, on the day after
Cortez had marched away. "You are changed, very much, since you
first joined us."

"I have much to make me so, Juan," Roger replied, in his broken
Spanish. "You see, I am white by blood, but I have dear friends
among the natives. What do I see? As a white, I perceive that our
position here is one of the gravest danger, and that destruction
may fall upon us all. As a friend of the natives, I see the country
plundered, the people trodden down and, sooner or later, the ruin
and misery of the whole people."

"You mean we are in danger from Narvaez' people," Juan said. "I
have faith in Cortez. He will either fight them or bring them over.
He is a wonderful man, and will find some way out of the
difficulty."

"I do not mean that, entirely," Roger replied. "I mean that there
is danger from the natives."

"Pooh!" the old soldier said, disdainfully. "The natives are no
better than so many women."

"But even women may be serious opponents, when they are fifty to
one, Juan; and you mistake these Mexicans. They have been friendly
and submissive, because it has been the order of the emperor; but
although physically not strong, they are brave. The Aztec army has
spread the dominion of Mexico over a wide extent of country. They
have conquered many peoples, and are by no means to be despised. It
is true you beat the Tlascalans, but that was not because you were
braver than they were, but because of your superior arms and armor,
and above all by the terror inspired by your horses--but this will
not last. The Mexicans now know that you are but men, like
themselves; and when they fight, inspired both by national spirit
and the memory of their wrongs, I tell you that you will have hard
work to hold your own."

"Ah well," Juan grumbled. "If it must come, it must. It will not
disturb my appetite."

When Roger learned that orders had been given for the massacre at
the temple, he determined firmly that he would take no part in the
deed, whatever it might cost him to refuse. Fortunately, he found
no difficulty in persuading one of the soldiers, told off to act as
a guard at the palace during the absence of the rest, to change
places with him, as the man wanted to have his share in the
expected plunder. Had Cacama been at liberty, Roger would not have
hesitated a moment, but would have left the Spaniards and thrown in
his lot with the Mexicans; but now it was impossible to do so. The
frenzied population would have