It was near sunset when I came thither, for the road was long and I grew weak.  By the palace I met the Captain Diaz and some of his company, and they lifted their bonnets to me as I went by, for they had respect for my sorrows.  Only Diaz spoke, saying: 

‘Is the murderer dead?’

I nodded and went on.  I went on to our chamber, for there I thought that I should find Otomie.

She sat in it alone, cold and beautiful as though she had been fashioned in marble.

‘I have buried him with the bones of his brethren and his forefathers,’ she said, answering the question that my eyes asked.  ’It seemed best that you should see him no more, lest your heart should break.’

‘It is well,’ I answered; ‘but my heart is broken already.’

‘Is the murderer dead?’ she said presently in the very words of Diaz.

‘He is dead.’

‘How?’

I told her in few words.

‘You should have slain him yourself; our son’s blood is not avenged.’

’I should have slain him, but in that hour I did not seek vengeance, I watched 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