“Of all the gods, Mualox?”
“Of all,—even Quetzal’s, O king!”
“Arise! Last night I bade you wait me here. I said I would come with the morning star; yonder it is, and I am faithful. The time is fittest for my business.”
Mualox arose, and stood before the monarch with bowed head and crossed hands.
“Montezuma knows his servant.”
“Yet I seek to know him better. Mualox, Mualox, have you room for a perfect love aside from Quetzal’? What would you do for me?”
“Ask me rather what I would not do.”
“Hear me, then. Lately you have been a counsellor in my palace; with my policy and purposes you are acquainted; you knew of the march to Cholula, and the order to attack the strangers; you were present when they were resolved—”
“And opposed them. Witness for me to Quetzal’, O king!”
“Yes, you prophesied evil and failure from them, and for that I seek you now. Tell me, O Mualox, spake you then as a prophet?”