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174 as if in a trap or cage. We begged him to remember the causeways and bridges, how people of the towns we had passed through had cautioned us that Montezuma was acting as his god Huitzilopochtli had advised—that he allow us to enter the city and then fall on and slay us; we begged him not to trust to the kindness and good will of Montezuma, for the hearts of men, and of Indians in particular, are inconstant; all this friendship might end in a moment, at a whim of Montezuma, for he had merely to attack us with the sword, or cut off our food and water, or draw up the bridges, and we should be helpless; considering the troops of warriors Montezuma had always about him, how should we be able to defend ourselves?—since all the houses stood In the water, how could we count on the aid of our friends, the Tlaxcalans?—taking a broad view, we had no other way to safeguard our lives but to seize Montezuma, and that without further delay; all the gold he had given us, all we had seen in the secret treasury, all the food set before us could not conceal facts from us; such thoughts as these harassed us day and night and were always In our minds; and If among us there were those heedless of the trap we were in, they were senseless, their eyes dazzled by gold and incapable of seeing the death that stood before them.

When Cortes heard our plea he said, "Do not