'Tis bravely said! Yuhidthiton replied,

And fairly may'st thou boast, young Tlalala,
For thou art brave in battle. Yet 't were well
If that same fearless tongue were taught to check
Its boyish licence now. No law forbade

Our friendship with the Stranger, when my voice.
Pleaded for proffered peace; that fault I shared
In common with the King, and with the Chiefs,
The Pabas and the People, none foreseeing
Danger or guilt: but when at length the Gods
Made evident their wrath in prodigies,

I yielded to their manifested will

My prompt obedience... Bravely hast thou said,
And brave thou art, young Tyger of the War!
But thou hast dealt with other enemies
Than these impenetrable men, . . with foes,
Whose conquered Gods lie idle in their chains,
And with tame weakness brook captivity.
When thou hast met the Strangers in the fight,
And in the doings of that fight outdone
Yuhidthiton, revile him then for one
Slow to defend his country and his faith;
Till then, with reverence, as beseems thy youth,
Respect thou his full fame!

I wrong it not!

I wrong it not! cried the young

But truly, as I hope to equal it,

Azteca ;

Honour thy well-earn'd glory... But this peace!.. Renounce it!.. say that it shall never be!.

Never,.. as long as there are Gods in Heaven,

Or men in Aztlan !

That, the King replied,

The Gods themselves have answer'd. Never yet
By holier ardour were our countrymen
Possess'd; peace-offerings of repentance fill
The temple courts; from every voice ascends
The contrite prayer; daily the victim's heart,
Sends its propitiatory steam to Heaven;
And if the aid divine may be procured
By the most dread solemnities of faith,
And rigour of severest penitence,

Soon shall the present influence strengthen us,
And Aztlan be triumphant.

While they spake,

The ceaseless sound of song and instrument
Rung through the air, now rising like the voice
Of angry ocean, now subsiding soft,

As when the breeze of evening dies away.
The horn, and shrill-toned pipe, and drum, that gave
Its music to the hand, and hollow'd wood,
Drum-like, whose thunders, ever and anon,
Commingling with the sea-shell's spiral roar,
Closed the full harmony. And now the eve
Past on, and, through the twilight visible,
The frequent fire-flies' brightening beauties shone.
Anxious and often now the Priest inspects
The maize-strewn threshold; for the wonted hour
Was come, and yet no footstep of the God!
More radiant now the fire of sacrifice,
Fed to full fury, blazed; and its red smoke
Imparted to the darker atmosphere
Such obscure light, as, o'er Vesuvio seen,
Or pillared upon Etna's mountain-head,

Makes darkness dreadful. In the captives' cheeks

Then might a livid paleness have been seen,
And wilder terror in their ghastly eyes,
Expecting momently the pang of death.
Soon in the multitude a doubt arose,

Which none durst mention, lest his neighbour's fears, Divulged, should strengthen his;..the hour was past, And yet no foot had mark'd the sprinkled maize !

X.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE GODS.

Now every moment gave their doubts new force,
And every wondering eye disclosed the fear
Which on the tongue was trembling, when to the King,
Emaciate like some bare anatomy,

And deadly pale, Tezozomoc was led,

By two supporting Priests. Ten painful months, Immured amid the forest had he dwelt,

In abstinence and solitary prayer

Passing his nights and days: thus did the Gods
From their High Priest exact, when they enforced,
By danger or distress, the penance due

For public sins; and he had dwelt ten months,
Praying and fasting and in solitude,

Till now might every bone of his lean limbs
Be told, and in his starved and boney face
The living eye appeared unnatural, . .

A ghostly sight.

In breathless eagerness
The multitude drew round as he began,..
O King, the Gods of Aztlan are not come ;
They will not come before the Strangers' blood
Smoke on their altars: but they have beheld
My days of prayer, and nights of watchfulness,
And fasts austere, and bloody disciplines,

And have reveal'd their pleasure. Who is here,

Who to the White King's dwelling-place dare go,

And execute their will?

Scarce had he said,

When Tlalala exclaim'd, I am the man.

Hear then! Tezozomoc replied,.. Ye know
That self-denial and long penance purge
The film and foulness of mortality,

For more immediate intercourse with Heaven
Preparing the pure spirit; and all eyes
May witness that with no relaxing zeal
I have perform'd my duty. Much I fear'd
For Aztlan's sins, and oft in bitterness,
Have groan'd and bled for her iniquity;
But chiefly for this solemn day the fear
Was strong upon me, lest her Deities,
Estranged should turn away, and we be left
A spiritless and God-abandoned race,
A warning to the earth. Ten weary months
Have the raw maize and running water been
My only food; but not a grain of maize
Hath stay'd the gnawing appetite, nor drop
Of water cool'd my parch'd and painful tongue,
Since yester-morn arose. Fasting I pray'd
And, praying, gash'd myself; and all night long,
I watch'd and wept and supplicated Heaven,
Till the weak flesh, its life-blood almost drain'd,
Sunk with the long austerity: a dread
Of death came over me; a deathy chill

Ran through my veins, and loosen'd every limb Dim grew mine eyes; and I could feel my heart Dying away within me, intermit