ighest nobility of Spain failed, his last
days were sad and miserable, and he died old, lonely and
broken-hearted. I again quote Helps concerning these closing scenes:

"The poets say, 'Care sits behind a man and follows him wherever he
goes.' So does ill-success; and henceforward the life of Cortes was
almost invariably unsuccessful. There is an anecdote told of him
(resting upon no higher authority than that of Voltaire) which,
although evidently untrue, tells in a mythical way the reception which
Cortes met at the Spanish Court; and his feelings as regards that
reception.

"One day he broke through the crowd which surrounded the carriage of
the Emperor and jumped on the step.

"'Who are you?' asked the Emperor in astonishment.

"'I am the man,' replied Cortes fiercely, 'who has given you more
provinces than your ancestors have left you cities.'

"Quitting fiction, however, and returning to fact, there is a letter
extant addressed by Cortes to the Emperor, Charles V., which conveys
more forcibly than even a large extent of narrative could do, the
troubles, vexations, and disappointments which Cortes had to endure at
this latter period of his life, and his feelings with regard to them.
It is one of the most touching letters ever written by a subject to a
sovereign. I will here translate some of it, greatly condensing those
parts of the letter which relate to the business in hand, and which
would be as wearisome to the reader to read, as they were to the writer
to write; for doubtless, it was not the first time, by many times,
{221} that Cortes had set down the same grievance in writing. The
letter bears date, Valladolid, the 3rd. of February, 1544. It begins
thus:--

"'Sacred Cesarian Catholic Majesty:--I thought that having labored in
my youth, it would so profit me that in my old age I might have ease
and rest; and now it is forty years that I have been occupied in not
sleeping, in eating ill, and sometimes eating neither well nor ill, in
bearing armor, in placing my person in danger, in spending my estates
and my life, all in the service of God, bringing sheep into his
sheep-fold--which were very remote from our hemisphere, unknown, and
whose names are not written in our writings--also increasing and making
broad the name and patrimony of my King--gaining for him, and bringing
under his yoke and Royal sceptre, many and very great kingdoms and many
barbarous nations, all won by my own person, and at my o