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Updated: June 19, 2025
The parting was brief, for the servants had brought news that the soldiers were becoming more and more clamorous; and were threatening to force an entrance, if the white man were not handed over to them. Bathalda and Roger left by a small door at the back of the house and, passing through the garden, took their way across the country.
You know not whether Cortez will retire to the coast and take ship there; or whether he will remain at Tlascala, till reinforcements arrive from across the sea, and then again advance. When this is decided, you will know what course to take. "Bathalda will accompany you. I have already given him orders to do so. He will bring down a message from you, when you know what course has been decided on."
"I will watch now, Bathalda, and you shall sleep." "I do not think that there is any danger, my lord. They believe us among the woods on the other side of the mountains, and it is not at all likely there will be any vigilant watch kept upon this side. We can both sleep without fear." Roger was glad to hear his companion's opinion, and in a few minutes was fast asleep. When he awoke it was day.
"They are sure to have scouts, high up on the mountainside," Bathalda said; "and they thence can look down upon all these fields; and although, as we cross them we are perfectly hidden from people standing on the same level, they can see us clearly enough from there." "The distance is very great to make out a man."
These they generally obtained by shooting them at night, as they roosted in the trees; but they sometimes hunted them by day, Bathalda imitating their call so accurately that they came up within easy shot of them, without the least suspicion of danger. They killed several small bears, which were useful, not only for their flesh, but for the warmth of their skins at night.
By the orders of Montezuma's envoys, the people had now abstained from visiting the camp, or bringing in supplies. Three weeks after, Bathalda returned from the town with the news that another embassy from Montezuma had visited the white camp, with another great store of valuable presents; but that Montezuma positively prohibited them advancing towards the capital.
If not, and I find my escape by the coast cut off, by the rising of the tribes there, the only thing that I can see is to take to the mountains; and to live there, as I did with Bathalda, on the proceeds of the chase.
He had looked on with amusement when Roger cut the bamboo, making it, as was the custom of English archers, of his own height. "My lord is not intending that, surely, for a bow?" he said. "Yes, Bathalda, I think that will do well," Roger said, trying with his knee the stiffness of the cane. At the halt next day, Roger had cut the notches for the string.
Four more of them fell, cleft through the head; and then four of them sprang upon him together, but Roger's practice in Devonshire wrestling now stood him in good service; and although in a moment the four were hanging upon him, they could neither get him off his legs, nor hold his arms; and he beat three of them down with heavy blows on their faces, while Bathalda freed him from one on his back, by a thrust with his spear.
Bathalda sat listening for a moment, to discover the direction from which the troops were coming. As soon as he made out the soft tread of the shoeless feet, he dipped his paddle in the water, and the boat glided noiselessly away. It was not long before they emerged from the narrow water way on to the lake; and then the boat's head was turned in the direction in which lay the Tlacopan causeway.
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