Montezuma's Daughter

word with me, I began to run hard after Lily and caught her not too soon, for in one more minute she would

stood thus in her white robe, a look of amaze upon her face and in her grey eyes, that was half real half feigned, and with the sunlight shifting on her auburn hair that showed beneath her little bonnet. Lily was no round-checked country maid with few beauties save those of hea

an that I am going home as it grows late. But say, why do you run so fast, and what ha

' I answered. 'Come back to the

been among the trees for more than an h

I was kept, and in a strange man

down, 'who have other things to do than to go out maying like a girl. But I w

I had told her the tale of the Spaniard, and how he strove to kill me, and how I had beaten him with my s

broke in; 'see, the blood runs fast

to see. I have ha

, that I may dress the woun

l the while. To say truth, I would have suffered a worse harm gladly, if only I could find her to tend it. Indeed, her gentle care broke down the fence of my doubts and gave me a courage that otherwise might have failed me in her presence. At first, indeed, I

at, Thomas?' she s

not know how to begin the telling of my love. I love you,

of that, Thomas?'

h I am so sure, Lily. What I wish to be as

ost to her breast, then she lifted it and her e

bt it, Thoma

nd is with me yet, when, old and withered, I stand upon the borders of the grave. It was the greatest joy that has been given

you do love me who

ld love each other, for we were born to it, and have no help in the matter, even if we wished to find it. Still, though

am sure, sweet, that he wishes you to take my

a marriage for which she has no liking. Yet it may prove strong enough to keep a woman from a marriage for which

ugh it should bring no fruit, still it is s

young, I know, but we women ripen quicker. Perhaps a

Lily; I have my place to make in the world, and it may take a time in the making, and I ask one promise of you, though perhaps it is a selfi

f myself that I promise-nay I swear it. Of you I cannot be sure, but things are so wi

s that I have written down remain in my mind, partly because of their ow

hat some blood from my wound ran down her white attire. But as we embraced I chanced to look up, and saw a sight that frighte

hment. Lily and I drew slowly apart and looked at him. He was a short stout man, with a red face and stern grey eyes, that seemed to be starting from his head with anger. For a while he could not speak, but when he began at length the words came fa

, daughter?

father,' she a

u, my half-bred Spanish cockerel, know once and for all that this maid is for your betters. How dare you come wooing my daughter, you emp

, and I will do it

before that deed is done the maid shall be safely wedded to one who has them a

should marry Thomas here, my duty is plain and I may not wed him. But I am my own and no duty

tramp it for your bread. Ungrateful girl, did I breed you to flaunt me to my face? Now for you, pill-box. I will teach yo

ed, and I who had fought with cudgel against sword, must now fight with sword against cudgel. And had it not been that Lily with a quick cry of fear struck my arm from beneath, causi

ou think to win me by slaying my fa

wered hotly, 'but I tell you this, not for the sake of all the maids u

as unworthy of me to call you "pill-box" in my anger. Still, as I have said, the girl is not for you, so be gone and forget her as best you may,

r, I still hope to live to call your daughter wif

eping. 'Forget me not and I wil

by the arm her fa

I remembered the Spaniard, who had been clean forgotten by me in all this love and war, and I turned to seek him and drag him to the stocks, the which I should have done with joy, and been glad to find some one on whom to wreak my wrongs. But when I came to the spot wher

who was tied her

l not set down. 'Half-way to wheresoever he was going I should say, meas

s horse, fool? How

long spurs he wore right into the ribs of the horse. And little wonder, poor man, and he daft, not being able to speak, but only to bleat sheeplike, and fallen upon by robbers on the king'

Minns,' I said in anger. 'That man would have murdered me,

im to the stocks? That would have been sport and all. You call me fool-but if you found a man covered with blood and hurts tied to a tree, and

d Hills. These hills are clothed with underwood, in which large oaks grow to within some two hundred yards of this house where I write, and this underwood is pierced by paths that my mother laid out, for she loved to walk here. One of these paths runs along the bottom of the hill by the edge of the pl

r father's wrath. As I went, thus wrapped in meditation, I saw something white lying upon the grass, and pushed it aside with the point of the Spaniard's sword, not heeding it. Still, its shape and fashioning remained in my mind, and when I had left it some three hundred paces behind me, and was drawing near to the house, the sight of it came back to me as it lay sof

, because of its length, and moreover, that the boot which left it was like none that I knew, being cut very high at the instep and very pointed at the toe. Then, of a sudden, it came upon me that the Spanish stranger wore such boots, for I had noted them while I talked with him, and that his feet were following those of my mother, for they had trodden on her track, and in some places, his alone had stamped

way the footprints went before me. Now I was there. Yes, the wrapping w

d up the path, but there were none. Then I cast round about like a beagle, first along the river side, then up the bank. Here they were again, and made by feet that flew and feet that followed. Up the bank they w

f a man who carried some heavy burden. I followed them; first they went down the hill towards the river, then turned aside to a spot where the brushwood was thick. In the deepest of the clump the