It is
but a single grain of your harvest, outcast and traitress, the harvest
of misery and death that is stored yonder in the ruins of Tenoctitlan.
Had I my will, I tell you that I had sooner die a score of times than
take help from a hand so stained with the blood of my people and of
yours--I--'
'Oh! cease, lady, cease,' groaned Marina, covering her eyes with her
hand, as though the sight of Otomie were dreadful to her. 'What is done
is done; do not add to my remorse. What did you say, that you, the lady
Otomie, were brought here to be tortured?'
'Even so, and before my husband's eyes. Why should Montezuma's daughter
and the princess of the Otomie escape the fate of the emperor of the
Aztecs? If her womanhood does not protect her, has she anything to hope
of her lost rank?'
'Cortes knows nothing of this, I swear it,' said Marina. 'To the rest
he has been driven by the clamour of the soldiers, who taunt him with
stealing treasure that he has never found. But of this last wickedness
he is innocent.'
'Then let him ask his tool Sarceda of it.'
'As for Sarceda, I promise you, princess, that if I can I will avenge
this threat upon him. But time is short, I am come here with the
knowledge of Cortes, to see if I can win the secret of the treasure from
Teule, your husband, and for my friendship's sake I am about to betray
my trust and help him and you to fly.
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