There is little to
be said of this parley, and I remember it chiefly because it was then
for the first time since I had left the Tobascans that I saw Marina
close, and heard her sweet and gentle voice. For now as ever she was by
the side of Cortes, translating his proposals of peace to the Aztecs.
Among those proposals was one which showed me that de Garcia had not
been idle. It asked that the false white man who had been rescued from
the altars of the gods upon the teocalli should be given in exchange for
certain Aztec prisoners, in order that he might be hung according to
his merits as a spy and deserter, a traitor to the emperor of Spain. I
wondered as I heard, if Marina knew when she spoke the words, that 'the
false white man' was none other than the friend of her Tobascan days.
'You see that you are fortunate in having found place among us Aztecs,
Teule,' said Guatemoc with a laugh, 'for your own people would greet you
with a rope.'
Then he answered Cortes, saying nothing of me, but bidding him and all
the Spaniards prepare for death:
'Many of us have perished,' he said; 'you also must perish, Teules. You
shall perish of hunger and thirst, you shall perish on the altars of the
gods. There is no escape for you Teules; the bridges are broken.'
And all the multitude took up the words and thundered out, 'There is no
escape for you Teules; the bridges are broken!'
Then the shooting of arrows began, and I sought the palace to tell
Otomie my wife what I had gathered of the state of her father Montezuma,
who the Spaniards said still lay dying, and of her two sisters who were
hostages in their quarters.
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