four hundred Whites and four thousand
Tlascalans, while we shall number over one hundred thousand. They
say the white men have lost not only their great guns, but those
they carry on their shoulders; and that only twenty or thirty of
their strange animals have survived. Therefore, this time, we shall
fight with something like equal arms, and shall overwhelm them as
the sea overwhelms the rock."

"Your simile is an unfortunate one, Cuitcatl. The sea covers the
rock, but when it retires the rock remains. Still, it does seem to
me that, however valiantly the Spaniards may fight, they cannot
withstand such terrible odds.

"But I cannot rejoice with you. You know that I abhor, as much as
you do, the cruel massacre at the temple. My sympathies were with
your people, while struggling to throw off the yoke that the
Spaniards had imposed upon them; but I am white, like them. I know
that many among them are noble men, and that much of the harm they
have committed has been done from conscientious motives; just as
your people have, from a desire to please the gods, offered up
thousands of human victims, every year. Much as they love gold, many
of them--and certainly Cortez among them--think more of spreading
their religion than they do of personal ambition, or even of gain.
I have many acquaintances and some good friends, among them; and I
cannot think of their being all destroyed, without regret and
horror. I do not say that you are not justified in killing all, for
your existence as a nation is at stake; but to me, it is terrible."

"I can understand that, my friend; but nothing can avert their
destruction.

"Now, as to yourself. Had it not been for Cacama's death, I should
have said it were best that you should marry Amenche, at once; but
among us, it would be most unseemly for a sister to think of
marrying, when her brother has but just died."

"It is the same with us," Roger said. "A certain time must always
pass, after the death of a near relative, before marriage. Besides,
the present is no time for thinking of such a thing. My fate is
altogether uncertain, and I own that I consider there is small
ground for hope that I can escape from the present troubles. If, as
seems certain now, the Spaniards are all destroyed, the people will
more than ever venerate their gods, and the power of the priests
will be almost unlimited.

"It is useless for me to try to deceive myself, Cuitcatl. I know
your friendship, but you would