Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/167

Rh we could not for a moment believe Montezuma had given such orders; however, we must beg them to stay in our quarters and have no converse with the Cholulans.

That we were to be attacked we also gained further certainty through an elderly Indian woman, wife of a cacique. The beldame had seen and admired the youth and good looks and rich trinkets of Donna Marina, and had gone so far as to tell her, if she wanted to save her life she should come to her house, for we were all to be killed that night or the very next day; that the great Montezuma had sent an army of Mexicans to join the Cholulans and had ordered them to leave no one of us alive; and because she felt a sort of compassion for Donna Marina she advised her to pack her things in all haste and come to her house. There she would marry her to her second son.

Now Donna Marina had a good deal of native mother-wit and shrewdness, and she said to the dame, "How thankful I am to you, good mother! I would go with you this minute, but I have a lot of mantles and jewels and no one here to carry them. May I beg you, good mother, to wait a little, you and your son?—and sometime to-night we will leave. You see these teules have eyes and ears everywhere."

The beldame stayed on, chatting, and Donna