a message from you, when you know what
course has been decided on."

"And if you go, dear, I will go with you," Amenche said, rising and
putting her hand on Roger's shoulder. "Send for me, and Bathalda
will escort me to you. I will bring such gems and gold as we can
carry, so I shall not be a bride without a dower. You promise to
send for me, do you not, Roger?"

"Certainly I do," Roger said, pressing her to him; "if I quit this
land alive, you shall accompany me. I should be unworthy of your
love, indeed, Amenche, were I to prove faithless to you now. I
regard you as being as truly my wife, as if we were already
married."

A short time afterwards Bathalda entered, and said that a number of
soldiers were gathering in the courtyard, that some priests were
among them, and that they were talking loudly about carrying the
white man to Mexico, as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of the
gods.

"There is no time to be lost," Cuitcatl said. "You had best go,
Roger, before they surround the house and make escape impossible. I
will fetch you a dark-colored robe, so that you may escape, unseen,
by anyone who may be approaching the house on this side."

So saying, he left the room. Maclutha signed to Bathalda to follow
her, and they went out, leaving Roger alone with Amenche.

The girl's firmness deserted her now, and she threw herself,
weeping, into Roger's arms. He consoled her by his assurances that
their parting would not be for long; and that the next time they
met, whatever the circumstances, he would make her his own.

"If we retire, and you join me in Tlascala," he said, "we will be
married by Father Olmedo, in Christian fashion. If I return hither
to you, we will be married at once, in Mexican fashion, and go
through the ceremony again, when we join the Spaniards."

A few minutes later Cuitcatl returned, as did Maclutha and
Bathalda, the latter bearing a basket with some provisions. The
parting was brief, for the servants had brought news that the
soldiers were becoming more and more clamorous; and were
threatening to force an entrance, if the white man were not handed
over to them.

Bathalda and Roger left by a small door at the back of the house
and, passing through the garden, took their way across the country.
An hour's walking brought them to a wood, near the road by which
the Spaniards would travel in the morning, and there they sat down
and awaited daylight.

It was not until some hours after sunrise