Quauhtemoctzin then said to Cortes, "Malinche! I have done what I was bound to do in the defence of my metropolis, and of my subjects. My resources have now become entirely exhausted. I have succumbed to superior power, and stand a prisoner before you. Now draw the dagger which hangs at your belt, and plunge it into my bosom."
These words the monarch uttered under a flood of tears, and with heavy sighs, while several of his officers broke out into loud lamentations. Cortes assured him, by means of our interpreters, in the most kind manner, that he esteemed him the more for his bravery, his powerful and courageous defence of his city, and that, far from making him any reproaches on that head, it redounded more to his honour than to his shame. He certainly could have wished that he had accepted his offers of peace, to save the city from destruction, and the lives of so many of his subjects that had been sacrificed in battle; as, however, it had been impossible to avoid all this, and it could not now be remedied, he ought no longer to grieve,