This was the purpose and this was the command,
that I might discover your secret mind, and that I should shun whatever
advice you chanced to give. You counsel me to fight the Teules,
therefore I will not fight them, but meet them with gifts and fair
words, for I know well that you would have me to do that which should
bring me to my doom.'
Thus he spoke very fiercely and in a low voice, his head held low and
his arms crossed upon his breast, and I saw that he shook with passion.
Even then, though I was very much afraid, for god as I was, a nod from
this mighty king would have sent me to death by torment, I wondered at
the folly of one who in everything else was so wise. Why should he doubt
me thus and allow superstition to drag him down to ruin? To-day I see
the answer. Montezuma did not these things of himself, but because the
hand of destiny worked with his hand, and the voice of destiny spoke in
his voice. The gods of the Aztecs were false gods indeed, but I for one
believe that they had life and intelligence, for those hideous shapes of
stone were the habitations of devils, and the priests spoke truth when
they said that the sacrifice of men was pleasing to their gods.
To these devils the king went for counsel through the priests, and now
this doom was on them, that they must give false counsel to their own
destruction, and to the destruction of those who worshipped them, as was
decreed by One more powerful than they.
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