surpassed in the most civilized countries of
Christendom.

This chivalric sentiment was, not improbably heightened, in the case of
Karee, in part by her extreme beauty, and in part by the power of her
genius and the brilliancy of her wit. She commanded respect by the force
of her intellect, and the purity of her heart; while the uncommon depth
and splendor of her imagination, when excited by any favorite theme, and
the seemingly inexhaustible fruitfulness of her mental resources,
invested her, in the view of the multitude, with something of the
dignity, and much of the superstitious charm of a prophetess.

[A] A mantle of coarse cotton fabric, which all who approached
the emperor were compelled to put on, in token of humility and
reverence.

CHAPTER II.

YOUTH OF THE PRINCESS--HER EARLY LOVE REVEALED--PROPHETIC
ANNOUNCEMENT AND SUDDEN ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS.

~Breathe not his noble name even to the winds,
Lest they my love reveal.~

* * * * *

~I have mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.~

The childhood of the fair princess passed away without any event of
importance, except the occasional recurrence of those dark prophecies
which overshadowed her entrance into life. Her father, who had exercised
the office of priest before he came to the throne, was thoroughly imbued
with the superstitious reverence for astrology, which formed a part of
the religion of the Aztecs. To all the predictions of this mystic
science he yielded implicit belief, regarding whatever it foreshadowed
as the fixed decrees of fate. He was, therefore, fully prepared, and
always on the look-out, for new revelations to confirm and establish his
faith. These were sometimes found in the trivial occurrences of
every-day life, and sometimes in the sinister aspect of the heavenly
bodies, at peculiar epochs in the life of his daughter. With this
superstitious foreboding of evil, the pensive character of the princess
harmonized so well, as to afford, to the mind of the too credulous
monarch, another unquestionable indication of her destiny. It seemed to
be written on her brow, that her life was a doomed one; and each
returning year was counted as the last, and entered upon with gloomy
forebodings of some terrible catastrophe.

As her life advanced, her charms, both of person and character matured
and increased; and, at the age of fourteen, there