'I can speak their tongue; send me to discover for you.' Now as I spoke thus my heart bounded with hope, for if once I could come among the Spaniards, perhaps I might escape the altar of sacrifice.

Also they seemed a link between me and home.

They had sailed hither in ships, and ships can retrace their path.

For though at present my lot was not all sorrow, it will be guessed that I should have been glad indeed to find myself once more among Christian men.
Montezuma looked at me a while and answered: 'You must think me very foolish, Teule.

What! shall I send you to tell my fears and weakness to your countrymen, and to show them the joints in my harness?
Do you then suppose that I do not know you for a spy sent to this land by these same Teules to gather knowledge of the land?
Fool, I knew it from the first, and by Huitzel! were you not vowed to Tezcat, your heart should smoke to-morrow on the altar of Huitzel.