more of this matter,
and I pray you, my brother, do not utter such ill-omened words to me
again, lest it should strain our love. Do you then believe that the
Teules will return?'

'Ay, Guatemoc, so surely as to-morrow's sun shall rise. When you held
Cortes in your hand you let him go, and since then he has won a victory
at Otompan. Is he a man, think you, to sheathe the sword that he has
once drawn, and go down into darkness and dishonour? Before a year is
past the Spaniards will be back at the gates of Tenoctitlan.'

'You are no comforter to-night, my brother,' said Guatemoc, 'and yet I
fear that your words are true. Well, if we must fight, let us strive
to win. Now, at least, there is no Montezuma to take the viper to
his breast and nurse it till it stings him.' Then he rose and went in
silence, and I saw that his heart was heavy.

On the morrow of this talk I could leave my bed, and within a week I was
almost well. Now it was that Guatemoc came to me again, saying that he
had been bidden by Cuitlahua the emperor, to command me to accompany
him, Guatemoc, on a service of trust and secrecy. And indeed the nature
of the service showed how great a confidence the leaders of the Aztecs
now placed in me, for it was none other than the hiding away of the
treasure that had been recaptured from the Spaniards on the Night of
Fear, and with it much more from the secret stores of the empire.

At the fall of darkness we started, some of the great lords, Guatemoc
and I, and coming to the water's edge, we found ten large canoes, each
laden with something that was hidden by cotton cloths. Into these canoes
we entered secretly, thinking that none saw us, three to a canoe, for
there were thirty of us in all, and led by Guatemoc, we paddled for two
hours or more across the Lake Tezcuco, till we reached the further shore
at a spot where this prince had a fair estate. Here we landed, and the
cloths were withdrawn from the cargoes of the canoes, which were great
jars and sacks of gold and jewels, besides many other precious objects,
among them a likeness of the head of Montezuma, fashioned in solid gold,
which was so heavy that it was as much as Guatemoc and I could do to
lift it between us. As for the jars, of which, if my memory serves me,
there were seventeen, six men must carry each of them by the help of
paddles lashed on either side, and then the task was not light. All this
priceless stuff we bore in several journeys to the crest