“Hail, prince,” he said. “The royal Montezuma desires to speak with you, and with the Teule, your companion.” “Do as I do, Teule,” said Guatemoc, and led the way up the chamber, till we reached the place where the wooden screen had been, which, as we passed it, was drawn behind us, shutting us off from the hall. Here we stood a while, with folded hands and downcast eyes, till a signal was made to us to advance. “Your report, nephew,” said Montezuma in a low voice of command. “I went to the city of Tobasco, O glorious Montezuma. I found the Teule and brought him hither. Also I caused the high priest to be sacrificed according to the royal command, and now I hand back the imperial signet,” and he gave the ring to a counsellor. “Why did you delay so long upon the road, nephew?” “Because of the chances of the journey; while saving my life, royal Montezuma, the Teule my prisoner was bitten by a puma. Its skin is brought to you as an offering.” Now Montezuma looked at me for the first time, then opened a picture scroll that one of the counsellors handed to him, and read in it, glancing at me from time to time. “The description is good,” he said at length, “in all save one thing—it does not say that this prisoner is the handsomest man in Anahuac. Say, Teule, why have your countrymen landed on my dominions and slain my people?” “I know nothing of it, O king,” I answered as well as I might with the help of Guatemoc, “and they are not my countrymen.” “The report says that you confess to having the blood of these Teules in your veins, and that you came to these shores, or near them, in one of their great canoes.” “That is so, O king, yet I am not of their people, and I came to the shore floating on a barrel.” “I hold that you lie,” answered Montezuma frowning, “for the sharks and crocodiles would devour one who swam thus.” Then he added anxiously, “Say, are you of the descendants of Quetzal?” “I do not know, O king. I am of a white race, and our forefather was named Adam.” “Perchance that is another name for Quetzal,” he said. “It has long been prophesied that his children would return, and now it seems that the hour of their coming is at hand,” and he sighed heavily, then added: “Go now. To-morrow you shall tell me of these Teules, and the council of the priests shall decide your fate.” Now when I heard the name of the priests I trembled in all my bones and cried, clasping my hands in supplication: “Slay me if you will, O king, but I beseech you deliver me not again into the hands of the priests.” “We are all in the hands of the priests, who are the mouth of God,” he answered coldly. “Besides, I hold that you have lied to me.” Then I went foreboding evil, and Guatemoc also looked downcast. Bitterly did I curse the hour when I had said that I was of the Spanish blood and yet no Spaniard. Had I known even what I knew that day, torture would not have wrung those words from me. But now it was too late.