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[Book Y.
allies. Notwithstanding the demonstrations of re-gard by Maxixca and his immediate followers, therewere others of the nation who looked with an evileye on their guests, for the calamities in which theyhad involved them; and they tauntingly asked, if, inaddition to this, they were now to be burdened bythe presence and maintenance of the strangers ?These sallies of discontent were not so secret as al-together to escape the ears of the Spaniards, in whomthey occasioned no little disquietude. They pro-ceeded, for the most part, it is true, from persons oflittle consideration, since the four great chiefs of therepublic appear to have been steadily secured to theinterests of Cortes. But they derived some impor-tance from the countenance of the warlike Xicoten-catl, in whose bosom still lingered the embers ofthat implacable hostility which he had displayed socourageously on the field of battle; and sparklesof this fiery temper occasionally gleamed forth in theintimate intercourse into which he was now reluc-tantly brought with his ancient opponents.
Cortés, who saw, with alarm, the growing feel-ings of estrangement, which must sap the very foun-dations on which he was to rest the lever for futureoperations, employed every argument which sug-gested itself, to restore the confidence of his ownmen. He reminded them of the good services theyhad uniformly received from the great body of thenation. They had a sufficient pledge of the futureconstancy of the Tlascalans in their long cherishedhatred of the Aztecs , which the recent disasters they