Their reply was that if we would give over all who had any part in the human sacrifice, the rest of us might go free.

To this I said that the sacrifice had been carried out by women and some few men, and that all of these were dead by their own hands.
They asked if Otomie was also dead.

I told them no, but that I would never surrender unless they swore that neither she nor her son should be harmed, but rather that together with myself they should be given a safe-conduct to go whither we willed.

This was refused, but in the end I won the day, and a parchment was thrown up to me on the point of a lance.

This parchment, which was signed by the Captain Bernal Diaz, set out that in consideration of the part that I and some men of the Otomie had played in rescuing the Spanish captives from death by sacrifice, a pardon was granted to me, my wife and child, and all upon the teocalli, with liberty to go whither-soever we would unharmed, our lands and wealth being however declared forfeit to the viceroy.
With these terms I was well content, indeed I had never hoped to win any that would leave us our lives and liberty.
And yet for my part death had been almost as welcome, for now Otomie had built a wall between us that I could never climb, and I was bound to her, to a woman who, willingly or no, had stained her hands with sacrifice.