CHAPTER XXIII. _A SYMBOL WITH TWO MEANINGS_ CHAPTER XXIV. _KINDRED FEELING_ CHAPTER XXV. _MONTORO DE DIEGO TURNS HANGMAN_ CHAPTER XXVI. _CORTES BURNS HIS SHIPS_ CHAPTER XXVII. _MONTORO LEADS A CHANT_ CHAPTER XXVIII. _THE GODS MUST AVENGE THEMSELVES_ CHAPTER XXIX. _MONTORO AND CABRERA RESCUE A HUMAN SACRIFICE_ CHAPTER XXX. _TOO USEFUL TO BE KILLED_ CHAPTER XXXI. _ONCE FOR ALL--THEY SHALL CEASE_ CHAPTER XXXII. _ON THE ROAD TO MEXICO_ CHAPTER XXXIII. _THE CAUSE ONCE MORE IN JEOPARDY_ CHAPTER XXXIV. _AN INDIAN GIRL-CHAMPION_ CHAPTER XXXV. _THE TLASCALAN KNIGHT'S PROBATION_ CHAPTER XXXVI. _ACROSS THE CAUSEWAY_ CHAPTER XXXVII. _ESCALANTE'S FATE DECIDES IT_ CHAPTER XXXVIII. _THE DOWNFALL OF AN EMPIRE_ CHAPTER XXXIX. _HOMEWARD BOUND_ CHAPTER XL. _REINSTATED_ GOLD AND GLORY, OR Wild Ways of other Days. CHAPTER I. _A POISON-FLY FOR THE HEART OF ARAGON._ In an apartment, gorgeous with a magnificence that owed something of its style to Moorish influence, were gathered, one evening, a number of stern-browed companions. A group of men, whose dark eyes and olive complexions proclaimed their Spanish nationality, as their haughty mien and the splendour of their attire bore evidence to their noble rank. The year was 1485: a sad year for Aragon was that of 1485, and above all terrible for Saragossa. But as yet only the half, indeed not quite the half, of the year had gone by, when those Spanish grandees were gathered together, and when one of them muttered beneath his breath, fiercely: "It is not the horror of it only, that sets one's brain on fire. It is the shame!" And those around him echoed--"It is the shame." During the past year, 1484, his Most Catholic Majesty, King Ferdinand of the lately-united kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, had forced upon his proud, independent-spirited Aragonese a new-modelled form of the Inquisition. The Inquisition had, indeed, been one of the institutions of the noble little kingdom for over two hundred years already, but in the free air of Aragon it had been rather an admonisher to orderliness and good manners than a deadly foe to liberty. Now, all this was changed. The stern and bitter-spirited Torquemada took care of that. The new Inquisition was fierce, relentless, suspicious, grasping, avaricious, deadly. And in their hearts the haughty, freedom-loving Aragonese loathed its imperious domination even more than they dreaded its cruelty. "It was not the horror of it only," said Montoro de Diego truly, "that made their eyes burn, and sent the tingling blood quivering into their hands. It was the shame."