of the Spaniards on whom he would have
made war. To them also he gave up all the hoarded gold and treasure of
the empire, to the value of hundreds of thousands of English pounds. All
this the nation bore, for it was stupefied and still obeyed the commands
of its captive king. But when he suffered the Spaniards to worship the
true God in one of the sanctuaries of the great temple, a murmur of
discontent and sullen fury rose among the thousands of the Aztecs. It
filled the air, it could be heard wherever men were gathered, and its
sound was like that of a distant angry sea. The hour of the breaking of
the tempest was at hand.

Now all this while my life went on as before, save that I was not
allowed to go outside the walls of the palace, for it was feared lest
I should find some means of intercourse with the Spaniards, who did
not know that a man of white blood was confined there and doomed to
sacrifice. Also in these days I saw little of the princess Otomie,
the chief of my destined brides, who since our strange love scene had
avoided me, and when we met at feasts or in the gardens spoke to me only
on indifferent matters, or of the affairs of state. At length came the
day of my marriage. It was, I remember, the night before the massacre of
the six hundred Aztec nobles on the occasion of the festival of Huitzel.

On this my wedding day I was treated with great circumstance and
worshipped like a god by the highest in the city, who came in to do me
reverence and burned incense before me, till I was weary of the smell of
it, for though such sorrow was on the land, the priests would abate no
jot of their ceremonies or cruelties, and great hopes were held that I
being of the race of Teules, my sacrifice would avert the anger of the
gods. At sunset I was entertained with a splendid feast that lasted two
hours or more, and at its end all the company rose and shouted as with
one voice:

'Glory to thee, O Tezcat! Happy art thou here on earth, happy mayst thou
be in the Houses of the Sun. When thou comest thither, remember that we
dealt well by thee, giving thee of our best, and intercede for us that
our sins may be forgiven. Glory to thee, O Tezcat!'

Then two of the chief nobles came forward, and taking torches led me to
a magnificent chamber that I had never seen before. Here they changed my
apparel, investing me in robes which were still more splendid than any
that I had worn hitherto, being made of the finest embroidered c