and
the very gods seem impotent, there are many who would seize the moment
and turn it to their profit. There are many men and tribes who remember
ancient wars and wrongs, and who cry, "Now is the hour of vengeance,
now we will think on the widows that the Aztec spears have made, on the
tribute which they have wrung from our poverty to swell their wealth,
and on the captives who have decked the altars of their sacrifice!"

'Is it not so? Ay, it is so, and I cannot wonder at it. Yet I ask you to
remember this, that the yoke you would help to set upon the neck of the
queen of cities will fit your neck also. O foolish men, do you think
that you shall be spared when by your aid Tenoctitlan is a ruin and the
Aztecs are no more a people? I say to you never. The sticks that the
Teules use to beat out the life of Tenoctitlan shall by them be broken
one by one and cast into the fire to burn. If the Aztecs fall, then
early or late every tribe within this wide land shall fall. They shall
be slain, their cities shall be stamped flat, their wealth shall be
wrung from them, and their children shall eat the bread of slavery and
drink the water of affliction. Choose, ye people of the Otomie. Will you
stand by the men of your own customs and country, though they have been
your foes at times, or will you throw in your lot with the stranger?
Choose, ye people of the Otomie, and know this, that on your choice and
that of the other men of Anahuac, depends the fate of Anahuac. I am your
princess, and you should obey me, but to-day I issue no command. I say
choose between the alliance of the Aztec and the yoke of the Teule, and
may the god above the gods, the almighty, the invisible god, direct your
choice.'

Otomie ceased and a murmur of applause went round the hall. Alas, I can
do no justice to the fire of her words, any more than I can describe the
dignity and loveliness of her person as it seemed in that hour. But they
went to the hearts of the rude chieftains who listened. Many of them
despised the Aztecs as a womanish people of the plains and the lakes,
a people of commerce. Many had blood feuds against them dating back for
generations. But still they knew that their princess spoke truth, and
that the triumph of the Teule in Tenoctitlan would mean his triumph over
every city throughout the land. So then and there they chose, though
in after days, in the stress of defeat and trouble, many went back upon
their choice as is the fashion o