"Yes, your Majesty; we always take as prisoners those who ask for
mercy."

"And what do you do with them?"

"We treat them honorably and well, as is befitting men who have
fought bravely. We exchange them for men of our own side who have
been taken prisoners by the enemy, or if they are knights or nobles
they pay a ransom according to their rank to their captor, and so
return home."

"That is good," the young king said, with animation; "though it
differs altogether from our usages; but then, how are their altars
of the gods to be served?"

"I believe," Roger said, "that your Majesty's grandfather erected a
temple here to the Unknown God. It is the Unknown God--unknown to
you, but known to us--that the white peoples across the sea
worship. He is a good and gentle and loving God, and would abhor
sacrifices of blood."

The king did not reply for a minute. The introduction of human
sacrifices was a comparatively recent innovation in Tezcuco, and
although the Aztecs had, lately, almost forced their own hideous
rites upon their neighbors, there were many who were still, at
heart, opposed to them. He turned the subject by saying:

"There will be much for you to tell me, when we have leisure. At
present the banquet waits."

The eighteen months that had elapsed, since the wreck of the Swan,
had prepared Roger for taking part in such scenes as those in which
he was, at present, placed. From living so long among natives, and
in native costume, he had acquired something of their manner;
which, unless under strong excitement, was quiet and dignified. He
had done this the more because, whenever he went out, all eyes had
been upon him, and he had felt that it was necessary, so far as he
could, to support the mysterious reputation he possessed. He had
lost, alike, the sailor walk and carriage, the careless gaiety of a
boy, and the roughness of one brought up to life at sea. He himself
was only half conscious of this transformation, but to one who had
seen him last when he sailed from Plymouth, it would have appeared
absolutely marvelous. Undoubtedly it impressed both the king and
his nobles most favorably; and as the party followed the king and
Roger to the banqueting hall, there was a chorus of approval of the
manners, bearing, and appearance of the white stranger.

The banquet was similar, but on a vastly greater scale, to that of
which Roger had partaken at Tepeaca. Mexico contained, within
comparatively narrow limits