se who are not, or who, if they live,
are deaf to our cries and blind to our misery, and befriend ourselves.
Yonder lies rope, that window has bars, very soon we can be beyond the
sun and the cruelty of Teules, or sound asleep. But there is time yet;
let us talk a while, they will scarcely begin their torments before the
dawn, and ere dawn we shall be far.'

So we talked as well as my sufferings would allow. We talked of how we
first had met, of how Otomie had been vowed to me as the wife of Tezcat,
Soul of the World, of that day when we had lain side by side upon the
stone of sacrifice, of our true marriage thereafter, of the siege
of Tenoctitlan and the death of our first-born. Thus we talked till
midnight was two hours gone. Then there came a silence.

'Husband,' said Otomie at last in a hushed and solemn voice, 'you are
worn with suffering, and I am weary. It is time to do that which must
be done. Sad is our fate, but at least rest is before us. I thank you,
husband, for your gentleness, I thank you more for your faithfulness to
my house and people. Shall I make ready for our last journey?'

'Make ready!' I answered.

Then she rose and soon was busy with the ropes. At length all was
prepared and the moment of death was at hand.

'You must aid me, Otomie,' I said; 'I cannot walk by myself.'

She came and lifted me with her strong and tender arms, till I stood
upon a stool beneath the window bars. There she placed the rope about my
throat, then taking her stand by me she fitted the second rope upon her
own. Now we kissed in solemn silence, for there was nothing more to say.
Yet Otomie said something, asking:

'Of whom do you think in this moment, husband? Of me and of my dead
child, or of that lady who lives far across the sea? Nay, I will not
ask. I have been happy in my love, it is enough. Now love and life must
end together, and it is well for me, but for you I grieve. Say, shall I
thrust away the stool?'

'Yes, Otomie, since there is no hope but death. I cannot break my faith
with Guatemoc, nor can I live to see you shamed and tortured.'

'Then kiss me first and for the last time.'

We kissed again and then, as she was in the very act of pushing the
stool from beneath us, the door opened and shut, and a veiled woman
stood before us, bearing a torch in one hand and a bundle in the other.
She looked, and seeing us and our dreadful purpose, ran to us.

'What do you?' she cried, and I knew the voice for th