The Mexicans encouraged--Oracular declaration of the priests--It fails to be fulfilled--Cortez resolves to lay waste the city--A wide spread ruin--Terrible sufferings of the besieged--Love and loyalty outliving hope--Death preferred to submission--Nahuitla proposes a plan of escape--Guatimozin rejects it, but is overruled by the unanimous voice of his people--Prepares for flight--The battle of the ghosts--The retreat--Guatimozin on the lake--Pursued by the enemy--A captive--Brought before Cortez--His noble spirit and bearing--The Queen and the conqueror--Her destiny fulfilled. * * * * * THE FLIGHT OF THE KATAHBA CHIEF. 193 The dream of Minaree, the young bride of Ash-te-o-láh--Its effect upon the Chief--He goes to the chase--Power and prosperity of the Katahbas--Beauty of their villages--The wigwam of Ash-te-o-láh--The Chief in his canoe--The deer--The foe--The chase--He turns upon his pursuers--Slays seven of their number successively--Is taken--Marched off as a captive--His boldness and dignity--Arrives in the territories of his enemies--Insulted and beaten by the women--Condemned to the fiery torture--Led out to execution--Breaks away and escapes--Pauses to defy his pursuers--Distances them all--Stops to rest--Finds a place of concealment--Plans the destruction of the pursuing party--Succeeds--Returns home in triumph, laden with trophies and spoils. MONICA--THE ITEAN CAPTIVE. 209 Reverence for the dead--Indian burial--The journey to the Spirit land--The favorite dog killed--Food for journey--Mementoes of the departed--The grave of an infant boy--The Itean encampment--A sister's grief--Her dream--She visits the grave by moonlight--Her song--Enters a canoe and floats down the stream--A captive, devoted to the "Great Star"--Pagan rite among the Pawnees--Preparing for the sacrifice--Ignorant of her fate--Gathering of the Pawnees to the festival--The victim led to the stake--The terrible orgies commence--Are suddenly interrupted--The captive unbound--The flight--Parting with her deliverer--Meets her friends--Reaches her home in safety--Petalesharro, her deliverer--His person and character--Bloody rite abolished. THE HERMITESS OF ATHABASCA. 227