At length, when full four months had passed away, the messengers returned from the court of Montezuma, having been much delayed by swollen rivers and other accidents of travel.  So great was the importance that the Emperor attached to the fact of my capture, and so desirous was he to see me at his capital, that he had sent his own nephew, the Prince Guatemoc, to fetch me and a great escort of warriors with him.

Never shall I forget my first meeting with this prince who afterwards became my dear companion and brother in arms.  When the escort arrived I was away from the town shooting deer with the bow and arrow, a weapon in the use of which I had such skill that all the Indians wondered at me, not knowing that twice I had won the prize at the butts on Bungay Common.  Our party being summoned by a messenger, we returned bearing our deer with us.  On reaching the courtyard of the cacique’s house, I found it filled with warriors most gorgeously attired, and among them one more splendid than the rest.  He was young, very tall and broad, most handsome in face, and having eyes like those of an eagle, while his whole aspect breathed majesty and command.  His body was encased in a cuirass of gold, over which hung a mantle made of the most gorgeous feathers, exquisitely set in bands of different colours.  On his head he wore a helmet of gold surmounted by the royal crest, an eagle, standing on a snake fashioned in gold and gems.  On his arms, and beneath his knees, he wore circlets of gold and gems, and in his hand was a copper-bladed spear.  Round this man were many nobles dressed in a somewhat similar fashion, except that the most of them wore a vest of quilted cotton in place of the gold cuirass, and a jewelled panache of the plumes of birds instead of the royal symbol.

This was Guatemoc, Montezuma’s nephew, and afterwards the last emperor of Anahuac.  So soon as I saw him I saluted him in the Indian fashion by touching the earth with my right hand, which I then raised to my head.  But Guatemoc, having scanned me with his eye as I stood, bow in hand, attired in my simple hunter’s dress, smiled frankly and said: 

’Surely, Teule, if I know anything of the looks of men, we are too equal in our birth, as in our age, for you to salute me as a slave greets his master.’  And he held his hand to me.

I took it, answering with the help of Marina, who was watching this great lord with eager eyes.

’It may be so, prince, but though in my own country I am a man of repute and wealth, here I am nothing but a slave snatched from the sacrifice.’

‘I know it,’ he said frowning.  ’It is well for all here that you were so snatched before the breath of life had left you, else Montezuma’s wrath had fallen on this city.’  And he looked at the cacique who trembled, such in those days was the terror of Montezuma’s name.

Then he asked me if I was a Teule or Spaniard.  I told him that I was no Spaniard but one of another white race who had Spanish blood in his veins.  This saying seemed to puzzle him, for he had never so much as heard of any other white race, so I told him something of my story, at least so much of it as had to do with my being cast away.