Just then he was joking with
some common soldiers in a strain scarcely suited to nice ears, but so
soon as he saw us he ceased and came forward. I saluted him after the
Indian fashion by touching the earth with my hand, for what was I but an
Indian captive?
'Your sword,' he said briefly, as he scanned me with his quick eyes.
I unbuckled it from my side and handed it to him, saying in Spanish:
'Take it, Captain, for you have conquered, also it does but come back
to its owner.' For this was the same sword that I had captured from one
Bernal Diaz in the fray of the noche triste.
He looked at it, then swore a great oath and said:
'I thought that it could be no other man. And so we meet again thus
after so many years. Well, you gave me my life once, and I am glad that
I have lived to pay the debt. Had I not been sure that it was you, you
had not won such easy terms, friend. How are you named? Nay, I know what
the Indians call you.'
'I am named Wingfield.'
'Friend Wingfield then. For I tell you that I would have sat beneath
yonder devil's house,' and he nodded towards the teocalli, 'till you
starved upon its top. Nay, friend Wingfield, take back the sword. I
suited myself with another many years ago, and you have used this one
gallantly; never have I seen Indians make a better fight. And so that is
Otomie, Montezuma's daughter and your wife, still handsome and royal,
I see.
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