Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1894-11-14
CHAPTER XXXV.

LII WAS nGtlr SllliScU WILL l. SSlIIiS oiiiSAiSA'
for tho road was long, and l grew weak.
By the palace met the Captain Diaz ana
some of his company, and they lifted their
bonnets to me as went by, for they had
respect for my SORROWS. Only Diaz spoke,
saying:
SIS the murderer dcad?"
/ T nodded and went on. I went on to
our chamber for there thought that
should find Otomic.
She sat in it alone, cold and beautiful,
as though she had been fashioned in Dar-
BILE.
s'I have buried him with the bones OF
his brethren and his forefathers, She said,
answering the question that my eyes asked.
1T seemed best that you should sec him
no more, lest your heart should break. y
ssIt is we'll" answered, ''but my heart
is broken already
"Is the murderer dead?" she said pres
emily in the very words of Diaz.
HE is dead"
"How?"
I told her in few words.
"You should have slain him yourself.
Our sons blood is not avenged.
II should have slain him, but in that
hour did not seek vengeance. watched
it fall from heaven and was content. Per
chance it is best so. The seeking of venge-
ance has brought all my SORROWS upon me.
Vengeance belongs to God and not to man,
as have learned too late. ?"
II do not think so," said Otomie, and
the look upon her face was that look which
I had seen when she smote the I .ascalan,
when she taunted Marina and when she
danced upon the pyramid, the leader of the
sacrifice Had been in your place
would have killed him by inches. When
1 had done with him, then the devils might
begin, not before. But it is of no account.
Everything is done with, all arc dead, and
my heart with them. Now eat, for you
are weary"
So I ate, and afterward I cast myself
upon the bed and slept.
In the darkness heard the voice of Oto-
mic that said, Awake, l would speak
with you, and there was that about her
voice which stirred nc from my heavy
sleep.
.'Spcal on,'' said ''Whcrc arc you,
Otomie:''
Seated at your side. I cannot rest, so
1 am seated here Listen. Many, many
years ago we met, when you were brought
by Guatemoc from Tabasco. All, Well do
I remember my first sight of you, the
Teulc, in the court Of my father, Monte
yuma, at Chapoltepcc. I loved you then
as have Low you ever since At least
have never gone astray after strange gods,
and she laughed bitterly.
why do rou talk of these things, Oto-
mie?" asked.
Because it is my fancy to do So Can
not you spare me one hour from your sleep,
who have spared you so many? You re-
member how you scorned me-oh! L
= thought should have died of shame when
after had caused myself to be given to
you as wife, the wife of Tezcat, you told
me of the maid across the seas, that Lily
maid whose token is still set upon your fin
Ger. But lived through it and loved you
! the better for your honesty, and then you
know the rest. won you because was
brave and lay at your side upon the stone
Of sacrifice, where you kissed me and told
me that you loved me. But you never
loved 1ne-not truly. All the while you
were thinking Of the lily maid. knew
it then, as I know it now, though I tried
to deceive myself. I was beautiful in
those days, and this is something with
man. I was faithful, and that is more,
and once or twice you thought that you
loved me. Now wish that those Teulcs
had come an hour later and we had died
together there upon the stonc-that Is, l
wish it for my own sake, not for yours.
Then we escaped, and the great struggle
came. I told you then that l understood
it ALL You had kissed me on the stone Of
sacrifice, but in that moment you were rs
one dead When you came back to life,
it was otherwise But fortune took tho
game out of your hands, and you married
me and swore an oath to me, and this
oath you have kept faithfully. You mar
ried me- but you did not know whom you
married. You thought me beautiful and
sweet and true, and all these things was,
but you did not understand that was far
apart from you-that was still savage
as my forefathers had been. You thought
that had learned your ways; perchance
even you thought that reverenced your
God, as for your sake have striven to do,
but all the while have followed the ways
Of my own people, and could not quite
forget my own gods, or at least they would
not suffer me- their servant, to escape
them. For years and years I put them
from me, but at last they were avenged,
and my heart mastered me, or rather they
mastered me, for I knew nothing Of what
I did some few nights since, when I cele-
brated the sacrifice of Huitzel and you saw
me at the ancient rites.
''All these years you had been true to
me, and 1 had borne you children, whom
you loved, but you loved them for their
own sake, not for mine. Indeed at heart
you hated the Indian blood that was mix
ed in their veins with yours. Me also you
loved in q certain fashion, and this half
love of yours drove me we'll nigh mad.
Such as it was, it died when you saw me
distraught and celebrating the rites of my
forefathers on the teocalli yonder and you
knew me for what ana savage. And
now the children who linked us together
are dead. Ono by one they died in this
way and in that, for the curse which follows
my blood descended upon them, and your
love for me is dead with them. I alone
remain alive, q monument of past days,
and die also.
Nay be silent. Listen to me, for my
time is short. When you bade me call you
husband no longer, then I knew that it
was finished. I obey you. I put you from
me. You are no more my husband, and
soon I shall cease to be your wife. Still,
Teule, I pray you listen to me. Now, 1t
seems to you in your sorrow that your
days are done, and that there is no happi-
ness left for you. This is notso. You arc
still but man in the beginning Of middle
age and you are yet strong. You will cs-
cape from this ruined land, and when you
shake the dust of it off your feet its curse
shall fall from you. You will return to
your own place. and there you will find
one who has awaited your coming for
many years. There the savage woman
whom you mated with, the princess of a
fallen house, will become but fantastic
memory to you, and all these strange,
oyontful ycars will he as n midnight dream.