“Certainly, my good chief, I have seen Malinche, and passed the afternoon looking at him and his people,” said Hualpa to Maxtla. “It may be that I am too much influenced by the ’tzin to judge them; but, if they are teules, so are we. I longed to try my javelin on them.”
“Was their behavior unseemly?”
“Call it as you please. I was in the train when, after the banquet, the lord Cuitlahua took them to see his gardens. As they strode the walks, and snuffed the flowers, and plucked the fruit; as they moved along the canal with its lining of stone, and stopped to drink at the fountains,—I was made feel that they thought everything, not merely my lord’s property, but my lord himself, belonged to them; they said as much by their looks and actions, by their insolent swagger.”
“Was the ’tzin there?”
“From the azoteas of a temple he saw them enter the city; but he was not at the banquet. I heard a story showing how he would treat the strangers, if he had the power. One of their priests, out with a party, came to the temple where he happened to be, and went up to the tower. In the sanctuary one of them raised his spear and struck the image of the god. The pabas threw up their hands and shrieked; he rushed upon the impious wretch, and carried him to the sacrificial stone, stretched him out, and called to the pabas, ‘Come, the victim is ready!’ When the other teules would have attacked him, he offered to fight them all. The strange priest interfered, and they departed.”
The applause of the bystanders was loud and protracted; when it had somewhat abated, Xoli, whose thoughts, from habit, ran chiefly upon the edibles, said,—
“My lord Cuitlahua is a giver of good suppers. Pray, tell us about the courses—”
“Peace! be still, Chalcan!” cried Maxtla, angrily. “What care we whether Malinche ate wolf-meat or quail?”
Xoli bowed; the lords laughed.
Then a gray-haired cacique behind Io’ asked, “Tell us rather what Malinche said.”