She sat in it alone, cold and beautiful as though she had been fashioned
in marble.
'I have buried him with the bones of his brethren and his forefathers,'
she said, answering the question that my eyes asked. 'It seemed best
that you should see him no more, lest your heart should break.'
'It is well,' I answered; 'but my heart is broken already.'
'Is the murderer dead?' she said presently in the very words of Diaz.
'He is dead.'
'How?'
I told her in few words.
'You should have slain him yourself; our son's blood is not avenged.'
'I should have slain him, but in that hour I did not seek vengeance, I
watched it fall from heaven, and was content. Perchance it is best so.
The seeking of vengeance has brought all my sorrows upon me; vengeance
belongs to God and not to man, as I have learned too late.'
'I do not think so,' said Otomie, and the look upon her face was that
look which I had seen when she smote the Tlascalan, when she taunted
Marina, and when she danced upon the pyramid, the leader of the
sacrifice. 'Had I been in your place, I would have killed him by inches.
When I had done with him, then the devils might begin, not before. But
it is of no account; everything is done with, all are dead, and my heart
with them. Now eat, for you are weary.'
So I ate, and afterwards I cast myself upon the bed and slept.
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