Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/378

354 step on the way to the nameless grave where his dishonoured form was finally laid.

Prescott's description of the scenes of Montezuma's death-bed, with Cortes present to whom he confided his daughters, is based upon Cortes's own narration made in the grant afterwards conceded to one of the daughters, Doña Isabel, when she married Alonzo Grado, who is described in the same document as an hidalgo of Alcantara (Prescott, lib. iv., cap. ii.)

It is to Cortes's credit that he recognised the debt of the Spanish crown to Montezuma, and that he procured the royal protection for his children.