d
unhesitatingly have sacrificed life for the object of her love.

It is not to be wondered at, that, with such qualities of mind and
heart, Karee was deeply impressed with the solemn and imposing
superstitions of the Aztec religion. The rites and ceremonies by which
they were illustrated and sustained, were well calculated to stir to its
very depths, a soul like hers, and give the fullest exercise to her wild
imagination. That pompous ritual, those terrible orgies, repeated before
her eyes almost daily from her infancy, had become blended with the
thoughts and associations of her mind, and intimately related to every
scene that interested her heart, or engaged her fancy. Yet her soul was
not enslaved to that dark and dismal superstition. Though accustomed to
an awful veneration of the priesthood, she did not regard them as a
superior race of beings, or listen to their words, as if they had been
audible voices from heaven. Her spirit shrunk from many of the darker
revelations of the established mythology, and openly revolted from some
of its inhuman exactions. Its chains hung loosely upon her; and she
seemed fully prepared for the freedom of a purer and loftier faith. Her
extreme beauty, her bewitching gaiety, and her varied talents, attracted
many admirers, and some noble and worthy suitors. But Karee had another
destiny to fulfil. She felt herself to be the guardian angel of the
ill-fated Tecuichpo, and her love for the princess left no room for any
other passion in her heart. She therefore refused all solicitations, and
remained the solitary mistress of her floating island.

Karee's departure from the palace, did not in any degree lessen her
interest in the welfare of the young princess. She was assiduous in her
attention to every thing that could promote her happiness; and seemed to
value the flowers she cultivated on her chinampa chiefly as they
afforded her the means of daily correspondence with Tecuichpo. She
managed her island like a canoe, and moved about from one part of the
beautiful lake to another, visiting by turns the cities that glittered
on its margin, and sometimes traversing the valleys in search of new
flowers, or exploring the ravines and caverns of the mountains for
whatever of rare and precious she might chance to find. The chivalry of
the Aztecs rendered such adventures perfectly safe, their women being
always regarded with the greatest tenderness and respect, and treated
with a delicacy seldom