est, speaking in
the highest terms of you, and strengthening my recommendation by
some valuable presents, to which priests are not more than other
men inaccessible."

Roger saw, by the look of dismay upon the faces of the queen and
the princess, that they considered the news very grave.

"Must he go?" the queen asked, in a low voice.

"How can it be helped?" Cacama replied. "Montezuma is supreme; and
he and the priests, together, are all powerful. Roger is not like
other men. Were he so, I would tell him when night falls to fly,
and Cuitcatl would risk the consequences, I am sure, and act as his
guide; but being as he is, where could he go, or where could he
hide? Were it known in the morning that he was missing, a hundred
messengers from Mexico would carry the news to every town and
village in the country. Even if we colored his skin and his hair,
his height would attract attention; for he is taller by half a
head, and broader, by far, than any Mexican. But even did he, by
traveling by night and hiding by day, get at last beyond the
boundary of our kingdoms, what would then be his fate?--To die of
hunger or thirst, or to be slain by wild tribes.

"What say you, Roger Hawkshaw? Will you risk these unknown dangers,
or will you go to Montezuma tomorrow?"

"Were I sure that the priests would decide against me, and that I
should be sacrificed to their great idol, I would risk death in any
other form, rather than that," Roger replied. "But it may be that,
when they see I have no evil intentions, and neither thought nor
power of injuring Mexico, they may lay aside their animosity
against me."

"They do not believe that you will injure Mexico," Amenche said,
passionately. "They only want you for a sacrifice. They think that
a being so strange and rare as a white man would be, of all, the
most acceptable victim to their god.

"My brother, do not let him go," and the girl burst into tears.

"My little sister," Cacama said tenderly, "you know that I am
powerless in the matter. In my grandfather's time, he would have
answered a demand that a guest of his should be given up by a
message of defiance; but times have changed since then, and the
greater part of my kingdom no longer remains to me. My brother, who
disputed my right to the throne, reigns over a large portion of it.
Montezuma has seized fertile provinces. I am little more than the
lord of a city; and could offer no resistance, for a single day, to
the power of