Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/219

Rh When Mexican chiefs and his nephews called upon Montezuma they asked the reasons for his Imprisonment, and if they should make war and free him. If he were once, they said, outside our quarters, the people would rise up in arms. But he answered that he did not wish sedition In the city, and if he did not join them they would want to put a new ruler in his place; and he silenced them by saying he was doing himself the pleasure of staying a few days with us, and when he wished to complain he would tell them; and that they must not stir up the people or make any trouble, for this visit of his was with the consent of the god Huitzilopochtli whom certain papas had consulted.

All the entertainment we could think of Cortes and every one of us brought forward, and on the whole Montezuma became fairly content with the attention we showed him and he continually felt greater delight in our company. Whenever any of us were with him we doffed our helmets and bore ourselves with most marked civility, and he treated us with greatest politeness. Our captain was a man who thought carefully in all things, as I have said, and now he strove that the monarch might not feel his imprisonment too deeply. Therefore every morning, after we had said our prayers, Cortes accompanied by four officers went to ask how he was, and what he would like, until the monarch one day