Velazquez and other officers remonstrated against the policy of this rudeness to one who had interfered to save his troops. “What consideration can I have for a dog?” was the dastardly rejoinder. “Was he not willing to treat with Narvaez, and does he not now seek to starve us?” Persuaded presently of the necessity for imperial interposition, he addressed the chiefs roughly, “Tell your master, Montezuma, to order markets to be held at once, or there will be trouble.” His tone and gesture were sufficient indications to the chiefs of the insults offered to them and their august lord, and they failed not to give them full force in their report. In answer to the demand Montezuma said that he and his chief officials were prisoners, and that nothing could be effected without the release of one among them. Cortés saw the necessity, and, without considering the result, released Cuitlahuatzin, lord of Iztapalapan, the emperor’s brother, and generalissimo of the army, a man whose hostility to everything Spanish was well known. According to Aztec law he was the most probable successor to the throne, and therefore particularly dangerous.20
Cortés was becoming foolhardy. Whether the brothers were in accord upon the measures to be adopted is uncertain; but Cuitlahuatzin, who was not only bold, but ambitious, had evidently determined on his course. If the Mexicans had hoped for better prospects with the arrival of Cortés that hope was now dissipated, and bitter indignation filled their breasts. Cuitlahuatzin was welcomed as a liberator. His constant efforts in the imperial council to oppose the admission of the Spaniards, by force if necessary, and his services for the cause of liberty and religion in connection with the Cacama revolt, were sufficient to endear him to his brother patriots.