I welcome my death, for I have lived to know shame and defeat and
torture, and to see my people the slaves of the Teule, but still I say
that God will reward you for this deed.'
Then they murdered him in the midst of a great silence.
And so farewell to Guatemoc, the most brave, the best and the noblest
Indian that ever breathed, and may the shadow of his tormentings and
shameful end lie deep upon the fame of Cortes for so long as the names
of both of them are remembered among men!
For two more months I journeyed homeward and at length I reached the
City of Pines, well though wearied, and having lost only forty men by
various misadventures of travel, to find Otomie in good health, and
overjoyed to know me safe whom she thought never to see again. But when
I told her what was the end of her cousin Guatemoc she grieved bitterly,
both for his sake and because the last hope of the Aztec was gone, and
she would not be comforted for many days.
CHAPTER XXXIII
ISABELLA DE SIGUENZA IS AVENGED
For many years after the death of Guatemoc I lived with Otomie at peace
in the City of Pines. Our country was poor and rugged, and though we
defied the Spaniards and paid them no tribute, now that Cortes had gone
back to Spain, they had no heart to attempt our conquest. Save some few
tribes that lived in difficult places like ourselves, all Anahuac was
in their power, and there was little to gain except hard blows in the
bringing of a remnant of the people of the Otomie beneath their yoke, so
they let us be till a more convenient season.
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