The Slave Sculptor — page 69: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MAZINA AGAIN A PRISONER. 7) but a short distance away. They listened and hearditagain. Both sprang forward im the direction of the sound to discover the child, if child it was, out there in the night, perchance alone. They had not proceeded far, when two men stepped in front of them. ‘Tona- tiuh caught Mazina by the arm and sprang back; but it was too late. were firmly bound together by the wrists, and their until not they could speak. ** Ah! my pretty one!’’ sneered Toluca. ‘* Once again I have you in my power, and I give you good security that you do not es- cape me this time. . , One there was whose cunning the villain could not entrap, and she was not absent now to foil and curse her foe :—— Metzli saw and heard all; and as Toluca drove his prisoners away, she bounded like a deer on into the city and was soon lost in its shadows and silences. It was several moments ere the captives really understood how they were situated, or what had taken pla So sudden and unex pected was the seizure, it was not until Toluca ordered them to pro- ceed that they were fully impressed with the truth of their position, and trembled iu view pe gt oe) they might expect. It was after midnight when they reached the bank of Tezeuco, near the western causeway, leading to the capital. Here they were ordered into a boat, which lay moored to the beach, and were rap- idly but silently pulled across the lake, and soon found the doors of Lord Abuitzol’s palace opening to receive them. _ Here the cord was loosened that held the captives together. Ma- zina was conducted to a large apartment by a slave, thoroughly in- structed in his duty. He removed the ligament from her wrists, the bandage from her eyes, and quickly returned, having closed the door upon the maid, securing it upon the outside. She was again a Me rg meee po sche ertree vs Sena: of the palace, of conspiring against the emperor’s life, and, so stricken were they by the emperor’s pale, distressed look, that they soon confessed their guilt, implicati ” Repu Ahuitzol as the instigator of the plot. It appeared that monarch had been made acquainted with all the proceeraae in a mysterious manner. His decision was quickly and rmly pronounced. He ordered that the twelve men be taken tc the great feocalli, and there offered as a common sacrifice; and he further commanded that Lord Ahuitzol should be summoned to wit- ness the execation of the deeree, while his own share in the plot shonkl be made public by the heralds. That the reader may have some knowledge of this sacrifice, in which so many thousands of the Aztec race perished yearly, not only comlicbooks.com