k you of all these things, my fairy queen," asked
Guatimozin, playfully.

"Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial house of Tenochtitlan!" energetically
replied Karee,--"its glory is departed for ever,--its crown has fallen
from the head of the great Montezuma, and there is none able to wear it,
or to redeem it from the hand of the spoiler. Thou, most noble Prince,
wilt do all that mortal courage and prowess can do, to rescue it from
desecration, and to protect the house of Montezuma from the cruel fate
to which he has delivered it up; but it will be all in vain. _He_ must
perish by an ignominious death. _They_ must pass under the yoke of the
strangers, and thou, too, after all thy noble struggles and sacrifices,
must perish miserably under their cruel and implacable rapacity."

This was too much for Tecuichpo. She looked upon Karee as an inspired
prophetess, and had always found it exceedingly difficult to sustain the
filial confidence which sanctified every act and every purpose of her
royal father, when the powerful incantations of Karee were directed
against them. It was a continual struggle between an affectionate
superstition, and filial love. But that first, and holiest, and
strongest instinct of her heart prevailed, and she clung the more warmly
to her father, when she found that every thing else was against him. But
now the shaft had pierced her at another and an unguarded point. Her
spirit fainted within her. She swooned in the arms of Guatimozin, and
was borne to her apartment in a state of insensibility, where, under the
kind and skilful nursing of Karee, and the affectionate assurances of
Guatimozin, she was soon restored to health, and her accustomed
cheerfulness. But these ceaseless agitations, these painful alternations
of hope and fear, were slowly wearing upon her gentle spirit, and
undermining a frame so delicately sensitive, that, like the aspen,

------It trembled when the sleeping breeze
But dreamed of waking.

CHAPTER VI.

MUNIFICENCE OF MONTEZUMA--THE ROYAL BANQUET--THE
REQUITAL--THE EMPEROR A PRISONER IN HIS OWN PALACE.

~"Was that thunder?"~

* * * * *

~Those splendid halls resound with revelry,
And song, and dance lead on the tardy dawn.~

* * * * *

~From the hall of his fathers in anguish he fled,
Nor again will its marble re-echo his tread.~

Montezuma was always and every where m