For a mile or more he walked on without speaking, now beneath the shadow of the trees, and now through open spaces of garden planted with lovely flowers, till at last we came to the gates of the place where the royal dead are laid to rest.

Now in front of these gates was an open space of turf on which the moonlight shone brightly, and in the centre of this space lay something white, shaped like a woman.

Here Montezuma halted and looked at the gates, then said: 'These gates opened four days since for Papantzin, my sister; how long, I wonder, will pass before they open for me ?' As he spoke, the white shape upon the grass which I had seen and he had not seen, stirred like an awakening sleeper.

As the snow shape upon the mountain had stirred, so this shape stirred; as it had arisen, so this one arose; as it threw its arms upwards, so this one threw up her arms.
Now Montezuma saw and stood still trembling, and I trembled also.
Then the woman--for it was a woman--advanced slowly towards us, and as she came we saw that she was draped in graveclothes.

Presently she lifted her head and the moonlight fell full upon her face.