So soon as the Spaniards got footing in a quarter, thousands of the
Tlascalans were set to work to fire the houses and burn all in them
alive. Before the siege was done Tenoctitlan, queen of the valley, was
but a heap of blackened ruins. Cortes might have cried over Mexico with
Isaiah the prophet: 'Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the
noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee and the worms cover
thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations!'

In all these fights I took my part, though it does not become me to
boast my prowess. Still the Spaniards knew me well and they had good
reason. Whenever they saw me they would greet me with revilings, calling
me 'traitor and renegade,' and 'Guatemoc's white dog,' and moreover,
Cortes set a price upon my head, for he knew through his spies that
some of Guatemoc's most successful attacks and stratagems had been of
my devising. But I took no heed even when their insults pierced me like
arrows, for though many of the Aztecs were my friends and I hated
the Spaniards, it was a shameful thing that a Christian man should be
warring on the side of cannibals who made human sacrifice. I took no
heed, since always I was seeking for my foe de Garcia. He was there I
knew, for I saw him many times, but I could never come at him. Indeed,
if I watched for him he also watched for me, but with another purpose,
to avoid me. For now as of old de Garcia feared me, now as of old he
believed that I should bring his death upon him.

It was the custom of warriors in the opposing armies to send challenges
to single combat, one to another, and many such duels were fought in
the sight of all, safe conduct being given to the combatants and their
seconds. Upon a day, despairing of meeting him face to face in battle,
I sent a challenge to de Garcia by a herald, under his false name of