And yet for my part death had been almost as welcome, for now Otomie
had built a wall between us that I could never climb, and I was bound
to her, to a woman who, willingly or no, had stained her hands with
sacrifice. Well, my son was left to me and with him I must be satisfied;
at the least he knew nothing of his mother's shame. Oh! I thought to
myself as I climbed the teocalli, oh! that I could but escape far from
this accursed land and bear him with me to the English shores, ay, and
Otomie also, for there she might forget that once she had been a savage.
Alas! it could scarcely be!
Coming to the temple, I and those with me told the good tidings to our
companions, who received it silently. Men of a white race would have
rejoiced thus to escape, for when death is near all other loss seems as
nothing. But with these Indian people it is not so, since when fortune
frowns upon them they do not cling to life. These men of the Otomie had
lost their country, their wives, their wealth, their brethren, and their
homes; therefore life, with freedom to wander whither they would, seemed
no great thing to them. So they met the boon that I had won from the
mercy of our foes, as had matters gone otherwise they would have met the
bane, in sullen silence.
I came to Otomie, and to her also I told the news.
'I had hoped to die here where I am,' she answered.
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