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THE COUP DE MAÎTRE OF CORTÉS.
With a twinkle of malicious merriment Cortés regarded for a moment his fallen foe, whose insufferable conceit did not desert him even here, and said:
Señor Narvaez, many deeds have I performed since coming to Mexico, but the least of them all has been to capture you."[1]
- ↑ Oviedo, iii. 510. Bernal Diaz lengthens Cortés' reply: He thanked God for the victory and for giving him such valiant gentlemen and companions to aid him. One of the smallest things he had done in New Spain was to secure and defeat him; it appeared more daring to seize an oidor of his majesty. Las Casas relates that Narvaez had a not dissimilar surprise by night from Cuban Indians, during his campaign for Velazquez, and had a narrow escape. Hist. Ind., iv. 6-8.
