'Give me her name,' I cried. 'What other slut has been found to marry a
felon doomed to sacrifice?'
'One has been found, O Tezcat, who has borne other titles than this you
give her.'
Now I looked at her questioningly, and she spoke again in a low voice.
'I, Otomie, princess of the Otomie, Montezuma's daughter, am the fourth
and the first.'
'You!' I said, sinking back upon my cushions. 'YOU!'
'Yes, I. Listen: I was chosen by the priests as the most lovely in the
land, however unworthily. My father, the emperor, was angry and said
that whatever befell, I should never be the wife of a captive who must
die upon the altar of sacrifice. But the priests answered that this was
no time for him to claim exception for his blood, now when the gods were
wroth. Was the first lady in the land to be withheld from the god? they
asked. Then my father sighed and said that it should be as I willed. And
I said with the priests, that now in our sore distress the proud must
humble themselves to the dust, even to the marrying of a captive slave
who is named a god and doomed to sacrifice. So I, princess of the
Otomie, have consented to become your wife, O Tezcat, though perchance
had I known all that I read in your eyes this hour, I should not have
consented. It may happen that in this shame I hoped to find love if
only for one short hour, and that I purposed to vary the custom of our
people, and to complete my marriage by the side of the victim on the
altar, as, if I will, I have the right to do.
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