s owner.' For this was the same sword that I had captured from one
Bernal Diaz in the fray of the noche triste.

He looked at it, then swore a great oath and said:

'I thought that it could be no other man. And so we meet again thus
after so many years. Well, you gave me my life once, and I am glad that
I have lived to pay the debt. Had I not been sure that it was you, you
had not won such easy terms, friend. How are you named? Nay, I know what
the Indians call you.'

'I am named Wingfield.'

'Friend Wingfield then. For I tell you that I would have sat beneath
yonder devil's house,' and he nodded towards the teocalli, 'till you
starved upon its top. Nay, friend Wingfield, take back the sword. I
suited myself with another many years ago, and you have used this one
gallantly; never have I seen Indians make a better fight. And so that is
Otomie, Montezuma's daughter and your wife, still handsome and royal,
I see. Lord! Lord! it is many years ago, and yet it seems but yesterday
that I saw her father die, a Christian-hearted man, though no Christian,
and one whom we dealt ill with. May God forgive us all! Well, Madam,
none can say that YOU have a Christian heart. If a certain tale that I
have heard of what passed yonder, some three nights since, is true. But
we will speak no more of it, for the savage blood will show, and you
are pardoned for your husband's sake who saved my comrades from the
sacrifice.'

To all this Otomie listened, standing still like a statue, but she never
answered a word. Indeed she had spoken very rarely since that dreadful
night of her unspeakable shame.

'And now, friend Wingfield,' went on the Captain Diaz, 'what is your
purpose? You are free to go where you will, whither then will you go?'

'I do not know,' I answered. 'Years ago, when the Aztec emperor gave me
my life and this princess my wife in marriage, I swore to be faithful
to him and his cause, and to fight for them till Popo ceased to vomit
smoke, till there was no king in Tenoctitlan, and the people of Anahuac
were no more a people.'

'Then you are quit of your oath, friend, for all these things have come
about, and there has been no smoke on Popo for these two years. Now, if
you will be advised by me, you will turn Christian again and enter
the service of Spain. But come, let us to supper, we can talk of these
matters afterwards.'

So we sat down to eat by the light of torches in the banqueting hall
with Bernal Diaz and some ot