[Illustration 3: THE BEAUTIFUL MAIDENS PRESENTED TO THE SPANIARDS. _Reproduced from the "Lienzo de Tlaxcala". Muñoz Camargo relates hot their Tlaxcalan allies presented the Spaniards a large number of "beautiful maidens." This native representation of the scene shows Cortés seated, with his followers behind him, and at his side Marina, a young native woman who was his companion and interpreter. The_ Lienzo de Tlaxcala _was a long strip of canvas, containing forty-eight representations of scenes of the early Spanish invasions. The original was destroyed during the revolution following the downfall of Maximilian, but a copy had fortunately been made before the destruction._] Shortly before the marriage of Doña Marina, Cortés's legal wife a woman of low birth and a drag upon him in his upward career had come over from the Islands to New Spain, but she did not live long after her arrival, and her death furnished the later detractors of Cortés with a pretext to attack him in the way that could most deeply and yet safely pierce his defence. This was absurd enough, since Cortés had always treated his wife with affection and consideration; but suspicion was never entirely allayed. The facts of having thus influenced in some degree the fortunes of the Conqueror and of having been one of the first ladies of Spain to die on the shores of New Spain form the only title to mention in this history of Doña Catalina Xuarez. There are indeed but few names of women associated with the conquest of Mexico, that of Marina standing out preeminent. Yet there were women not a few who exercised a certain influence on the fortunes of the Conqueror and his army, though their names are generally unknown to us. In the second march upon the Mexican capital many of the soldiers had brought their wives with them, and during the stress and storm of the days when Guatemozin was hurling his forces again and again upon the fearfully outnumbered but better armed Spaniards, these women did service in true Amazon style. Not only did they cheer and encourage the downhearted and prick the cowards--though there were very few of the latter in that little army--with the needle of their scorn, but they actually did soldier service as well. When Cortés had besought these women to remain at Tlascala, they had replied that "It was the duty of Castilian wives not to abandon their husbands in danger, but to share it with them, and, if necessary, to die with them." Though some of the names of these heroines have been embalmed in history by Herrera, they have but little meaning for us now; it is more to the point to know that one and all acted to the utmost of their conception of duty and that some of them mounted guard on the walls in the place of their husbands, while one was said actually to have donned mail at a time of disaster and rallied the retreating troops against the enemy. It cannot be said, however, that even these gallant dames showed a higher spirit than did the native