whence his deliverance had come, he cried in a clear strong
voice, of which the solemn tones rang vibrant through that awful
silence: "The Christian God liveth and reigneth! Believe on Him whose
love and whose mercy are not less tender than is terrible His
transcendent power!"

There was no mistaking the thrill of movement that ran through the
multitude as these words were spoken. I drew a long breath of
thankfulness, for I felt that Fray Antonio was saved, and that in
another instant my ears would be nigh burst by the thunderous roar of
all those thousands--won to him by his own most moving eloquence, and by
sight of the miracle whereby his deliverance had been wrought--that he
should be set free.

And in this instant--in the very moment that this sigh escaped me, while
yet the pause lasted before that great shout came--the Priest Captain
sprang from, his seat above us into the balcony where we prisoners stood
guarded, on downward into the arena below, and thence upon the Stone of
Sacrifice--all with a demoniac agility most horrible to look upon in one
of his withered age--and there, with a fierce thrust of a spear that he
had caught from a soldier's hand in passing, he pierced Fray Antonio
between the shoulders straight through the heart; and the monk, still
grasping in his hands his crucifix, fell face downward upon the Stone of
Sacrifice, and lay there dead!

Then Itzacoatl, standing with one foot upon the monk's dead body, and
grasping still the spear that he had planted in that noble heart, cried
out, triumphantly, "Behold the victory and the vengeance of our Aztec
gods!"

And the multitude, swayed backward from the very threshold of the
Christian faith, shouted together in one mighty voice, "Victory and
vengeance for our gods!"

XXXV.

THE TREASURE-CHAMBER.

Close in the wake of that great thunder-crash there burst upon us so
mighty a flood of rain that it seemed as though the lightning had riven
solid walls asunder within the thick black mass of overhanging vapour,
and so had let loose upon us the waters of a lake. In a moment the whole
pit of the amphitheatre was awash, knee-deep, and before those who were
standing there could flounder to the steps leading upward they were
buried to their waists--and this although the water was pouring out
through the vent provided for it with such violence that we could hear
the rush and gurgle of it above the dashing and roaring of the falling
rain. And all