usand
more like them--chiefs who never feared danger, and never knew
defeat--why should we despair, or even doubt?"

"But how know you, Guatimozin, that these Castilian strangers regard
their own safety as any way involved in that of Montezuma?"

"I gathered it from the oracle, my love, and from omens which never
deceive."

"What oracle? What omens? I pray you explain?"

"The omens were their own troubled looks and clouded brows, while this
strange negotiation was pending, and the guarded watchfulness, with
which they now protect their guest, and prevent the intrusion upon his
privacy of any considerable number of his friends, at the same time."

"Prince Guatimozin, do I understand the import of those terrible words?
Is my father already a prisoner in his own palace?"

"What else, my sweet cousin, seeing he cannot come forth, if he would,
and we can only approach him by permission?"

"O ye gods! has it come to this? Fly, Guatimozin. Fly to Iztapalapan. I
release you from your pledge. Sound the alarm throughout the realm. And,
if need be, _I_ will arm, and with you to the rescue."

"Not so fast, brave princess; it is just this rashness that may endanger
the precious head we would rescue. His life is safe at present; let us
not put it to hazard, by moving too soon, or striking a useless blow."

"But I see not yet, my dear cousin, how it is ascertained that my father
is secure from further outrage. May it not be their policy to take away
the head, hoping thus to dishearten and distract our people, and make
them an easy prey to their victorious arms."

"If so, they know not the spirit of the Aztec. To a man, throughout
these broad realms, they would shed their last drop, to avenge the foul
sacrilege, nor rest in their work of vengeance, till every altar in the
land was drenched in the blood of the captive foe. But you forget that I
have oracle as well as omen to sustain my faith."

"What oracle has condescended, at last, to give us light? I thought
they had all been silent, not deigning, since the advent of these
mysterious strangers, any response to our prayers."

"Karee is never deaf, or silent, where the welfare of Tecuichpo is
concerned."

"Karee?"

"Yes, love, Karee! I want no better or more trusty oracle. She has, you
know, a sort of ubiquity. Nothing escapes her keen observation. Few
mysteries are too deep for her sagacity to unravel. In her brief
occasional encounters with the strangers, she has gat