DE GARCIA SPEAKS HIS MIND At first I was not taken into the chamber that I had left, but placed in a little room opening out of it where the guard slept.

Here I waited a while, bound hand and foot and watched by two soldiers with drawn swords.

As I waited, torn by rage and fear, I heard the noise of hammering through the wall, followed by a sound of groans.

At length the suspense came to an end; a door was opened, and two fierce Tlascalan Indians came through it and seized me by the hair and ears, dragging me thus into my own chamber.
'Poor devil!' I heard one of the Spanish soldiers say as I went.
'Apostate or no, I am sorry for him; this is bloody work.' Then the door closed and I was in the place of torment.

The room was darkened, for a cloth had been hung in front of the window bars, but its gloom was relieved by certain fires that burned in braziers.