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`Stand aside, serf!' were the stern tones of an officer, addressed to a youth.

With a thousand others, he was watching the procession of the Priests
of the sun, headed by the emperor and his nobles, on the way to offer
sacrifices at each gate of the city, to propitiate the wrath of their Deity —
for rain had not fallen on the earth for the space of eleven weeks, and the
fierce sun had burned up the harvests.

The eyes of this youth seemed to be fixed more particularly on the
princess Eylla, than on the spectacle, gorgeous as it was, with its seas of
plumes and banners; its glittering helms and golden shields; its trains of
knights in silver armor, and brazen chariots, with silken canopies of green
and gold, containing beautiful virgins of the sun, glorious in their robes of
white, and beaming coronets of stars.

`Stand aside, serf!' cried the officer a second time to the unheeding
youth, and, at the same instant, the glittering point of a long, slender spear
he carried, pricked the breast of the young man, who, ere it could penetrate,
caught it in his hand, wrenched it from his grasp, broke it in twain,
and cast the pieces disdainfully at his feet.

`Ha! It is the slave Montezuma!' cried the infuriated officer. `He
has mocked us full long. Cut him down!'

But ere the soldiers which formed the guard about the emperor and his
daughter, and which the officer commanded, could obey, the crowd opened
to the right and left and received the destined victim into its bosom.

`Hew your way to him,' cried the emperor, whose attention had been
drawn to the scene, and who now beheld the citizens protecting the offender;
`cut the slaves in pieces!'

`Nay, my father, will you let blood be spilled on this sacred time?'
plead the sweet and earnest voice of the princess Eylla, who, riding in
the imperial chariot beside the emperor, also witnessed the affray.

`They are my slaves, and it is in their blood that I float above their
heads,' was the stern reply of the tyrant.

`Nay, father! see how the poor people fall before the weapons of the
fierce guards! And look! others, as fast as their fellows are slain, press up
to fill the gap, and, with their devoted hearts, place a barrier between thy
vengeance and its victim!'

`Therefore should they die for thus daring to thwart my will! On your
life, noble,' he called to the governor of his guard, `let not the insolent
slave escape!'

`Spare him — O, spare them! For my sake, sire, bid them hold,' plead
the princess earnestly.

`Dost thou plead for a few score bondmen, daughter! If I let this pass,
the slaves will beard me on my throne!'

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`Alas! such fearful slaughter!' she cried, covering her eyes from the
scene. `Father! Emperor!' she again exclaimed, falling at his feet in
the chariot, `shall Eylla plead in vain!'

`Ascala, call off your guards! Their insolence is enough punished.
Hath the mover of it been slain?'

`Thrice he strove to force himself upon our blades,' answered the noble,
`armed with the pike-end he wrested from me, but the multitude held him
back. Thou seest him standing yonder, taller by the head than his fellows,
gazing on thee with defiance.'

The lovely princess had fallen upon the emperor's neck, as he yielded to
her tears, and gratefully kissed him. With strange affection for one so sanguinary
in his disposition, he tenderly returned it upon her forehead, and
then sternly bade the procession move on.

But Eylla — for curiosity to gaze on a man, for whom so many had given
their lives, had led her to seek him in the crowd, ere the noble pointed him
out — did not pass on before she met, and received from the dark eyes of
the handsome young man, a look of grateful homage and acknowledgment.
The gentleness of the princess drew her as near to the hearts of her subjects,
as the sternness of her father removed him from them, so the youth
felt that it was no insult for his gaze, humble as he was, to seek the eye of
the princess, and thank her for her interposition.

But the mischief that glance did, cannot be estimated! The princess
Eylla rode on — but, from that moment, she forgot the procession, — her
father — every thing but the face of the youth for whom she had interceded.
Her mind, as she proceeded, became filled with curiosity to know
who he could be that held at his command, and willing devotion, the lives
of so many men; and then her thoughts run upon his lofty aspect and noble
bearing; recalled his grateful, yet respectful glance; dwelt upon the dark
fire of his fine eyes, and the expressive manly beauty of his countenance.
But the more she thought, the more bewildered she grew, till, at length,
recalled to herself by the approach of the procession to the Temple of the
Gate, she hung her head in confusion, and concealed within the silken folds
of her azure vesture the blush that crimsoned her virgin cheek.