business was one great game, a life game, though it should last but a day; and as the agencies and influences of it fell into his fingers, with the subtlety of the serpent he dealt them out, placing one here and another there, playing with equal readiness enemy against enemy, and multiplying friends by friends.
These so lately pride-puffed tribute-men, now low laid in the depths of despondency—how shall they be played? Well, let them be like him who fell amongst thieves, while the Spanish commander acts the good Samaritan.
In pursuance of which plan, when all had retired for the night, he went stealthily to them, asked who they were, and why they were in that sad plight, pretending ignorance. And when they told him, this rare redresser was angry, hot with indignation that the noble representatives of so noble a monarch should be so treated.
Whereupon he instantly released two of them, comforting the others with the assurance that their deliverance should quickly follow; for the emperor Montezuma he esteemed above all emperors, and he desired to serve him, as commanded by his king. Then he sent the twain down the coast in a boat, beyond the Totonac boundary.