assumed that both chiefs were in love with the same woman, and that Xicotencatl could not bear to leave his rival alone in the field. But the true reason lay no doubt in his dislike to fight for the Spaniards, whom he had never ceased to oppose, openly and in secret, as invaders bent on the enslavement of the whole country. This idea, if faint at first, had become more fixed with every fresh blow against his personal ambition, such as the first series of defeats which plucked from him his just renown; the equal or perhaps superior position assigned in the native army to Chichimecatl, of whom he appears to have been deeply jealous;10 and the prospect of a wearisome and unprofitable campaign, wherein he must be content to figure as a subordinate, not only of Alvarado, but subject perhaps to the orders of petty Spanish officers. All this became too galling to his proud spirit, and with a few followers he turned toward his mountain home.
It would never do to countenance desertion, and by so prominent a man, at the very opening of a campaign; and Cortés immediately sent a number of troopers in pursuit, with instructions to represent to the chief the gravity of his offence, which cast a heavy stain