as a guard to his person, with Donna Marina also near to interpret, he severely upbraided the assembled caciques and papas, asking them why it was, when we had done them no harm, that they wished to kill us; that he had merely exhorted the tribes we had met to live cleaner lives, to do away with human sacrifice, to cease eating human flesh. Why had they dug holes in their streets, built barricades, sent away their families and property? Why had they refused us food? He knew perfectly well that many warriors lay secreted in the town and others waited to attack us on our way to Mexico. If they wanted to kill us, why did they not meet us in open field as their neighbors, the Tlaxcalans, had done? He knew they had sacrificed seven Indians to their god of war that they might gain the victory. But their god's promises were lies and deceits and their treachery would strike back on them.
The caciques and papas, when they heard all this, confessed that it was true, but added that they were not the guilty ones, for the ambassadors of Montezuma had ordered it in the name of their lord. Cortes answered that Spanish law did not permit such treason to go unpunished, and, so speaking, he ordered the firing of a cannon. This was the agreed signal for us to fall upon them. We gave them a blow which they will forever remember. After a couple of hours our friends of Tlaxcala came storm-
