“I will tell my maid to look for it,” she said; “but I think you must have left it in papa’s curiosity-room.”
“No: I’m an Aztec sacrifice!” cried the professor; and they all laughed. “One would hardly have anticipated,” he resumed after a pause, addressing Trednoke, “that you would have made a double conquest,—first of the men, and then of the woman!”
“The woman conquered me, without trying or wishing to, and then, because she was a woman, took compassion on me. Whether my country has benefited much by the Mexican annexation, I can’t say; but I know Inez—made a heaven on earth for me,” concluded the general, in a low voice. His countenance, at this moment, wore a solemn and humble expression, beautiful to see; and Miriam bent and laid her cheek against his. Meschines knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and sighed.
“No woman ever took compassion on me,” he remarked, “and you see the result,—ashes!”
“Ashes,—with their wonted fires living in them,” said Trednoke.
“We were talking about this Indian of yours,” said Meschines.
“Ay, to be sure. Well, he was attached to Inez’s family when I first knew them. It was a peculiar relation; not like that of a servant. One finds such things in Mexico. The conquered race were of as good strain as their conquerors; the blood of Montezuma was as blue as the best of the Castilian. There were many intermarriages; and there are many instances of the survival of traditions and records; though the records are often symbolic, and would have no meaning to persons not initiated. But they have been sufficient to perpetuate ties of a personal nature through generation after generation; and the alliance between Kamaiakan and Inez was of this kind. His forefathers, I imagine, were priests, and priests were a mighty power in Tenochtitlan. For aught I know, indeed Kamaiakan may be an original priest of Montezuma’s; no one knows his age, but he does not look an hour older, to-day, than when I first saw him, over twenty years ago.”
“He must be!” said Miriam, with some positiveness. “He has told me of seeing and doing things hundreds of years ago. And he says——” She paused.
“What does he say, Nina adorada?” asked her father.
“It was about the treasure, you know.”