The following is a free translation of the first six lines:

"Pensive and sad brave Cortes stood

Surrounded by his valiant band,

His thoughts were in the heaviest mood,

While musing on Tlacupa's land,

Grief must assume an attitude,

Forehead and side were clasped by either hand."

Of the four following lines Bernal Diaz only gives the first two, the last two I have taken from Las Casas, (Brevissima Relacion de la destrucyon de las Indias.) These lines were most likely applied to Cortes after the attack he made upon the Cholullans:

On the Tarpeian rock as Nero stood

To view the flames consume th' imperial city,

Both young and old uttered their grief aloud,

But Nero neither showed remorse nor pity. (p. 52.)