The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-10-05

WHICH was SO clVlllZcu ana yeU SO DarDa
rous.
Then my thoughts flew to the vision OF
that most lovely maid, the Princess Otto
mic, who, as l believed, had looked on mt
SO kindly and found that vision sweet
for was young, and the English Lily, my
own love, was far away and lost to me for.
ever. Was 1t then wonderful that should
find this Indian poppy fair? Indeed where
is the man who would not have been over
come by her sweetness, her beauty and
that stamp of royal grace which comes
with kingly blood and the daily exercise
of powerS Like the rich wonders of the
robe she wore, her very barbarism, of
which now saw but the better side, drew
and dazzled my minds eye, giving her
woman's tenderness some new quality,
somber and strange, an eastern richness
which is lacking in our well schooled Eng
fish women, that at one and the same
stroke touched both the Imagination and
the senses and through them enthralled
the heart.
For Otomie seemed such woman as
men dream Of but very rarely win, seeing
that the world has few such natures and
fewer nurseries where they can be reared.
At once pure and passionate, of royal
blood and heart, rich natured and most
womanly, yet brave as man and beauti-
full as the night, with q mind athirst for
knowledge and q spirit that no sorrows
could avail to quell, ever changing in her
outer moods, and yet most faithful and
with the honor of a man, such was Oto-
mic, Montezuma's daughter, princess of
the Otomie. Was it wonderful then that
found her fair, or, when fate gave me her
love, that at last loved her in turn? And
yet there was that in her nature which
should have held me back had but known
of it, for, with all her charm, her beauty
and her virtues, at heart she was still
savage, and, strive as she would to hide it,
at times her blood would master her.
But as lay in the chamber of the pal
ace of Chapoltcpec the tramp Of the guards
without my door reminded me that had
little now to do with love and other de-
lights, whose life hung from day to day
upon hair. Tomorrow the priests would
decide my fate, and when the priests were
judges the prisoner might know the SEN
tence before it was spoken. 1 was stran-
ger and white man, surely such one
would prove an offering more acceptable
to the gods than that furnished by thou
sand Indian hearts. had been snatched
from the affairs of Tabasco that 1 might |
grace the higher affairs of Tenoctitlan, and |
that was all. My fate would be to perish
miserably far from my home, and in this
world never to be heard of more.
Musing thus sadly, at last slept. When
I woke the sun was up. Rising from my
mat, went to the wood barred window
place and looked through. The palace
whence gazed was placed on the crest Of
n rocky hill. On one side this hill was
bathed by the blue waters Of Tezcuco; on
the other, mile or more away, rose the
temple towers of Mexico. Along the slopes
If the hill and in some directions for
mile from its base grew huge cedar trees,
rom the boughs of which hung gray and
yhostly looking moss These trees are so
arge that the smallest of them is bigger
b,an the best oak in this parish of Ditch
ngham, while the greatest measures 90
aces round the base. Beyond and between
hese marvellous and ancient trees were
he gardens of Montezuma, that with their
TRANCE and gorgeous flowers, their marble
'aths, their aviaries and wild beast dens
we're, as believe, the most wonderful In
he whole world The gardens of Monte I
una have been long destroyed, but some
# the cedars still flourish at Chapoltepec,
hough the Spaniards cut down many.
)ne Of them, which tradition says was
avorite tree of the great emperors, meas [
to a rough calculation the
Iuthor of this book made upon the spot
bout go feet round the bole. 1t is strange
o think that few ancient conifers should {
lone survive of all the glories of Monte
uma's wealth and state t
''At the least" thought 1 to myself |
even if 1 must die, it is something to have
cen this country OF Anahuac. its king, it's 6
ustoms and its people.