t I saw the sight. On the floor of
the chamber were placed three solid chairs, one of them empty. The other
two were filled by none other than Guatemoc, Emperor of the Aztecs, and
by his friend and mine the cacique of Tacuba. They were bound in the
chairs, the burning braziers were placed at their feet, behind them
stood a clerk with paper and an inkhorn, and around them Indians were
busy at some dreadful task, directed to it by two Spanish soldiers. Near
the third chair stood another Spaniard who as yet took no part in
the play; it was de Garcia. As I looked, an Indian lifted one of the
braziers and seizing the naked foot of the Tacuban prince, thrust it
down upon the glowing coals. For a while there was silence, then the
Tacuban broke into groans. Guatemoc turned his head towards him and
spoke, and as he spoke I saw that his foot also was resting in the
flames of a brazier. 'Why do you complain, friend,' he said, in a steady
voice, 'when I keep silence? Am I then taking my pleasure in a bed?
Follow me now as always, friend, and be silent beneath your sufferings.'

The clerk wrote down his words, for I heard the quill scratching on the
paper, and as he wrote, Guatemoc turned his head and saw me. His face
was grey with pain, still he spoke as a hundred times I had heard him
speak at council, slowly and clearly. 'Alas! are you also here, my
friend Teule?' he said; 'I hoped that they had spared you. See how these
Spaniards keep faith. Malinche swore to treat me with all honour; behold
how he honours me, with hot coals for my feet and pincers for my flesh.
They think that we have buried treasure, Teule, and would wring its
secret from us. You know that it is a lie. If we had treasure would we
not give it gladly to our conquerors, the god-born sons of Quetzal? You
know that there is nothing left except the ruins of our cities and the
bones of our dead.'

Here he ceased suddenly, for the demon who tormented him struck him
across the mouth saying, 'Silence, dog.'

But I understood, and I swore in my heart that I would die ere I
revealed my brother's secret. This was the last triumph that Guatemoc
could win, to keep his gold from the grasp of the greedy Spaniard, and
that victory at least he should not lose through me. So I swore, and
very soon my oath must be put to the test, for at a motion from de
Garcia the Tlascalans seized me and bound me to the third chair.

Then he spoke into my ear in Castilian: 'Strange are the wa