All being done we gathered up the ropes and tools, and embarking in
the canoes, came back to Mexico in the morning, leaving the canoes at a
landing-place outside the city, and finding our way to our homes by ones
and twos, as we thought unnoticed of any.
Thus it was that I helped in the burying of Montezuma's treasure, for
the sake of which I was destined to suffer torture in days to come.
Whether any will help to unbury it I do not know, but till I left the
land of Anahuac the secret had been kept, and I think that then, except
myself, all those were dead who laboured with me at this task. It
chanced that I passed the spot as I came down to Mexico for the last
time, and knew it again by the two trees that were growing tall and
strong, and as I went by with Spaniards at my side, I swore in my heart
that they should never finger the gold by my help. It is for this reason
that even now I do not write of the exact bearings of the place where
it lies buried with the bones of the traitor, though I know them well
enough, seeing that in days to come what I set down here might fall into
the hands of one of their nation.
And now, before I go on to speak of the siege of Mexico, I must tell of
one more matter, namely of how I and Otomie my wife went up among the
people of the Otomie, and won a great number of them back to their
allegiance to the Aztec crown.
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