While Magdalena was pouring forth these wild expressions, for a time almost unconscious of her situation in the heart of the pagan city, and in the presence of so many barbarians, Guatimozin, who had looked on with an astonishment that was soon converted into the darkest displeasure, turned to the capturers of Magdalena, who had ceased their pursuit the moment they beheld the king, and flung themselves reverently at his feet. The Lord of Death, who made the like prostration, had assumed an erect posture, in virtue of his high rank. But his looks wandered from the king to the Christian pair, whose endearments he watched with exceeding great satisfaction, and indeed with exultation. "What is this that I see?" said the king, in a low but stern voice; "and who hath brought this woman to my garden?" Masquazateuctli bent his head to the earth, replying with the complacency of one who has achieved a happy exploit,-- "The king made the Great Eagle of the East his brother; he took him to the hill of Chapoltepec that his people might know him, and do him honour. Shall not Masquazateuctli do a good thing to the king's brother? He was sorry because of his loneliness in the king's garden, and the Maiden of the East was afar in Tezcuco. I thought of this, and I crept to the gates of Tezcuco: and I said, 'I will take a prisoner for the king, and perhaps I shall find a maiden with white brows; which will gladden the heart of the king's brother.' Mexitli was with me. But I killed the man that came with her, for I saw she was that daughter of a god, with eyes like the full moon, of whom the king had spoken, when he came from Tezcuco alone, and my heart was very joyful. The Eagle is glad--he will not ask the king for the daughter of Montezuma!" Guatimozin muttered a fierce interjection betwixt his teeth, but replied with dignity, "The Lord of Death should have spoken this to the king; but if he be angry, he remembers that Masquazateuctli was Montezuma's soldier. By and by, I will speak with him in the palace.--I have said." The Lord of Death, thus dismissed, and not a little mortified at such insufficient thanks, beckoned to his followers and departed. Guatimozin strode up to the Christians, and touching Juan on the shoulder, said, with a stern voice, "What shall the king say of his brother, to the daughter of Montezuma?" The colour rushed into Juan's cheeks; but he replied immediately, and even firmly, "That he brings her his sister, to whom, for his own sake, he prays her to be kind and gentle." "Does my brother tell me this?" said the king, starting. "The Great Eagle said he was alone in the world, with none of his kin remaining." "And so I thought, until this hour," said Juan, not without embarrassment: "and now must I tell the king, that though I call this maiden my sister, and pray heaven she may prove so, yet neither she nor I have aught upon which to found our belief, but the words of one whom the Lord of Death killed, when he seized her."