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. When we had hunted a while and killed three
deer, it chanced that Guatemoc perceived a buck standing on a hillock,
and we set out to stalk it, five of us in all. But the buck was in the
open, and the trees and bush ceased a full hundred yards away from where
he stood, so that there was no way by which we might draw near to him.
Then Guatemoc began to mock me, saying, 'Now, Teule, they tell tales of
your archery, and this deer is thrice as far as we Aztecs can make sure
of killing. Let us see your skill.'
'I will try,' I answered, 'though the shot is long.'
So we drew beneath the cover of a ceiba tree, of which the lowest
branches drooped to within fifteen feet of the ground, and having set
an arrow on the string of the great bow that I had fashioned after the
shape of those we use in merry England, I aimed and drew it. Straight
sped the arrow and struck the buck fair, passing through its heart, and
a low murmur of wonderment went up from those who saw the feat.
Then, just as we prepared to go to the fallen deer, a male puma, which
is nothing but a cat, though fifty times as big, that had been watching
the buck from above, dropped down from the boughs of the ceiba tree full
on to the shoulders of the prince Guatemoc, felling him to the ground,
where he lay face downwards while the fierce brute clawed and bit at his
back.
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