Now again there was a tumult among the people, and voices cried, 'Give
them up, give them to Malinche as a peace offering.' Otomie stood
forward to speak and it died away, for all desired to hear her words.
Then she spoke:
'It seems, people of the Otomie, that I am on my trial before my own
vassals, and my husband with me. Well, I will plead our cause as well as
a woman may, and having the power, you shall judge between us and Maxtla
and his allies, Malinche and the Tlascalans. What is our offence? It is
that we came hither by the command of Cuitlahua to seek your aid in his
war with the Teules. What did I tell you then? I told you that if the
people of Anahuac would not stand together against the white men, they
must be broken one by one like the sticks of an unbound faggot, and cast
into the flames. Did I speak lies? Nay, I spoke truth, for through
the treason of her tribes, and chiefly through the treason of the
Tlascalans, Anahuac is fallen, and Tenoctitlan is a ruin sown with dead
like a field with corn.'
'It is true,' cried a voice.
'Yes, people of the Otomie, it is true, but I say that had all the
warriors of the nations of Anahuac played the part that your sons
played, the tale had run otherwise. They are dead, and because of their
death you would deliver us to our foes and yours, but I for one do not
mourn them, though among their number are many of my kin.
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