At this sight, Cortes seemed disordered, if not offended, saying after striding to and fro for an instant, "Let these follies be forgotten! Bury the past, and think only of the future. It is true, I avenged thy wrong--It gives me no pleasure to remember it.--Did I think this, when I made thee my son,--fed thee at my board, lodged thee on my couch, advanced thee, honoured thee, fought thy battles? did I think _this_? Pho! Juan Lerma, thou hast not repaid me well!" "Senor!" said Juan, surprised and confounded by the sudden and reproachful bitterness of these words; "when I presumed to speak to you in opposition to your measures, it was with the boldness--the folly--of affection, jealous for your excellency's--your excellency's--" "Honour!" said Cortes, sharply. "Let us speak of this no more. To business, senor, to business. Leave mine honour to mine own keeping: thou wilt find, I have it even in my thoughts. To business, to business. What say ye, Councillors?--Wilt thou truly steal my dog from me? If you rob me of naught else, it is no matter.--What say you, senor Capitan Del Salto? what say you, Sandoval? Is this young man fit to be entrusted with a captain's command? He was a good Cornet.--Can we confide to him a duty of danger and trust? His pilgrimage to the Hummingbird-land, methinks, was well conducted. What say you? I have a goodly thought for him--But I will abide your better judgment." "By St. James," said Alvarado, "there is no braver lad in the army; and were he but of clear hidalgo lineage, I should say, give him a command with the best. But here is my thought: he is a good sailor, especially in piraguas and galleys: give him a brigantine. I will crave to have him in the squadron attached to mine own division." "In my mind," said Sandoval, "he is good for the land service. It is needful we revenge the death of Salcedo and his eighty loons, who suffered themselves to be killed before Tochtepec. Lerma has the love of the dog Xicotencal, who loves nobody else. He can follow the young senor, with some twenty thousand or so of his bare-legs; and they can take the town among them." "A good thought," said Cortes, "a good thought: for this is a command which, nobody coveting, there will be none to envy. What sayst thou, senor Lerma? wilt thou adventure upon a deed thought to be both dangerous and desperate? Choose for thyself: I will compel thee to nothing. I tell thee the truth.--No captain seeks after this employment, and three have refused, except upon condition that I give them, besides as many Indians as they can raise, three hundred picked Spaniards. Thou canst not look for more than twenty, with some five or six horsemen." The eyes of the exile sparkled. "Your excellency honours me."