wrapped in grave clothes and
standing in the coffin-shaped niche, proud and defiant to the end, her
child clasped to her with one arm while the other was outstretched to
take the draught of death. Few have seen such a sight, for the Holy
Office and its helpers do not seek witnesses to their dark deeds, and
none would wish to see it twice. If I have described it ill, it is not
that I have forgotten, but because even now, after the lapse of some
seventy years, I can scarcely bear to write of it or to set out its
horrors fully. But of all that was wonderful about it perhaps the most
wonderful was that even to the last this unfortunate lady should still
have clung to her love for the villain who, having deceived her by a
false marriage, deserted her, leaving her to such a doom. To what end
can so holy a gift as this great love of hers have been bestowed on such
a man? None can say, but so it was. Yet now that I think of it, there is
one thing even stranger than her faithfulness.

It will be remembered that when the fanatic priest struck her she prayed
that he also might die at such hands and more terribly than she must do.
So it came about. In after years that very man, Father Pedro by name,
was sent to convert the heathen of Anahuac, among whom, because of his
cruelty, he was known as the 'Christian Devil.' But it chanced that
venturing too far among a clan of the Otomie before they were finally
subdued, he fell into the hands of some priests of the war god Huitzel,
and by them was sacrificed after their dreadful fashion. I saw him as he
went to his death, and without telling that I had been present when
it was uttered, I called to his mind the dying curse of Isabella de
Siguenza. Then for a moment his courage gave way, for seeing in me
nothing but an Indian chief, he believed that the devil had put the
words into my lips to torment him, causing me to speak of what I knew
nothing. But enough of this now; if it is necessary I will tell of it in
its proper place. At least, whether it was by chance, or because she had
a gift of vision in her last hours, or that Providence was avenged on
him after this fashion, so it came about, and I do not sorrow for it,
though the death of this priest brought much misfortune on me.

This then was the end of Isabella de Siguenza who was murdered by
priests because she had dared to break their rule.

So soon as I could clear my mind somewhat of all that I had seen and
heard in that dreadf