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Before the hour had gone by, pages and nobles entered, bearing new robes which were put upon my body and fresh flowers to crown my head, and I was led away to the apartments of Guatemoc, fair women going before me who played upon instruments of music. Here Guatemoc the prince waited to receive me, which he did as though I, his captive and companion, was the first of kings.
'Fear not, Guatemoc, answered Cortes. 'You have fought like a brave man, and such I honour. With me you are safe, for we Spaniards love a gallant foe. See, here is food, and he pointed to a table spread with such viands as we had not seen for many a week; 'eat, you and your companions together, for you must need it. Afterwards we will talk.
Do you swear, my people and my brethren? 'We swear, they answered with a shout. 'It is well, said Guatemoc. 'And now may everlasting shame overtake him who breaks this oath. Thus then was Guatemoc, the last and greatest of the Aztec emperors, elected to the throne of his forefathers.
One thing I will relate, however, though briefly, because it changed the regard that the prince Guatemoc and I felt one to the other into a friendship which lasted till his death, and indeed endures in my heart to this hour. One day we were delayed by the banks of a swollen river, and in pastime went out to hunt for deer.
The morrow came, and with it a deadlier fray than any that had gone before, and after it more morrows and more deaths, but still we lived on, for Guatemoc gave us of his food. Then Cortes sent his heralds demanding our surrender, and now three-fourths of the city was a ruin, and three-fourths of its defenders were dead.
Never did I see folk so much amazed, and when I came to speak of the last sacrifice of the women of the Otomie, and of the horrid end of de Garcia who died fighting with his own shadow, or rather with the shadows of his own wickedness, they cried aloud with fear, as they wept when I told of the deaths of Isabella de Siguenza and of Guatemoc, and of the loss of my sons.
The brigantines saw us and sailed after us with a favouring wind the wind always favoured the foe in that war and row as we would, one of them came up with us and began to fire into us. Then Guatemoc stood up and spoke, saying: 'I am Guatemoc. Bring me to Malinche. But spare those of my people who remain alive.
Are you not sorry, Guatemoc? I am sorry, though were I as some women are, perchance I might rejoice to see you thus. 'Woman, the prince answered in a thick voice, 'you have betrayed your country and you have brought me to shame and torment. Yes, had it not been for you, these things had never been. I am sorry, indeed I am sorry that I did not kill you.
So at last I spoke and said it was my bidding that I should be suffered to rest a while, till a feast was prepared for me in the apartments of Guatemoc the prince, for there I hoped to meet Otomie. My tutors and the nobles who attended me answered that Montezuma my servant had trusted that I would feast with him that night. Still my command should be done.
With Alvarado and a few of the other captains, he finally broke through the Aztec centre, with his own hand killed the Aztec general, to whom Guatemoc had committed the battle, and seized the Aztec standard. At the close of the long hours of fighting the natives broke and fled, and the supremacy of Cortes and the Spaniards was once more established.
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