shadow of the Cross lay deep upon the altars of Anahuac, but still the
smoke of their offerings went up to heaven and the cry of the captives
rang round the teocallis. The hour of the demon gods was upon them
indeed, but now they reaped their last red harvest, and it was rich.


Now I, Thomas Wingfield, saw these portents with my own eyes, but
I cannot say whether they were indeed warnings sent from heaven
or illusions springing from the accidents of nature. The land was
terror-struck, and it may happen that the minds of men thus smitten can
find a dismal meaning in omens which otherwise had passed unnoticed.
That Papantzin rose from the dead is true, though perhaps she only
swooned and never really died. At the least she did not go back there
for a while, for though I never saw her again, it is said that she lived
to become a Christian and told strange tales of what she had seen in the
land of Death.*

* For the history of the resurrection of Papantzin, see note
to Jourdanet's translation of Sahagun, page 870.--AUTHOR.



CHAPTER XVIII

THE NAMING OF THE BRIDES


Now some months passed between the date of my naming as the god Tezcat
and the entry of the Spaniards into Mexico, and during all this space
the city was in a state of ferment. Again and again Montezuma sent