Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/425

Rh that the emperor was indeed as innocent as Cortés believed him to be, it would be advisable for him to come and stay at their quarters till the guilty parties had been punished.

Montezuma was dumfounded at this unhallowed impudence. He, the august sovereign, before whom even princes prostrated themselves, at whose word armies sprang into existence, and at whose name mighty rulers trembled, he to be thus treated by a score of men whom he had received as guests and loaded with presents, and this in his own palace! For a moment he stood mute, but the changing aspect of his countenance revealed the agitation within. At last he exclaimed that he was not the person to be thus treated. He would not go. They could always find him at his palace.

Cortés pleaded that his presence among the soldiers was necessary, not merely as a declaration of his innocence, but to allay the rumors which had reached them that he and his people were plotting for their destruction. Montezuma again made an indignant denial; but added that, even if he consented to go, his people would never allow it. His refusal, insisted the general, would rouse the worst suspicions of his men, and he could not answer for their acts. Mexico might meet the fate of Cholula, and he with it.

Montezuma now began to implore, and offered to surrender his legitimate children as hostages if he were but spared the disgrace of being made a prisoner. This could not be, was the reply. The Spanish quarter was his own palace, and he could readily persuade his subjects that he went there for a short time of his own accord, or at the command of the gods.