"Then, if you will, choose wisely, Laughing-eyes; remembering that a crown and the love of a noble man are on one hand, while on the other are only Cacami and death."
"Yes, I will choose between you—the good king and Cacami—but it will not be to trample on my love—my heart. No, not for a crown at the hands of so good a man as Hualcoyotl," she answered, earnestly. Continuing, she said: "I would not lead you to death, O Cacami, my love; yet, I choose to go with you, even to that end."
"Then be it so; we will stand or fall together," he returned, holding her in a closer embrace.
An idea at this instant occurred to Itlza, and, gathering a little courage from it, she said:
"Why may we not escape to another country, Cacami, or to the mountains—anywhere, so we be not separated?"
"Hualcoyotl would find us though we were hidden in the fastness of the farthest mountain. No, Laughing-eyes, there is hope only in marriage, and the kindness of the court which shall try us; otherwise it must be separation or death," he replied, despondingly.
"Then, let us wed. I will be your bride, though it be unto death," she said, creeping closer to him.
"If you so decide, thus it shall be, my brave Laughing-eyes. We will wed, and, if need be, die together."
"I vow to you, O Cacami, that naught but death shall part us, and, since thus to you I give my pledge, I pray you bind it with the seal of troth," she said, trustingly, putting up her carmine-tinted lips to receive the kiss which was to seal the sacred compact. Their lips met, and two souls were united unto death by one prolonged, loving embrace, from which they drew calmness—the calmness which is found in the strength of a plighted faith, made enduring by the kiss, which, to them, was a seal, indissoluble except by death.