I looked upon him and wondered.  I looked again and knew.  Suddenly there rose before my mind a vision of that gloomy vault in Seville, of a woman, young and lovely, draped in cerements, and of a thin-faced black-robed friar who smote her upon the lips with his ivory crucifix and cursed her for a blaspheming heretic.  There before me was the man.  Isabella de Siguenza had prayed that a fate like to her own fate should befall him, and it was upon him now.  Nor indeed, remembering all that had been, was I minded to avert it, even if it had been in my power to do so.  I stood by and let the victim pass, but as he passed I spoke to him in Spanish, saying: 

’Remember that which it may well be you have forgotten, holy father, remember now the dying prayer of Isabella de Siguenza whom many years ago you did to death in Seville.’

The man heard me; he turned livid beneath his bronzed skin and staggered until I thought that he would have fallen.  He stared upon me, with terror in his eye, to see as he believed a common sight enough, that of an Indian chief rejoicing at the death of one of his oppressors.

‘What devil are you,’ he said hoarsely, ’sent from hell to torment me at the last?’

’Remember the dying prayer of Isabella de Siguenza, whom you struck and cursed,’ I answered mocking.  ’Seek not to know whence I am, but remember this only, now and for ever.’

For a moment he stood still, heedless of the urgings of his tormentors.  Then his courage came to him again, and he cried with a great voice:  ’Get thee behind me, Satan, what have I to fear from thee?  I remember that dead sinner well—­may her soul have peace—­and her curse has fallen upon me.  I rejoice that it should be so, for on the further side of yonder stone the gates of heaven open to my sight.  Get thee behind me, Satan, what have I to fear from thee?’

Crying thus he staggered forward saying, ’O God, into Thy hand I commend my spirit!’ May his soul have peace also, for if he was cruel, at least he was brave, and did not shrink beneath those torments which he had inflicted on many others.

Now this was a little matter, but its results were large.  Had I saved Father Pedro from the hands of the pabas of the Otomie, it is likely enough that I should not to-day be writing this history here in the valley of the Waveney.  I do not know if I could have saved him, I only know that I did not try, and that because of his death great sorrows came upon me.  Whether I was right or wrong, who can say?  Those who judge my story may think that in this as in other matters I was wrong; had they seen Isabella de Siguenza die within her living tomb, certainly they would hold that I was right.  But for good or ill, matters came about as I have written.

And it came about also, that the new viceroy sent from Spain was stirred to anger at the murder of the friar by the rebellious and heathen people of the Otomie, and set himself to take vengeance on the tribe that wrought the deed.