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328 then be able to get hold of it himself; and that therefore, when these officers proposed to put Guatemoc and his cousin and intimate, the cacique of Tacuba, to the torture, Cortes was much pained at the bare thought of insulting so great a monarch, and that, too, for greed of gold. For their part, the stewards of Guatemoc alleged, they had no more than our king's officers already had in their possession—three and eighty thousand dollars, the whole of which had been cast into bars.

But we conquistadores were far from satisfied, and said the sum was much below the real amount; and some of us told the royal treasurer that Cortes' sole reason for not wanting Guatemoc and his officers tried by torture was that he might keep the gold himself. Our captain did not wish such a suspicion to lie at his door, and at last agreed to the torture. Thereupon the officers put Guatemoc to test, burning his feet with hot oil. They treated in the same way the cacique of Tacuba. What the two confessed under torture was that four days before Guatemoc was taken, they had thrown their gold, together with the cannon and muskets the Mexicans had captured on the night of our sorrows, and also when lately they had defeated Cortes on the causeway—that all they had thrown into the lake. Guatemoc pointed out the spot where he had thrown it, and good swimmers searched for the treasure. But they found