From his breast Yermah drew the locket containing Kerœcia’s ring. Taking Alcyesta’s hand, he silently slipped it on her finger, while unchecked tears coursed down her cheeks.
Turning to Ildiko, he handed her the locket. Facing them all, he said:
“Be of good cheer! A long era of peace and prosperity is for thee and thine. Thou art saved from the floods for a divine purpose. Let this knowledge be thy secret refuge, lest thou be tempted to depart from the way.”
At the water’s edge he embraced and blessed each one.
“Grieve not for me. In the fullness of time I shall come again.”
The young men went out on flower-laden rafts with him, and cast gold and emeralds into the sea in his honor.
The stone of promise signified renewal after the cataclysm, and Yermah was El Dorado,—“He of the golden heart.”
The men on the raft strained their vision to catch a last glimpse of the balsa, as it was known that he was going away for purification, and they believed implicitly that he would come again.
It was not long before the people on shore began the weary watch for his return, which makes Cortez’s conquest of later days so pathetic and pitiful.
The heart aches with the memory of the treachery and cruelty of the Conquistadors at Cholula, after its inhabitants had sent Cortez a helmet filled with gold nuggets, because they saw with surprise that he whom they mistook for their Fair God, valued this metal.