Some advised one thing, some another, and the end of it was
hesitation and folly. Ah! had Montezuma but listened to the voice of
that great man Guatemoc, Anahuac would not have been a Spanish fief
to-day. For Guatemoc prayed him again and yet again to put away his
fears and declare open war upon the Teules before it was too late; to
cease from making gifts and sending embassies, to gather his countless
armies and smite the foe in the mountain passes.
But Montezuma would answer, 'To what end, nephew? How can I struggle
against these men when the gods themselves have declared for them?
Surely the gods can take their own parts if they wish it, and if they
will not, for myself and my own fate I do not care, but alas! for my
people, alas! for the women and the children, the aged and the weak.'
Then he would cover his face and moan and weep like a child, and
Guatemoc would pass from his presence dumb with fury at the folly of
so great a king, but helpless to remedy it. For like myself, Guatemoc
believed that Montezuma had been smitten with a madness sent from heaven
to bring the land to ruin.
Now it must be understood that though my place as a god gave me
opportunities of knowing all that passed, yet I Thomas Wingfield, was
but a bubble on that great wave of events which swept over the world of
Anahuac two generations since.
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