The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1896-09-17

count ten the most of the population /
of the City of the Heart had perishedl
For little while some OF the more i
massive houses stood, only to vanish I
enc by one, in silence. as it seemed, for |
now the roar of the waters covered all |
other sounds. Before the sun was well |
up it was finished, and on the ancient |
and beautiful city, Heart of the World, |
there remained nothing to be seen ex-
cept the tops of the trees and the upper
parts of the pyramids of worship rising
above the level of the lake.
The Golden city was no more.
Presently Maya rose TO her knees and
looked out from beneath the hollow of
her hand, for the light was dazzling
there upon the white summit of the
pyramid Then she flung her arms
above her head and uttered great ana
bitter cry.
"Behold my handiworlt,n she said.
"and the harvest of my snl O, my
father, that dream which was sent to
haunt my sleep was dreadful, but It did
not touch the truth. o. my father. the
people whom you would have saved are
dead, and lost is the city that you loved,
and it is ! who have destroyed them.
o. my father, my father, your curse
has found me out, indeed, and am ac-
cursed"
Some such words as these she spoke,
then began to laugh, and turning TO
the senior, said:
"Where is the child, husband?"
lie could not answer her. but she
took no note of it. only she bent her
arms, rocking them and grooming as
though the infant lay upon her breast;
then came first to him and next to me,
saying:
Look, is he not a pretty boy? AMI
t.,1 1..a g a,
boy?"
WEAKNESS, sorrow and shock had
turned her brain. and she was mad.
We led her TO the watch house. where
there was shelter, and the priests, who
had returned, gave us food as soon as
we could make them understand that
we needed it, for they. too, were almost
mad. Here her last illness seized her.
1t began with a hardening of the breast
which changed presently TO fever.
Two days and nights with breaking
hearts we nursed her there upon the
| pyramid, striving not to listen to hes
mad rawlings and piteous talk about the
child, and at dawn upon the third day
she died. Before she died her senses
returned to her, and she spoke to her
husband beautiful and tender words
which seem too holy to set down.
She turned to the senior, and in
gasping and broken voice prayed of him
not to forget her or her child. l heard
him answer that this she need not fear.
as his happiness died with her, and
even If he should escape he thought
| that they would not be parted for very
long, nor could any other woman take
her place in his heart.
She blessed him and thanked him,
caressing his face with her dying hands,
and unable to bear more of such a sight
i left them together.
An hour later the senor came from
the watchhouse, and though he did not
speak one glance at his face was enough
to tell me that all was over.
Thus died Maya, Lady of the Heart,
the last of the ancient royal blood of
the Indian princes, myself alone ex-
cepted, a very sweet and beautiful
woman, though at times headstrong
and capricious.
Now while Maya laydying we learned
that some Indians still lived on the
mainland, men and women who had
been sent there to tend the crops, for
we saw a canoe lowering round what
once had been the Island of the Heart.
From the Indians we learned that
those ON shore We're so overwhelmed
with horror at the catastrophe which
had fallen upon their holy city that
they did notdare to approach the place
where it had stood. But when last
night they saw the great flame OF
Maya's funeral pyre they knew that
men still lived on the pyramid, who. as
they thought, were signaling to them
for help, .andventured out to save them.
They asked us how it came about that
the waters had overwhelmed the city
which had stood among them safely
from the beginning of time. We re.
I IL Il 4.
priests with us, now that they had es-
capped with their lives, seemed too pros
trated to tell our deliverers that we
had been imprisoned in the hollow OF
the pyramid, even if they knew that
this was so.
On reaching the shore we found lit
} tie gathering of awe-stricken Indians
perhaps there may have been one hun
: dred and fifty of them, the sole sur
vivors of the People of the Heart
Open-mouthed and almost without
comment, they listened to the terrible
tale of the sudden and utter destruc
ton of the city.
Then we turned our faces to the
mountains, and on the second day
crossed them safely, for Maya had TOLD
, us the secret of the passage which we
, had passed blindfolded. Thus at length
, having looked our last upon the blue
, waters of the Holy lake, sparkling il
the sunshine above the palaces of tn,
} city and the bones of its inha bitants
did we leave that accursed Country o.
the Heart, where so much evil had be
. fallen us.
1t was a terrible journey, and once
we both of us fell i'll with fever, from
1 which | thought that we should not re
} cover, but recover we did by the help o
( some wandering Indians who nurseC
? us, ard at length reached this place
? from which we had fled for our live
? nearly two years before.
5 Then the hacienda was deserted, foi
i it had the reputation of being haunted
, though some of the Indian dependents
: or rather slaves, of that great villain
t Don Pedro Moreno, still worked patche
e of the land
5 Well, the senior took fancy to stal
in the place, for it was here that h,
r had first seen his wife; aud so we solo
that girdle of emeralds which Mays
Z took from the chest of ornaments anS
Z gave to me when we were imprisoned
t in the hall of the pyramid (by the way
4 do not lose the clasp, for it is the onl,
g remaining relic of the People of tn,
g Heart, and with the proceeds bough
1 at cheap rate from the government o
r the day, who had entered into posses
e sion of them. this house and the wild
I lands around it, that | have cultivated
S ever since.