m instant redress, or
rather security against their repetition.

The monarch was thunderstruck at the charge, while he, as well as the
few attendants that remained near his person, with difficulty restrained
the expression of their indignation at the disrespectful tone of the
address, so unlike that to which the royal ears were accustomed. He
peremptorily denied the charge. But Cortez was not to be foiled thus. He
knew that he had now gone too far to retract, and that the change of
feeling now produced would ensure his speedy destruction, if he failed
of securing the object of the present interview. He, therefore, repeated
the charge, assuring the monarch that such was the belief of all his
men, and that nothing would convince them of his innocence, or make them
willing to rest quietly in the capital, but the consent of the king to
transfer his residence, for a time, to their quarters. And this he
boldly demanded of him, in the name of their common sovereign, the great
king of Castile, and he could not refuse obedience, without breaking
allegiance with him.

"When was it ever known," exclaimed the astonished and offended king,
"that the monarch of a great people voluntarily left his own palace, to
become a prisoner in the camp of a foreign nation. If I should consent
to such indignity, my own subjects would every where cry out against it,
and a storm would be raised, which could only be hushed when the last
Spaniard was sacrificed to the outraged honor of their king, and the
wrath of their offended gods."

"No, my imperial lord," replied the politic and smooth tongued knight,
"your majesty entirely misapprehends my meaning, and the position in
which I would place you. I only propose a temporary removal from one of
your royal palaces to another, a thing of frequent occurrence, and
therefore not likely to excite remark among your people. You can bring
all your household and your court with you, and have the same royal
attendance, as you now do. This show of confidence and regard, on your
part, will inspire my men with new confidence in your kind intentions,
and give stability in the eyes of your own people, to the friendly
relations existing between us."

Montezuma still protested that it was unworthy the dignity and majesty
of the sovereign lord of Anahuac, thus to submit his motions to the
direction of strangers, as it was a daring presumption and impiety, on
their part, to suggest it. He therefore, peremptorily dec