Montezuma's Daughter

er way of life of assistant to Fonseca, posing before the world as his nephew. But it came about that from the night of my duel with the murderer, my master's health declined st

. But the hand of death lay on him, and he knew that it was so. As the weeks went by he grew more and more attached to me, till at length, had I been his son, he co

ned closeted with him for an hour or more, when he left for a while to return with several of his clerks, who accompan

me. I found him very weak, b

een busy all my life through, and it would not be well to grow

ok my

my will-there is something to leave;

said; 'I trust that you

death. We must travel our journey each of us; what does it matter if the road has been good or bad when we have reached the goal? For my part religion neither comforts nor frightens me now at the last. I will stand or fall upon the record of my life. I have done evil in it and I have done good; the evil I have done because nature and temptation have been too strong for me

alist, a belief which I do not altogether share, holding as I do that within certain limits we are allowed to shape our own characters and

d I have little time. I was telling of my will. Nephew, listen. Except certain sums that I

it to ME!' I

o thought that I could never care again for any man or woman or child. I am grateful to you, w

your right to take it; indeed, foreseeing my end, I have of late called in my moneys, and for the most part the gold lies in strong boxes in the secret cupboard in the wall yonder that you know of. It would have been more had I known you some years ago, for then, thinking that I grew too rich who was without an heir, I gave away as much as what remains in acts of mercy and in providing refuge for the homeless and the suffering. Thomas Wingfield, for the most part this money has come to me as the fruit of human folly and human wretchedness, frailty and sin. Use it for the purposes of wisdom and the advancing

ow can I break so solemn an oath? How could I sit

ught the man and he has escaped you. Let him go if you are wise. Now bend down and kiss me, and bid me farewell. I do not desire that you should see me die, and my dea

ept, for not till this hour did I learn how truly I had come to love

as the bitterest of farewells. Now I go to seek for him again who could not come back to me, s

dres de Fonseca. They told me that he was conscious to the end and died

the cipher volumes of records that I have spoken of, and of which he gave me the key before he died. They stand before me on the shelf as I write, and in them are many histories of shame, sorrow, and evil, of faith deluded and innocence betrayed, of the cruelty of priests, of avarice triumphant over love, and

nded to me two portraits most delicately painted on ivory and set in gold, which had been found about his neck. I have them yet. One is of the head of a lady with a

ich, wealth had come to me without effort, and I had reason to desire it, yet this was the saddest night that I had passed since I set foot in Spain, for my mind was filled with doubts and sorrow, and moreover my loneliness got a hold of me. But sad as it might be, it was destined to seem yet more sorrowful before the morning. For as I sat making pretence to eat, a servant came to me saying that a woman waited in the outer room who had asked t

onseca,' she said in a low quic

I was his assistant in his business and am his heir.

ed confusedly, 'and the matter is terr

you to judg

drew off her cloak, disp

won leave to come hither upon an errand of mercy. Now I cannot go back empty-handed, so I

swered; 'if that is not en

convent walls for many years and I am distraught with grie

rs,' I answered. 'For what pu

passed upon her, judgment without forgiveness or reprieve. I am the abbess of this convent-ask not its name or mine-and I love this sinner as though she were my daughter. I have obtained this much of mercy for her because of my faithful services to the church and by secret influence, that when I give her the

tale of horror, for words could not carry them. I stood agh

med Isabella de S

rld,' she answered, 'though h

mother. Say now, can this Isabella

med by the Tribunal of Mercy. She must die and

and the medicine might be used in such a fashion that I should fall beneath the

e cowled as a priest, that those who carry out the sentence may know nothing. Still others will know and I warn you that should y

ot too swift, lest your hounds should see themselves baffled of the prey before all their devilry is done. Here is something that will do the work

tered it, and were rowed for a mile or more up the stream till the boat halted at a landing-place beneath a high wall. Leaving it, we came to a door in the wall on which my companion knocked thrice. Presently a shutter in the woodwork was d

where you are, and what its name may be, for your own

ut looked round the

und myself in a passage, ill lighted, long and narrow, in the depths of which I could see the figures of nuns flitting to and fro like bats in a tomb. The abbess walked down the passage till she came to a door on the right which she opened. It led into a cell, and here she left me in the dark.

me for a while. 'The abbess mother has told me of

asked to provide a deadly drug for a certain merciful purpose. I have pro

ns of mercy, she is condemned to death by those whose names are too high to be spoken. I, alas, am here to see the sentence carried out with a certain mitigation which has been allowed by the mercy of her chief judge. It seems that

s not needed. One word more. This visit sh

d with a note of scorn in his voice; 'n

to be far away to-night. I ask only that I may be

e not that wicked man? If so, you are bol

za except once, and I have never spoken to her. I am not the m

even under threat of torture. Poor erring soul, she could

lready followed him far. He has done worse by me and mine than by this poor girl even. Grant my

choose you as the instrument of his wrath. An opportunity shall be given you to speak with

comes, pour the contents of the phial into a cup of water. Then, having touched the mouth and tongue of the babe with the fluid, give it to

'having absolution I will be bold,

y,' said the monk with a sigh. 'Alas for the fra

y looking dress, and they took lamp