What have I to do with them who go down into darkness?'
'In truth I cannot tell, Teule, still I have heard wise men say that if
love is to be found anywhere, it is in this same darkness of death, that
is light indeed. Grieve not, for if there is truth in the faith of which
you have told me or in our own, either on this earth or beyond it, with
the eyes of the spirit you will see your dear before another sun is set,
and I pray that you may find her faithful to you. Tell me now, how
much does she love you? Would SHE have lain by your side on the bed of
sacrifice as, had things gone otherwise between us, Teule, it was my
hope to do?'
'No,' I answered, 'it is not the custom of our women to kill themselves
because their husbands chance to die.'
'Perhaps they think it better to live and wed again,' answered Otomie
very quietly, but I saw her eyes flash and her breast heave in the
moonlight as she spoke.
'Enough of this foolish talk,' I said. 'Listen, Otomie; if you had cared
for me truly, surely you would have saved me from this dreadful doom,
or prevailed on Guatemoc to save me. You are Montezuma's daughter, could
you not have brought it about during all these months that he issued his
royal mandate, commanding that I should be spared?'
'Do you, then, take me for so poor a friend, Teule?' she answered hotly.
'Know that for all these months, by day and by night, I have worked and
striven to find a means to rescue you.
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