May you never regret this
choice, my brethren, Men of the Otomie.'
And so it came to pass that when we left the City of Pines we took from
it to Cuitlahua the emperor, a promise of an army of twenty thousand men
vowed to serve him to the death in his war against the Spaniard.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE CROWNING OF GUATEMOC
Our business with the people of the Otomie being ended for a while, we
returned to the city of Tenoctitlan, which we reached safely, having
been absent a month and a day. It was but a little time, and yet long
enough for fresh sorrows to have fallen on that most unhappy town. For
now the Almighty had added to the burdens which were laid upon her. She
had tasted of death by the sword of the white man, now death was with
her in another shape. For the Spaniard had brought the foul sicknesses
of Europe with him, and small-pox raged throughout the land. Day by day
thousands perished of it, for these ignorant people treated the plague
by pouring cold water upon the bodies of those smitten, driving the
fever inwards to the vitals, so that within two days the most of them
died.* It was pitiful to see them maddened with suffering, as they
wandered to and fro about the streets, spreading the distemper far and
wide. They were dying in the houses, they lay dead by companies in the
market places awaiting burial, for the sickness took its toll of
every family, the very priests were smitten by it at the altar as they
sacrificed children to appease the anger of the gods.
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