[Footnote 14: _Tlalpilli_--the quarter-cycle, or epoch of 13 years.]
The admiration with which the Captain-General surveyed the gorgeous present, greatly moderated his disgust at the mode of making it. He stepped down from the platform, and taking the massive disk into his hands, gloated over its almost insupportable weight and dazzling splendour, with the relish of one who seemed never to have felt any passion less sordid than that of avarice. While thus engaged, ruddy at once with delight and with the effort of sustaining such a precious burthen, a paper was put into his hand, or rather held out for him to receive, while a voice murmured in his ear,
"The award of the judges, sent to your excellency for confirmation."
The golden luminary fell, with a heavy clang, upon the floor, the flush fled from his cheeks, and the look with which he turned to the untimely and ill-omened messenger, Villafana, was even more ghastly with affright than that which distinguished the aspect of the Alguazil.
"If your excellency thinks of mercy," continued the Alguazil, in the same low and hurried voice,--"it is not yet too late. They have him on the square, and are confessing him.--He has but a dog's life, and a gnat's death, who puts them in the hands of De Olid."--
Cortes cast his eye upon the paper, and beheld, besides the date, a preamble of two lines, and the signatures of the judges, the following brief and pithy sentences:
"Concealing a spy and fugitive from justice--Guilty.
"Resisting with arms an officer in the execution of his duty--Guilty.
"Sentence--To be beheaded, his right hand struck off and nailed to the prison-door.--To take effect in half an hour.
"Butchers!" cried Cortes, with accents of unspeakable horror. "What ho, a pen! a pen, knave! a pen!"
The agitation and violence of his voice surprised even the stoical Mexicans; and the writers looking up, he became suddenly aware that the implements with which they practised their rude art, would answer all his purpose. Darting forward, he snatched from the hand of the nearest, one of the many reeds which he held. The barbarian, although apparently the oldest and most infirm of the three, mistaking the purpose of the assault, started to his feet with a vivacity of effort, which, at any other moment, would have drawn a sharp look of suspicion from the Captain-General. But his thoughts were too much excited to be diverted by any such seeming inconsistency.