given to Alvarado.

The whole of Tlascalla took the greatest interest in her welfare, and
honored her as a woman invested with command. Alvarado, who was a
bachelor, got a son by her, who was named Don Pedro; and also a
daughter, Dona Leonora, who is now the wife of Don Francisco de la
Cueva, a cavalier of distinction, and a relation of the duke of
Albuquerque. She is already the mother of four or five sons, all valiant
cavaliers. She is an excellent lady, and a daughter worthy of such a
father, who, as every one knows, is comptoir of Santjago and chief
justice and viceroy of Guatimala; nor is she less worthy of the house of
Xicotencatl, for the latter ranked very high in Tlascalla, and was
looked upon as a king.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

_How Cortes gained some information respecting Mexico from
Xicotencatl and Maxixcatzin._

Cortes one day took the caziques aside, and put several questions to
them respecting the situation and affairs of Mexico. Xicotencatl, as the
more intelligent and distinguished personage, answered his queries, and
Maxixcatzin, who was likewise a man of high rank, assisted him from time
to time.

"Motecusuma," said Xicotencatl, "had such a vast army, that when he
intended to conquer any large township, or of falling into any province,
he invariably ordered 100,000 warriors into the field. They, the
Tlascallans, had often experienced this in the many wars which they had
waged with the Mexicans for upwards of 100 years."

When Cortes here interrupted them with the question: "How they had
managed to escape from being in the end subdued by such a vast army?"
They replied, "That they had, indeed, often been worsted by the
Mexicans, and lost many of their men, who were either killed in battle,
or taken prisoners and sacrificed to the idols; but that they likewise
had slain numbers of the enemy and taken many of them prisoners. Neither
did the Mexicans ever approach so unobserved, but that they received
some previous notice of their movements. In these cases they made every
effort that lay in their power; could always depend on the assistance of
the Huexotzincans; and, according to circumstances, either assailed the
enemy or pursued a system of defence. Besides this, another circumstance
was greatly in their favour, namely, that the Mexicans were excessively
hated in all the provinces and among all the tribes which Motecusuma had
subdued and plundered, and that the warriors who were forced