'
'And so,' she said, 'at last it was finished, at last Tenoctitlan was a
ruin and my cousin and my king, the glorious Guatemoc, lay a prisoner
in the hands of Malinche, and with him my husband Teule, my sister, I
myself, and many another. Malinche swore that he would treat Guatemoc
and his following with all honour. Do you know how he treated him?
Within a few days Guatemoc our king was seated in the chair of torment,
while slaves burned him with hot irons to cause him to declare the
hiding place of the treasure of Montezuma! Ay, you may well cry "Shame
upon him," you shall cry it yet more loudly before I have done, for know
that Guatemoc did not suffer alone, one lies there who suffered with him
and spoke no word, and I also, your princess, was doomed to torment.
We escaped when death was at our door, for I told my husband that
the people of the Otomie had true hearts, and would shelter us in our
sorrow, and for his sake I, Otomie, disguised myself in the robe of a
wanton and fled with him hither. Could I have known what I should live
to see and hear, could I have dreamed that you would receive us thus, I
had died a hundred deaths before I came to stand and plead for pity at
your hands.
'Oh! my people, my people, I beseech of you, make no terms with the
false Teule, but remain bold and free. Your necks are not fitted to the
yoke of the slave, your sons and daughters are of too high a blood to
serve the foreigner in his needs and pleasures.
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