hed it fall from heaven, and was content. Perchance it is best so.
The seeking of vengeance has brought all my sorrows upon me; vengeance
belongs to God and not to man, as I have learned too late.'

'I do not think so,' said Otomie, and the look upon her face was that
look which I had seen when she smote the Tlascalan, when she taunted
Marina, and when she danced upon the pyramid, the leader of the
sacrifice. 'Had I been in your place, I would have killed him by inches.
When I had done with him, then the devils might begin, not before. But
it is of no account; everything is done with, all are dead, and my heart
with them. Now eat, for you are weary.'

So I ate, and afterwards I cast myself upon the bed and slept.

In the darkness I heard the voice of Otomie that said, 'Awake, I would
speak with you,' and there was that about her voice which stirred me
from my heavy sleep.

'Speak on,' I said. 'Where are you, Otomie?'

'Seated at your side. I cannot rest, so I am seated here. Listen. Many,
many years ago we met, when you were brought by Guatemoc from Tobasco.
Ah! well do I remember my first sight of you, the Teule, in the court
of my father Montezuma, at Chapoltepec. I loved you then as I have loved
you ever since. At least I have never gone astray after strange gods,'
and she laughed bitterly.

'Why do you talk of these things, Otomie?' I asked.

'Because it is my fancy to do so. Cannot you spare me one hour from your
sleep, who have spared you so many? You remember how you scorned me--oh!
I thought I should have died of shame when, after I had caused myself
to be given to you as wife, the wife of Tezcat, you told me of the
maid across the seas, that Lily maid whose token is still set upon
your finger. But I lived through it and I loved you the better for your
honesty, and then you know the rest. I won you because I was brave and
lay at your side upon the stone of sacrifice, where you kissed me and
told me that you loved me. But you never loved me, not truly, all the
while you were thinking of the Lily maid. I knew it then, as I know it
now, though I tried to deceive myself. I was beautiful in those days and
this is something with a man. I was faithful and that is more, and once
or twice you thought that you loved me. Now I wish that those Teules had
come an hour later, and we had died together there upon the stone, that
is I wish it for my own sake, not for yours. Then we escaped and the
great struggle came. I