“Never! My religion forbids even evil thoughts, much more deeds. Free me if you will, for that I would be most grateful. But you know not the spirit of a Christian, if you think him so base as to purchase his safety by a crime.”
“Strange being, what means this? Soon the sacred drums will sound, and the criers announce that the solemn festival has begun. Then it will be beyond my power to make the exchange. Yield before it be too late. Hast thou no daughter, no wife to live for?”
“Daughter! alas I have a daughter. Think of me no longer. Take her from the toils of that Mexican, and I will even bless you, and pray the Son for you in heaven to which I am going. She would despise me, more if possible than I should myself, could I accept my life on your terms. Mention not that again. Have you a daughter? I see by your face you have. By the love you bear her, as you would not have her dishonored by a villain, or see her a mangled corpse, save her. You can: will you not?” and he grasped the hand of Hewahewa and wrung it in his anguish.
He had struck the only chord of feeling in his gaoler. “Where is this woman,” he asked; “for your sake I will see her.”
Olmedo then detailed their capture and subsequent history up to the time he was violently separated from Beatriz, and finally the offer of Tolta to redeem them both, and his contemplated treason to Pohaku, provided he would assent to his designs upon her. Hewahewa listened eagerly to every word by which the thread of his rival’s projects was unravelled to him. He now saw clearly the game he was pursuing, and without betraying his intention, simply said, “If not too late, I will do as you wish. She shall be a sister to my daughter. Courage. Farewell.”
CHAPTER XXIII.
“And priests rushed through their ranks, some counterfeiting
The rage they did inspire, some mad indeed