‘Why must I be offered up, O prince?’ he cried, ’I who have been a faithful servant to the gods and to the Emperor.’

‘Because you dared to try to offer up this Teule,’ answered Guatemoc, pointing to me, ’without leave from your master Montezuma, and because of the other evils that you have done, all of which are written in this scroll.  The Teule is a son of Quetzal, as you have yourself declared, and Quetzal will be avenged because of his son.  Away with him, here is your warrant.’

Then the priests, who till this moment had been his servants, dragged their chief to the stone, and there, notwithstanding his prayers and bellowings, one who had donned his mantle practised his own art upon him, and presently his body was cast down the side of the pyramid.  For my part I am not sufficient of a Christian to pretend that I was sorry to see him die in that same fashion by which he had caused the death of so many better men.

When it was done Guatemoc turned to me and said, ’So perish all your enemies, my friend Teule.’

Within an hour of this event, which revealed to me how great was the power of Montezuma, seeing that the sight of a ring from his finger could bring about the instant death of a high priest at the hands of his disciples, we started on our long journey.  But before I went I bid a warm farewell to my friend the cacique, and also to Marina, who wept at my going.  The cacique I never saw again, but Marina I did see.

For a whole month we travelled, for the way was far and the road rough, and sometimes we must cut our path through forests and sometimes we must wait upon the banks of rivers.  Many were the strange sights that I saw upon that journey, and many the cities in which we sojourned in much state and honour, but I cannot stop to tell of all these.

One thing I will relate, however, though briefly, because it changed the regard that the prince Guatemoc and I felt one to the other into a friendship which lasted till his death, and indeed endures in my heart to this hour.

One day we were delayed by the banks of a swollen river, and in pastime went out to hunt for deer.  When we had hunted a while and killed three deer, it chanced that Guatemoc perceived a buck standing on a hillock, and we set out to stalk it, five of us in all.  But the buck was in the open, and the trees and bush ceased a full hundred yards away from where he stood, so that there was no way by which we might draw near to him.  Then Guatemoc began to mock me, saying, ’Now, Teule, they tell tales of your archery, and this deer is thrice as far as we Aztecs can make sure of killing.  Let us see your skill.’

‘I will try,’ I answered, ‘though the shot is long.’

So we drew beneath the cover of a ceiba tree, of which the lowest branches drooped to within fifteen feet of the ground, and having set an arrow on the string of the great bow that I had fashioned after the shape of those we use in merry England, I aimed and drew it.  Straight sped the arrow and struck the buck fair, passing through its heart, and a low murmur of wonderment went up from those who saw the feat.