de by the rebels, in consideration of the
acceptance by those now in arms against him of certain very easy terms.
For his part, he would yield in so far as to restore the custom of
permitting parents to buy back their own children, and so to save them
from being sacrificed or from becoming slaves; and he would withdraw
also his claim to the exercise of certain rights (which need not here be
specified) in civil matters, to which a counter-claim was set up by the
Council. In return for these concessions, he demanded that the army
raised by the rebels should be immediately disbanded; that order should
be restored in Huitzilan by returning the miners to their work, and the
Tlahuicos generally to their masters throughout the valley; and that the
arms which had been manufactured should be turned over to the keeper of
the arsenal in Culhuacan. The final demand made by the Priest Captain
related to ourselves; and the Council was given to understand that upon
its punctual and exact fulfilment the whole of the negotiation must
depend. Young and Rayburn and I, the envoy said, must be thrust out
through the Barred Pass, whence we came, and there left to shift for
ourselves; Fray Antonio must be without delay surrendered--that the
dreadful sin that he had committed by preaching vile doctrines,
subversive of the true faith, might be punished in so signal a manner
that the gods whom he had outraged would be appeased.

Both Fray Antonio and I were present in the Council chamber when the
envoy delivered his message; and when this final demand was
made--hearing which made me grow sick and faint, so keen was the pang of
sorrow that it caused me--I turned towards him quickly, expecting that
he also would feel the hurt of the blow which through him, because of my
great love for him, had stricken me so grievously. But so far from being
at all cast down by the knowledge thus rudely conveyed that a very cruel
death menaced him, there was upon his face a look of such joyful
elation, of such rejoicing triumph, that it seemed as though the very
greatest happiness that life could hold for him had been thrust suddenly
within his grasp.

Within the Council, and outside of it also, when the terms which the
envoy offered were spread abroad, there was at once aroused a very hot
antagonism between contending factions in regard to the wisdom of
placing trust in the Priest Captain's promises, and to the justice of
yielding to his demands. So far as the C