to the vitals, so that within two days the most of them died.* It was pitiful to see them maddened with suffering, as they wandered to and fro about the streets, spreading the distemper far and wide.  They were dying in the houses, they lay dead by companies in the market places awaiting burial, for the sickness took its toll of every family, the very priests were smitten by it at the altar as they sacrificed children to appease the anger of the gods.  But the worst is still to tell; Cuitlahua, the emperor, was struck down by the illness, and when we reached the city he lay dying.  Still, he desired to see us, and sent commands that we should be brought to his bedside.  In vain did I pray Otomie not to obey; she, who was without fear, laughed at me, saying, ’What, my husband, shall I shrink from that which you must face?  Come, let us go and make report of our mission.  If the sickness takes me and I die, it will be because my hour has come.’

     * This treatment is followed among the Indians of Mexico to
     this day, but if the writer may believe what he heard in
     that country, the patient is frequently cured by it.

So we went and were ushered into a chamber where Cuitlahua lay covered by a sheet, as though he were already dead, and with incense burning round him in golden censers.  When we entered he was in a stupor, but presently he awoke, and it was announced to him that we waited.

‘Welcome, niece,’ he said, speaking through the sheet and in a thick voice; ’you find me in an evil case, for my days are numbered, the pestilence of the Teules slays those whom their swords spared.  Soon another monarch must take my throne, as I took your father’s, and I do not altogether grieve, for on him will rest the glory and the burden of the last fight of the Aztecs.  Your report, niece; let me hear it swiftly.  What say the clans of the Otomie, your vassals?’

‘My lord,’ Otomie answered, speaking humbly and with bowed head, ’may this distemper leave you, and may you live to reign over us for many years!  My lord, my husband Teule and I have won back the most part of the people of the Otomie to our cause and standard.  An army of twenty thousand mountain men waits upon your word, and when those are spent there are more to follow.’

‘Well done, daughter of Montezuma, and you, white man,’ gasped the dying king.  ’The gods were wise when they refused you both upon the stone of sacrifice, and I was foolish when I would have slain you, Teule.  To you and all I say be of a steadfast heart, and if you must die, then die with honour.  The fray draws on, but I shall not share it, and who knows its end?’

Now he lay silent for a while, then of a sudden, as though an inspiration had seized him, he cast the sheet from his face and sat upon his couch, no pleasant sight to see, for the pestilence had done its worst with him.