I use your
own words, Teule!'
Then rising, Otomie cast her veil about her face and passed slowly
from the chamber, leaving me much disturbed. It was a bold deed to have
rejected the proffered love of this queen among women, and now that
I had done so I was not altogether glad. Would Lily, I wondered, have
offered to descend from such state, to cast off the purple of her
royal rank that she might lie at my side on the red stone of sacrifice?
Perhaps not, for this fierce fidelity is only to be found in women of
another breed. These daughters of the Sun love wholly when they love at
all, and as they love they hate. They ask no priest to consecrate their
vows, nor if these become hateful, will they be bound by them for duty's
sake. Their own desire is their law, but while it rules them they follow
it unflinchingly, and if need be, they seek its consummation in the
gates of death, or failing that, forgetfulness.
CHAPTER XIX
THE FOUR GODDESSES
Some weary time went by, and at last came the day of the entry into
Mexico of Cortes and his conquerors. Now of all the doings of the
Spaniards after they occupied the city, I do not propose to speak at
length, for these are matters of history, and I have my own story to
tell. So I shall only write of those of them with which I was concerned
myself. I did not see the meeting between Montezuma and Cortes, though
I saw the emperor set out to it clad like Solomon in his glory and
surrounded by his nobles.
Pages:
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262