veral of his officers broke out into loud lamentations.
Cortes assured him, by means of our interpreters, in the most kind
manner, that he esteemed him the more for his bravery, his powerful and
courageous defence of his city, and that, far from making him any
reproaches on that head, it redounded more to his honour than to his
shame. He certainly could have wished that he had accepted his offers of
peace, to save the city from destruction, and the lives of so many of
his subjects that had been sacrificed in battle; as, however, it had
been impossible to avoid all this, and it could not now be remedied, he
ought no longer to grieve, but compose his mind, and strive to raise the
desponding spirits of his officers; assuring him he should remain, as
heretofore, lord of Mexico, and of the other provinces attached to it.

Quauhtemoctzin and his officers thanked Cortes for this promise; upon
which the latter inquired after his wife and the other women, who, he
had been given to understand, had likewise accompanied him in the
brigantine. Quauhtemoctzin said that he had himself begged of Sandoval
and Holguin to leave them behind in the canoes until Malinche's
pleasure should be known. Our general then sent for them, and regaled
them with the best of everything he had at hand. As it was now getting
late, and beginning to rain, he commissioned Sandoval to convey the
monarch, with his family and suite, to Cojohuacan; Alvarado and Oli at
the same time being ordered off to their respective stations, and Cortes
himself returned to his head-quarters at Tepeaquilla.

Quauhtemoctzin was taken prisoner on St. Hippolytus' day, the 13th
August, 1521, about the hour of vespers. Praise and glory be to our Lord
Jesus Christ, and to his blessed mother, the Virgin Mary. Amen.

During the night of this day it thundered and lightened without
intermission, and about midnight with terrific vehemence.

Subsequent to Quauhtemoctzin's capture we soldiers had become so very
deaf that we could scarcely hear anything, and we felt a similar
sensation to what a person experiences when standing in a belfry and all
the bells are ringing at once, and then cease all of a sudden. The
reader will certainly not think this an ill-timed comparison if he only
considers how our ears were constantly assailed during the ninety-three
days which the siege of Mexico lasted, both night and day, with all
manner of noises. In one quarter rose the deafening yells, piping, a