'Why do you complain, friend,' he said, in a steady
voice, 'when I keep silence? Am I then taking my pleasure in a bed?
Follow me now as always, friend, and be silent beneath your sufferings.'
The clerk wrote down his words, for I heard the quill scratching on the
paper, and as he wrote, Guatemoc turned his head and saw me. His face
was grey with pain, still he spoke as a hundred times I had heard him
speak at council, slowly and clearly. 'Alas! are you also here, my
friend Teule?' he said; 'I hoped that they had spared you. See how these
Spaniards keep faith. Malinche swore to treat me with all honour; behold
how he honours me, with hot coals for my feet and pincers for my flesh.
They think that we have buried treasure, Teule, and would wring its
secret from us. You know that it is a lie. If we had treasure would we
not give it gladly to our conquerors, the god-born sons of Quetzal? You
know that there is nothing left except the ruins of our cities and the
bones of our dead.'
Here he ceased suddenly, for the demon who tormented him struck him
across the mouth saying, 'Silence, dog.'
But I understood, and I swore in my heart that I would die ere I
revealed my brother's secret. This was the last triumph that Guatemoc
could win, to keep his gold from the grasp of the greedy Spaniard, and
that victory at least he should not lose through me.
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