e.

"What do you mean to do, Roger?" she asked him one day, when she
found him alone.

"I mean to marry Amenche, at once," he said; "and to go back to
Europe, if possible, without delay."

"I have managed that for you," Malinche said. "I spoke to Cortez
yesterday. The city cannot resist many days longer, and after that
we hope that there will be no more fighting. At any rate, I told
him that you were so shaken from what you had gone through, it
would be a long time before you would be fit to carry arms again;
and that you desired greatly to go to Europe, for a time; and he
has consented that you shall go down to the coast with the first
convoy of wounded, as soon as the city falls. Of course, he has
given consent for your marriage with Amenche; and said, when I
asked him, that she had fairly won you. He says that, if you return
hither, he will give to Amenche a wide portion of her brother's
dominions. I did not tell him that it was little likely he would
ever see you out here, again."

During the next fortnight, Roger instructed Amenche in the outlines
of the Christian faith and, the day before the convoy was to start,
three weeks after the fall of Mexico, Father Olmedo received her
into the Church, and the marriage ceremony took place. It was
attended by Cortez and most of his leaders, and by many of the
native nobles.

Among them, Roger was glad to meet Cuitcatl. He was one of the
party who had been captured with the emperor; and had been at once
released, by Cortez, when the latter was informed by Malinche that
he had befriended and released Roger. That evening, the two friends
had a long talk together.

"You will be happy," Cuitcatl said, "and will come, in time, in
your home in your own country, to look back at this terrible time
as a troubled dream. I do not mourn for Cacama or Maclutha. They
are fortunate in escaping the troubles that yet remain, for my
unhappy country; for I well foresee that the Spaniards will
gradually subdue those who have served them so well in their
campaign against us. Their allies will in time become their
subjects, until the whole empire of the Aztecs will lie prostrate
at their feet.

"But whatever happens, I shall take no further part in it. I have
fought by the side of the Aztecs against my own countrymen. I have
done my best to save our nation from falling under the dominion of
the Spaniards. I shall retire now to my estates, and devote myself
to them. Cortez has given me