60 The Ravine of the Unburied Dead. QJuly, 



of gaze •which eeemed to have no reference to his own situation, but 

 solely to the state of her feelings. " Ah 1 guileless daughter of the 

 mountains," he said to himself, with a mixture of sternness and sadness, 

 " thy simple young heart hath, all unguessed by its owner, passed into 

 the hands of another. To thy country's foe thou hast yielded feelings 

 whose nature stands out in guileless revelation to others, while unsus- 

 pected by thyself." Aloud he said, with fierce sarcasm, " And this 

 friend of miserable Peru — this enemy to blood and rapine — ^joins the 

 tiger-gang which desolates our valleys, and now springs insatiate on our 

 mountain recesses. So mild, so kind a nature might, perchance, find 

 more genial companions and fitter occupation." — " He had quitted both," 

 answered Ualla, with the fervour of simplicity, " but that his power, 

 once withdrawn, would have left our tyrants without a check on their 

 lawless violence. For me too, father" (she began to weep) " he prolongs 

 his power, because he would not leave me defenceless in the hands of 

 these invaders, nor yet force me from a country where, while my father 

 lives, his daughter will remain, either to find an asylum or a grave."— 

 " Alas ! poor Ualla," said Alpahula, " I can recal the days when, ere 

 Spanish treachery had taught me dark suspicion, I would myself have 

 lent, like thee (aye, like the royal, yet fallen children of the sun on yon- 

 der vanquished plains), an easy ear to the professions of our proud and 

 guileful conquerors; but the treacherous sons of the East now spread 

 their toils for me in vain. If thy Spanish protector were of such gentle 

 mould, as he woidd make thee credit, how would the haughty and un- 

 pitying chief of our captors brook, amid his band, this marrer of their 

 plunder, — this resistance of their cruelty?" — "Fernando is come of a 

 powerful^ race, his blood ranks among the noblest in the land of our 

 conquerors," replied Ualla patiently, " and his soul is of such unquench- 

 able bravery, that even the soldier he restrains both fears and loves the 

 bold hand that would check his rapacity. The merciless chief himself 

 has no mind to chase from his side the high-born and dauntless Fer- 

 nando. Would that he had earlier consented to yield the task of pro- 

 tecting your child ; would that he had been here to lighten the chain of 

 your captivity ! — Say, will you hearken to the voice of your daughter's 

 preserver ; or, can her tongue alone draw from you, my sire, the tiseless 

 secret of your treasures, and rescue the venerable remainder of your 

 days from shame and anguish ? What answer shall I take to him who 

 sent me to save you?" — "Go tell the foul idolators, that when the 

 deathless god I worship stoops from his golden height, and sinks beneath 

 yon western waves to rise no more over the land, where his worshippers 

 await him — tell them thou, then I will yield the treasures which once 

 adorned his sacred fanes, to those who have profanely trampled them 

 under foot. Go — go — I see by the faint light which streams from the 

 outward opening of ihe palace, and makes its way even to this furthest 

 cell, that the glorious god of my fathers is shedding his first morning- 

 smile on our land. I may not, as once, go forth to greet his rising, and 

 rejoice in his presence. Guests will soon be here thou would'st not look 

 on. Work that would make the blood hide itself in thy young cheek, 

 will shortly be done in this chamber. Retire — go prostrate thyself be- 

 fore our god in his crimson glory, and pray that thy father may be con- 

 stant. Embrace me, daughter ! it may be we meet no more, until we tread 

 the beamy palaces of our golden father. — Farewell." 



But the daughter clung to his knees in agony, and refused to leave 



