Our apprehensions were continually kept alive by the information we received from Donna Marina, and the page Orteguilla; who, by understanding the language, obtained much information which must otherwise have escaped our knowledge. We kept however constant guard over Montezuma, and the strictest military discipline in our quarters, sleeping always in our armour, and having our horses saddled and bridled every night. Without meaning it as any boast, I may say this of myself, that my armour became as easy and familiar to me as if it had been a soft down bed. And so habituated am I to this, that now in my old age, when I make the circuit of my district, I never take a bed along with me, unless attended by stranger gentlemen, when I do so merely to avoid the appearance of poverty or avarice. Yet, even when I have one, I always sleep in my clothes; neither can I rest throughout the night, but get up to contemplate the stars, walking about without hat or cap, as I used to do on guard; yet thank GOD I never get cold, nor am I the worse for this practice. This is to be a true soldier! My readers must pardon this digression, which does not proceed from vanity, but to let him know what kind of men we were, the real conquerors of Mexico[11]. [1] Clavigero calls this the god of providence, the soul of the world, the creator of heaven and earth, and the master of ill things, the rewarder of the just and the punisher of the wicked.--E. [2] Along with the work of Bernal Diaz, and in the history of Mexico by Clavigero, there are representations of ancient Mexican temples. In both they consist of six frustums of truncated pyramids, placed above each other, having a gallery or open walk around at each junction, and straight outside stairs reaching between each gallery, not unlike the representations that have been ideally formed of the tower of Babel.--E. [3] Clavigero pretends that the defeat and death of Escalante were known to Cortes and his followers while at Cholula. This is highly improbable, both from the narrative of Diaz, and because Cortes would not certainly have put himself entirely in the power of Montezuma, after this unequivocal demonstration of resolute enmity.--E. [4] In the original of Diaz they are said to have retreated to Almeria, but this is an obvious mistake. Almeria, according to Clavigero, II. 55, was the name given by the Spaniards to Nauhtlan, a city on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, thirty-six miles north of Villa Rica, which was governed by Quauhpopoca for Montezuma, and by whom the Mexican detachment was commanded by which Escalente was defeated.--E.