power to plan?  Not so.  Now and henceforth I vow myself to the service of my country and to war against the Teules.  I will make no peace with them, I will take no rest till they are driven back whence they came, or till I am dead beneath their swords.  None can say what the gods have in store for us, it may be victory or it may be destruction, but be it triumph or death, let us swear a great oath together, my people and my brethren.  Let us swear to fight the Teules and the traitors who abet them, for our cities, our hearths and our altars; till the cities are a smoking ruin, till the hearths are cumbered with their dead, and the altars run red with the blood of their worshippers.  So, if we are destined to conquer, our triumph shall be made sure, and if we are doomed to fail, at least there will be a story to be told of us.  Do you swear, my people and my brethren?’

‘We swear,’ they answered with a shout.

‘It is well,’ said Guatemoc.  ’And now may everlasting shame overtake him who breaks this oath.’

Thus then was Guatemoc, the last and greatest of the Aztec emperors, elected to the throne of his forefathers.  It was happy for him that he could not foresee that dreadful day when he, the noblest of men, must meet a felon’s doom at the hand of these very Teules.  Yet so it came about, for the destiny that lay upon the land smote all alike, indeed the greater the man the more certain was his fate.

When all was done I hurried to the palace to tell Otomie what had come to pass, and found her in our sleeping chamber lying on her bed.

‘What ails you, Otomie?’ I asked.

‘Alas! my husband,’ she answered, ’the pestilence has stricken me.  Come not near, I pray you, come not near.  Let me be nursed by the women.  You shall not risk your life for me, beloved.’

‘Peace,’ I said and came to her.  It was too true, I who am a physician knew the symptoms well.  Indeed had it not been for my skill, Otomie would have died.  For three long weeks I fought with death at her bedside, and in the end I conquered.  The fever left her, and thanks to my treatment, there was no single scar upon her lovely face.  During eight days her mind wandered without ceasing, and it was then I learned how deep and perfect was her love for me.  For all this while she did nothing but rave of me, and the secret terror of her heart was disclosed—­that I should cease to care for her, that her beauty and love might pall upon me so that I should leave her, that ‘the flower maid,’ for so she named Lily, who dwelt across the sea should draw me back to her by magic; this was the burden of her madness.  At length her senses returned and she spoke, saying: 

‘How long have I lain ill, husband?’

I told her and she said, ’And have you nursed me all this while, and through so foul a sickness?’

‘Yes, Otomie, I have tended you.’

‘What have I done that you should be so good to me?’ she murmured.  Then some dreadful thought seemed to strike her, for she moaned as though in pain, and said, ‘A mirror!  Swift, bring me a mirror!’