For a mile or more
he walked on without speaking, now beneath the shadow of the trees, and
now through open spaces of garden planted with lovely flowers, till at
last we came to the gates of the place where the royal dead are laid to
rest. Now in front of these gates was an open space of turf on which the
moonlight shone brightly, and in the centre of this space lay something
white, shaped like a woman. Here Montezuma halted and looked at the
gates, then said:
'These gates opened four days since for Papantzin, my sister; how long,
I wonder, will pass before they open for me?'
As he spoke, the white shape upon the grass which I had seen and he had
not seen, stirred like an awakening sleeper. As the snow shape upon the
mountain had stirred, so this shape stirred; as it had arisen, so this
one arose; as it threw its arms upwards, so this one threw up her arms.
Now Montezuma saw and stood still trembling, and I trembled also.
Then the woman--for it was a woman--advanced slowly towards us, and
as she came we saw that she was draped in graveclothes. Presently she
lifted her head and the moonlight fell full upon her face. Now Montezuma
groaned aloud and I groaned, for we saw that the face was the thin pale
face of the princess Papantzin--Papantzin who had lain four days in the
grave. On she came toward us, gliding like one who walks in her sleep,
till she stopped before the bush in the shadow of which we stood.
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