Casas. Take as many servants with you
As you may desire or wish.
The apartments which await you
Have been furnished with the richest.
And in spite of his late anger
At the deed of Qualpopoca
Ferdinando Cortez loves you,
As I know, more than himself.
Mon. (Shakes his head.) Not long since I, too, believed that.
Olm. Nay, the general has spoken
Round and clear to me about it.
If he begs you to stay henceforth
In the Spanish quarters 'tis
For your greater safety only.
For his quarters are well guarded
While your own imperial
House lies open to your foes,
Foes whom you possess, you know it,
In the heart of your own people.
Mon. (To Guatemotzin.) Stay with met
Guat. Forever, father!
Mon. Stay with me!
Guat. Yea, till death!
Mon. Stay with me! O stay with met
(A room in the Spaniards' quarters. Part is cut off by a wooden trellis. In it stands a Roman Catholic altar with the image of Saint James, a silver crucifix and a golden vessel for the Host. On the opposite wall there is a wide door which, when it is open, leads on to a balcony from which one can look over the great courtyard of Theocali and the temple of Huitlipochtli.) ( Pedro de Alvarado, and sitting in a circle round him, Velasquez de Leon, Bernal Diaz, Jeronimo de Aguilar and several other officers. It is about mid- day.)
Ped. I have chosen to call you here
To take stock of our position;
For by virtue of full powers
Given to me by Ferdinando
Cortez when he left the city,
I am now his regent here.
Now we all know what occasion
Took our captain to the coast.
A fleet has landed, Spaniards
'Neath the Spanish flag, and they--
Shame to tell--contest our right
To this land which we have conquered I
'Tis a certain fellow Narvaez--
Whom I cannot bring myself
To call a gentleman of honour--
Leads a mob of pirates here,
Sweepings of humanity,
To steal from us, step by step,
This fair land, this world, which we
Made our own by well-worn battle,
Yea, by braving peril extreme,
Flinging our lives into the balance.
But the heavy hand of Cortez
Will light on him, that is certain.
1st Officer. Yet it can't be hidden: they say
That this Narvaez has full powers,
And what's more, the emperor's seat.
Ped. O, if high and windy speech were
Witness of these vaunted powers,
Then he has them, sure enough.
I acknowledge freely that
Since the mighty Genoan
Opened the West Indian coast
All the adventurers in Spain
And in Portugal too have lounged
Round the kind Castilian throne,
Lusting to be granted somehow
Letters giving them full powers,
Which are nothing more than mere
Sanction for robbery and murder.
It's become an evil practice
This unleashing of new hordes
Of wolves, more conscienceless than wolves,
Brutes who shame the name of Spaniard
And the name of Christian;
Savager at last themselves,
Than the wildest savages
Turn their fangs against their kindred.
2nd Officer. Eighty horses and ten cannon,
And eight hundred men at arms:
So 'tis said these Spaniards lead;
And they ride even now at anchor
In the harbour of Saint Juan.
Ped. But we have heard enough of that.
Soon will Ferdinando Cortez
Draw the teeth of these good wolves.
He has taken away, 'tis true,
Only half our garrison,
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