When the dungeon to which Itzalmo had been consigned was reached by the prison-keeper and his assistants, the door was thrown open, and they entered to secure the prisoner, but a surprise awaited them which they were not anticipating--the cell was empty; Itzalmo was not there.
The prison-keeper was speechless with amazement at the discovery, and, on contemplating the consequences to himself of the prisoner's escape, became horrified at the thought of the fate which certainly awaited him. He returned to the presence of the king, fully realizing the awful strait in which the situation put him. Prostrating himself at Maxtla's feet, he cried out, in accents of despair:
"Woe is come to thy servant, O King, and he is undone; for Itzalmo, the prisoner, is gone! He has fled his prison cell."
Maxtla looked for a moment, in menacing silence, on the prostrate man before him, his face becoming, as he did so, livid with rage. When he spoke, his accents were inhuman--demoniacal.
"Miserable dotard!" he exclaimed. "Thy cowardly, cringing body is fit only for sacerdotal hands. A heart for a heart it shall be--not Itzalmo's, but thine, shall fall to-day, to assuage the offended gods. Take him hence to the block, and let his blood condone his offense." Thus did the keeper of Itzalmo's dungeon become, innocently, the victim of Maxtla's ferocity.
The sacrificial ceremony was at last concluded. The sanguinary rites, in compliance with the demands of the offended deities, had been formally observed, and Maxtla, according to the declarations of the oracles, was thereby restored to favor. The assembled multitude dispersed, self-satisfied with its part in the bloody festival, and quiet once more prevailed in Azcapozalco.
Maxtla was not a man to be thwarted in his designs without a supreme effort to accomplish them. Itzalmo had escaped, but the whole Tepanec empire should be called to the support of the king, that his purposes might be made good. Pursuant to this end an edict was issued, to the effect that Itzalmo was outlawed, and, furthermore, his delivery to the Tepanec authorities, dead or alive, would be amply rewarded.
Unfortunately for Maxtla, in his purpose to not only retake Itzalmo, but to discover his abettors, who, if taken, would suffer equally with the escaped prisoner, he had, in sacrificing his prison-keeper, removed the only person who might have found a clue to the party concerned in the liberation. By his destruction the security of the liberators, if not Itzalmo's, was assured.