towards us.  It was de Garcia and his servants, and
+they headed towards the mountain pass on their road to Mexico.  I
+was not too late.
+
+'Halt!' cried Bernal Diaz.
+
+'Who commands me to halt?' said the voice of de Garcia.
+
+'I, your captain,' roared Diaz.  'Halt, you devil, you murderer, or
+you shall be cut down.'
+
+I saw him start and turn pale.
+
+'These are strange manners, senor,' he said.  'Of your grace I ask--'
+
+At this moment de Garcia caught sight of me for the first time, for
+I had broken from the hold of Diaz who clutched my arm, and was
+moving towards him.  I said nothing, but there was something in my
+face which told him that I knew all, and warned him of his doom.
+He looked past me, but the narrow road was blocked with men.  I
+drew near, but he did not wait for me.  Once he put his hand on the
+hilt of the sword, then suddenly he wheeled his horse round and
+fled down the street of Xaca.
+
+De Garcia fled, and I followed after him, running fast and low like
+a hound.  At first he gained on me, but soon the road grew rough,
+and he could not gallop over it.  We were clear of the town now, or
+rather of its ruins, and travelling along a little path which the
+Indians used to bring down snow from Xaca in the hot weather.
+Perhaps there are some five miles of this path before the snow line
+is reached, beyond which no Indian dared to set his foot, for the
+ground above was holy.  Along this path he went, and I was content
+to see it, for I knew well that the traveller cannot leave it,
+since on either side lie water-courses and cliffs.  Mile after mile
+de Garcia followed it, looking now to the left, now to the right,
+and now ahead at the great dome of snow crowned with fire that
+towered above him.  But he never looked behind him; he knew what
+was there--death in the shape of a man!
+
+I came on doggedly, saving my strength.  I was sure that I must
+catch him at last, it did not matter when.
+
+At length he reached the snow-line where the path ended, and for
+the first time he looked back.  There I was some two hundred paces
+behind him.  I, his death, was behind him, and in front of him
+shone the snow.  For a moment he hesitated, and I heard the heavy
+breathing of his horse in the great stillness.  Then he turned and
+faced the slope, driving his spurs into the brute's sides.  The
+snow was hard, for here the frost bit sharply, and for a while,
+though it was so steep, the horse travelled over it better than he
+had done along the pathway.  Now, as before, there was only one
+road that he could take, for we passed up the crest of a ridge, a
+pleat as it were in the garment of the mountain, and on either side
+were steeps of snow on which neither horse nor man might keep his
+footing.  For two hours or more we followed that ridge, and as we
+went through the silence of the haunted volcan, and the loneliness
+of its eternal snows, it seemed to me that my spirit entered into
+the spirit of my quarry, and that with its eyes I saw all that was
+passing in his heart.  To a man so wronged the dream was pleasant
+even if it were not true, for I read there such agony, such black
+despair, such haunting memories, such terror of advancing death and
+of what lay beyond it, that no revenge of man's could surpass their
+torment.  And it was true--I knew that it was true; he suffered all
+this and more, for if he had no conscience, at least he had fear
+and imagination to quicken and multiply the fear.
+
+Now the snow grew steeper, and the horse was almost spent, for he
+could scarcely breathe at so great a height.  In vain did de Garcia
+drive his spurs into its sides, the gallant beast could do no more.
+Suddenly it fell down.  Surely, I thought, he will await me now.
+But even I had not fathomed the depth of his terrors, for de Garcia
+disengaged himself from the fallen horse, looked towards me, then
+fled forward on his feet, casting away his armour as he went that
+he might travel more lightly.
+
+By this time we had passed the snow and were come to the edge of
+the ice cap that is made by the melting of the snow with the heat
+of the inner fires, or perhaps by that of the sun in hot seasons, I
+know not, and its freezing in the winter months or in the cold of
+the nights.  At least there is such a cap on Xaca, measuring nearly
+a mile in depth, which lies between the snow and the black rim of
+the crater.  Up this ice climbed de Garcia, and the task is not of
+the easiest, even for one of untroubled mind, for a man must step
+from crack to crack or needle to needle of rough ice, that stand
+upon the smooth surface like the bristles on a hog's back, and woe
+to him if one break or if he slip, for then, as he falls, very
+shortly the flesh will be filed from his bones by the thousands of
+sword-like points over which he must pass in his descent towards
+the snow.  Indeed, many times I feared greatly lest this should
+chance to de Garcia, for I did not desire to lose my vengeance
+thus.  Therefore twice when I saw him in danger I shouted to him,
+telling him where to put his feet, for now I was within twenty
+paces of him, and, strange to say, he obeyed me without question,
+forgetting everything in his terror of instant death.  But for
+myself I had no fear, for I knew that I should not fall, though the
+place was one which I had surely shrunk from climbing at any other
+time.
+
+All this while we had been travelling towards Xaca's fiery crest by
+the bright moonlight, but now the dawn broke suddenly on the
+mountain top, and the flame died away in the heart of the pillar of
+smoke.  It was wonderful to see the red glory that shone upon the
+ice-cap, and on us two men who crept like flies across it, while
+the mountain's breast and the world below were plunged in the
+shadows of night.
+
+'Now we have a better light to climb by, comrade!' I called to de
+Garcia, and my voice rang strangely among the ice cliffs, where
+never a man's voice had echoed before.
+
+As I spoke the mountain rumbled and bellowed beneath us, shaking
+like a wind-tossed tree, as though in wrath at the desecration of
+its sacred solitudes.  With the rumbling came a shower of grey
+ashes that rained down on us, and for a little while hid de Garcia
+from my sight.  I heard him call out in fear, and was afraid lest
+he had fallen; but presently the ashes cleared away, and I saw him
+standing safely on the lava rim that surrounds the crater.
+
+Now, I thought, he will surely make a stand, for could he have
+found courage it had been easy for him to kill me with his sword,
+which he still wore, as I climbed from the ice to the hot lava.  It
+seemed that he thought of it, for he turned and glared at me like a
+devil, then went on again, leaving me wondering where he believed
+that he would find refuge.  Some three hundred paces from the edge
+of the ice, the smoke and steam of the crater rose into the air,
+and between the two was lava so hot that in places it was difficult
+to walk upon it.  Across this bed, that trembled as I passed over
+it, went de Garcia somewhat slowly, for now he was weary, and I
+followed him at my ease, getting my breath again.
+
+Presently I saw that he had come to the edge of the crater, for he
+leaned forward and looked over, and I thought that he was about to
+destroy himself by plunging into it.  But if such thoughts had been
+in his mind, he forgot them when he had seen what sort of nest this
+was to sleep in, for turning, he came back towards me, sword up,
+and we met within a dozen paces of the edge.  I say met, but in
+truth we did not meet, for he stopped again, well out of reach of
+my sword.  I sat down upon a block of lava and looked at him; it
+seemed to me that I could not feast my eyes enough upon his face.
+And what a face it was; that of a more than murderer about to meet
+his reward!  Would that I could paint to show it, for no words can
+tell the fearfulness of those red and sunken eyes, those grinning
+teeth and quivering lips.  I think that when the enemy of mankind
+has cast his last die and won his last soul, he too will look thus
+as he passes into doom.
+
+'At length, de Garcia!' I said.
+
+'Why do you not kill me and make an end?' he asked hoarsely.
+
+'Where is the hurry, cousin?  For hard on twenty years I have
+sought you, shall we then part so soon?  Let us talk a while.
+Before we part to meet no more, perhaps of your courtesy you will
+answer me a question, for I am curious.  Why have you wrought these
+evils on me and mine?  Surely you must have some reason for what
+seems to be an empty and foolish wickedness.'
+
+I spoke to him thus calmly and coldly, feeling no passion, feeling
+nothing.  For in that strange hour I was no longer Thomas
+Wingfield, I was no longer human, I was a force, an instrument; I
+could think of my dead son without sorrow, he did not seem dead to
+me, for I partook of the nature that he had put on in this change
+of death.  I could even think of de Garcia without hate, as though
+he also were nothing but a tool in some other hand.  Moreover, I
+KNEW that he was mine, body and mind, and that he must answer and
+truly, so surely as he must die when I chose to kill him.  He tried
+to shut his lips, but they opened of themselves and word by word
+the truth was dragged from his black heart as though he stood
+already before the judgment seat.
+
+'I loved your mother, my cousin,' he said, speaking slowly and
+painfully; 'from a child I loved her only in the world, as I love
+her to this hour, but she hated me because I was wicked and feared
+me because I was cruel.  Then she saw your father and loved him,
+and brought about his escape from the Holy Office, whither I had
+delivered him to be tortured and burnt, and fled with him to
+England.  I was jealous and would have been revenged if I might,
+but there was no way.  I led an evil life, and when nearly twenty
+years had gone by, chance took me to England on a trading journey.
+By chance I learned that your father and mother lived near
+Yarmouth, and I determined to see her, though at that time I had no
+thought of killing her.  Fortune favoured me, and we met in the
+woodland, and I saw that she was still beautiful and knew that I
+loved her more than ever before.  I gave her choice to fly with me
+or to die, and after a while she died.  But as she shrank up the
+wooded hillside before my sword, of a sudden she stood still and
+said:
+
+'"Listen before you smite, Juan.  I have a death vision.  As I have
+fled from you, so shall you fly before one of my blood in a place
+of fire and rock and snow, and as you drive me to the gates of
+heaven, so he shall drive you into the mouth of hell."'
+
+'In such a place as this, cousin,' I said.
+
+'In such a place as this,' he whispered, glancing round.
+
+'Continue.'
+
+Again he strove to be silent, but again my will mastered him and he
+spoke.
+
+'It was too late to spare her if I wished to escape myself, so I
+killed her and fled.  But terror entered my heart, terror which has
+never left it to this hour, for always before my eyes was the
+vision of him of your mother's blood, before whom I should fly as
+she fled before me, who shall drive me into the mouth of hell.'
+
+'That must be yonder, cousin,' I said, pointing with the sword
+toward the pit of the crater.
+
+'It is yonder; I have looked.'
+
+'But only for the body, cousin, not for the spirit.'
+
+'Only for the body, not for the spirit,' he repeated after me.
+
+'Continue,' I said.
+
+'Afterwards on that same day I met you, Thomas Wingfield.  Already
+your dead mother's prophecy had taken hold of me, and seeing one of
+her blood I strove to kill him lest he should kill me.'
+
+'As he will do presently, cousin.'
+
+'As he will do presently,' he repeated like a talking bird.
+
+'You know what happened and how I escaped.  I fled to Spain and
+strove to forget.  But I could not.  One night I saw a face in the
+streets of Seville that reminded me of your face.  I did not think
+that it could be you, yet so strong was my fear that I determined
+to fly to the far Indies.  You met me on the night of my flight
+when I was bidding farewell to a lady.'
+
+'One Isabella de Siguenza, cousin.  I bade farewell to her
+afterwards and delivered her dying words to you.  Now she waits to
+welcome you again, she and her child.'
+
+He shuddered and went on.  'In the ocean we met again.  You rose
+out of the sea.  I did not dare to kill you at once, I thought that
+you must die in the slave-hold and that none could bear witness
+against me and hold me guilty of your blood.  You did not die, even
+the sea could not destroy you.  But I thought that you were dead.
+I came to Anahuac in the train of Cortes and again we met; that
+time you nearly killed me.  Afterwards I had my revenge and I
+tortured you well; I meant to murder you on the morrow, though
+first I would torture you, for terror can be very cruel, but you
+escaped me.  Long years passed, I wandered hither and thither, to
+Spain, back to Mexico, and elsewhere, but wherever I went my fear,
+the ghosts of the dead, and my dreams went with me, and I was never
+fortunate.  Only the other day I joined the company of Diaz as an
+adventurer.  Not till we reached the City of Pines did I learn that
+you were the captain of the Otomie; it was said that you were long
+dead.  You know the rest.'
+
+'Why did you murder my son, cousin?'
+
+'Was he not of your mother's blood, of the blood that should bring
+my doom upon me, and did I owe you no reward for all the terrors of
+these many years?  Moreover he is foolish who strives to slay the
+father and spares the son.  He is dead and I am glad that I killed
+him, though he haunts me now with the others.'
+
+'And shall haunt you eternally.  Now let us make an end.  You have
+your sword, use it if you can.  It will be easier to die fighting.'
+
+'I cannot,' he groaned; 'my doom is upon me.'
+
+'As you will,' and I came at him, sword up.
+
+He ran from before me, moving backwards and keeping his eyes fixed
+upon mine, as I have seen a rat do when a snake is about to swallow
+it.  Now we were upon the edge of the crater, and looking over I
+saw an awful sight.  For there, some thirty feet beneath us, the
+red-hot lava glowing sullenly beneath a shifting pall of smoke,
+rolled and spouted like a thing alive.  Jets of steam flew upwards
+from it with a screaming sound, lines of noxious vapours, many-
+coloured, crept and twisted on its surface, and a hot and horrid
+stench poisoned the heated air.  Here indeed was such a gate as I
+could wish for de Garcia to pass through to his own abode.
+
+I looked, pointed with my sword, and laughed; he looked and
+shrieked aloud, for now all his manhood had left him, so great was
+his terror of what lay beyond the end.  Yes, this proud and haughty
+Spaniard screamed and wept and prayed for mercy; he who had done so
+many villanies beyond forgiveness, prayed for mercy that he might
+find time to repent.  I stood and watched him, and so dreadful was
+his aspect that horror struck me even through the calm of my frozen
+heart.
+
+'Come, it is time to finish,' I said, and again I lifted my sword,
+only to let it fall, for suddenly his brain gave way and de Garcia
+went mad before my eyes!
+
+Of all that followed I will not write.  With his madness courage
+came back to him, and he began to fight, but not with ME.
+
+He seemed to perceive me no more, but nevertheless he fought, and
+desperately, thrusting at the empty air.  It was terrible to see
+him thus doing battle with his invisible foes, and to hear his
+screams and curses, as inch by inch they drove him back to the edge
+of the crater.  Here he stood a while, like one who makes a last
+stand against overpowering strength, thrusting and striking
+furiously.  Twice he nearly fell, as though beneath a mortal wound,
+but recovering himself, fought on with Nothingness.  Then, with a
+sharp cry, suddenly he threw his arms wide, as a man does who is
+pierced through the heart; his sword dropped from his hand, and he
+fell backwards into the pit.
+
+I turned away my eyes, for I wished to see no more; but often I
+have wondered Who or What it was that dealt de Garcia his death
+wound.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII
+
+OTOMIE'S FAREWELL
+
+
+Thus then did I accomplish the vengeance that I had sworn to my
+father I would wreak upon de Garcia, or rather, thus did I witness
+its accomplishment, for in the end he died, terribly enough, not by
+my hand but by those of his own fears.  Since then I have sorrowed
+for this, for, when the frozen and unnatural calm passed from my
+mind, I hated him as bitterly as ever, and grieved that I let him
+die otherwise than by my hand, and to this hour such is my mind
+towards him.  Doubtless, many may think it wicked, since we are
+taught to forgive our enemies, but here I leave the forgiveness to
+God, for how can I pardon one who betrayed my father to the
+priests, who murdered my mother and my son, who chained me in the
+slave-ship and for many hours tortured me with his own hand?
+Rather, year by year, do I hate him more.  I write of this at some
+length, since the matter has been a trouble to me.  I never could
+say that I was in charity with all men living and dead, and because
+of this, some years since, a worthy and learned rector of this
+parish took upon himself to refuse me the rites of the church.
+Then I went to the bishop and laid the story before him, and it
+puzzled him somewhat.
+
+But he was a man of large mind, and in the end he rebuked the
+rector and commanded him to minister to me, for he thought with me
+that the Almighty could not ask of an erring man, that he should
+forgive one who had wrought such evils on him and his, even though
+that enemy were dead and gone to judgment in another place.
+
+But enough of this question of conscience.
+
+
+When de Garcia was gone into the pit, I turned my steps homewards,
+or rather towards the ruined city which I could see beneath me, for
+I had no home left.  Now I must descend the ice cap, and this I
+found less easy than climbing it had been, for, my vengeance being
+accomplished, I became as other men are, and a sad and weary one at
+that, so sad indeed that I should not have sorrowed greatly if I
+had made a false step upon the ice.
+
+But I made none, and at length I came to the snow where the
+travelling was easy.  My oath was fulfilled and my vengeance was
+accomplished, but as I went I reckoned up the cost.  I had lost my
+betrothed, the love of my youth; for twenty years I had lived a
+savage chief among savages and made acquaintance with every
+hardship, wedded to a woman who, although she loved me dearly, and
+did not lack nobility of mind, as she had shown the other day, was
+still at heart a savage or, at the least, a thrall of demon gods.
+The tribe that I ruled was conquered, the beautiful city where I
+dwelt was a ruin, I was homeless and a beggar, and my fortune would
+be great if in the issue I escaped death or slavery.  All this I
+could have borne, for I had borne the like before, but the cruel
+end of my last surviving son, the one true joy of my desolate life,
+I could not bear.  The love of those children had become the
+passion of my middle age, and as I loved them so they had loved me.
+I had trained them from babyhood till their hearts were English and
+not Aztec, as were their speech and faith, and thus they were not
+only my dear children, but companions of my own race, the only ones
+I had.  And now by accident, by sickness, and by the sword, they
+were dead the three of them, and I was desolate.
+
+Ah! we think much of the sorrows of our youth, and should a
+sweetheart give us the go by we fill the world with moans and swear
+that it holds no comfort for us.  But when we bend our heads before
+the shrouded shape of some lost child, then it is that for the
+first time we learn how terrible grief can be.  Time, they tell us,
+will bring consolation, but it is false, for such sorrows time has
+no salves--I say it who am old--as they are so they shall be.
+There is no hope but faith, there is no comfort save in the truth
+that love which might have withered on the earth grows fastest in
+the tomb, to flower gloriously in heaven; that no love indeed can
+be perfect till God sanctifies and completes it with His seal of
+death.
+
+I threw myself down there upon the desolate snows of Xaca, that
+none had trod before, and wept such tears as a man may weep but
+once in his life days.
+
+'O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for
+thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!' I cried with the ancient king--I
+whose grief was greater than his, for had I not lost three sons
+within as many years?  Then remembering that as this king had gone
+to join his son long centuries ago, so I must one day go to join
+mine, and taking such comfort from the thought as may be found in
+it, I rose and crept back to the ruined City of Pines.
+
+It was near sunset when I came thither, for the road was long and I
+grew weak.  By the palace I met the Captain Diaz and some of his
+company, and they lifted their bonnets to me as I went by, for they
+had respect for my sorrows.  Only Diaz spoke, saying:
+
+'Is the murderer dead?'
+
+I nodded and went on.  I went on to our chamber, for there I
+thought that I should find Otomie.
+
+She sat in it alone, cold and beautiful as though she had been
+fashioned in marble.
+
+'I have buried him with the bones of his brethren and his
+forefathers,' she said, answering the question that my eyes asked.
+'It seemed best that you should see him no more, lest your heart
+should break.'
+
+'It is well,' I answered; 'but my heart is broken already.'
+
+'Is the murderer dead?' she said presently in the very words of
+Diaz.
+
+'He is dead.'
+
+'How?'
+
+I told her in few words.
+
+'You should have slain him yourself; our son's blood is not
+avenged.'
+
+'I should have slain him, but in that hour I did not seek
+vengeance, I watched it fall from heaven, and was content.
+Perchance it is best so.  The seeking of vengeance has brought all
+my sorrows upon me; vengeance belongs to God and not to man, as I
+have learned too late.'
+
+'I do not think so,' said Otomie, and the look upon her face was
+that look which I had seen when she smote the Tlascalan, when she
+taunted Marina, and when she danced upon the pyramid, the leader of
+the sacrifice.  'Had I been in your place, I would have killed him
+by inches.  When I had done with him, then the devils might begin,
+not before.  But it is of no account; everything is done with, all
+are dead, and my heart with them.  Now eat, for you are weary.'
+
+So I ate, and afterwards I cast myself upon the bed and slept.
+
+
+In the darkness I heard the voice of Otomie that said, 'Awake, I
+would speak with you,' and there was that about her voice which
+stirred me from my heavy sleep.
+
+'Speak on,' I said.  'Where are you, Otomie?'
+
+'Seated at your side.  I cannot rest, so I am seated here.  Listen.
+Many, many years ago we met, when you were brought by Guatemoc from
+Tobasco.  Ah! well do I remember my first sight of you, the Teule,
+in the court of my father Montezuma, at Chapoltepec.  I loved you
+then as I have loved you ever since.  At least I have never gone
+astray after strange gods,' and she laughed bitterly.
+
+'Why do you talk of these things, Otomie?' I asked.
+
+'Because it is my fancy to do so.  Cannot you spare me one hour
+from your sleep, who have spared you so many?  You remember how you
+scorned me--oh! I thought I should have died of shame when, after I
+had caused myself to be given to you as wife, the wife of Tezcat,
+you told me of the maid across the seas, that Lily maid whose token
+is still set upon your finger.  But I lived through it and I loved
+you the better for your honesty, and then you know the rest.  I won
+you because I was brave and lay at your side upon the stone of
+sacrifice, where you kissed me and told me that you loved me.  But
+you never loved me, not truly, all the while you were thinking of
+the Lily maid.  I knew it then, as I know it now, though I tried to
+deceive myself.  I was beautiful in those days and this is
+something with a man.  I was faithful and that is more, and once or
+twice you thought that you loved me.  Now I wish that those Teules
+had come an hour later, and we had died together there upon the
+stone, that is I wish it for my own sake, not for yours.  Then we
+escaped and the great struggle came.  I told you then that I
+understood it all.  You had kissed me on the stone of sacrifice,
+but in that moment you were as one dead; when you came back to
+life, it was otherwise.  But fortune took the game out of your
+hands and you married me, and swore an oath to me, and this oath
+you have kept faithfully.  You married me but you did not know whom
+you married; you thought me beautiful, and sweet, and true, and all
+these things I was, but you did not understand that I was far apart
+from you, that I was still a savage as my forefathers had been.
+You thought that I had learned your ways, perchance even you
+thought that I reverenced your God, as for your sake I have striven
+to do, but all the while I have followed the ways of my own people
+and I could not quite forget my own gods, or at the least they
+would not suffer me, their servant, to escape them.  For years and
+years I put them from me, but at last they were avenged and my
+heart mastered me, or rather they mastered me, for I knew nothing
+of what I did some few nights since, when I celebrated the
+sacrifice to Huitzel and you saw me at the ancient rites.
+
+'All these years you had been true to me and I had borne you
+children whom you loved; but you loved them for their own sake, not
+for mine, indeed, at heart you hated the Indian blood that was
+mixed in their veins with yours.  Me also you loved in a certain
+fashion and this half love of yours drove me well nigh mad; such as
+it was, it died when you saw me distraught and celebrating the
+rites of my forefathers on the teocalli yonder, and you knew me for
+what I am, a savage.  And now the children who linked us together
+are dead--one by one they died in this way and in that, for the
+curse which follows my blood descended upon them--and your love for
+me is dead with them.  I alone remain alive, a monument of past
+days, and I die also.
+
+'Nay, be silent; listen to me, for my time is short.  When you bade
+me call you "husband" no longer, then I knew that it was finished.
+I obey you, I put you from me, you are no more my husband, and soon
+I shall cease to be your wife; still, Teule, I pray you listen to
+me.  Now it seems to you in your sorrow, that your days are done
+and that there is no happiness left for you.  This is not so.  You
+are still but a man in the beginning of middle age, and you are yet
+strong.  You will escape from this ruined land, and when you shake
+the dust of it off your feet its curse shall fall from you; you
+will return to your own place, and there you will find one who has
+awaited your coming for many years.  There the savage woman whom
+you mated with, the princess of a fallen house, will become but a
+fantastic memory to you, and all these strange eventful years will
+be as a midnight dream.  Only your love for the dead children will
+always remain, these you must always love by day and by night, and
+the desire of them, that desire for the dead than which there is
+nothing more terrible, shall follow you to your grave, and I am
+glad that it should be so, for I was their mother and some thought
+of me must go with them.  This alone the Lily maid has left to me,
+and there only I shall prevail against her, for, Teule, no child of
+hers shall live to rob your heart of the memory of those I gave
+you.
+
+'Oh! I have watched you by day and by night: I have seen the
+longing in your eyes for a face which you have lost and for the
+land of your youth.  Be happy, you shall gain both, for the
+struggle is ended and the Lily maid has been too strong for me.  I
+grow weak and I have little more to say.  We part, and perhaps for
+ever, for what is there between us save the souls of those dead
+sons of ours?  Since you desire me no more, that I may make our
+severance perfect, now in the hour of my death I renounce your gods
+and I seek my own, though I think that I love yours and hate those
+of my people.  Is there any communion between them?  We part, and
+perchance for ever, yet I pray of you to think of me kindly, for I
+have loved you and I love you; I was the mother of your children,
+whom being Christian, you will meet again.  I love you now and for
+always.  I am glad to have lived because you kissed me on the stone
+of sacrifice, and afterwards I bore you sons.  They are yours and
+not mine; it seems to me now that I only cared for them because
+they were yours, and they loved you and not me.  Take them--take
+their spirits as you have taken everything.  You swore that death
+alone should sever us, and you have kept your oath in the letter
+and in the thought.  But now I go to the Houses of the Sun to seek
+my own people, and to you, Teule, with whom I have lived many years
+and seen much sorrow, but whom I will no longer call husband, since
+you forbade me so to do, I say, make no mock of me to the Lily
+maid.  Speak of me to her as little as you may--be happy and--
+farewell!'
+
+
+Now as she spoke ever more faintly, and I listened bewildered, the
+light of dawn grew slowly in the chamber.  It gathered on the white
+shape of Otomie seated in a chair hard by the bed, and I saw that
+her arms hung down and that her head was resting on the back of the
+chair.  Now I sprang up and peered into her face.  It was white and
+cold, and I could feel no breath upon her lips.  I seized her hand,
+that also was cold.  I spoke into her ear, I kissed her brow, but
+she did not move nor answer.  The light grew quickly, and now I saw
+all.  Otomie was dead, and by her own act.
+
+This was the manner of her death.  She had drunk of a poison of
+which the Indians have the secret, a poison that works slowly and
+without pain, leaving the mind unclouded to the end.  It was while
+her life was fading from her that she had spoken to me thus sadly
+and bitterly.  I sat upon the bed and gazed at her.  I did not
+weep, for my tears were done, and as I have said, whatever I might
+feel nothing could break my calm any more.  And as I gazed a great
+tenderness and sorrow took hold of me, and I loved Otomie better
+now that she was dead before me than ever I had done in her life
+days, and this is saying much.  I remembered her in the glory of
+her youth as she was in the court of her royal father, I remembered
+the look which she had given me when she stepped to my side upon
+the stone of sacrifice, and that other look when she defied
+Cuitlahua the emperor, who would have slain me.  Once more I seemed
+to hear her cry of bitter sorrow as she uncovered the body of the
+dead babe our firstborn, and to see her sword in hand standing over
+the Tlascalan.
+
+Many things came back to me in that sad hour of dawn while I
+watched by the corpse of Otomie.  There was truth in her words, I
+had never forgotten my first love and often I desired to see her
+face.  But it was not true to say that I had no love for Otomie.  I
+loved her well and I was faithful in my oath to her, indeed, not
+until she was dead did I know how dear she had grown to me.  It is
+true that there was a great gulf between us which widened with the
+years, the gulf of blood and faith, for I knew well that she could
+not altogether put away her old beliefs, and it is true that when I
+saw her leading the death chant, a great horror took me and for a
+while I loathed her.  But these things I might have lived to
+forgive, for they were part of her blood and nature, moreover, the
+last and worst of them was not done by her own will, and when they
+were set aside there remained much that I could honour and love in
+the memory of this most royal and beautiful woman, who for so many
+years was my faithful wife.  So I thought in that hour and so I
+think to this day.  She said that we parted for ever, but I trust
+and I believe that this is not so.  Surely there is forgiveness for
+us all, and a place where those who were near and dear to each
+other on the earth may once more renew their fellowship.
+
+At last I rose with a sigh to seek help, and as I rose I felt that
+there was something set about my neck.  It was the collar of great
+emeralds which Guatemoc had given to me, and that I had given to
+Otomie.  She had set it there while I slept, and with it a lock of
+her long hair.  Both shall be buried with me.
+
+
+I laid her in the ancient sepulchre amid the bones of her
+forefathers and by the bodies of her children, and two days later I
+rode to Mexico in the train of Bernal Diaz.  At the mouth of the
+pass I turned and looked back upon the ruins of the City of Pines,
+where I had lived so many years and where all I loved were buried.
+Long and earnestly I gazed, as in his hour of death a man looks
+back upon his past life, till at length Diaz laid his hand upon my
+shoulder:
+
+'You are a lonely man now, comrade,' he said; 'what plans have you
+for the future?'
+
+'None,' I answered, 'except to die.'
+
+'Never talk so,' he said; 'why, you are scarcely forty, and I who
+am fifty and more do not speak of dying.  Listen; you have friends
+in your own country, England?'
+
+'I had.'
+
+'Folk live long in those quiet lands.  Go seek them, I will find
+you a passage to Spain.'
+
+'I will think of it,' I answered.
+
+In time we came to Mexico, a new and a strange city to me, for
+Cortes had rebuilt it, and where the teocalli had stood, up which I
+was led to sacrifice, a cathedral was building, whereof the
+foundations were fitly laid with the hideous idols of the Aztecs.
+The place was well enough, but it is not so beautiful as the
+Tenoctitlan of Montezuma, nor ever will be.  The people too were
+changed; then they were warriors and free, now they are slaves.
+
+In Mexico Diaz found me a lodging.  None molested me there, for the
+pardon that I had received was respected.  Also I was a ruined man,
+no longer to be feared, the part that I had played in the noche
+triste and in the defence of the city was forgotten, and the tale
+of my sorrows won me pity even from the Spaniards.  I abode in
+Mexico ten days, wandering sadly about the city and up to the hill
+of Chapoltepec, where Montezuma's pleasure-house had been, and
+where I had met Otomie.  Nothing was left of its glories except
+some of the ancient cedar trees.  On the eighth day of my stay an
+Indian stopped me in the street, saying that an old friend had
+charged him to say that she wished to see me.
+
+I followed the Indian, wondering who the friend might be, for I had
+no friends, and he led me to a fine stone house in a new street.
+Here I was seated in a darkened chamber and waited there a while,
+till suddenly a sad and sweet voice that seemed familiar to me,
+addressed me in the Aztec tongue, saying, 'Welcome, Teule.'
+
+I looked and there before me, dressed in the Spanish fashion, stood
+a lady, an Indian, still beautiful, but very feeble and much worn,
+as though with sickness and sorrow.
+
+'Do you not know Marina, Teule?' she said again, but before the
+words had left her lips I knew her.  'Well, I will say this, that I
+should scarcely have known YOU, Teule.  Trouble and time have done
+their work with both of us.'
+
+I took her hand and kissed it.
+
+'Where then is Cortes?' I asked.
+
+Now a great trembling seized her.
+
+'Cortes is in Spain, pleading his suit.  He has wed a new wife
+there, Teule.  Many years ago he put me away, giving me in marriage
+to Don Juan Xaramillo, who took me because of my possessions, for
+Cortes dealt liberally with me, his discarded mistress.'  And she
+began to weep.
+
+Then by degrees I learned the story, but I will not write it here,
+for it is known to the world.  When Marina had served his turn and
+her wit was of no more service to him, the conqueror discarded her,
+leaving her to wither of a broken heart.  She told me all the tale
+of her anguish when she learned the truth, and of how she had cried
+to him that thenceforth he would never prosper.  Nor indeed did he
+do so.
+
+For two hours or more we talked, and when I had heard her story I
+told her mine, and she wept for me, since with all her faults
+Marina's heart was ever gentle.
+
+Then we parted never to meet again.  Before I went she pressed a
+gift of money on me, and I was not ashamed to take it who had none.
+
+This then was the history of Marina, who betrayed her country for
+her love's sake, and this the reward of her treason and her love.
+But I shall always hold her memory sacred, for she was a good
+friend to me, and twice she saved my life, nor would she desert me,
+even when Otomie taunted her so cruelly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX
+
+THOMAS COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD
+
+
+Now on the morrow of my visit to Marina, the Captain Diaz came to
+see me and told me that a friend of his was in command of a carak
+which was due to sail from the port of Vera Cruz for Cadiz within
+ten days, and that this friend was willing to give me a passage if
+I wished to leave Mexico.  I thought for a while and said that I
+would go, and that very night, having bid farewell to the Captain
+Diaz, whom may God prosper, for he was a good man among many bad
+ones, I set out from the city for the last time in the company of
+some merchants.  A week's journey took us safely down the mountains
+to Vera Cruz, a hot unhealthy town with an indifferent anchorage,
+much exposed to the fierce northerly winds.  Here I presented my
+letters of recommendation to the commander of the carak, who gave
+me passage without question, I laying in a stock of food for the
+journey.
+
+Three nights later we set sail with a fair wind, and on the
+following morning at daybreak all that was left in sight of the
+land of Anahuac was the snowy crest of the volcan Orizaba.
+Presently that vanished into the clouds, and thus did I bid
+farewell to the far country where so many things had happened to
+me, and which according to my reckoning I had first sighted on this
+very day eighteen years before.
+
+Of my journey to Spain I have nothing of note to tell.  It was more
+prosperous than such voyages often are, and within ten weeks of the
+date of our lifting anchor at Vera Cruz, we let it drop in the
+harbour of Cadiz.  Here I sojourned but two days, for as it chanced
+there was an English ship in the harbour trading to London, and in
+her I took a passage, though I was obliged to sell the smallest of
+the emeralds from the necklace to find the means to do so, the
+money that Marina gave me being spent.  This emerald sold for a
+great sum, however, with part of which I purchased clothing
+suitable to a person of rank, taking the rest of the gold with me.
+I grieved to part with the stone indeed, though it was but a
+pendant to the pendant of the collar, but necessity knows no law.
+The pendant stone itself, a fine gem though flawed, I gave in after
+years to her gracious majesty Queen Elizabeth.
+
+On board the English ship they thought me a Spanish adventurer who
+had made moneys in the Indies, and I did not undeceive them, since
+I would be left to my own company for a while that I might prepare
+my mind to return to ways of thought and life that it had long
+forgotten.  Therefore I sat apart like some proud don, saying
+little but listening much, and learning all I could of what had
+chanced in England since I left it some twenty years before.
+
+
+At length our voyage came to an end, and on a certain twelfth of
+June I found myself in the mighty city of London that I had never
+yet visited, and kneeling down in the chamber of my inn, I thanked
+God that after enduring so many dangers and hardships, it had
+pleased Him to preserve me to set foot again on English soil.
+Indeed to this hour I count it nothing short of marvellous that
+this frail body of a man should survive all the sorrows and risks
+of death by sickness, hunger, battle, murder, drowning, wild
+beasts, and the cruelty of men, to which mine had been exposed for
+many years.
+
+In London I bought a good horse, through the kind offices of the
+host of my inn, and on the morrow at daybreak I set out upon the
+Ipswich road.  That very morning my last adventure befell me, for
+as I jogged along musing of the beauty of the English landscape and
+drinking in the sweet air of June, a cowardly thief fired a pistol
+at me from behind a hedge, purposing to plunder me if I fell.  The
+bullet passed through my hat, grazing the skull, but before I could
+do anything the rascal fled, seeing that he had missed his mark,
+and I went on my journey, thinking to myself that it would indeed
+have been strange, if after passing such great dangers in safety, I
+had died at last by the hand of a miserable foot-pad within five
+miles of London town.
+
+I rode hard all that day and the next, and my horse being stout and
+swift, by half-past seven o'clock of the evening I pulled up upon
+the little hill whence I had looked my last on Bungay, when I rode
+thence for Yarmouth with my father.  Below me lay the red roofs of
+the town; there to the right were the oaks of Ditchingham and the
+beautiful tower of St. Mary's Church, yonder the stream of Waveney
+wandered, and before me stretched the meadow lands, purple and
+golden with marsh weeds in bloom.  All was as it had been, I could
+see no change at all, the only change was in myself.  I dismounted,
+and going to a pool of water near the roadway I looked at the
+reflection of my own face.  I was changed indeed, scarcely should I
+have known it for that of the lad who had ridden up this hill some
+twenty years ago.  Now, alas! the eyes were sunken and very
+sorrowful, the features were sharp, and there was more grey than
+black in the beard and hair.  I should scarcely have known it
+myself, would any others know it, I wondered?  Would there be any
+to know it indeed?  In twenty years many die and others pass out of
+sight; should I find a friend at all among the living?  Since I
+read the letters which Captain Bell of the 'Adventuress' had
+brought me before I sailed for Hispaniola, I had heard no tidings
+from my home, and what tidings awaited me now?  Above all what of
+Lily, was she dead or married or gone?
+
+Mounting my horse I pushed on again at a canter, taking the road
+past Waingford Mills through the fords and Pirnhow town, leaving
+Bungay upon my left.  In ten minutes I was at the gate of the
+bridle path that runs from the Norwich road for half a mile or more
+beneath the steep and wooded bank under the shelter of which stands
+the Lodge at Ditchingham.  By the gate a man loitered in the last
+rays of the sun.  I looked at him and knew him; it was Billy Minns,
+that same fool who had loosed de Garcia when I left him bound that
+I might run to meet my sweetheart.  He was an old man now and his
+white hair hung about his withered face, moreover he was unclean
+and dressed in rags, but I could have fallen on his neck and
+embraced him, so rejoiced was I to look once more on one whom I had
+known in youth.
+
+Seeing me come he hobbled on his stick to the gate to open it for
+me, whining a prayer for alms.
+
+'Does Mr. Wingfield live here?' I said, pointing up the path, and
+my breath came quick as I asked.
+
+'Mr. Wingfield, sir, Mr. Wingfield, which of them?' he answered.
+'The old gentleman he's been dead nigh upon twenty years.  I helped
+to dig his grave in the chancel of yonder church I did, we laid him
+by his wife--her that was murdered.  Then there's Mr. Geoffrey.'
+
+'What of him?' I asked.
+
+'He's dead, too, twelve year gone or more; he drank hisself to dead
+he did.  And Mr. Thomas, he's dead, drowned over seas they say,
+many a winter back; they're all dead, all dead!  Ah! he was a rare
+one, Mr. Thomas was; I mind me well how when I let the furriner go--'
+and he rambled off into the tale of how he had set de Garcia on
+his horse after I had beaten him, nor could I bring him back from
+it.
+
+Casting him a piece of money, I set spurs to my weary horse and
+cantered up the bridle path, leaving the Mill House on my left, and
+as I went, the beat of his hoofs seemed to echo the old man's
+words, 'All dead, all dead!'  Doubtless Lily was dead also, or if
+she was not dead, when the tidings came that I had been drowned at
+sea, she would have married.  Being so fair and sweet she would
+surely not have lacked for suitors, nor could it be believed that
+she had worn her life away mourning over the lost love of her
+youth.
+
+Now the Lodge was before me; it had changed no whit except that the
+ivy and creepers on its front had grown higher, to the roof indeed,
+and I could see that people lived in the house, for it was well
+kept, and smoke hung above the chimneys.  The gate was locked, and
+there were no serving men about, for night fell fast, and all had
+ceased from their labour.  Leaving the house on the right I passed
+round it to the stables that are at the back near the hillside
+garden, but here the gate was locked also, and I dismounted not
+knowing what to do.  Indeed I was so unmanned with fear and doubt
+that for a while I seemed bewildered, and leaving the horse to crop
+the grass where he stood, I wandered to the foot of the church path
+and gazed up the hill as though I waited for the coming of one whom
+I should meet.
+
+'What if they were all dead, what if SHE were dead and gone?'  I
+buried my face in my hands and prayed to the Almighty who had
+protected me through so many years, to spare me this last
+bitterness.  I was crushed with sorrow, and I felt that I could
+bear no more.  If Lily were lost to me also, then I thought that it
+would be best that I should die, since there was nothing left for
+which I cared to live.
+
+Thus I prayed for some while, trembling like a leaf, and when I
+looked up again, ere I turned to seek tidings from those that dwelt
+in the house, whoever they might be, the twilight had fallen
+completely, and lo! nightingales sang both far and near.  I
+listened to their song, and as I listened, some troubled memory
+came back to me that at first I could not grasp.  Then suddenly
+there rose up in my mind a vision of the splendid chamber in
+Montezuma's palace in Tenoctitlan, and of myself sleeping on a
+golden bed, and dreaming on that bed.  I knew it now, I was the god
+Tezcat, and on the morrow I must be sacrificed, and I slept in
+misery, and as I slept I dreamed.  I dreamed that I stood where I
+stood this night, that the scent of the English flowers was in my
+nostrils as it was this night, and that the sweet song of the
+nightingales rang in my ears as at this present hour.  I dreamed
+that as I mused and listened the moon came up over the green ash
+and oaks, and lo! there she shone.  I dreamed that I heard a sound
+of singing on the hill--
+
+But now I awoke from this vision of the past and of a long lost
+dream, for as I stood the sweet voice of a woman began to sing
+yonder on the brow of the slope; I was not mad, I heard it clearly,
+and the sound grew ever nearer as the singer drew down the steep
+hillside.  It was so near now that I could catch the very words of
+that sad song which to this day I remember.
+
+Now I could see the woman's shape in the moonlight; it was tall and
+stately and clad in a white robe.  Presently she lifted her head to
+watch the flitter of a bat and the moonlight lit upon her face.  It
+was the face of Lily Bozard, my lost love, beautiful as of yore,
+though grown older and stamped with the seal of some great sorrow.
+I saw, and so deeply was I stirred at the sight, that had it not
+been for the low paling to which I clung, I must have fallen to the
+earth, and a deep groan broke from my lips.
+
+She heard the groan and ceased her song, then catching sight of the
+figure of a man, she stopped and turned as though to fly.  I stood
+quite still, and wonder overcoming her fear, she drew nearer and
+spoke in the sweet low voice that I remembered well, saying, 'Who
+wanders here so late?  Is it you, John?'
+
+Now when I heard her speak thus a new fear took me.  Doubtless she
+was married and 'John' was her husband.  I had found her but to
+lose her more completely.  Of a sudden it came into my mind that I
+would not discover myself till I knew the truth.  I advanced a
+pace, but not so far as to pass from the shadow of the shrubs which
+grow here, and taking my stand in such a fashion that the moonlight
+did not strike upon my face, I bowed low in the courtly Spanish
+fashion, and disguising my voice spoke as a Spaniard might in
+broken English which I will spare to write down.
+
+'Madam,' I said, 'have I the honour to speak to one who in bygone
+years was named the Senora Lily Bozard?'
+
+'That was my name,' she answered.  'What is your errand with me,
+sir?'
+
+Now I trembled afresh, but spoke on boldly.
+
+'Before I answer, Madam, forgive me if I ask another question.  Is
+this still your name?'
+
+'It is still my name, I am no married woman,' she answered, and for
+a moment the sky seemed to reel above me and the ground to heave
+beneath my feet like the lava crust of Xaca.  But as yet I did not
+reveal myself, for I wished to learn if she still loved my memory.
+
+'Senora,' I said, 'I am a Spaniard who served in the Indian wars of
+Cortes, of which perhaps you have heard.'
+
+She bowed her head and I went on.  'In those wars I met a man who
+was named Teule, but who had another name in former days, so he
+told me on his deathbed some two years ago.'
+
+'What name?' she asked in a low voice.
+
+'Thomas Wingfield.'
+
+Now Lily moaned aloud, and in her turn caught at the pales to save
+herself from falling.
+
+'I deemed him dead these eighteen years,' she gasped; 'drowned in
+the Indian seas where his vessel foundered.'
+
+'I have heard say that he was shipwrecked in those seas, senora,
+but he escaped death and fell among the Indians, who made a god of
+him and gave him the daughter of their king in marriage,' and I
+paused.
+
+She shivered, then said in a hard voice, 'Continue, sir; I listen
+to you.'
+
+'My friend Teule took the part of the Indians in the wars, as being
+the husband of one of their princesses he must do in honour, and
+fought bravely for them for many years.  At length the town that he
+defended was captured, his one remaining child was murdered, his
+wife the princess slew herself for sorrow, and he himself was taken
+into captivity, where he languished and died.'
+
+'A sad tale, sir,' she said with a little laugh--a mournful laugh
+that was half choked by tears.
+
+'A very sad tale, senora, but one which is not finished.  While he
+lay dying, my friend told me that in his early life he had plighted
+troth with a certain English maid, named--'
+
+'I know the name--continue.'
+
+'He told me that though he had been wedded, and loved his wife the
+princess, who was a very royal woman, that many times had risked
+her life for his, ay, even to lying at his side upon the stone of
+sacrifice and of her own free will, yet the memory of this maiden
+to whom he was once betrothed had companioned him through life and
+was strong upon him now at its close.  Therefore he prayed me for
+our friendship's sake to seek her out when I returned to Europe,
+should she still live, and to give her a message from him, and to
+make a prayer to her on his behalf.'
+
+'What message and what prayer?' Lily whispered.
+
+'This: that he loved her at the end of his life as he had loved her
+at its beginning; that he humbly prayed her forgiveness because he
+had broken the troth which they two swore beneath the beech at
+Ditchingham.'
+
+'Sir,' she cried, 'what do you know of that?'
+
+'Only what my friend told me, senora.'
+
+'Your friendship must have been close and your memory must be
+good,' she murmured.
+
+'Which he had done,' I went on, 'under strange circumstances, so
+strange indeed that he dared to hope that his broken troth might be
+renewed in some better world than this.  His last prayer was that
+she should say to me, his messenger, that she forgave him and still
+loved him, as to his death he loved her.'
+
+'And how can such forgiveness or such an avowal advantage a dead
+man?' Lily asked, watching me keenly through the shadows.  'Have
+the dead then eyes to see and ears to hear?'
+
+'How can I know, senora?  I do but execute my mission.'
+
+'And how can I know that you are a true messenger.  It chanced that
+I had sure tidings of the drowning of Thomas Wingfield many years
+ago, and this tale of Indians and princesses is wondrous strange,
+more like those that happen in romances than in this plain world.
+Have you no token of your good faith, sir?'
+
+'I have such a token, senora, but the light is too faint for you to
+see it.'
+
+'Then follow me to the house, there we will get light.  Stay,' and
+once more going to the stable gate, she called 'John.'
+
+An old man answered her, and I knew the voice for that of one of my
+father's serving men.  To him she spoke in low tones, then led the
+way by the garden path to the front door of the house, which she
+opened with a key from her girdle, motioning to me to pass in
+before her.  I did so, and thinking little of such matters at the
+moment, turned by habit into the doorway of the sitting-room which
+I knew so well, lifting my feet to avoid stumbling on its step, and
+passing into the room found my way through the gloom to the wide
+fireplace where I took my stand.  Lily watched me enter, then
+following me, she lit a taper at the fire which smouldered on the
+hearth, and placed it upon the table in the window in such fashion
+that though I was now obliged to take off my hat, my face was still
+in shadow.
+
+'Now, sir, your token if it pleases you.'
+
+Then I drew the posy ring from my finger and gave it to her, and
+she sat down by the table and examined it in the light of the
+candle, and as she sat thus, I saw how beautiful she was still, and
+how little time had touched her, except for the sadness of her
+face, though now she had seen eight-and-thirty winters.  I saw also
+that though she kept control of her features as she looked upon the
+ring, her breast heaved quickly and her hand shook.
+
+'The token is a true one,' she said at length.  'I know the ring,
+though it is somewhat worn since last I saw it, it was my mother's;
+and many years ago I gave it as a love gage to a youth to whom I
+promised myself in marriage.  Doubtless all your tale is true also,
+sir, and I thank you for your courtesy in bringing it so far.  It
+is a sad tale, a very sad tale.  And now, sir, as I may not ask you
+to stay in this house where I live alone, and there is no inn near,
+I propose to send serving men to conduct you to my brother's
+dwelling that is something more than a mile away, if indeed,' she
+added slowly, 'you do not already know the path!  There you will
+find entertainment, and there the sister of your dead companion,
+Mary Bozard, will be glad to learn the story of his strange
+adventures from your lips.'
+
+I bowed my head and answered, 'First, senora, I would pray your
+answer to my friend's dying prayer and message.'
+
+'It is childish to send answers to the dead.'
+
+'Still I pray for them as I was charged to do.'
+
+'How reads the writing within this ring, sir?'
+
+
+     'Heart to heart,
+      Though far apart,'
+
+
+I said glibly, and next instant I could have bitten out my tongue.
+
+'Ah! you know that also, but doubtless you have carried the ring
+for many months and learned the writing.  Well, sir, though we were
+far apart, and though perchance I cherished the memory of him who
+wore this ring, and for his sake remained unwed, it seems that his
+heart went a straying--to the breast indeed of some savage woman
+whom he married, and who bore him children.  That being so, my
+answer to the prayer of your dead friend is that I forgive him
+indeed, but I must needs take back the vows which I swore to him
+for this life and for ever, since he has broken them, and as best I
+may, strive to cast out the love I bore him since he rejected and
+dishonoured it,' and standing up Lily made as though she tore at
+her breast and threw something from her, and at the same time she
+let fall the ring upon the floor.
+
+I heard and my heart stood still.  So this was the end of it.
+Well, she had the right of me, though now I began to wish that I
+had been less honest, for sometimes women can forgive a lie sooner
+than such frankness.  I said nothing, my tongue was tied, but a
+great misery and weariness entered into me.  Stooping down I found
+the ring, and replacing it on my finger, I turned to seek the door
+with a last glance at the woman who refused me.  Halfway thither I
+paused for one second, wondering if I should do well to declare
+myself, then bethought me that if she would not abate her anger
+toward me dead, her pity for me living would be small.  Nay, I was
+dead to her, and dead I would remain.
+
+Now I was at the door and my foot was on its step, when suddenly a
+voice, Lily's voice, sounded in my ears and it was sweet and kind.
+
+'Thomas,' said the voice, 'Thomas, before you go, will you not take
+count of the gold and goods and land that you placed in my
+keeping?'
+
+Now I turned amazed, and lo! Lily came towards me slowly and with
+outstretched arms.
+
+'Oh! foolish man,' she whispered low, 'did you think to deceive a
+woman's heart thus clumsily?  You who talked of the beech in the
+Hall garden, you who found your way so well to this dark chamber,
+and spoke the writing in the ring with the very voice of one who
+has been dead so long.  Listen: I forgive that friend of yours his
+broken troth, for he was honest in the telling of his fault and it
+is hard for man to live alone so many years, and in strange
+countries come strange adventures; moreover, I will say it, I still
+love him as it seems that he loves me, though in truth I grow
+somewhat old for love, who have lingered long waiting to find it
+beyond my grave.'
+
+Thus Lily spoke, sobbing as she spoke, then my arms closed round
+her and she said no more.  And yet as our lips met I thought of
+Otomie, remembering her words, and remembering also that she had
+died by her own hand on this very day a year ago.
+
+Let us pray that the dead have no vision of the living!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL
+
+AMEN
+
+
+And now there is little left for me to tell and my tale draws to
+its end, for which I am thankful, for I am very old and writing is
+a weariness to me, so great a weariness indeed that many a time
+during the past winter I have been near to abandoning the task.
+
+For a while Lily and I sat almost silent in this same room where I
+write to-day, for our great joy and many another emotion that was
+mixed with it, clogged our tongues.  Then as though moved by one
+impulse, we knelt down and offered our humble thanks to heaven that
+had preserved us both to this strange meeting.  Scarcely had we
+risen from our knees when there was a stir without the house, and
+presently a buxom dame entered, followed by a gallant gentleman, a
+lad, and a maiden.  These were my sister Mary, her husband Wilfred
+Bozard, Lily's brother, and their two surviving children, Roger and
+Joan.  When she guessed that it was I come home again and no other,
+Lily had sent them tidings by the servant man John, that one was
+with her whom she believed they would be glad to see, and they had
+hurried hither, not knowing whom they should find.  Nor were they
+much the wiser at first, for I was much changed and the light in
+the room shone dim, but stood perplexed, wondering who this
+stranger might be.
+
+'Mary,' I said at length, 'Mary, do you not remember me, my
+sister?'
+
+Then she cried aloud, and throwing herself into my arms, she wept
+there a while, as would any of us were our beloved dead suddenly to
+appear before our eyes, alive and well, and her husband clasped me
+by the hand and swore heartily in his amazement, as is the fashion
+of some men when they are moved.  But the children stood staring
+blankly till I called the girl to me, who now was much what her
+mother had been when we parted, and kissing her, told her that I
+was that uncle of whom perhaps she had heard as dead many years
+ago.
+
+Then my horse, that all this while had been forgotten, having been
+caught and stabled, we went to supper and it was a strange meal to
+me, and after meat I asked for tidings.  Now I learned that the
+fortune which my old master Fonseca had left to me came home in
+safety, and that it had prospered exceedingly under Lily's care,
+for she had spent but very little of it for her maintenance,
+looking on it always as a trust rather than as her own.  When my
+death seemed certain my sister Mary had entered on her share of my
+possessions, however, and with it had purchased some outlying lands
+in Earsham and Hedenham, and the wood and manor of Tyndale Hall in
+Ditchingham and Broome.  These lands I made haste to say she might
+keep as a gift from me, since it seemed that I had greater riches
+than I could need without them, and this saying of mine pleased her
+husband Wilfred Bozard not a little, seeing that it is hard for a
+man to give up what he has held for many years.
+
+Then I heard the rest of the story; of my father's sudden death, of
+how the coming of the gold had saved Lily from being forced into
+marriage with my brother Geoffrey, who afterwards had taken to evil
+courses which ended in his decease at the age of thirty-one; of the
+end of Squire Bozard, Lily's father and my old enemy, from an
+apoplexy which took him in a sudden fit of anger.  After this it
+seemed, her brother being married to my sister Mary, Lily had moved
+down to the Lodge, having paid off the charges that my brother
+Geoffrey had heaped upon his heritage, and bought out my sister's
+rights to it.  And here at the Lodge she had lived ever since, a
+sad and lonely woman, and yet not altogether an unhappy one, for
+she gave much of her time to good works.  Indeed she told me that
+had it not been for the wide lands and moneys which she must manage
+as my heiress, she would have betaken herself to a sisterhood,
+there to wear her life away in peace, since I being lost to her,
+and indeed dead, as she was assured,--for the news of the wreck of
+the carak found its way to Ditchingham,--she no longer thought of
+marriage, though more than one gentleman of condition had sought
+her hand.  This, with some minor matters, such as the birth and
+death of children, and the story of the great storm and flood that
+smote Bungay, and indeed the length of the vale of Waveney in those
+days, was all the tale that they had to tell who had grown from
+youth to middle age in quiet.  For of the crowning and end of kings
+and of matters politic, such as the downfall of the power of the
+Pope of Rome and the sacking of the religious houses which was
+still in progress, I make no mention here.
+
+But now they called for mine, and I began it at the beginning, and
+it was strange to see their faces as they listened.  All night
+long, till the thrushes sang down the nightingales, and the dawn
+shone in the east, I sat at Lily's side telling them my story, and
+then it was not finished.  So we slept in the chambers that had
+been made ready for us, and on the morrow I took it up again,
+showing them the sword that had belonged to Bernal Diaz, the great
+necklace of emeralds which Guatemoc had given to me, and certain
+scars and wounds in witness of its truth.  Never did I see folk so
+much amazed, and when I came to speak of the last sacrifice of the
+women of the Otomie, and of the horrid end of de Garcia who died
+fighting with his own shadow, or rather with the shadows of his own
+wickedness, they cried aloud with fear, as they wept when I told of
+the deaths of Isabella de Siguenza and of Guatemoc, and of the loss
+of my sons.
+
+But I did not tell all the story to this company, for some of it
+was for Lily's ear alone, and to her I spoke of my dealings with
+Otomie as a man might speak with a man, for I felt that if I kept
+anything back now there would never be complete faith between us.
+Therefore I set out all my doubts and troublings, nor did I hide
+that I had learned to love Otomie, and that her beauty and
+sweetness had drawn me from the first moment when I saw her in the
+court of Montezuma, or that which had passed between us on the
+stone of sacrifice.
+
+When I had done Lily thanked me for my honesty and said it seemed
+that in such matters men differed from women, seeing that SHE had
+never felt the need to be delivered from the temptation of strange
+loves.  Still we were as God and Nature had made us, and therefore
+had little right to reproach each other, or even to set that down
+as virtue which was but lack of leaning.  Moreover, this Otomie,
+her sin of heathenism notwithstanding, had been a great-hearted
+woman and one who might well dazzle the wandering eyes of man,
+daring more for her love's sake than ever she, Lily, could have
+dared; and to end with, it was clear that at last I must choose
+between wedding her and a speedy death, and having sworn so great
+an oath to her I should have been perjured indeed if I had left her
+when my dangers were gone by.  Therefore she, Lily, was minded to
+let all this matter rest, nor should she be jealous if I still
+thought of this dead wife of mine with tenderness.
+
+Thus she spoke most sweetly, looking at me the while with her clear
+and earnest eyes, that I ever fancied must be such as adorn the
+shining faces of angels.  Ay, and those same eyes of hers were
+filled with tears when I told her my bitter grief over the death of
+my firstborn and of my other bereavements.  For it was not till
+some years afterwards, when she had abandoned further hope of
+children, that Lily grew jealous of those dead sons of mine and of
+my ever present love for them.
+
+
+Now the tidings of my return and of my strange adventures among the
+nations of the Indies were noised abroad far and wide, and people
+came from miles round, ay, even from Norwich and Yarmouth, to see
+me and I was pressed to tell my tale till I grew weary of it.  Also
+a service of thanksgiving for my safe deliverance from many dangers
+by land and sea was held in the church of St. Mary's here in
+Ditchingham, which service was no longer celebrated after the rites
+of the Romish faith, for while I had sojourned afar, the saints
+were fallen like the Aztec gods; the yoke of Rome had been broken
+from off the neck of England, and though all do not think with me,
+I for one rejoiced at it heartily who had seen enough of
+priestcraft and its cruelties.
+
+When that ceremony was over and all people had gone to their homes,
+I came back again to the empty church from the Hall, where I abode
+a while as the guest of my sister and her husband, till Lily and I
+were wed.
+
+And there in the quiet light of the June evening I knelt in the
+chancel upon the rushes that strewed the grave of my father and my
+mother, and sent my spirit up towards them in the place of their
+eternal rest, and to the God who guards them.  A great calm came
+upon me as I knelt thus, and I felt how mad had been that oath of
+mine that as a lad I had sworn to be avenged upon de Garcia, and I
+saw how as a tree from a seed, all my sorrows had grown from it.
+But even then I could not do other than hate de Garcia, no, nor can
+I to this hour, and after all it was natural that I should desire
+vengeance on the murderer of my mother though the wreaking of it
+had best been left in another Hand.
+
+Without the little chancel door I met Lily, who was lingering there
+knowing me to be within, and we spoke together.
+
+'Lily,' I said, 'I would ask you something.  After all that has
+been, will you still take me for your husband, unworthy as I am?'
+
+'I promised so to do many a year ago, Thomas,' she answered,
+speaking very low, and blushing like the wild rose that bloomed
+upon a grave beside her, 'and I have never changed my mind.  Indeed
+for many years I have looked upon you as my husband, though I
+thought you dead.'
+
+'Perhaps it is more than I deserve,' I said.  'But if it is to be,
+say when it shall be, for youth has left us and we have little time
+to lose.'
+
+'When you will, Thomas,' she answered, placing her hand in mine.
+
+Within a week from that evening we were wed.
+
+
+And now my tale is done.  God who gave me so sad and troublous a
+youth and early manhood, has blessed me beyond measure in my middle
+age and eld.  All these events of which I have written at such
+length were done with many a day ago: the hornbeam sapling that I
+set beneath these windows in the year when we were married is now a
+goodly tree of shade and still I live to look on it.  Here in the
+happy valley of the Waveney, save for my bitter memories and that
+longing for the dead which no time can so much as dull, year after
+year has rolled over my silvering hairs in perfect health and peace
+and rest, and year by year have I rejoiced more deeply in the true
+love of a wife such as few have known.  For it would seem as though
+the heart-ache and despair of youth had but sweetened that most
+noble nature till it grew well nigh divine.  But one sorrow came to
+us, the death of our infant child--for it was fated that I should
+die childless--and in that sorrow, as I have told, Lily shewed that
+she was still a woman.  For the rest no shadow lay between us.
+Hand in hand we passed down the hill of life, till at length in the
+fulness of her days my wife was taken from me.  One Christmas night
+she lay down to sleep at my side, in the morning she was dead.  I
+grieved indeed and bitterly, but the sorrow was not as the sorrows
+of my youth had been, since age and use dull the edge of mortal
+griefs and I knew and know that we are no long space apart.  Very
+soon I shall join Lily where she is, and I do not fear that
+journey.  For the dread of death has left me at length, as it
+departs from all who live long enough and strive to repent them of
+their sins, and I am well content to leave my safety at the Gates
+and my heavenly comfort in the Almighty Hand that saved me from the
+stone of sacrifice and has guided me through so many perils upon
+this troubled earth.
+
+And now to God my Father, Who holds me, Thomas Wingfield, and all I
+have loved and love in His holy keeping, be thanks and glory and
+praise!  Amen.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg Etext Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard
+