upon the night of the slaying of the Teules, none were greater than his,
and it was he who first discovered their retreat.

'Chiefs and captains of the great and ancient people of the Otomie, I
your princess have been sent to you by Cuitlahua, my king and yours,
together with my lord, to plead with you on a certain matter. Our king
has heard, and I also have heard with shame, that many of the warriors
of our blood have joined the Tlascalans, who were ever foes to the
Aztecs, in their unholy alliance with the Teules. Now for a while the
white men are beaten back, but they have touched the gold they covet,
and they will return again like bees to a half-drained flower. They
will return, yet of themselves they can do nothing against the glory of
Tenoctitlan. But how shall it go if with them come thousands and tens
of thousands of the Indian peoples? I know well that now in this time
of trouble, when kingdoms crumble, when the air is full of portents, and
the very gods seem impotent, there are many who would seize the moment
and turn it to their profit. There are many men and tribes who remember
ancient wars and wrongs, and who cry, "Now is the hour of vengeance,
now we will think on the widows that the Aztec spears have made, on the
tribute which they have wrung from our poverty to swell their wealth,
and on the captives who have decked the altars of their sacrifice!"

'Is it not so? Ay, it is so, and I cannot wonder at it. Yet I ask you to
remember this, that the yoke you would help to set upon the neck of the
queen of cities will fit your neck also. O foolish men, do you think
that you shall be spared when by your aid Tenoctitlan is a ruin and the
Aztecs are no more a people? I say to you never. The sticks that the
Teules use to beat out the life of Tenoctitlan shall by them be broken
one by one and cast into the fire to burn. If the Aztecs fall, then
early or late every tribe within this wide land shall fall. They shall