"Your presence here at this hour, and the purport of your words, tell me that you are in trouble. Hualcoyotl the boy is lost in Hualcoyotl the stately prince; and our love for the former in profound esteem and respect for the latter. Teochma is your loyal subject and friend; no assistance which is within her power to render shall be withheld from you. Speak, good friend, as would my own son Euet, and make your wants known, that we may serve you." "I was sure of your sympathy and assistance, else I had not come this way. The fidelity of Teochma, and hers, to the cause of the unfortunate Hualcoyotl is a source of deepest gratitude to him. May the hour come when he can express his gratitude more fittingly than by weak words!" Here followed a narration of as much of his late experience as was necessary to make his situation known. Teochma's sympathies were much excited, and the prince was assured of a welcome shelter and concealment at the villa for as long a time as he desired. "I can only risk a stop of a few hours," said he; "just long enough for my attendant to make arrangements for me a few leagues ahead. The emissaries of Maxtla may yet consider it worth while to pay you a visit in their search for me. Should they do so, no knowledge of my having been here at this time must reach them; for they are heartless, and might cause you serious trouble, if nothing more." He turned to Oza, and gave him the necessary instructions regarding what he was expected to do; and told him to go at once, and perform the mission quickly as possible. The man cheerfully acquiesced in his master's plans, and, after partaking of refreshments, set out on his journey. The prince was conducted to an apartment in a retired portion of the villa, where he soon found forgetfulness in sleep. CHAPTER VIII. The morning broke over the beautiful Anahuac in loveliness and splendor. Nature, in all her forms, sent forth anthems of praise to the Almighty Creator. The forests rang with a medley of happy sounds, which rose from myriads of living things--the warbling of the inimitable mockingbird, and the trill and coo of its less melodious neighbors; the chirp and bark of the frisking little animals, together with the incessant whir and hum of the insect hosts--a grand chorus of thanksgiving, spontaneously rendered by an indiscriminate multitude of God's inferior creatures, all filled with the unalloyed happiness of an unconsciousness of evil, an unconsciousness which is denied to man, who is created in the image of his Maker, and endowed with that supreme attribute, the power to reason. Such was the morning, and the waking it brought, of the day which followed the arrival of Hualcoyotl at Zelmonco villa. The summons of a servant awoke the prince to a realization of his surroundings. Sounds of joy and life fell upon his ear from without, and stirred his soul with an emotion of sadness.