"O, no! no! You are the peer of the greatest and best, and worthy to wed whom you will; but, Hualcoyotl, I can not be your queen. I throw myself at your feet, and upon your compassion, imploring that you will send me away--forget me." She had dropped upon her knees in front of him, and was looking beseechingly up into his face. He gazed at her in confused amazement, and presently said: "What have I done, O Itlza, to merit this remarkable rejection of my proposal?" "You have done nothing, O best of friends. It is all my own doing; I have put an impassable barrier between us," she answered, dropping her head as if to hide her face from an expected blow. "A barrier between us! What do you mean? Speak, I beseech you, and end this unparalleled and humiliating scene," spoke the patience-tried prince. With head bowed down, the kneeling maiden answered in a shrinking voice: "I mean, O king, that I am the wife of another." Now, indeed, was Hualcoyotl dumbfounded. Had the earth opened at his feet he could not have been more astounded. He finally said, becoming angry and excited: "Who has dared to come between the king and his chosen--his intended queen?" Itlza was almost prostrated from the strain upon her feelings; and now, at hearing the prince's angry tones, began to sink, but managed, in a hoarse whisper, to say "Cacami," and then fell to the ground insensible. Hualcoyotl was staggered as by a blow when he heard the name of Cacami fall from Itlza's lips. That estimable young warrior, counted among his closest friends, had deceived him. He turned away for a moment to strive with his rising anger and feelings of resentment; then back to where Itlza was lying. He looked at her in a commiserating manner, and exclaimed in a hard, pained voice: "Itlza! Itlza! this from you, whom Hualcoyotl would have delighted to honor, and been so proud!" Her appearance seemed to stir the nobler impulses within the man, for he knelt down and began trying to bring about her resuscitation. While thus engaged he was suddenly made aware of the presence of Itzalmo, who, in passing through the conservatory, had discovered him striving with the unconscious maiden, and, becoming alarmed, cried out: "Father of Light! what is the meaning of this? Is the child dead?" "She is not dead, but 'twere better if she was," returned the prince, without pausing in his efforts to restore her to consciousness. "Your words, O King, are very strange. Why do you speak thus?" "I can not explain to you now, Itzalmo. You will retire, and at the instance of the king have Cacami arrested immediately. Go at once, and seek not to know more at present," returned he, showing great but restrained excitement. Itzalmo left the conservatory in a state of wonderment at what he had seen and heard, and went immediately to execute the command of the king.