Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/602

 

would Emperor Charles have said to Hernan Cortés had they met on the morning after the Sorrowful Night! It is related of Xerxes that with a golden crown he rewarded a pilot who had saved his life, and thereupon ordered him beheaded for having sacrificed in the operation the lives of so many of his Persian subjects. Now Cortés had not saved the emperor's life, nor yet the emperor's gold; he had sacrificed many lives, and had little to show for them. Had Charles been there, and had he valued Spaniards as did Xerxes Persians, he might have cut off the Estremaduran's head; but Cortés was yet worth to Charles more than all that had been thus far lost in New Spain.

Prosperity implies ability; adversity, weakness of mind and character. In the high-souled and chivalrous, prosperity tends to yet loftier heights, while adversity sinks the unfortunate still lower; nevertheless, the fortitude and dignity which come to the really great under misfortune are among the grandest sights in this universe. I have said that Cortés might have

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