'
Thus I spoke, and my words were true, though I do not know what put them
into my heart, since I spoke at random in my wrath. For to-day Christ's
Church stands upon the site of the place of sacrifice in Mexico, a sign
and a token of His triumph over devils, and there it shall stand while
the world endures.
'You speak rashly, my brother,' Guatemoc answered, proudly enough,
though I saw him quail at the evil omen of my words. 'I say you speak
rashly, and were you overheard there are those, notwithstanding the rank
we have given you, the honour which you have won in war and council, and
that you have passed the stone of sacrifice, who might force you to look
again upon the faces of the beings you blaspheme. What worse thing has
been done to your Christian God than has been done again and again to
our gods by your white kindred? But let us talk no more of this matter,
and I pray you, my brother, do not utter such ill-omened words to me
again, lest it should strain our love. Do you then believe that the
Teules will return?'
'Ay, Guatemoc, so surely as to-morrow's sun shall rise. When you held
Cortes in your hand you let him go, and since then he has won a victory
at Otompan. Is he a man, think you, to sheathe the sword that he has
once drawn, and go down into darkness and dishonour? Before a year is
past the Spaniards will be back at the gates of Tenoctitlan.
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