So earnestly did she speak, that the captain changed his mind. “Very well. What is spoken in pain should be spoken quickly. I will stay.”
Nenetzin caught the assent, and went on rapidly. “Let him know that to-morrow at noon the drum in the great temple will be beaten, and the bridges taken up, and then there will be war.”
“By the saints! she bringeth doughty news,” said Alvarado, in his voice of soldier. “Ask her where she got it; ask her, as you love us, Marina.”
“From my father,—from the king himself.”
“And this is child of Montezuma!” cried Marina.
“The princess Nenetzin,” said the cavalier. “But stay not so. Ask her when and where she heard the news.”
“To-day, at Chapultepec.”
“What of the particulars? How is the war to be made? What are the preparations?”
“The lord Cuitlahua is to take up the bridges. Maize and meat will be furnished to-morrow only. About the great temple now there are ten thousand warriors for an attack, and elsewhere in the city there are seventy thousand more.”
“Enough,” said Alvarado, kissing the little hand. “Look now to the hurt, Marina. Bring the light; mayhap we can take the bolt away ourselves.”