Is he a man, think you, to sheathe the sword that he has once drawn, and go down into darkness and dishonour?
Before a year is past the Spaniards will be back at the gates of Tenoctitlan.' 'You are no comforter to-night, my brother,' said Guatemoc, 'and yet I fear that your words are true.

Well, if we must fight, let us strive to win.

Now, at least, there is no Montezuma to take the viper to his breast and nurse it till it stings him.' Then he rose and went in silence, and I saw that his heart was heavy.
On the morrow of this talk I could leave my bed, and within a week I was almost well.

Now it was that Guatemoc came to me again, saying that he had been bidden by Cuitlahua the emperor, to command me to accompany him, Guatemoc, on a service of trust and secrecy.

And indeed the nature of the service showed how great a confidence the leaders of the Aztecs now placed in me, for it was none other than the hiding away of the treasure that had been recaptured from the Spaniards on the Night of Fear, and with it much more from the secret stores of the empire.
At the fall of darkness we started, some of the great lords, Guatemoc and I, and coming to the water's edge, we found ten large canoes, each laden with something that was hidden by cotton cloths.