Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/81

Rh The supreme slight of leaving him out of the council of war, summoned to consider the plan of the campaign, was at this time put upon him, and, to his boast that with his Mexican veterans he could take Algiers, one of the generals superciliously replied, that fighting the Moors was different work from killing naked Indians. His situation became less and less worthy, and an anecdote, dramatically illustrating the depth to which he sunk, relates that after vain effort to get a hearing from the Emperor, he thrust himself forward to the steps of the royal carriage, where upon perceiving him the Sovereign haughtily exclaimed, And who are you?" to which Cortes proudly answered, "Sire, I am a man who has given Your Majesty more provinces than you possessed cities." What happened next we are not told. If it were true, the incident would picture eloquently the degradation of the greatest captain of his age, forced to waylay his Sovereign at his carriage steps like the meanest beggar. There is no evidence forthcoming, however, to show that any such dialogue was ever spoken. Those who have believed and repeated this story, — and they are many, — have done so on the sole authority of Voltaire, with whom it apparently originated. (Essai sur les Mœurs, cap. 147.) He does not indicate from what source the information reached him. The scene as described seems to epitomise a very tragedy of disappointment and humiliation, so despite the staring stamp of fiction it bears, it will doubtless continue to pass for history when less dramatic facts are consigned to forgetfulness. Voltaire sceptically sneered at the credulity of the Spaniards, which enabled them, in the heat of the fight, to see St. James and St. Peter hovering over the Mexican battlefields but he himself had no difficulty in beholding Cortes in such a singularly improbable situation as this story depicts, though indeed nothing that is told of the appearances of those holy apostles seems