"I am sorry to say, Roger Hawkshaw," he said, "that tomorrow you must accompany me across the lake to Mexico. I have had four dispatches today from my Uncle Montezuma. He blames me for having permitted you to enter the city before consulting the priests at his capital. You know they are all powerful there. Montezuma, with all his pride and haughtiness, is but their humble servant. He says that sacrifices have been offered up, and that the auguries are unfavorable, and that the priests proclaim your presence to be a danger to Mexico. "I have no doubt that, when they see you, this opinion will be changed; and I shall do my best to prepare the way for you. I have already sent a private messenger to the high priest, speaking in the highest terms of you, and strengthening my recommendation by some valuable presents, to which priests are not more than other men inaccessible." Roger saw, by the look of dismay upon the faces of the queen and the princess, that they considered the news very grave. "Must he go?" the queen asked, in a low voice. "How can it be helped?" Cacama replied. "Montezuma is supreme; and he and the priests, together, are all powerful. Roger is not like other men. Were he so, I would tell him when night falls to fly, and Cuitcatl would risk the consequences, I am sure, and act as his guide; but being as he is, where could he go, or where could he hide? Were it known in the morning that he was missing, a hundred messengers from Mexico would carry the news to every town and village in the country. Even if we colored his skin and his hair, his height would attract attention; for he is taller by half a head, and broader, by far, than any Mexican. But even did he, by traveling by night and hiding by day, get at last beyond the boundary of our kingdoms, what would then be his fate?--To die of hunger or thirst, or to be slain by wild tribes. "What say you, Roger Hawkshaw? Will you risk these unknown dangers, or will you go to Montezuma tomorrow?" "Were I sure that the priests would decide against me, and that I should be sacrificed to their great idol, I would risk death in any other form, rather than that," Roger replied. "But it may be that, when they see I have no evil intentions, and neither thought nor power of injuring Mexico, they may lay aside their animosity against me." "They do not believe that you will injure Mexico," Amenche said, passionately. "They only want you for a sacrifice. They think that a being so strange and rare as a white man would be, of all, the most acceptable victim to their god. "My brother, do not let him go," and the girl burst into tears.