"Señor," continued Gregorio, "I found in thy camp a villain, whose subtle and malicious nature was in harmony with my own. This was Villafana, whose representations of thy cruelty in the matter of Juan, stirred up my evil passions; and until the day when Juan returned, I was very eager to avenge his wrongs. Upon that day, I discovered that Magdalena was living. Now," he exclaimed, with vehemence, "thou mayst understand the cause of my seeming madness: now thou mayst know that the vengeance of heaven was punishing my old sin with lashes of horror. Thou knowest the evil slanders cast by the ribald soldiers upon thee, in relation to Magdalena. That dreadful suspicion was soon at an end; but there remained the other, the persuasion, supported by strong circumstances and by the malign averments of Villafana,—the dreadful, damning belief, that a horrible and unnatural sin, the direct consequence of my own, had plunged the brother and sister into a never-ending wretchedness. Ask not my feelings, when I made this supposed discovery. They caused me to seek the life of the unhappy brother, to attempt it with my own hands, and finally through thine; and all in a distraction, that mingled a thirst of vengeance with the precautions of pity. Thou knowest the rest: he was snatched out of our hands; and from Magdalena I discovered the blessed—the blissful truth, that heaven had not punished them for my sin! A course of extraordinary calamities, while it covered them with misery, yet kept them asunder.—But why should I trifle thus? The girl also was taken from me, and by the pagans, who left me on the lake-side weltering in blood. When I recovered speech and sense, I besought Guzman to send for you; nay, in my distracted impatience, being myself incapable of any effort beyond mere speech, I confided to him the secret of their birth—"
"Villain that he was, a double-dyed villain!" exclaimed Cortes, "this then accounts for his attempt upon your life, of which I had something more than mere suspicion to bring against him. I see it all now: exposure of a long series of malignant deceptions, must have followed the revealment, if it found the young Lerma—the young Castillejo, shall I say?—yet living. Is it not true? did he do you violence?"
"Not with his own hands," replied Gregorio; "nor can I say he really designed my death, not being able to communicate with the Indians, who dragged me by night from Tezcuco, carried me to the mountains, and finally took me back again, when Guzman was no longer the governor. But I doubt not, his intentions were evil."
"He has suffered for his crimes," said Cortes.—He strode to and fro for an instant, with hands clasped together, and a working visage. Then returning, and casting around a glance of suspicion, he said,
"Hark thee, Gregorio—If we save these unhappy creatures from death, thou shalt be forgiven,—ay, man, and honoured, too. I understand the motives that made thee mine ally in wickedness: now understand mine,—the persuasions of belief that converted me into a persecutor—the base and devilish persecutor, for such I was—of my sister's son—of my own flesh and blood. By heaven! I loved him dearly; nature spoke in my heart,—the instinct of consanguinity was alive within me; and even the lies of Guzman could not wholly destroy it. Velasquez the governor," he went on, "has fought me with all weapons, and with all in vain. Yet did he at last fall upon one, that was made to wound me to the quick, though it could not make me falter in this emprise of conquest. My lady, Gregorio, my lady!" he continued, struggling in vain against the feelings of humiliation, with which he confessed a weakness so unworthy;—"my lady Catalina is fair and merry, and, God wot, somewhat over fond of the gingling galliards that ruffle it at Santiago; and I,—by my conscience, I will be as honest as thou,—I have had the devil of suspicion sometimes enter my mind; but, I swear to thee, to mine own dishonour only. Upon this ground, Velasquez has thrust at me with hints, innuendos, sarcasms, jests, rumours, accusations, time without end. There has never a ship arrived, that it has not brought some petard to be shot off on my bosom; and sometimes, I think, I have been half mad with my dreams. Know, then, that one of these damnable devices was made to play in the person of my adopted son,—for such he was,—and my lady's favourite, Juan Lerma. My lady won him out of prison, and she harboured him during the sickness that followed. Out of this was constructed a story that tormented me. Yet it was naught, until Guzman penetrated the weakness, and wrought it, by I know not what means, into a fierce and fiendish jealousy. The young man was melancholy, too—he had killed his friend Hilario: but (heaven save me such madness again!) I deemed it the workings of his conscience, his sense of ingratitude, operating upon a temper, which, I knew, was naturally noble and virtuous. Thou canst not think how many little events were turned, by Guzman's malignant address, into proof and confirmation of my detestable suspicion. There came for him certain horses and arms, sent, as I quickly believed, by my wife, now bold in infidelity—"
"Alas!" said Gregorio; "I learned from Villafana, that these were the gifts of Magdalena, who, poor wretch, would have sent him her life, could that have been made an acceptable present."
"Thou makest my heart still lighter," said Cortes, "for this was the only matter I could not myself explain away, so soon as certain passages with Guzman had opened my eyes to his baseness. His oppressions forced me to withdraw him from Tezcuco; and, quarrelling with him upon that subject, as well as in regard to thine own fate, he let fall, in the heat of contention, certain unguarded expressions, which convinced me that he had made me his tool,—by heaven, Gregorio, his instrument! Suspicion once awake, my judgment once informed how much he had to gain, both of favour and revenge, by destroying my poor cornet, it needed but mine own reflections, to show me how ruthlessly I had been cajoled. And to crown all, a new light was shot into my soul, by the recovery, from an Indian princess, now a captive in my hands, of this trinket; which thou mayest know, if thou hast indeed ever looked upon the face of my sister."
He drew from his bosom the cross and rosary which Juan had flung round the neck of the Indian princess.
"I placed it," said Gregorio, "with mine own own hands upon the bosom of the infant Magdalena—But, good heaven, how came it on the neck of a savage, unless they have murdered her?'
"Fear not," said Cortes: "It was given to the princess by Juan Lerma—by Juan of Castillejo; and was doubtless presented to him by Magdalena, in the island. From this princess, I learned the first news of Magdalena, who was kindly treated by the young king, in his palace, for Juan's sake. Thou must know how this cross wrought upon my heart and brain; for I did myself give it to my sister, when they took me, but a boy, to see her in the convent. And as for this princess, Gregorio," continued Cortes, with an air of pride, "know that she is a daughter of Montezuma, the descendant of a thousand kings; and the Count of Castillejo will carry with him to his castle, a bride more noble than ever entered it before."