ding beside the old stone fountain, amid the flowers, in the
gladness of the bright sunshine; in his eyes a strange, far-away look,
as though the future for a moment had been opened to him; and on his
strong, fine face a sternly resolute expression, which yet was softened
by the traits which were so strong within him of holiness and gentleness
and love. I cannot know what Fray Antonio prayed for, there in the old
convent garden; but I can guess, and I am well persuaded that his prayer
was heard. Truly, I think that it was something more than chance that
led us thus at first to talk, not of the wonder that was in Brother
Francisco's letter, but of Brother Francisco himself and of his end.

And then the subject-matter in chief of the letter claimed our
attention. In itself this was sufficiently marvellous; but what
increased the marvel of it was the conviction, strong within us both,
that if the hidden city of Culhuacan ever had existed at all it existed
still. Our belief was so entirely logical that, assuming the truth of
the story told by the Indian captive, it admitted nowhere of a doubt.
That the city had been hidden for a long period, through at least
several hundreds of years, from the Aztecs themselves, and that no
knowledge of it had been conveyed to them by wild Indians who had come
by chance upon the valley wherein it was, was evidence enough of the
security of its concealment. There was nothing surprising, consequently,
in the fact that the Spaniards had not discovered it when they first
overran Mexico, nor that it had remained unknown to the Mexicans of
modern times. As is well known, there are to this day prodigious areas
in Mexico which remain utterly unexplored. In the region west of
Tampico; in the north-western States of Sinaloa, Durango, and Sonora; or
in the far southern States of Oajaca and Chiapas, a valley as great as
that in which the City of Mexico now stands might lie utterly hidden and
unknown. And if, as the Indian's narrative implied, this particular
valley had been selected deliberately because it was so hidden and so
inaccessible, and if the described precautions had been taken to isolate
its inhabitants, it very well might have continued to be lost in its
deep concealment through an almost infinite range of years. That it
never had been found since the Spaniards came into Mexico we were
absolutely certain, for the outcry over so great a wonder would have
echoed throughout the whole of the civ