Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/298

178 rarest fortune he suddenly finds himself a commander of men, in a virgin field of enterprise fascinating beyond expression, and offering to the soldier possibilities excelled by nothing within the century. As the mind enlarges to take in these possibilities, the whole being seems to enlarge with it, the unstable adventurer is a thing of the past, and behold a mighty rock fills the place. Against it heads shall beat unprofitably. The momentous question of to be or not to be is forever determined; it is an affair simply of life now. Life and the power of which he finds himself possessed shall rise or fall together; and if his life, then the lives of others. No life shall be more precious to him than his own; no life shall be accounted precious at all that stands in the way of his plans. To a lady who complained of the burning of the Palatinate by Turenne, Napoleon answered: "And why not, madame, if it was necessary to his designs?" The Palatinate! ay, and a hundred million souls flung into the same fire, ere the one omnipotent soul shall suffer the least abridgment. It was a small matter, and he would do it; all the islands of the Western Inde he would uproot and fling into the face of the Cuban governor before he would yield one jot of his stolen advantage. Each for himself were Velazquez, Columbus, and Charles, and the rest of this world's great and little ones, and Cortés would be for himself. Henceforth, like Themistocles, though he would die for his country he would not trust her. Return to Cuba he well knew for him was death, or ignominy worse than death. His only way was toward Mexico. As well first as last. All the past life of Cortés, all his purposes for the future, concentred in these resolves to make them the pivot of his destiny. Cortés, master of kings, arbiter of men's lives! As for these traitors, they shall die; and if other impediments appear, as presently we shall see them appear, be they in the form of eye or right hand, they shall be removed. Tyrant, he might