e their daughters as
wives to the Spaniards, did they not?"

"Six of them did so," Roger replied. "The ladies were first
baptized into the Christian religion, and then married by the
priests to as many of the chief leaders of the Spaniards."

"And what did you think of that?" Cacama asked.

"I did not think much about it," Roger said; "for it was no
business of mine, but that of the ladies and their friends. It was
certainly a politic course, on the part both of Cortez and the
Tlascalans, and bound the alliance more closely together.

"But methinks that, upon such work as the Spaniards are engaged in,
a man were better without a wife, both for his sake and her own. A
man who goes into battle with no one but himself to think of may
take joy in the strife; for he knows that, if he falls, it makes no
very great matter to anyone. But if he has a wife hard by, who will
be left a widow if he is slain, it must be ever present to him
while he is fighting; and though he may not fight less stoutly, it
must cause him grievous anxiety, and take away the pleasure of
fighting."

"You have already told us that the white men are good husbands,"
the queen said.

"I do not know that they are in any way better, in that respect,
than your own people, Queen Maclutha. There are good and bad--men
who treat their wives well, and men who neglect them."

"But you told us that they only had one wife, each," she said; "and
that even kings are kept to this rule, as well as their humblest
subjects."

"That is so," Roger said. "One man one wife, whatever his rank.
There is no occasion for the palaces of our king to be as extensive
as those of Montezuma."

"And if these officers who have married here were to return home,
and leave their wives behind them, could they not marry again?"

"No," Roger said; "as the ladies have become Christians, and been
married according to the rites of the Church, they could not be
lawfully set aside."

"And you have no wife in England, Roger Hawkshaw?" Cacama asked.

Roger laughed merrily.

"Why, I was but a boy when I left home; and as far as marriage
goes, I am but a boy still. We consider it young enough, if we take
a wife at five and twenty; and I lack six years of that, yet."

"You are a man," Cacama said gravely. "You are a man in size and
strength, and a man in courage; as you well showed, the other day,
when you were attacked by numbers of our best soldiers. You are
thoughtful and prudent. Ye