ur aid.'

'Farewell, Guatemoc,' I answered. 'You are fallen, but let this comfort
you, in your fall you have found immortal fame.'

'On, on!' growled the soldiers, and I went, little thinking how Guatemoc
and I should meet again.

They took me to a canoe, and we were paddled across the lake by
Tlascalans, till at length we came to the Spanish camp. All the journey
through, my guards, though they laid no hand on me, fearing the anger
of Cortes, mocked and taunted me, asking me how I liked the ways of the
heathen, and whether I ate the flesh of the sacrifices raw or cooked;
and many another such brutal jest they made at my expense. For a while I
bore it, for I had learned to be patient from the Indians, but at last I
answered them in few words and bitter.

'Peace, cowards,' I said; 'remember that I am helpless, and that were I
before you strong and armed, either I should not live to listen to such
words, or you would not live to repeat them.'

Then they were silent, and I also was silent.

When we reached their camp I was led through it, followed by a throng of
fierce Tlascalans and others, who would have torn me limb from limb had
they not feared to do so. I saw some Spaniards also, but the most
of these were so drunk with mescal, and with joy at the tidings that
Tenoctitlan had fallen, and their labours were ended at last, that they
took no heed of me. Never did I see such madness as possessed them, for
these poor fools believed that henceforth they should eat their very
bread off plates of gold. It was for gold that they had followed Cortes;
for gold they had braved the altar of sacrifice and fought in a hundred
fights, and now, as they thought, they had won it.

The room of the stone house where they prisoned me had a window secured
by bars of wood, and through these bars I could see and hear the
revellings of the soldiers during the time of my confinement. All day
long, when they were not on duty, and most of the night also, they
gambled and drank, staking tens of pesos on a single throw, which
the loser must pay out of his share of the countless treasures of the
Aztecs. Little did they care if they won or lost, they were so sure
of plunder, but played on till drink overpowered them, and they rolled
senseless beneath the tables, or till they sprang up and danced wildly
to and fro, catching at the sunbeams and screaming 'Gold! gold! gold!'

Listening at this window also I gathered some of the tidings of the
c