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, but compose his mind, and strive to raise the desponding spirits of his officers; assuring him he should remain, as heretofore, lord of Mexico, and of the other provinces attached to it. Quauhtemoctzin and his officers thanked Cortes for this promise; upon which the latter inquired after his wife and the other women, who, he had been given to understand, had likewise accompanied him in the brigantine. Quauhtemoctzin said that he had himself begged of Sandoval and Holguin to leave them behind in the canoes until Malinche's pleasure should be known. Our general then sent for them, and regaled them with the best of everything he had at hand. As it was now getting late, and beginning to rain, he commissioned Sandoval to convey the monarch, with his family and suite, to Cojohuacan; Alvarado and Oli at the same time being ordered off to their respective stations, and Cortes himself returned to his head-quarters at Tepeaquilla. Quauhtemoctzin was taken prisoner on St. Hippolytus' day, the 13th August, 1521, about the hour of vespers. Praise and glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to his blessed mother, the Virgin Mary. Amen. During the night of this day it thundered and lightened without intermission, and about midnight with terrific vehemence.