Wild as were his words and confused as was the mind of Juan, yet with these broken expressions, the dying cavalier threw a sudden and terrific light upon the understanding of the outcast. "Good heaven!" he cried, "my benefactress! my noble lady! Oh villain, how couldst thou?--" "More--more!" murmured Guzman, with impatient, yet vain ardour. "I know all--Thy father--thy sister--Camarga--killed--Aha! Magdalena--the princess--" "Ay! the princess?" echoed Juan, imploringly: "the princess? the princess?" But all he could hear in reply to his frantic demand, was "Garci, Garci--" and this name was immediately lost in the roaring shouts of the infidels, who now surrounded the pair. Had Guzman been able to continue the flight at half the speed with which he had begun it, it is certain they would have reached the palace, considerably in advance of the pursuers; though it is not certain, that would have proved a city of refuge. But his strength failed almost immediately after entering the garden, of which as soon as he became sensible, he began to make his disclosures; and perhaps the haste into which he was driven by the almost instant appearance of the Mexicans, thronging over the broken wall, served as much as the distractions and agonies of death, to make them confused and insufficient. The first word--the name of the lady Catalina,--revealing at once the dreadful delusion, which had converted his best friend into his deadliest enemy, so excited and unsettled Juan's mind, that, in his eagerness to learn still more of the fatal secret, he almost forgot the presence of so many Mexicans, rushing upon him with yells of fury. It was in vain, when they had reached him, that he brandished his sword, and assumed an attitude of defence, calling loudly upon the king. He was thrown down and overpowered,--nay, he was severely wounded, and handled altogether so roughly, that it seemed as if the enraged Mexicans were resolved to drag him to the sacrifice, from which he had rescued Guzman, if not to murder him on the spot; some calling out to kill him, and others roaring, 'The Temalacatl! the Temalacatl!' Their cries were not even stilled when the nobles who waited about the person of the king, drove them away with rods, and Guatimozin himself stalked up to the prisoner. The frown which Juan's rash, and, as he esteemed it, impious act, had brought upon his visage, darkened into one still sterner, when having laid his hand upon the Christian's shoulder, to signify that his person was sacred, the expression of protection was answered only by cries of the most mutinous character. "We will have the blood of the Spaniard," they screamed. "What said Azcamatzin? It is true--this is a bear we have, that embraces us, and tears open our hearts. He struck the Lord of Death--he takes the victim from Mexitli: he shall be a victim himself--he shall die on the stone!"