Montezumas Daughter | Page 4

GUATEMOC
XXVII. THE FALL OF TENOCTITLAN
XXVIII. THOMAS IS DOOMED
XXIX. DE GARCIA SPEAKS HIS MIND
XXX. THE ESCAPE
XXXI. OTOMIE PLEADS WITH HER PEOPLE
XXXII. THE END OF GUATEMOC
XXXIII. ISABELLA DE SIGUENZA IS AVENGED
XXXIV. THE SIEGE OF THE CITY OF PINES
XXXV. THE LAST SACRIFICE OF THE WOMEN OF THE
OTOMIE
XXXVI. THE SURRENDER
XXXVII. VENGEANCE
XXXVIII. OTOMIE'S FAREWELL
XXXIX. THOMAS COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD
XL. AMEN

Montezuma's Daughter
CHAPTER I
WHY THOMAS WINGFIELD TELLS HIS TALE

Now glory be to God who has given us the victory! It is true, the
strength of Spain is shattered, her ships are sunk or fled, the sea has
swallowed her soldiers and her sailors by hundreds and by thousands,
and England breathes again. They came to conquer, to bring us to the
torture and the stake--to do to us free Englishmen as Cortes did by the
Indians of Anahuac. Our manhood to the slave bench, our daughters to
dishonour, our souls to the loving-kindness of the priest, our wealth to
the Emperor and the Pope! God has answered them with his winds,
Drake has answered them with his guns. They are gone, and with them
the glory of Spain.
I, Thomas Wingfield, heard the news to-day on this very Thursday in
the Bungay market-place, whither I went to gossip and to sell the
apples which these dreadful gales have left me, as they hang upon my
trees.
Before there had been rumours of this and of that, but here in Bungay
was a man named Young, of the Youngs of Yarmouth, who had served
in one of the Yarmouth ships in the fight at Gravelines, aye and sailed
north after the Spaniards till they were lost in the Scottish seas.
Little things lead to great, men say, but here great things lead to little,
for because of these tidings it comes about that I, Thomas Wingfield, of
the Lodge and the parish of Ditchingham in the county of Norfolk,
being now of a great age and having only a short time to live, turn to
pen and ink. Ten years ago, namely, in the year 1578, it pleased her
Majesty, our gracious Queen Elizabeth, who at that date visited this
county, that I should be brought before her at Norwich. There and then,
saying that the fame of it had reached her, she commanded me to give
her some particulars of the story of my life, or rather of those twenty
years, more or less, which I spent among the Indians at that time when
Cortes conquered their country of Anahuac, which is now known as
Mexico. But almost before I could begin my tale, it was time for her to
start for Cossey to hunt the deer, and she said it was her wish that I
should write the story down that she might read it, and moreover that if
it were but half as wonderful as it promised to be, I should end my days
as Sir Thomas Wingfield. To this I answered her Majesty that pen and

ink were tools I had no skill in, yet I would bear her command in mind.
Then I made bold to give her a great emerald that once had hung upon
the breast of Montezuma's daughter, and of many a princess before her,
and at the sight of it her eyes glistened brightly as the gem, for this
Queen of ours loves such costly playthings. Indeed, had I so desired, I
think that I might then and there have struck a bargain, and set the
stone against a title; but I, who for many years had been the prince of a
great tribe, had no wish to be a knight. So I kissed the royal hand, and
so tightly did it grip the gem within that the knuckle joints shone white,
and I went my ways, coming back home to this my house by the
Waveney on that same day.
Now the Queen's wish that I should set down the story of my life
remained in my mind, and for long I have desired to do it before life
and story end together. The labour, indeed, is great to one unused to
such tasks; but why should I fear labour who am so near to the holiday
of death? I have seen things that no other Englishman has seen, which
are worthy to be recorded; my life has been most strange, many a time
it has pleased God to preserve it when all seemed lost, and this
perchance He has done that the lesson of it might become known to
others. For there is a lesson in it and in the things that I have seen, and
it is that no wrong can ever bring about a right, that