But alas! we might not be alone, for after us at a distance of twenty paces followed all my crowd of attendant nobles, together with fair dancing girls and minstrels armed with their accursed flutes, on which they blew in season and out of it, dancing as they blew.

In vain did I command them to be silent, telling them that it was written of old that there is a time to play and dance and a time to cease from dancing, for in this alone they would not obey me.

Never could I be at peace because of them then or thereafter, and not till now did I learn how great a treasure is solitude.
Still we were allowed to walk together under the trees, and though the clamour of music pursued us wherever we went, we were soon deep in talk.
Then it was that I learned how dreadful was the fate which overshadowed me.
'Know, O Teule,' said Otomie, for she would call me by the old name when there were none to hear; 'this is the custom of our land, that every year a young captive should be chosen to be the earthly image of the god Tezcat, who created the world.

Only two things are necessary to this captive, namely, that his blood should be noble, and that his person should be beautiful and without flaw or blemish.

The day that you came hither, Teule, chanced to be the day of choosing a new captive to personate the god, and you have been chosen because you are both noble and more beautiful than any man in Anahuac, and also because being of the people of the Teules, the children of Quetzal of whom so many rumours have reached us, and whose coming my father Montezuma dreads more than anything in the world, it was thought by the priests that you may avert their anger from us, and the anger of the gods.' Now Otomie paused as one who has something to say that she can scarcely find words to fit, but I, remembering only what had been said, swelled inwardly with the sense of my own greatness, and because this lovely princess had declared that I was the most beautiful man in Anahuac, I who though I was well-looking enough, had never before been called 'beautiful' by man, woman, or child.