gods in the sight of their comrades.

Now it was that Cortes returned with many more men, for he had conquered
Narvaez, whose followers joined the standard of Cortes, and with them
others, one of whom I had good reason to know. Cortes was suffered to
rejoin his comrades in the palace of Axa without attack, I do not know
why, and on the following day Cuitlahua, Montezuma's brother, king
of Palapan, was released by him that he might soothe the people. But
Cuitlahua was no coward. Once safe outside his prison walls, he called
the council together, of whom the chief was Guatemoc.

There they resolved on war to the end, giving it out that Montezuma had
forfeited his kingdom by his cowardice, and on that resolve they acted.
Had it been taken but two short months before, by this date no Spaniard
would have been left alive in Tenoctitlan. For after Marina, the love of
Cortes, whose subtle wit brought about his triumph, it was Montezuma
who was the chief cause of his own fall, and of that of the kingdom of
Anahuac.



CHAPTER XX

OTOMIE'S COUNSEL


On the day after the return of Cortes to Mexico, before the hour of
dawn I was awakened from my uneasy slumbers by the whistling cries of
thousands of warriors and the sound of atabals and drums.