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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketches of Aboriginal Life, by V. V. Vide
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Sketches of Aboriginal Life
+       American Tableaux, No. 1
+
+Author: V. V. Vide
+
+Release Date: August 14, 2010 [EBook #33433]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCHES OF ABORIGINAL LIFE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Julia Miller, Rachael Schultz and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      Transcriber's Note
+
+    In the original text, verses in the chapter headings
+    were typeset in Gothic font; they are displayed below
+    ~like this~. Footnotes are indicated within the text by
+    a capital letter in brackets (e.g., [A]) and are located
+    at the end of their respective chapter. Punctuation has
+    been standardized. For details on typographical
+    corrections, please refer to the note at the end of the
+    text.
+
+
+
+
+                 AMERICAN TABLEAUX,
+
+                       No. 1.
+
+
+
+
+                      SKETCHES
+
+                         OF
+
+                   ABORIGINAL LIFE.
+
+
+         'Tis like a dream, when one awakes,--
+           These visions of the scenes of old;
+         'Tis like the moon, when morning breaks;
+           'Tis like a tale round watch-fires told.
+
+
+                    By V. V. VIDE.
+
+
+                      NEW-YORK:
+            PUBLISHED BY BUCKLAND & SUMNER,
+                    79 JOHN-STREET.
+                        1846.
+
+
+
+
+         Entered according to Act of Congress,
+                 in the year 1846, by
+                  BUCKLAND & SUMNER,
+     in the Clerk's office of the District Court
+              of the United States, for
+          the Southern District of New York.
+
+            Stereotyped by Vincent L. Dill,
+          128 Fulton st. Sun Building, N. Y.
+
+  C. A. Alvord, Printer, Cor. of John and Dutch sts.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The American Tableaux lay no claim to the respect and confidence, which
+is justly shown to authentic history; nor do they anticipate the ready
+favor usually accorded to high wrought romance. They are neither the one
+nor the other. The general outline is designed to be historical, and
+true to the characters of individuals, and the customs of nations and
+tribes; and the drapery in which it is arrayed is intended rather to
+illustrate the truth, and place it in bolder relief, than to weaken its
+force by irrelevant inventions. It is proposed rather to shade and color
+the naked sketches of history, and restore them to their natural setting
+and accompaniments, than to alter or distort them. The characters of
+history are usually stiff, cold, and statue-like, and their drapery, if
+they have any, is of the same marble rigidity with themselves. The
+Tableaux would transfer them to canvass in their natural colors,
+strongly relieved by a back-ground of familiar scenery and every day
+associations, and shaded or lightened, as the case may be, by the
+sorrows or joys of social life, and the cares or honors of public
+station. It may be presumptuous to hope that all this has been
+accomplished. It is safer to say, it has been attempted.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+
+THE AZTEC PRINCESS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+                                                                   PAGE
+  BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE OF TECUICHPO.                                15
+
+  The Horoscope--Faith in the revelations of
+    Astrology--Montezuma in his palace--The message
+    delivered--Resignation--Fatalism--Infancy of the
+    Princess--The slave Karee--Obtains her freedom--The
+    Chinampa--Genius and faith of Karee--Her devotion to the
+    Princess--Chivalry of the Aztecs.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  YOUTH OF THE PRINCESS--HER EARLY LOVE REVEALED--PROPHETIC
+    ANNOUNCEMENT, AND SUDDEN ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS.              27
+
+  Superstitious forebodings of Montezuma--Loveliness of his
+    daughter--Her suitors--The Prince of
+    Tezcuco--Karee-o-thán--A secret
+    revealed--Guatimozin--The ancient legend--The young
+    Pythoness--Her vision--Warning and appeal--The vision
+    realized--The pictured scroll--Agitation of Montezuma--A
+    second courier--The royal council--Courtesy to the
+    strangers--Splendid embassy--Their meeting with
+    Cortez--Munificent presents--Avarice of the
+    Spaniards--They make interest with the Totonacs, and
+    send proposals to Tlascala--Their proposal
+    rejected--They meet and conquer the Tlascalans--An
+    alliance formed--The compeers of
+    Cortez--Xicotencatl--The strength and weakness of the
+    Aztecs.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  SUPERSTITIOUS FEARS AND VACILLATING POLICY OF MONTEZUMA.          45
+
+  Frequent embassies and rich presents to the
+    Spaniards--Montezuma, fearing to act openly, plots their
+    destruction secretly--Cortez cautioned by the
+    Tlascalans--His prudence and strict
+    discipline--Cuitlahua urges Montezuma to bold decided
+    measures--Scene in the royal garden--Mysterious
+    chant--Warning--Its effect--Montezuma roused to
+    action--Energy of Cuitlahua--The army in motion to repel
+    the enemy--Confident of victory--The monarch changes his
+    plan--A stratagem--Cholula--The army arrested in its
+    march--The Spaniards in Cholula--Hospitable
+    reception--Sudden change--Suspicion of
+    treachery--Perilous position and bold bearing of
+    Cortez--His demand upon the Cholulan princes--Charges
+    them with conspiracy--Their alarm and apology--Terrible
+    massacre--Conflict on the great Teocalli--The Spaniards
+    victorious--Painful position of Cuitlahua and his
+    army--Tlascalans in Cholula.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  AGITATIONS IN THE CAPITAL--THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD--THE
+    SPANIARDS STEADILY ADVANCING.                                   65
+
+  Montezuma's duplicity--Shuts himself up in
+    despair--Divided counsels--Mistaken policy--Triumphant
+    advance of Cortez--His ambitious views--His military
+    caution--Montezuma in his family--His youngest
+    daughter--Her loveliness--Her clouded destiny--The royal
+    household--A family scene--A dark superstition versus a
+    cheerful faith--Excursion on the lake--The royal
+    cortege--The Princess--Guatimozin--The dream and its
+    echo--Prophecy--Signal and sudden return--Preparation to
+    receive the Spaniards--Cacama's embassy to
+    Cortez--Exchange of courtesies--Reception of the
+    strangers at Iztapalapan--Lofty bearing of
+    Cuitlahua--The Capital and its environs.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS AT THE CAPITAL--THEIR RECEPTION
+    BY MONTEZUMA--DETERMINED HOSTILITY OF GUATIMOZIN.               81
+
+  Singular relative position of the Spaniard and the
+    Aztec--The power and timidity of the one, and the danger
+    and boldness of the other--Speculation--Cortez
+    advancing--The Grand Causeway--The Fort of Xoloc--The
+    Emperor's retinue--Abject deference of his
+    lords--Magnificent palanquin--His personal appearance
+    and costume--The reception--Exchange of
+    presents--Montezuma retires--Cuitlahua escorts the
+    Spaniards to their quarters--Their admiration on seeing
+    the splendor of the city--Curiosity of the people--The
+    omens of that day--Their influence upon
+    Montezuma--Guatimozin's true devotion to his
+    country--His interview with the Princess--True
+    interpretation of the omens--Filial devotion versus
+    patriotism--The pledge--A new omen--The parrot turned
+    prophet--Karee and her prediction--Extreme sensitiveness
+    of the Princess.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  MUNIFICENCE OF MONTEZUMA--THE ROYAL BANQUET--THE
+    REQUITAL--THE EMPEROR A PRISONER IN HIS OWN PALACE.             97
+
+  Grand military display by the Spaniards--The terror of the
+    Aztecs--Fearlessness and high purpose of Guatimozin and
+    others--The Banquet--The company--A contrast--The
+    strangers presented to the Queen--Her grace and
+    dignity--Beauty of the Aztec women--Awkward position of
+    the admiring Cavaliers--Their ingenuity in
+    pantomime--Readily matched by the Aztec--Sandoval and
+    the Princess--Cortez and Karee--Guatimozin and Cacama in
+    argument--The Princess interposes--Sternness of
+    Guatimozin--An incident--Orteguilla--Alvarado and the
+    Naiads--Metamorphosed into a flower-god--Pays homage to
+    the Princess--The feast--The true character of the
+    invaders--Bold movement of Cortez--Montezuma's blind
+    submission to fate--Voluntarily becomes a vassal to the
+    crown of Spain--A still bolder movement of
+    Cortez--Montezuma remonstrates, but yields, and becomes
+    a prisoner in the Spanish quarters--Indignation of the
+    nobles--Portentous omen--Distress in the palace--The
+    Princess expostulates with her father--The parting, and
+    the promised meeting--Guatimozin departs in disgust--His
+    interview with the Princess at Chapoltepec--Courageous
+    hopes--Oracle and omens--Timidity made bold by love.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  TREACHERY AND RETRIBUTION--MASSACRE OF THE AZTEC
+    NOBILITY--DEATH OF MONTEZUMA.                                  121
+
+  Cortez visits Vera Cruz--Alvarado in command in the
+    Capital--His character--The Aztec festival--Unprovoked
+    attack and massacre--The whole nation in arms for
+    revenge--Alvarado in imminent peril--Cortez returns--The
+    Aztecs threaten the entire destruction of the
+    Spaniards--Furious assault upon their
+    quarters--Desperate sortie--Implacable spirit of the
+    Aztecs--Their leaders--Cortez persuades Montezuma to
+    interpose--Cacama summoned to the royal presence--His
+    noble reply--The Princes' rendezvous--Guatimozin warned
+    of danger--His escape--Cacama and Cuitlahua
+    arrested--The latter released--Fresh assaults upon the
+    Spaniards--At the instigation of Cortez, Montezuma
+    appears and addresses the people--Their loyalty and
+    deference--Suddenly changed to uncontrollable rage--The
+    Emperor mortally wounded by his own people--A temporary
+    suspension of hostilities--Death of Montezuma--His
+    funeral obsequies.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  BRIEF REIGN OF CUITLAHUA--EXPULSION OF THE
+    SPANIARDS--GUATIMOZIN CHOSEN EMPEROR--HIS MARRIAGE WITH
+    TECUICHPO.                                                     137
+
+  Cuitlahua elected to the vacant throne--His
+    resolution--Cortez, realizing his danger, resolves to
+    evacuate the city--Attempts to steal away in the
+    night--Assaulted on all sides by the Aztecs--Perils of
+    the retreat--Awful position on the Great
+    Causeway--Hemmed in on all sides--Terrible slaughter--A
+    remnant escape--Cortez in tears--Singular neglect of his
+    adversary--Activity of Cuitlahua--His sudden
+    death--Grief and despondency of the nation--Guatimozin
+    elected to his place--His activity and prudence--He
+    claims the hand of the Princess--Her timidity and her
+    devotion--Love finding the bright side of the
+    picture--The nuptial festival--Grand procession to the
+    Capital--A nation's welcome.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  FESTIVITIES AT THE COURT OF GUATIMOZIN--THE NEW HYMENEAL
+    VOW.                                                           151
+
+  Character of Guatimozin--His practical wisdom and
+    activity--Gaiety of the court--The young
+    Queen--Nahuitla, the Prince of Tlacopan--Atlacan, a
+    princess of Tezcuco--Her brother, Maxtli--Her
+    suitors--The Merchant of Cholula--Mercenary views of
+    Maxtli--Endeavors to thwart Nahuitla--How he is thwarted
+    himself--The betrothal--Sanctioned by the Emperor--The
+    nuptials--Polygamy abjured--A new Imperial
+    statute--Torch dance--Significant pantomime.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  RETURN OF CORTEZ--SIEGE OF TENOCHTITLAN--BRAVERY AND
+    SUFFERINGS OF THE AZTECS.                                      161
+
+  Guatimozin prepares for a new invasion--Cortez approaches
+    with a new army--Orders vessels built at Tlascala--Takes
+    possession of Tezcuco--Makes liberal overtures to
+    Guatimozin--Rejected with scorn--Determined spirit of
+    Guatimozin--Success of Cortez in reducing some of the
+    smaller towns--Narrow escape at Iztalapatan--General
+    defection of the tributary cities--How accounted
+    for--The Spanish fleet on the Lake--Genius of
+    Cortez--Tenochtitlan invested--Preparations for the
+    siege--Spirit of the Aztecs--Their supplies cut off--The
+    Queen in her reverses--Famine--Distress in the
+    city--Love stronger than hunger--The famishing
+    fed--Desperation--an assault--an ambush--The tide of
+    battle suddenly turned--Perilous position and severe
+    loss of the Spaniards--Cortez narrowly
+    escapes--Disastrous retreat.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  STRAITNESS OF THE FAMINE--THE FINAL CONFLICT--FLIGHT AND
+    CAPTURE OF GUATIMOZIN--DESTINY FULFILLED.                      179
+
+  The Mexicans encouraged--Oracular declaration of the
+    priests--It fails to be fulfilled--Cortez resolves to
+    lay waste the city--A wide spread ruin--Terrible
+    sufferings of the besieged--Love and loyalty outliving
+    hope--Death preferred to submission--Nahuitla proposes a
+    plan of escape--Guatimozin rejects it, but is overruled
+    by the unanimous voice of his people--Prepares for
+    flight--The battle of the ghosts--The
+    retreat--Guatimozin on the lake--Pursued by the enemy--A
+    captive--Brought before Cortez--His noble spirit and
+    bearing--The Queen and the conqueror--Her destiny
+    fulfilled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE FLIGHT OF THE KATAHBA CHIEF.                                   193
+
+  The dream of Minaree, the young bride of Ash-te-o-láh--Its
+    effect upon the Chief--He goes to the chase--Power and
+    prosperity of the Katahbas--Beauty of their
+    villages--The wigwam of Ash-te-o-láh--The Chief in his
+    canoe--The deer--The foe--The chase--He turns upon his
+    pursuers--Slays seven of their number successively--Is
+    taken--Marched off as a captive--His boldness and
+    dignity--Arrives in the territories of his
+    enemies--Insulted and beaten by the women--Condemned to
+    the fiery torture--Led out to execution--Breaks away
+    and escapes--Pauses to defy his pursuers--Distances
+    them all--Stops to rest--Finds a place of
+    concealment--Plans the destruction of the pursuing
+    party--Succeeds--Returns home in triumph, laden with
+    trophies and spoils.
+
+
+MONICA--THE ITEAN CAPTIVE.                                         209
+
+  Reverence for the dead--Indian burial--The journey to the
+    Spirit land--The favorite dog killed--Food for
+    journey--Mementoes of the departed--The grave of an
+    infant boy--The Itean encampment--A sister's grief--Her
+    dream--She visits the grave by moonlight--Her
+    song--Enters a canoe and floats down the stream--A
+    captive, devoted to the "Great Star"--Pagan rite among
+    the Pawnees--Preparing for the sacrifice--Ignorant of
+    her fate--Gathering of the Pawnees to the festival--The
+    victim led to the stake--The terrible orgies
+    commence--Are suddenly interrupted--The captive
+    unbound--The flight--Parting with her deliverer--Meets
+    her friends--Reaches her home in safety--Petalesharro,
+    her deliverer--His person and character--Bloody rite
+    abolished.
+
+
+THE HERMITESS OF ATHABASCA.                                        227
+
+  The wigwam of Kaf-ne-wah-go--His family--Tula, his only
+    daughter--O-ken-áh-ga, her husband--The Athapuscows
+    steal in at night--The chiefs murdered--Tula a
+    captive--Her infant boy murdered before her eyes--The
+    Chippeways in pursuit of the murderers--Following the
+    trail--The enemy overtaken--Retribution wreaked upon
+    the innocent--The deep grief of Tula--Her weary
+    marches--Her captors encamp--The tempest--She escapes
+    in the darkness--Vain attempts to discover her
+    retreat--Seeks to find her way back to her people--The
+    forest--A midnight intruder--She climbs a tree--Is
+    besieged--Assaulted--Repels and destroys the
+    enemy--Intricacies and dangers of the forest--An
+    opening, but no light--Bewildered--Resolves to go no
+    farther--Finds a convenient spot--builds a cabin--her
+    house-keeping--Her ingenuity, industry and taste--The
+    Hermitess discovered--Her solitude reluctantly
+    abandoned--Indian mode of obtaining a
+    wife--Journeyings--A new party--An unexpected meeting.
+
+
+
+
+THE AZTEC PRINCESS,
+
+OR
+
+DESTINY FORESHADOWED.
+
+
+                      Rapacious Spain
+    Followed her bold discoverer o'er the main;
+    A rabid race, fanatically bold,
+    And steeled to cruelty by lust of gold,
+    Traversed the waves, the unknown world explored,
+    The cross their standard, but their path the sword;
+    Their steps were graves; o'er prostrate realms they trod,
+    They worshipped Mammon, while they vowed to God.
+
+
+
+
+THE AZTEC PRINCESS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE OF TECUICHPO.
+
+   ~Tell me, ascribest thou influence to the stars?~
+
+
+     "Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial House of Tenochtitlan! Never saw I
+     the heavens in so inauspicious an aspect. Dark portentous
+     influences appear on every side. May the horoscope of the
+     infant daughter of Montezuma never be fulfilled."
+
+These were the awful words of the priestly astrologer of Tenochtitlan,
+uttered with solemn and oracular emphasis from the lofty Teocalli, where
+he had been long and studiously watching the heavens, and calculating
+the relative positions and combinations of the stars. A deep unutterable
+gloom seemed to pervade his soul. Several times he traversed the broad
+terrace, in a terrible agitation; his splendid pontifical robes flowing
+loosely in the breeze, and his tall majestic figure relieved against the
+clear sky, like some colossal moving statue,--and then, in tones of
+deeper grief than before, finding no error in his calculations,
+reiterated his oracular curse--"Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial House of
+Tenochtitlan!" Casting down his instruments to the earth, and tearing
+his hair in the violence of his emotions, he prostrated himself on the
+altar, and poured forth a loud and earnest prayer to all his gods.
+
+"Is there no favoring omen in any quarter, venerable father?" inquired
+the agitated messenger from the palace, when the prayer was ended--"is
+there no one of those bright spheres above us, that will deign to smile
+on the destiny of the young princess?"
+
+"It is full of mysterious, portentous contradictions," replied the
+astrologer. "Good and evil influences contend for the mastery. The evil
+prevail, but the good are not wholly extinguished. The life of the
+princess will be a life of sorrow, but there will be a peculiar
+brightness in its end. Yet the aspect of every sign in the heavens is
+wo, and only wo, to the imperial House of Montezuma."
+
+Faith in the revelations of astrology was a deeply rooted superstition
+with the Aztecs. It pervaded the whole structure of society, affecting
+the most intelligent and well-informed, as well as the humblest and most
+ignorant individual. In this case, the prophetic wailings of the
+priestly oracle rolled, like a long funereal knell, through the
+magnificent halls of the imperial palace, and fell upon the ear of the
+monarch, as if it had been a voice from the unseen world. Montezuma was
+reclining on a splendidly embroidered couch, in his private apartment,
+anxiously awaiting the response of the celestial oracle. He was
+magnificently arrayed in his royal robes of green, richly ornamented
+with variegated feather-work, and elaborately inwrought with gold and
+silver. His sandals were of pure gold, with ties and anklets of gold and
+silver thread, curiously interwoven with a variegated cotton cord. On
+his head was a rich fillet of gold, with a beautiful plume bending
+gracefully over one side, casting a melancholy shade over his handsome
+but naturally pensive features. A few of the royal princes sat, in
+respectful silence, at the farther end of the chamber, waiting, with an
+anxiety almost equal to that of the monarch, the return of the royal
+messenger.
+
+The apartments of the emperor were richly hung with tapestry of
+ornamental feather-work, rivalling, in the brilliancy of its dyes, and
+the beautiful harmony of its arrangement, the celebrated Gobelin
+tapestry. The floor was a tesselated pavement of porphyry and other
+beautiful stones. Numerous torches, supported in massive silver stands,
+delicately carved with fanciful figures of various kinds, blazed through
+the apartment, lighting up, with an almost noonday brilliancy, the
+gorgeous folds of the plumed hangings, and filling the whole palace with
+the sweet breath of the odoriferous gums of which they were composed.
+
+The emperor leaned pensively on his hand, seemingly oppressed with some
+superstitious melancholy forebodings. Perhaps the shadow of that
+mysterious prophecy, which betokened the extinction of the Aztec
+dynasty, and the consequent ruin of his house, was passing athwart the
+troubled sky of his mind, veiling the always doubtful future in mists of
+tenfold dimness. Whatever it was that disturbed his royal serenity, his
+reverie was soon broken by the sound of an approaching footstep. For a
+moment, nothing was heard but the measured tread of the trembling
+messenger, pacing with unwilling step the long corridor, that led to the
+royal presence. With his head bowed upon his breast, his eyes fixed upon
+the pavement, his person veiled in the coarse _nequen_,[A] and his feet
+bare, he stood before the monarch, dumb as a statue.
+
+"What response bring you," eagerly enquired the emperor, "from the
+burning oracles of heaven? How reads the destiny of my new-born infant?"
+
+"The response be to the enemies of the great Montezuma," replied the
+messenger, without lifting his eyes from the floor, "and the destiny it
+foreshadows to the children of them that hate him."
+
+"Speak," exclaimed the monarch, "What message do you bring from the
+priest of the stars?"
+
+"Alas! my royal master, my message is full of wo--my heart faints, and
+my tongue refuses its office to give it utterance. The old prophet bade
+me say, that the celestial influences are all unpropitious; that the
+destiny of the infant princess is a life of sorrow, with a gleam of more
+than earthly brightness in its evening horizon. And then, prostrating
+himself upon the great altar, he groaned out one long, deep,
+heart-rending wail for the imperial House of Tenochtitlan, and the
+golden realm of Anahuac."
+
+A deeper shade came over the brow of Montezuma, and heaving a sigh from
+the very depths of a soul that had long been agitated by melancholy
+forebodings of coming evil, he raised his eyes to heaven, and said,
+"the will of the gods be done." Then, waving his hand to his attendants,
+they bowed their heads, and retired in silence from the apartment.
+
+"It has come at last," inwardly groaned the monarch, as soon as he found
+himself alone--"it has come at last--that fearful prophecy, that has so
+long hung, like the shadow of a great cloud, over my devoted house, is
+now to be fulfilled. The fates have willed it, and there is no escape
+from their dread decrees. I must make ready for the sacrifice."
+
+Nerved by the stern influence of this dark fatalism, Montezuma brushed a
+tear from his eye, and putting a royal restraint upon the turbulent
+sorrows and fears of his paternal heart, hastened to the apartments of
+the queen, to break to her, with all the gentleness and caution which
+her delicate and precarious circumstances required, the mournful issue
+of their inquiries at the court of heaven, into the future destiny and
+prospects of their new-born babe.
+
+A deep gloom hung over the palace and the city. Every heart, even the
+most humble and unobserved, sympathized in the disappointment, and
+shared the distress, of their sovereign. And the day, which should have
+been consecrated to loyal congratulations, and general festivities,
+became, as by common consent, a sort of national fast, a season of
+universal lamentation.
+
+The little stranger was welcomed into life with that peculiar chastened
+tenderness, which is the natural offspring of love and pity--love, such
+as infant innocence wins spontaneously from every heart--pity, such as
+melancholy forebodings of coming years of sorrow to one beloved, cannot
+fail to awaken. She was regarded as the most beautiful and the most
+interesting of all her race. Every look and motion seemed to have its
+peculiar significance in indicating the victim of a remarkable destiny.
+And it is not to be wondered at, that a superstition so sad, and an
+affection so tender and solicitous, discovered an almost miraculous
+precocity in the first developments of the intellectual and moral
+qualities of its subject. She was the attractive centre of all the
+admiration and love of the royal household. Imagination fancied a
+peculiar sadness in her eye, and her merry laugh was supposed to mingle
+an element of sadness in its tones. Her mild and winning manners, and
+her affectionate disposition made her the idol of all whom she loved;
+and each one strove to do her service, as if hoping to avert, in some
+measure, the coming doom of their darling; while she clung to the fond
+and devoted hearts around her, as the ivy clings to the oak, which
+receives its embraces, and is necessary to its support.
+
+When the young princess, who received the name of Tecuichpo, had arrived
+at the age of one year, she was given in charge to a young and beautiful
+slave, whom the Emperor had recently obtained from Azcapozalco. Karee
+was gifted with rare powers of minstrelsy. Her voice had the sweetness,
+power and compass of a mocking bird, and all day long she warbled her
+ever-changing lays, as if her natural breathing were music, and song the
+natural flow of her thoughts. She soon became passionately devoted to
+the little pet, and exerted all her uncommon gifts to amuse and instruct
+her. She taught her all the native songs of Azcapozalco and Mexitli,
+instructed her in dancing, embroidery and feather-work, and initiated
+her into the science of picture-writing and the fanciful language of
+flowers. Karee and her royal charge were never apart. Gentle and timid
+as the dove, Tecuichpo clung to her new nurse, as to the bosom of a
+mother. Even in her early infancy, she would so sweetly respond, like an
+echo, to the gentle lullaby, and mingle her little notes so
+symphoniously with those of Karee, that it excited the wonder and
+admiration of all. Karee was passionately fond of flowers. It was indeed
+an element in the national taste of this remarkable people. But Karee
+was unusually gifted in her preceptions of natural beauty, and seemed to
+have a soul most delicately attuned to the spirit and language of
+flowers, the painted hieroglyphics of nature. She loved to exercise her
+exuberant fancy in decorating her little mistress, and often contrived
+so to arrange them upon the various parts of her person and dress, as to
+make her at different times, the emblematic representation of every
+bright and beautiful spirit, that was supposed to people their celestial
+paradise, or to hover, on wings of love and gentle care, about the path
+of those whom the gods delighted to favor.
+
+It was the daily custom for Karee to carry the young princess into the
+apartment of the Emperor, as soon as he rose from his siesta, to receive
+the affectionate caresses which her royal father was so fond of
+lavishing upon her. At such times, Tecuichpo would often take with her
+some rich chaplets of flowers which Karee had woven for her, and amuse
+herself and her father, by arranging them in a coronet on his brow, or
+twining them, in every fantastic form, about his person, to make, as
+she said, a flower-god of _him_, who was a sun to all the flowers of her
+earthly paradise.
+
+One day, when the young princess was sleeping in her little arbor, the
+ever watchful nurse observed a viper among the flowers, which she had
+strown about her pillow, just ready to dart its venomous fang into the
+bosom of her darling. Quick as lightning she seized the reptile in her
+hand, and, before he had time to turn upon her, flung him upon the
+floor, and crushed him under her sandalled heel. Passionately embracing
+her dear charge, she hastened with her to the apartments of the queen,
+and related the story of her narrow escape, with so much of the
+eloquence of gratitude for being the favored instrument of her
+deliverance from so cruel a death, that it deeply affected the heart of
+the queen. She embraced her child and Karee, as if both were, for the
+moment, equally dear to her; and then, in return for the faithful
+service, rendered at the hazard of her own life, she promised to bestow
+upon the slave whatever she chose to ask. "Give me, O give me freedom,
+and a chinampa, and I ask no more," was the eager reply of Karee to this
+unexpected offer of the queen. The request was immediately granted; and
+the first sorrow that ever clouded the heart of the lovely Tecuichpo,
+was that of parting with her faithful and loving Karee.
+
+A _chinampa_ was a floating island in the lake of Tezcuco, upon whose
+very bosom the imperial city was built. They were very numerous, and
+some of them were large, and extremely beautiful. They were formed by
+the alluvial deposit in the waters of the lake, and by occasional masses
+of earth detached from the shores, held together by the fibrous roots,
+with which they were penetrated, and which in that luxurious clime, put
+out their feelers in every direction, and gathered to their embrace
+whatever of nutriment and support the richly impregnated waters
+afforded. In the process of a few years accumulation, the floating mass
+increased in length, breadth and thickness, till it became an island,
+capable of sustaining not only shrubs and trees, but sometimes a human
+habitation. Some of these were from two to three hundred feet square,
+and could be moved about at pleasure, like a raft, from city to city,
+along the borders of the lake. The natives, who were skilful gardeners,
+and passionately devoted to the cultivation of flowers, improved upon
+this beautiful hint of nature, to enlarge their means of supplying the
+capital with fruits, vegetables and flowers. Constructing small rafts of
+reeds, anchoring them out in the lake, and then covering them with the
+sediment drawn up from the bottom, they soon found them covered with a
+thrifty vegetation, and a vigorous soil, from which they were able to
+produce a large supply of the various luxuries of their highly favored
+clime.
+
+It was to one of these fairy gardens that the beautiful Karee retired,
+rich in the priceless jewel of freedom, and feeling that a chinampa all
+her own, and flowers to train and commune with, was the summit of human
+desire. Karee was no common character. Gifted by nature with unusual
+talents, she had, though in adverse circumstances, cultivated them by
+all the means in her power. Remarkably quick of perception, and shrewd
+and accurate of observation, with a memory that retained every thing
+that was committed to it, in its exact outlines and proportions, she
+was enabled to gather materials for improvement from every scene through
+which she passed. Her imagination was exceedingly powerful and active,
+sometimes wild and terrific, but kept in balance by a sound judgment and
+a discriminating taste. Her love of flowers was a passion, a part of her
+nature. For her they had a language, if not a soul. And there was not
+one of all the endless varieties of that luxuriant clime, that had not a
+definite and emphatic place in the vocabulary of her fancy. The history
+of her life she could have written in her floral dialect, and to her,
+though its lines might have faded rapidly, its pages would have been
+always legible and eloquent. Her attachments were strong and enduring,
+and there was that element of heroism in her soul, that she would
+unhesitatingly have sacrificed life for the object of her love.
+
+It is not to be wondered at, that, with such qualities of mind and
+heart, Karee was deeply impressed with the solemn and imposing
+superstitions of the Aztec religion. The rites and ceremonies by which
+they were illustrated and sustained, were well calculated to stir to its
+very depths, a soul like hers, and give the fullest exercise to her wild
+imagination. That pompous ritual, those terrible orgies, repeated before
+her eyes almost daily from her infancy, had become blended with the
+thoughts and associations of her mind, and intimately related to every
+scene that interested her heart, or engaged her fancy. Yet her soul was
+not enslaved to that dark and dismal superstition. Though accustomed to
+an awful veneration of the priesthood, she did not regard them as a
+superior race of beings, or listen to their words, as if they had been
+audible voices from heaven. Her spirit shrunk from many of the darker
+revelations of the established mythology, and openly revolted from some
+of its inhuman exactions. Its chains hung loosely upon her; and she
+seemed fully prepared for the freedom of a purer and loftier faith. Her
+extreme beauty, her bewitching gaiety, and her varied talents, attracted
+many admirers, and some noble and worthy suitors. But Karee had another
+destiny to fulfil. She felt herself to be the guardian angel of the
+ill-fated Tecuichpo, and her love for the princess left no room for any
+other passion in her heart. She therefore refused all solicitations, and
+remained the solitary mistress of her floating island.
+
+Karee's departure from the palace, did not in any degree lessen her
+interest in the welfare of the young princess. She was assiduous in her
+attention to every thing that could promote her happiness; and seemed to
+value the flowers she cultivated on her chinampa chiefly as they
+afforded her the means of daily correspondence with Tecuichpo. She
+managed her island like a canoe, and moved about from one part of the
+beautiful lake to another, visiting by turns the cities that glittered
+on its margin, and sometimes traversing the valleys in search of new
+flowers, or exploring the ravines and caverns of the mountains for
+whatever of rare and precious she might chance to find. The chivalry of
+the Aztecs rendered such adventures perfectly safe, their women being
+always regarded with the greatest tenderness and respect, and treated
+with a delicacy seldom surpassed in the most civilized countries of
+Christendom.
+
+This chivalric sentiment was, not improbably heightened, in the case of
+Karee, in part by her extreme beauty, and in part by the power of her
+genius and the brilliancy of her wit. She commanded respect by the force
+of her intellect, and the purity of her heart; while the uncommon depth
+and splendor of her imagination, when excited by any favorite theme, and
+the seemingly inexhaustible fruitfulness of her mental resources,
+invested her, in the view of the multitude, with something of the
+dignity, and much of the superstitious charm of a prophetess.
+
+   [A] A mantle of coarse cotton fabric, which all who approached
+   the emperor were compelled to put on, in token of humility and
+   reverence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  YOUTH OF THE PRINCESS--HER EARLY LOVE REVEALED--PROPHETIC
+    ANNOUNCEMENT AND SUDDEN ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS.
+
+   ~Breathe not his noble name even to the winds,
+    Lest they my love reveal.~
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+               ~I have mystical lore,
+    And coming events cast their shadows before.~
+
+
+The childhood of the fair princess passed away without any event of
+importance, except the occasional recurrence of those dark prophecies
+which overshadowed her entrance into life. Her father, who had exercised
+the office of priest before he came to the throne, was thoroughly imbued
+with the superstitious reverence for astrology, which formed a part of
+the religion of the Aztecs. To all the predictions of this mystic
+science he yielded implicit belief, regarding whatever it foreshadowed
+as the fixed decrees of fate. He was, therefore, fully prepared, and
+always on the look-out, for new revelations to confirm and establish his
+faith. These were sometimes found in the trivial occurrences of
+every-day life, and sometimes in the sinister aspect of the heavenly
+bodies, at peculiar epochs in the life of his daughter. With this
+superstitious foreboding of evil, the pensive character of the princess
+harmonized so well, as to afford, to the mind of the too credulous
+monarch, another unquestionable indication of her destiny. It seemed to
+be written on her brow, that her life was a doomed one; and each
+returning year was counted as the last, and entered upon with gloomy
+forebodings of some terrible catastrophe.
+
+As her life advanced, her charms, both of person and character matured
+and increased; and, at the age of fourteen, there was not a maiden in
+all the golden cities of Anahuac, who could compare with Tecuichpo. Her
+exceeding loveliness was the theme of many a song, and the fame of her
+beauty and her accomplishments was published in all the neighboring
+nations. While yet a child, her hand was eagerly sought by Cacamo, of
+the royal house of Tezcuco; but, with the true chivalry of an unselfish
+devotion, his suit was withdrawn, on discovering that her young
+affections were already engaged to another. The discovery was made in a
+manner too singular and striking to be suffered to pass unnoticed.
+
+In the course of her wanderings in the forest, Karee had taken captive a
+beautiful parrot, of the most gorgeous plumage, and the most astonishing
+capacity. This chatterer, after due training and discipline, she had
+presented to her favorite princess, among a thousand other tokens of her
+unchangeable affection. Tecuichpo loved the beautiful mimic, to whom she
+gave the name of Karee-o-thán--the voice of Karee,--and often amused
+herself with teaching her to repeat the words which she loved best to
+hear. Without being aware of the publicity she was thus giving to her
+most treasured thoughts, she entrusted to the talkative bird the secret
+of her love, by associating with the most endearing epithets, the name
+of her favored cavalier. While strolling about the magnificent gardens
+attached to the palace of Montezuma, Cacamo was wont to breathe out, in
+impassioned song, his love for Tecuichpo, repeating her name, with every
+expression of passionate regard, which the language afforded.
+Karee-o-thán was often flying about in the gardens, and soliloquizing in
+the arbors, the favorite resorts of her beautiful mistress, and often
+attracted the notice of Cacamo.
+
+One evening, as the prince was more than usually eloquent in pouring
+into the ear of Zephyr the tale of his love, the mimic bird, perched
+upon a flowering orange tree, that filled the garden with its delicious
+perfume, repeated the name of his mistress, as often as her lover
+uttered it, occasionally connecting with it the name of Guatimozin, and
+then adding some endearing epithet, expressive of the most ardent
+admiration. The prince was first amused, and then vexed, at the frequent
+repetition of the name of his rival. In vain did he endeavor to induce
+the mischievous bird to substitute his own name for that of Guatimozin.
+As often as he uttered the name of the princess, the echo in the orange
+tree gave back "noble Guatimozin," or "sweet Guatimozin," or some other
+similar response, which left no doubt on the mind of Cacamo, that the
+heart of his mistress was pre-occupied, and that the nephew of Montezuma
+was the favored object of her love. The next day, he bade adieu to
+Tenochtitlan, placed himself at the head of the army of Tezcuco, and
+plunged into a war then raging with a distant tribe on the west, hoping
+to bury his disappointment in the exciting scenes of conquest.
+
+Guatimozin was of the royal blood, and, as his after history will show,
+of a right royal and heroic spirit. From his childhood, he had exhibited
+an unusual maturity of judgment, coupled with an energy, activity, and
+fearlessness of spirit, which gave early assurance of a heroism worthy
+of the supreme command, and an intellectual superiority that might claim
+succession to the throne. His training was in the court and the camp,
+and he seemed equally at home and in his element, amid the refined
+gaieties of the palace, the grave deliberations of the royal council,
+and the mad revelry of the battle-field. His figure was of the most
+perfect manly proportions, tall, commanding, graceful--his countenance
+was marked with that peculiar blending of benignity and majesty, which
+made it unspeakably beautiful and winning to those whom he loved, and
+terrible to those on whom he frowned. He was mild, humane, generous,
+confiding; yet sternly and heroically just. His country was his idol.
+The one great passion of his soul, to which all other thoughts and
+affections were subordinate and tributary, was patriotism. On that
+altar, if he had possessed a thousand lives, he would freely have laid
+them all. Such was the noble prince who had won the heart of Tecuichpo.
+
+Meanwhile, to the anxious eye of her imperial father, the clouds of fate
+seemed to hang deep and dark over the realm of Anahuac. Long before the
+prophetic wail, which welcomed the lovely Tecuichpo to a life of
+sorrow, Montezuma had imbibed from the dark legends of ancient
+prophecies, and the faint outgivings of his own priestly oracles, a deep
+and ineradicable impression that some terrible calamity was impending
+over the realm, and that he was to be the last of its native monarchs.
+It was dimly foreshadowed, in these prophetic revelations, that the
+descendants of a noble and powerful race of men, who had many ages
+before occupied that beautiful region, and filled it with the works of
+their genius, but who had been driven out by the cruelty and perfidy of
+the Toltecs, would return, invested with supernatural power from heaven,
+to re-possess their ancient inheritance.[B] To this leading and long
+established faith, every dark and doubtful omen contributed its
+appropriate share of confirmation. To this, every significant event was
+deemed to have a more or less intimate relation. So that, at this
+particular epoch, not only the superstitious monarch, and his priestly
+astrologers, but the whole nation of Azteca were prepared, as were the
+ancient Jews at the advent of the Messiah, for great events, though
+utterly unable to imagine what might be the nature of the expected
+change.
+
+These gloomy forebodings of coming evil so thoroughly possessed the mind
+of Montezuma, that the commanding dignity and pride of the monarch gave
+way before the absorbing anxiety of the man and the father, and, in a
+manner, unfitted him for the duties of the lofty place he had so nobly
+filled. He yielded, as will be seen in the sequel, not without grief,
+but without resistance, to the fixed decrees of fate, and awaited the
+issue, as a victim for the heaven-appointed sacrifice.
+
+It was about fifteen years after the prophetic announcement of the doom
+of the young princess of the empire, that Montezuma was reclining in his
+summer saloon, where he had been gloomily brooding over his darkening
+prospects, till his soul was filled with sadness. His beautiful daughter
+was with him, striving to cheer his heart with the always welcome music
+of her songs, and the affectionate expression of a love as pure and deep
+as ever warmed the heart of a devoted child. She had gone that day into
+the royal presence to ask a boon for her early and faithful friend,
+Karee. This lovely and gifted creature, now in the full maturity of all
+her wonderful powers of mind, and personal attractions, had often been
+admitted, as a special favorite, into the royal presence, to exhibit her
+remarkable powers of minstrelsy, and her almost supernatural gifts as an
+improvisatrice of the wild melodies of Anahuac. Some of her chants were
+of rare pathos and sublimity, and sometimes she was so carried away with
+the impassioned vehemence of her inspiration, that she seemed an
+inspired messenger from the skies, uttering in their language the
+oracles of the gods. On this occasion, she had requested permission to
+sing a new chant in the palace, that she might seize the opportunity to
+breathe a prophetic warning in the ear of the emperor. She had thrice
+dreamed that the dark cloud which had so long hung over that devoted
+land, had burst in an overwhelming storm, upon the capital, and buried
+Montezuma and all his house in indiscriminate ruin. She had seen the
+demon of destruction, in the guize of a snow white angel, clad in
+burnished silver, borne on a fiery animal, of great power, and fleet as
+the wind, having under him a small band of warriors, guarded and mounted
+like himself, armed with thunderbolts which they hurled at will against
+all who opposed their progress. She had seen the monarch of
+Tenochtitlan, with his hosts of armed Mexicans, and the tributary armies
+of Tezcuco, Islacapan, Chalco, and all the cities of that glorious
+valley, tremble and cower before this small band of invaders, and yield
+himself without a blow to their hands. She had seen the thousands and
+tens of thousands of her beloved land fall before this handful of
+strangers, and melt away, like the mists of the morning before the
+rising sun. And she had heard a voice from the dark cloud as it broke,
+saying, sternly, as the forked lightning leaped into the heart of the
+imperial palace, "The gods help only those who help themselves."
+
+Filled and agitated with the stirring influence of this prophetic
+vision, Karee, who had always regarded herself as the guardian genius of
+Tecuichpo, now imagined the sphere of her duty greatly enlarged, and
+deemed herself specially commissioned to save the empire from impending
+destruction. Weaving her vision, and the warning it uttered, into one of
+her most impassioned chants, and arraying herself as the priestess of
+nature, she followed Tecuichpo, with a firm step into the royal
+presence, and, with the boldness and eloquence of a prophetess, warned
+him of the coming danger, and urged him to arouse from his apathy,
+unbecoming the monarch of a proud and powerful nation, cast off the
+slavery of his superstitious fears, and prepare to meet, with the power
+of a man, and the wisdom of a king, whatever evil might come upon him.
+Rising with the kindling inspiration of her theme, she ventured gently
+to reproach the awe-struck monarch with his unmanly fears, and to remind
+him that on his single will, and the firmness of his soul, hung not only
+his own destiny but that of wife and children; and more than that, of a
+whole nation, whose myriads of households looked up to him, as the
+common father of them all, the heaven-appointed guardian of their lives,
+liberty and happiness. At length, alarmed at her own energy and
+boldness, so unwonted even to the proudest noble of the realm, in that
+royal presence, she bent her knee, and baring her bosom, she lowered her
+voice almost to a whisper, and said imploringly--
+
+    Strike, monarch! strike, this heart is thine,
+      To live or die for thee;
+    Strike, but heed this voice of mine
+      It comes from heaven, through me;
+    It comes to save this blessed land,
+      It comes thy soul to free
+    From those dark fears, and bid thee stand
+    The monarch father of thy land,
+      That only lives in thee.
+
+    Strike, father! if my words too bold
+      Thy royal ears offend;
+    The visions of the night are told,
+    Thy destiny the gods unfold--
+      Oh! be thy people's friend,
+    True to thyself, to them, to heaven--
+    So shall this lowering cloud be riven
+      And light and peace descend,
+    To bless this golden realm, and save
+    Tecuichpo from an early grave.
+
+The vision of the beautiful pythoness had deeply and powerfully affected
+the soul of Montezuma; and her closing appeal moved him even to tears.
+Though accustomed to the most obsequious deference from all his
+subjects, even from the proudest of his nobles, he had listened to every
+word of Karee with the profoundest attention and interest, as if it had
+been from the acknowledged oracle of heaven. When she ceased, there was
+a breathless silence in the hall. The monarch drew his lovely daughter
+to his bosom in a passionate embrace. Karee remained prostrate, with her
+face to the ground, her heart throbbing almost audibly with the violence
+of her emotions. Suddenly, a deep long blast from a distant trumpet
+announced the arrival of a courier at the capital. It was a signal for
+all the attendants to retire. Tecuichpo tenderly kissing her father,
+took Karee by the hand, raised her up and led her out, and the monarch
+was left alone.
+
+In a few moments, the courier arrived and entering, barefoot and veiled,
+into the royal presence, bowed to the very ground, handed a scroll to
+the king, and departed. When Montezuma had unrolled the scroll, he
+seemed for a moment, as if struck with instant paralysis. Fear,
+astonishment, dismay, seized upon his soul. The vision of Karee was
+already fulfilled. The pictured tablet was the very counterpart of her
+oracular chant--the literal interpretation of her prophetic vision. It
+announced the arrival within the realms of Montezuma, of a band of pale
+faced strangers, clad in burnished armor, each having at his command a
+beautiful animal of great power, hitherto unknown in that country, that
+bore him with the speed of the wind wherever he would go, and seemed,
+while he was mounted, to be a part of himself. It described their
+weapons, representing them as having the lightning and thunder at their
+disposal, which they caused to issue sometimes from dark heavy engines,
+which they dragged along the ground, and sometimes from smaller ones
+which they carried in their hands. It delineated, faithfully and
+skilfully their "water houses," or ships, in which they traversed the
+great waters, from a far distant country. The peculiar costume and
+bearing of their commander, and of his chiefs, were also happily
+represented in the rich coloring for which the Aztecs were
+distinguished. Nothing was omitted in their entire array, which could
+serve to convey to the eye of the emperor a correct and complete
+impression of the appearance, numbers and power of the strangers. It was
+all before him, at a glance, a living speaking picture, and told the
+story of the invasion as graphically and eloquently, as if he had been
+himself a witness of their debarkation, and of their feats of
+horsemanship. It was all before him, a terrible living reality. The gods
+whom he worshipped had sent these strangers to fulfil their own
+irresistible purposes--if, indeed, these were not the gods themselves,
+in human form.
+
+The mind of Montezuma was overwhelmed. Like Belshazzar, when the divine
+hand appeared writing his doom on the wall, his soul fainted in him, his
+knees smote together, and he sat, in blank astonishment, gazing on the
+picture before him, as if the very tablet possessed a supernatural power
+of destruction.
+
+Paralyzed with the influence of his long indulged fears so singularly
+and strikingly realized, the monarch sat alone, neither seeking comfort,
+nor asking counsel of any one, till the hour of the evening repast. The
+summons aroused him from his reverie; but he regarded it not. He
+remained alone, in his own private apartments, during the whole night,
+fasting and sleepless, traversing the marble halls in an agony of
+agitation.
+
+With the first light of the morning, the shrill notes of the trumpet,
+reverberating along the shadowy slopes of the cordilleras, announced the
+approach of another courier from the camp of the strangers. It rung in
+the ears of the dejected monarch, like an alarum. He awoke at once from
+his stupor, and began to consider what was to be done. The warning of
+Karee rushed upon his recollection. Her bold and timely appeal struck
+him to the heart. He resolved to be once more the monarch, and the
+father of his people. Uttering an earnest prayer to all his gods, he
+awaited the arrival of the courier.
+
+Swift of foot as the mountain deer, the steps of the messenger were soon
+heard, measuring with solemn pace, the long corridor of the royal
+mansion, as one who felt that he was approaching the presence of
+majesty, and bearing a message pregnant with the most important issues
+to the common weal. Bowing low, with that profound reverence, which was
+rigorously exacted of all who approached the presence of Montezuma, he
+touched the ground with his right hand, and then, his eyes bent to the
+earth, delivered his pictured scroll, and retired. It was a courteous
+and complimentary message from the strangers he so much dreaded,
+requesting that they might be permitted to pay their respects to his
+imperial majesty, in his own capital. The quick-sighted monarch
+perceived at once that prudence and policy required that this interview
+should be prevented.
+
+A council of the wisest and most experienced of the Aztec nobles was
+immediately called. The opinions of the royal advisers were variously
+expressed, but all, with one accord, agreed that the request of the
+strangers could not be granted. Some counselled a bold and warlike
+message, commanding the intruders to depart instantly, on pain of the
+royal displeasure. Some recommended their forcible expulsion by the army
+of the empire. The more aged and experienced, who had learned how much
+easier it is to avoid, than to escape, a danger, proposed a more
+courteous and peaceable reply to the message of the strangers. They
+deemed it unworthy of a great and powerful monarch, to be angry, when
+the people of another nation visited his territories, or requested
+permission to see his capital. To manifest, or feel any thing like fear,
+in such a case, would be a reproach alike upon his courage and his
+patriotism. So long, therefore, as the strangers conducted themselves
+peaceably, and with becoming deference to the will of the emperor, and
+the laws of the realm, they should be treated civilly, and hospitably
+entertained.
+
+To this wise and prudent counsel, the monarch was already fully prepared
+to yield. It was strongly seconded by his superstitious reverence for
+the heaven-sent strangers, and his mortal dread of their superhuman
+power. He, therefore, selected the noblest and wisest of his chiefs as
+ambassadors, to bear his message, which was kindly and courteously
+expressed; at the same time conveying a firm but respectful refusal to
+admit the foreigners to an interview in the capital, or to extend to
+them the protection of the court, after a reasonable time had elapsed
+for their re-embarkation. This message was accompanied with a munificent
+royal present, consisting of the richest and most beautiful suits of
+apparel for the chief and all his men, with gorgeous capes and robes of
+feather-work, glittering with jewels--precious stones richly set in
+gold, and many magnificent ornaments of pure gold.
+
+At the head of this embassy were princes of high estate, and most noble
+bearing, commanding in person, and of great distinction, both at the
+court and in the camp. When they arrived near the encampment of the
+strangers, which was the spot where the city of Vera Cruz now stands,
+they sent a courier forward, to announce their approach, and prepare for
+their reception.
+
+The meeting of the parties was one of no little pomp and ceremony, for
+the courtly manners and chivalric bearing of the European cavaliers were
+scarcely superior, in impressiveness and effect, to the barbaric
+splendor, and graceful consciousness of power, which characterized the
+flower of the Aztec nobility. The chief, advancing towards the invaders,
+bowed low to earth, touching the ground with his right hand, then
+raising it to his head, and presenting it to his guest, announced
+himself as the envoy and servant of the great Montezuma, sole monarch
+and master of all the realms of Anahuac; and demanded the name of the
+stranger, the country from which he came, and the motives which induced
+him to trespass upon the sacred territories of his royal master, and to
+presume to ask an interview with the emperor, in his capital. The
+Castilian chieftain, with a courteous and knightly bearing replied, that
+his name was Hernando Cortez--that he was one of the humblest of the
+servants of the great Charles, the mighty monarch of Spain, and
+sovereign ruler of the Indies, and that he had come, with his little
+band of followers, to pay his court to the great Montezuma, and to bear
+to him the fraternal salutation of his master, which he could only
+deliver in person.
+
+The reply of the Mexican was dignified, courteous, and pointed, and left
+no hope to the Spaniard, that he would then be able to effect his
+purpose, of visiting in person the golden city. "If," said the prince,
+"your monarch had come himself to our shores, he might well demand a
+personal meeting with our lord, the emperor, but when he sends his
+servant to represent him, he surely cannot presume to do more than
+communicate with the servants of the great Montezuma. If it were
+possible that another sun should visit yonder sky, he might look upon
+our sun, in his march, and move and shine in his presence. But the moon
+and the stars cannot shine when he is abroad. They can look upon each
+other only when he withdraws his light."
+
+The royal message having been delivered, the presents which accompanied
+it were brought forward, and spread out upon mats, in front of the
+general's tent. The Spaniards were struck, with surprise and admiration
+at the fineness of the texture of the cloths, the richness of their
+dyes, the gorgeous coloring and tasteful arrangement of the
+feather-work, the masterly workmanship and exquisite finish of the
+jewelry, and, above all, the immense value, and magnificent size of the
+golden toys which were presented them. They conceived, at once, the most
+exalted ideas of the riches of the country, and the munificence and
+splendor of the monarch that ruled over it. Their avarice and cupidity
+were strongly excited, and more than one of the inferior officers, as
+well as their general, formed the immediate resolution, that, in despite
+of the imperial interdict, they would endeavor, either by diplomacy or
+by force, to win their way to the capital, which they supposed must of
+necessity be the grand depository of all the treasures in the empire.
+Their intentions were kept secret, even from each other, and, under
+cover of a specious submission to the expressed will of the monarch,
+Cortez requested permission to delay his departure, till his men should
+be recruited, and his stores replenished for his long voyage.
+
+Meanwhile, taking advantage of this unauthorized reprieve, the artful
+and indefatigable Castilian contrived to draw off from their unwilling
+and burdensome allegiance to Montezuma, the Totonacs, a considerable
+tribe, residing in that part of the country where he had effected his
+landing; and so to impress them with a sense of his own power and the
+lenity of his government, as to bind them to him in a solemn treaty of
+alliance. He also sent an embassy to the Tlascalans, a nation that had
+long maintained its independence against the ambitious encroachments of
+Mexico, and held Montezuma their natural and only foe. They were a brave
+and warlike people, and nearly as far advanced in the arts of
+civilization as their enemies. Their government was a kind of republic.
+Cortez, with magniloquent pretensions of invincible power, and
+inexhaustible resources, proposed to assist the Tlascalans in reducing
+the power of Mexico, and putting an end to the oppressions and exactions
+of Montezuma. For this purpose, he asked leave to pass through their
+country, on his march to the great capital.
+
+Distrusting the intentions of the strangers, and fearing that, instead
+of a disinterested friend and ally, they should find in them only a new
+enemy, whom, once admitted, they could never expel from their dominions,
+and whose yoke might be even harder to bear than that which the Aztec
+monarch had in vain attempted to fasten upon them--the proposed alliance
+of the Spaniards was rejected, with such bold and ample demonstrations
+of hostility, as left no room for doubt, that any attempt to force a
+passage through their territories, would be fiercely and ably contested.
+
+Never daunted by obstacles, though somewhat perplexed, the brave Cortez
+rushed forward, encountered the almost countless hosts of the Tlascalan
+army, and, after several severe and deadly contests, in which the skill
+and prowess of his handful of men, with their terrible horses and yet
+more terrible fire-arms, were nearly overpowered by the immense numbers,
+astonishing bravery, and comparative skill of the enemy, he succeeded in
+terrifying them into submission, and winning them to a treaty of
+alliance, offensive and defensive, against the tyrant Montezuma, the
+common enemy of all the nations of Anahuac. By these singular and
+unparalleled successes, the little band of Castilian adventurers found
+themselves fortified, in the heart of the country, in close alliance
+with two powerful tribes, who swelled their army to ten times its
+original number, besides supplying them liberally with all the
+provisions that were needed for themselves and horses.
+
+Never was adventure so rashly undertaken, or so boldly pushed, as this
+singular expedition of the Spanish cavaliers. And never, probably, were
+there associated, in one little band, so many of the master spirits of
+chivalry, the true material of a conquering army. The compeers of
+Cortez, who submitted to his authority, and acted in perfect harmony
+with him, as if they were but subordinate parts of himself, were each
+competent to command a host, and lead it on to certain victory. The
+impetuous, daring Alvarado, the cool, courageous, trusty Sandoval, the
+high-spirited, chivalrous Olid, the rash, head-long, cruel Velasquez de
+Leon, and others, worthy to be the comrades of these, and of
+Cortez--when have the ranks of the war-god assigned so many master
+spirits to one enterprize? And the brave, the gifted, the indomitable
+Xicotencatl, the mountain chief of Tlascala, whom the Spaniards, with so
+much difficulty, first subdued and then won to their cause, as an
+ally--what a noble personification of the soul and spirit of heroism,
+realizing in personal bravery, martial skill and prowess, and in all the
+commanding qualities of person and of character, which go to constitute
+the victorious warrior, the best pictures of the type-heroes of epic
+poetry and history.
+
+In all their previous discoveries in the New World, the progress of the
+Spaniards to victory was easy, and almost unresisted. The invaders of
+Mexico, however, found themselves suddenly introduced to a new people,
+and new scenes--to nations of warriors, to races intelligent, civilized,
+and competent to self-government and self-defence. And all the skill,
+courage, and energy of their ablest commanders, and their bravest men,
+would have availed them nothing in their herculean enterprize, if they
+had not craftily and skilfully worked upon the jealousies and
+differences existing between the various tribes and nations of Anahuac,
+and fomented the long smothered discontents, and unwritten complaints of
+an over-taxed and sternly-governed people, into open and clamorous
+resistance to the despotic sway of Montezuma. It is curious and
+melancholy to observe, how eagerly they shook off the golden yoke of
+their hereditary monarch, for the iron one of a new master, and
+exchanged their long-established servitude to their legitimate king and
+their pagan gods, for a more galling, hopeless, and wasting slavery to
+the cruel and rapacious invader, under the life-promising Sign of the
+Cross, the desecrated banner of the Prince of Peace.
+
+   [B] One version of this singular prophetic legend represented
+   the expected invaders, as the descendants of the ancient god
+   Quetzalcoatl, who, ages agone, had voluntarily abdicated the
+   throne of Anahuac, and departed to a far country in the East,
+   with a promise to his afflicted people, that his children would
+   ultimately return, and claim their ancient country and crown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  SUPERSTITIOUS FEAR AND VACILLATING POLICY OF MONTEZUMA.
+
+     ~The land was ours--this glorious land--
+    With all its wealth of woods and streams--
+      Our warriors, strong in heart and hand,
+    Our daughters, beautiful as dreams.~
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+     ~And then we heard the omens say,
+    That God had sent his angels forth
+      To sweep our ancient tribes away--~
+
+
+While these events were transpiring in the ever moving camp of the
+victorious invaders, the imperial court of Tenochtitlan was agitated and
+distracted by the divided counsels and wavering policy of the
+superstitious, fear-stricken monarch, and his various advisers. At one
+time, deeply offended by their audacious disregard of his positive
+prohibitions, and roused to a sense of his duty as a king, by the
+prophetic warning of Karee, which never ceased to ring in his ears,
+Montezuma was almost persuaded to give in to the war-party, and send out
+an army that should overwhelm the strangers at a blow. But, before this
+noble purpose had time to mature itself into action, all his
+superstitious fears would revive, and, without coming to any decision
+either to move or stand still, he would pause in timid inaction, till
+some new success had made the invaders more formidable than before, and
+invested their mission with something more of that preternatural
+sacredness, which alone had power to unman the monarch, and disarm his
+craving ambition. At each advance of the conquering Castilians, he
+realized the growing necessity of prompt and efficient measures of
+defence, while at the same time he felt a greater reluctance to contend
+with fate. The result was, that he only dallied with the foe, by
+continually sending new embassies, each, with larger and richer presents
+than the preceding, having no effect but to add fuel to their already
+burning thirst for gold, and strengthen their determination to
+accomplish their original purpose.
+
+These royal embassies were less and less firm and peremptory in their
+terms, until they assumed the tone of expostulation, and assigning
+various and often conflicting reasons why the Spaniards should not
+pursue their route any farther towards the imperial city. At length,
+when the courier announced the arrival of the mysterious band at
+Tlascala, and the consummation of the alliance between them and his old
+and bitter enemies, together with the defection of many cities and
+districts, he felt it impossible to remain any longer undecided. His
+throne trembled under him. He must act, or it would fall, and involve
+him and his house in inevitable ruin. Instead, however, of a bold and
+masterly activity in the defence of his capital and crown, he changed
+his policy altogether, and sending a new embassy with more splendid
+gifts than ever, invited the strangers to his court, and promised them
+all the hospitalities of his empire. He designated the route they should
+pursue, and gave orders for their reception in all the towns and cities
+through which they should pass.
+
+Montezuma was politic and wise in some things; and the purpose he had
+now in view, if it had not been frustrated, would have been deemed a
+master-stroke of policy, worthy of the ablest disciples of the
+Macchiavellian school. Perceiving the necessity of breaking up this
+combination of new and old enemies, he had recourse to stratagem to
+effect it, intending that the strangers, whom he dared not to oppose
+with direct violence, should fall into the snare they had laid for
+themselves, in thrusting themselves forward, in despite of his repeated
+remonstrances, into the heart of his empire. He feared to raise his own
+hand to destroy them, because they were, in his view, commissioned of
+heaven to overturn his throne; but he deemed it perfectly consistent
+with this reverence for the decrees of fate, to lay a snare into which
+they should fall, and so destroy themselves. He little understood the
+watchfulness and circumspection of the man he had to deal with, or the
+tremendous advantage which their armor of proof and their engines of
+destruction gave the Europeans over the almost naked Mexicans, with
+their primitive weapons of offence. It was his plan to separate the
+foreigners from their new Indian allies, and invite them to come alone
+to the capital, as was first proposed. And he designed to assign them
+accommodations in one of the ancient palaces, in the heart of the city,
+where, surrounded by high walls, on every side, they should be shut up
+from all intercourse with the people, and left to perish of famine.
+
+When this purpose was formed, the monarch kept it a profound secret in
+his own breast. The ambassadors whom he sent to the Castilian camp, were
+of the highest ranks of the nobility, and were accompanied by a long
+train of slaves, bearing the rich presents, by which the wily monarch
+hoped at the same time to display his own royal munificence, and to
+propitiate the favor of the dreaded strangers. Every new display of this
+kind only served more effectually to defeat his own hopes; for the
+avarice of the Spaniards, whose lust of gold was absolutely insatiable,
+was so far from being satisfied with this profusion of royal gifts, that
+it was only the more inflamed with every new accession to their
+treasures. The only effect, therefore, of these repeated embassies was
+to confirm the Spaniards in their convictions of the conscious weakness
+of the Mexicans, and make them the more resolute in pushing forward to
+complete the subjugation of the whole country, and possess themselves of
+all its seemingly inexhaustible treasures of gold.
+
+Montezuma had now another difficulty to contend with, in his endeavor to
+rid himself of the intruders. The Tlascalans represented him to Cortez
+as false and deceitful as he was ambitious and rapacious, and used every
+argument in their power to dissuade him from committing himself to his
+hands. But the bold adventurer, always confident in his own resources,
+seemed never to think of danger when an object was to be accomplished,
+or to regard any thing as impossible which he desired to attain. As
+soon as the door was thrown open to his amicable approach to the
+capital, he set himself to prepare for the march. The expostulations and
+suspicions of the Tlascalans made him, perhaps, more careful in his
+preparations against a surprise, and more rigorous in the discipline of
+his little corps, than he might otherwise have been. Wherever he was,
+his camp was as cautiously posted, as fully and rigidly guarded as if,
+on the eve of battle, he was hourly expecting an assault. This
+watchfulness was maintained throughout the whole adventurous campaign,
+as well when in the midst of friends and allies, as when surrounded by
+hostile legions.
+
+After the royal ambassadors had departed with their pacific message, the
+mind of Montezuma was harassed and agitated with many doubts of the
+propriety of the course he had adopted. His nobles, and the tributary
+princes of the neighboring cities of Tezcuco, Tlacopan, and Iztapalapan,
+were divided in their opinions. Some complained, though not loudly, of
+the weak and vacillating policy of the king. Some, even of the common
+people, feared the consequences, anticipating the most disastrous
+results, in accordance with their superstitious veneration for the
+oracles of their faith. The third day after the departure of the envoys,
+the king was pacing up and down one of the beautifully shaded walks of
+the royal gardens, listening with a disturbed mind to the powerful
+expostulations of his brother, Cuitlahua, who, from the beginning, had
+vehemently opposed every concession to the invaders, and urgently
+solicited permission to lead the army against them, and drive them from
+the land. Suddenly, a voice as of a distant choir of chanters arrested
+his ear. The melody was solemn, sweet and soothing. It seemed to come
+sometimes from the upper regions of the air, in tones of silvery
+clearness and power, sometimes from beneath, in suppressed and muffled
+harmony, as when the swell organ soliloquises with all its valves
+closed,--sometimes it retreated, as if dying into an echo along the
+distant avenues of royal palms and aged cypresses, or the citron and
+orange groves that skirted the farther end of the garden, and then,
+suddenly, and with great power, it burst in the full tide of impassioned
+song, from every tree and bower in that vast paradise of terrestrial
+sweets. Enchanted by the more than Circean melody, the brothers paused
+in their animated discourse, and stood, for a few moments, in silent
+wonder and fixed attention. Presently the chanting ceased, and one
+solitary voice broke forth in plaintive but emphatic recitative as from
+the midst of the sparkling jet that played its ceaseless tune in the
+grand porphyritic basin near which they stood. The words, which were
+simple and oracular, struck deep into the heart of Montezuma, and found
+a ready response in that of his royal brother.
+
+    The lion[C] walks forth in his power and pride,
+    The terror and lord of the forest wide--
+    When the fox appears, shall he flee and hide?
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    The eagle's nest is strong and high,
+    Unquestioned monarch of the sky--
+    Should he quail before the falcon's eye?
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    The sun rides forth through the heavens afar,
+    Dispensing light from his flaming car--
+    Should he veil his glory, or turn him back,
+    When the meteor flashes athwart his track?
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Shall the eagle invite the hawk to his nest?
+    Shall the fox with the lion sit down as a guest?
+    Shall the meteor look out from the noonday sky,
+    When the sun in his power is flaming by?
+
+The pauses in this significant chant were followed by choral symphonies,
+expressing, as eloquently as inarticulate sounds could do, the most
+earnest remonstrance, the most moving expostulation. When this was
+concluded, the same sweet voice broke forth again, in tones of solemn
+tenderness and majestic power, in a prophetic warning to Montezuma.
+
+      Beware, mighty monarch! beware of the hour,
+    When the pale-faced intruder shall come to this bower!
+    Beware of the weakness that whispers of fear,
+    When the all-grasping, gold-seeking Spaniard is near!
+    Beware how thou readest the dark scroll of fate!
+    Its mystic revealings may warn thee too late,
+    That the power to command, and the strength to oppose,
+    Are gone, when thou openest the gate to thy foes.
+    The white men are mortal--frail sons of the earth,
+    They know not, they claim not, a heavenly birth;
+    They bow to disease, and they fall by the sword,
+    Pale fear can disarm them, grim death is their lord;
+    And those terrible coursers, so fiery and strong,
+    That bear them like ravenous tigers along,
+    The fleet winged arrow shall pierce them, and slay,
+    And leave them to eagles and vultures a prey.
+
+      Up, monarch! arouse thee--the hour is at hand
+    When the dark howling tempest shall sweep o'er thy land.
+    Thy doubts and thy fears, ever changing, are rife
+    With peril to liberty, honor and life;
+    And this timid inaction shall surely bring down
+    To the dust, in dishonor, thy glorious crown;
+    And leave, to all time, on thy once-honored head,
+    The curse of a nation forsaken, betrayed.
+    Oh! rouse thee, brave monarch! there's power in thy hand
+    To scatter the clouds that hang over thy land.
+    Speak, speak but the word, there is magic in thee,
+    Before which the ruthless invader shall flee,
+    And myriads of braves, all equipped for defence,
+    Shall leap at thy bidding, and banish him hence;
+    And the gods, who would frown on the recreant slave,
+    Will stand by their altars, and fight for the brave.
+
+The effect of this mysterious warning upon the mind of Montezuma was
+exceedingly powerful, and seemed, for a time, to change his purpose and
+fix his resolution. With an energy and decision to which he had long
+been a stranger, he turned to his brother, and said, "Cuitlahua, you are
+right. This realm is mine. The gods have made me the father of this
+people. I must and will defend them. The strangers shall be driven back,
+or die. They shall never profane the temples and altars of Tenochtitlan,
+by entering within its gates, or looking upon its walls. Go, marshall
+your host, and prepare to meet them, before they advance a step
+further."
+
+Exulting in this sudden demonstration of his ancient martial spirit in
+his royal brother, and fired with a double zeal in the cause he had so
+much at heart, by the thrilling influence upon his soul of the
+mysterious oracle, whose message had been uttered in his hearing,
+Cuitlahua scarcely waited for the ordinary courtesy of bidding farewell
+to the king, but flew with the speed of the wind, to execute the
+grateful trust committed to him. Despatching his messengers in every
+direction, only a few hours elapsed before his army was drawn up in the
+great square of the city; and, ere the sun had gone down, they had
+passed the gates, traversed the grand causeway that linked the
+amphibious city with the main land, and pitched their camp in a
+favorable position, several leagues on the way to Cholula.
+
+The ardent imagination of the prince of Iztapalapan kindled at the
+prospect now opened before. The clouds, so long hanging over his beloved
+country, were dissipated as by magic, and the clear light of heaven
+streamed in upon his path, promising a quick and easy conquest, a
+glorious triumph, and a permanent peace. He had been in many battles,
+but had never been defeated. He believed the Mexican army invincible any
+where, but especially on their own soil, and fighting for their altars
+and their hearths. Terrible as the invading strangers had been hitherto,
+he had no fear of the coming encounter. He confidently expected to
+annihilate them at a blow. Happily his soldiers were all animated with
+the same spirit, and they took to their rest that night, eager for the
+morning to come, that should light them on their way to a certain and
+glorious victory.
+
+No sooner had the army departed, than a change came over the spirit of
+the ill-fated Montezuma. The demons of doubt and fear returned to
+perplex and harass his soul, and to incline him again to that
+vacillating policy, those half way measures, by which his doom was to be
+sealed. In an agony of distrust and suspense, he recounted to himself
+the history of the past, reviewing all those dark and fearful
+prophecies, those oft-repeated and mysteriously significant omens,
+which, for so many years, had foreshadowed the events of the present
+day, and revealed the inevitable doom of the empire, sealed with the
+signet of heaven. The impressions produced by the recent warnings of
+Karee faded and disappeared before the deep and indelible traces of
+those ancient oracles, on which he had been accustomed from his youth
+sacredly to rely. He was once more adrift in a tempest of contending
+impulses, at one moment abandoning all in a paroxism of despair, at
+another, vainly flattering himself with the hope of deliverance in some
+ill-formed stratagem, but never nerving himself to a tone of resolute
+defiance, or venturing to rest a hope on the issue of an open encounter.
+
+The result of all this agitation was, another abandonment of his noble
+purpose of defence, and a new resort to stratagem. But the plan of
+operations, and the scene of execution, were changed. Cholula was
+selected as the theatre of destruction. The Spaniards had already been
+invited to take that city in their route, and orders had been given, and
+preparations made, for their hospitable reception. It was now resolved
+to make their acceptance of that invitation the signal and seal of their
+destruction. They were to be drawn into the city, alone, under the
+pretence that the presence of their Tlascalan allies, who were the
+ancient and bitter enemies of the Cholulans, would be likely to create
+disturbance in the city, and lead to collision if not to bloodshed. The
+Cholulans were instructed to provide them with a place of encampment, in
+the heart of their city, where they could easily be surrounded, and cut
+to pieces. The streets of the city were then to be broken up by deep
+pits in some places, and barricades in others, to impede the movements
+of the horses, more dreaded than even the thunder and lightning of their
+riders. This being completed under cover of the night, the city was to
+be filled with soldiers ready to do the work of execution, while the
+brave Cuitlahua, with the flower of the army of Tenochtitlan, was to
+encamp at a convenient distance without the walls, to render prompt
+assistance, in case it should be needed.
+
+This plan being fully arranged in the mind of the Emperor, messengers
+were despatched with the light of the morning, to arrest the movements
+of Cuitlahua, and convey the necessary orders to the governor of
+Cholula. The warlike chieftain was deeply chagrined, and bitterly
+disappointed, in finding his orders so suddenly countermanded. He saw
+only certain ruin in the ever-wavering policy of the king, and was
+unable to conceive of any hope, except in striking a bold and decisive
+blow. He was willing to stake all upon a single cast, and drive back the
+insolent invader, or perish in the attempt. But Montezuma was the
+absolute monarch. His word was law; and, though not irreversible like
+that of the Medo-Persian, it was never to be questioned by any of his
+subjects. The hero must therefore rest on his arms, and await the issue
+of a doubtful stratagem.
+
+Meanwhile, the eager and self sufficient Castilians had pushed forward
+to Cholula, and entered its gates, under a royal escort, that came out
+to meet them, and amid the constrained shouts and half hearted
+congratulations of a countless multitude of natives, who with mingled
+fear, hatred and curiosity, gazed on the conquerors as a superior race
+of beings, and made way for them on every side, to take possession of
+their city. They were received with the greatest deference and
+consideration by the chiefs of the little republic, and the ambassadors
+of Montezuma, who had halted on their way, to prepare a more honorable
+reception for their guests, and further to ingratiate them with their
+master, by doing away, as far they could, the unfavorable impressions of
+him and his people, which might have made on their minds, by their
+intercourse with their old and implacable enemies of the republic of
+Tlascala.
+
+Such was the mutual jealousy and hatred of these neighboring nations,
+that, while the Cholulans could, in no wise agree to admit the
+Tlascalans to accompany Cortez into their city, they, on their part,
+were extremely reluctant to allow him to go in alone, assuring him in
+the strongest terms, that they were the most treacherous and deceitful
+of men, and their promises and professions utterly unworthy of
+confidence. Scorning danger, however, and determined at all hazards, to
+embrace every opening that seemed to facilitate his approach to the
+Mexican capital, he marched fearlessly in, and took up his quarters in
+the great square, or market place. Here, ample accommodations were
+provided for him and his band. Every courtesy was extended to them by
+the citizens and their rulers. Their table was amply supplied with all
+the necessaries and luxuries of the place. They were regarded with a
+kind of superstitious awe by the multitude, as a race of beings
+belonging to another world, of ethereal mould, and supernatural powers;
+and their camp was visited by those of all ranks, and all ages, eager to
+catch a view of the terrible strangers.
+
+A few days after their arrival, a new embassy from the imperial palace
+was announced. They held no communication with Cortez, but had a long
+consultation with the previous envoys still remaining there, and with
+the authorities of the city. From this time, there was a striking change
+in the aspect of the Cholulans towards their guests. They were soon made
+to perceive and feel that, though invited, they were not welcome guests.
+The daily supplies for their table were greatly diminished. They
+received but few and formal visits from the chiefs, and but cold
+attention from any of the nobles. Cortez was quick to perceive the
+change, but unable to divine its meaning. It caused him many an anxious
+hour, especially when he remembered the serious and urgent
+representations of his Tlascalan allies of the deceitful and treacherous
+character of the Cholulans. His apprehensions were by no means
+diminished, when he learned from the morning report of the night guards,
+that through the entire night, which had hitherto been a season of
+perfect silence and repose in the city, sounds were heard on every side,
+as of people earnestly engaged in some works of fortification, sometimes
+digging in the earth, sometimes laying up stones in heaps, and in
+various other ways, "vexing the dull ear of night with uncouth noise."
+It was found, on examination, that the streets in many places were
+barricaded, and holes, in others, were lightly covered with branches of
+trees. Unable to explain these matters, and not wishing to give offence
+to his entertainers by enquiring too curiously into what might be no
+more than the ordinary preparation for a national festival, he sent one
+of his chief officers to report to the Tlascalan commander, without the
+gates of the city, and enquire what might be the meaning of these
+singular movements. Having learned in reply, that a hostile attack was
+undoubtedly contemplated, and that a large force of Mexicans, under
+command of the brave Cuitlahua, brother of Montezuma, was encamped at no
+great distance, ready to co-operate with the Cholulans at a moment's
+warning, and that a great number of victims had been offered in
+sacrifice, to propitiate the favor of their gods, the haughty Spaniard
+found his position any thing but agreeable. He was a stranger to fear,
+but he was certainly most sadly perplexed. And, when, in addition to the
+information already received, he learned from Marina, his female
+interpreter, that she had been warned by a friend in the city to abandon
+the Spaniards, that she might not be involved in their ruin, he was, for
+a time, quite at a loss what to do. To retreat, would be to manifest
+fear, and a distrust of his own resources, which might be fatal to his
+future influence with the natives. To remain where he was--inactive,
+would be to stand still in the yawning crater of a volcano, when the
+overcharged cauldron below had already begun to belch forth sulphureous
+flames and smoke.
+
+The character of the conqueror was one precisely adapted to such
+exigencies as this. Through the whole course of his wonderful career, he
+seems to have rushed into difficulty, for the mere pleasure of fighting
+his way out. In order to extricate himself, he never lost a moment in
+parleying or diplomacy. His measures were bold, decided, and direct,
+indicating a self-reliance, and a confidence in his men and means, which
+is the surest guaranty of success. In this case, having satisfied
+himself of the actual existence of a conspiracy, he sent for the chief
+rulers, upbraided them with their want of hospitality, informed them
+that he should leave the place at break of day the next morning, and
+demanded a large number of men, to assist in removing his baggage.
+Promising to comply with this demand, which favored the execution of
+their own designs, the chiefs departed, and Cortez and his band,
+sleeping on their arms, prepared for the coming conflict.
+
+Punctually, at the peep of dawn, the princes of Cholula marched into the
+court, accompanied by a much larger number of men than Cortez had
+required. With a calm bold air, the haughty Castilian confronted them,
+charging them with treachery, and detailing all the circumstances of the
+concerted massacre. He upbraided them with their duplicity and baseness,
+and gave them to understand that they should pay dear for their
+false-hearted and cruel designs against those, who, confiding in their
+hospitality and promises of friendship, had come to their city, and
+slept quietly within their gates.
+
+Thunderstruck at this unexpected turn of affairs, and fearing more than
+ever the strange beings, who could read their very thoughts, and fathom
+the designs which were yet scarcely matured in their own bosoms, the
+disconcerted magnates tremblingly pleaded guilty to the charge, and
+attempted to excuse themselves, by urging their allegiance to Montezuma,
+and the duty and necessity of obeying his commands, however repugnant
+to their own feelings.
+
+It was not the policy of Cortez to admit this plea, in extenuation of
+their treachery. He preferred to cast the whole burden upon them alone,
+and leave the way open for an easy disclaimer on the part of the
+emperor, hoping thereby the more readily to gain a peaceable entry into
+the capital. Without waiting, therefore, for any further explanations,
+or instituting any inquiry into the comparative guilt of the parties, he
+gave the signal to his soldiers, who, with a general discharge of their
+artillery and fire arms, rushed upon the unprepared multitude, mowing
+them down like grass, and trampling them under the hoofs of their
+horses. A general massacre ensued. Not one of the chiefs escaped, and
+only so many of their panic-struck followers, as could feign themselves
+dead, or bury themselves, till the tempest was past, under the heaps of
+their slain comrades.
+
+Thus taken by surprise, and driven, before they were ready, into an
+unequal conflict with enemies who had, by some miracle, as they
+supposed, anticipated their movements, and struck the first blow, the
+Cholulans rushed in from all parts of their city, hoping to retrieve, by
+their numbers and prowess, the disadvantage of the lost onset. Cortez
+had prepared for this. He had ordered his artillery to be stationed at
+the main entrances to the square, where they poured in a raking fire
+upon the assailants, rushing in from all the avenues. The surprise being
+so sudden, and the leaders having been shot down at the first charge,
+confusion and consternation prevailed among the discomfited Cholulans,
+who alternately fled, like affrighted sheep, from the scene of
+slaughter, and then rushed back, like exasperated wolves, to the work of
+death.
+
+In anticipation of this conflict, the Spanish general had concerted a
+signal with his Tlascalan allies, without the gates, who now came
+rushing in, like hungry tigers, revelling in the opportunity to inflict
+a terrible vengeance upon their ancient enemies. Falling upon their
+rear, as they crowded in from the remoter quarters of the city towards
+the field of carnage, they drove them in upon the weapons of the
+Spaniards, from which there was now no escape. Turning upon this new
+enemy, they fought with desperate bravery, to win a retreat. But they
+were cut down on this side and that, till the streets were scarcely
+passable for the heaps of the dead and dying that cumbered them. Those
+who took refuge in their houses and temples, found no safety in such
+retreats, for they were instantly fired by the Tlascalans, and their
+defenders perished miserably in the flames.
+
+There was one scene in the midst of this desolating conflict, that was
+truly sublime,--one of those strange combinations of moral and physical
+grandeur, which sometimes occur in the dark annals of human warfare,
+investing with a kind of hallowed interest, which the lapse of ages
+serves only to soften, but never destroys, those spectacles of savage
+but heroic cruelty, where every death is elevated into a martyrdom, and
+the very ground saturated with human blood becomes a consecrated field,
+clothed with laurels of never-fading green. It was the last act in that
+bloody drama, enacted on the lofty summit of the great Teocalli, the
+principal temple of Cholula, and the centre of attraction to all the
+votaries of the Aztec religion, throughout the wide realms of Anahuac.
+Driven from street to street, and from quarter to quarter, and falling
+back, as a forlorn hope, upon the sanctuary, and the support and
+encouragement of the hoary men, who presided over the mysteries of their
+faith, they made a bold and desperate stand, in defence of all that was
+dear and holy in their homes and their altars. Step by step, they
+contested this hallowed ground, till they reached the upper terrace,
+where the great temple stood. This was an area of four hundred feet
+square, at an elevation of two hundred feet from the level of the
+surrounding streets. On this elevated platform, the furious combatants
+fought hand to hand; the priest, in his sacred garments, mingling in the
+savage conflict with the humblest of his followers--the steel-clad
+Castilian, the Tlascalan and the Cholulan, of every rank and grade, each
+eager only to slay his man, grappled in the mortal conflict, till one or
+the other fell in the death struggle, or tumbled over the side of the
+mound, to be dashed in pieces below. As the half-armed, half-naked
+natives melted away before the heavy and destructive weapons of the
+invulnerable Spaniards, they were repeatedly offered quarter, but
+scorned to accept it. One only submitted, when, pierced with countless
+wounds, he could stand no longer. All the rest, to a man, fought
+desperately till he fell, and many, even then, in the agonies of the
+last struggle, seized their antagonists by the legs, and rolled with
+them over the parapet, to the certain death of both.
+
+At length the conflict ceased for want of a victim, and the conquering
+Castilian, with a few of his Tlascalan allies, stood alone, in
+undisputed possession of this lofty vantage ground. The disheartened
+Cholulans, without leaders, without counsellors, seeing their sacred
+temple in the hands of their enemies, felt that all was lost. Not
+another blow was struck, but every where they bowed in submission to the
+irresistible conqueror.
+
+The thunder of the artillery, and the smoke of the burning buildings,
+rising in a heavy column to the skies, announced to the Mexican army the
+conflict that was raging within the city. But, having orders not to
+engage in the fray, unless notified by the Cholulan chiefs that his
+assistance was necessary, the brave Cuitlahua was compelled to wait the
+summons. Burning to vindicate the honor of the Mexican arms, the hero
+chafed under this cruel restraint, like a tiger chained in full view of
+his prey. He little doubted that the Castilians would fall by the hands
+of the Cholulans, encompassed as they were on every side, with no room
+for escape, or for the action of their horses. But he longed to have a
+share in the victory. Drawing up his forces in the order of march, he
+stood, the whole day, in readiness to move at a moment's warning; and in
+this attitude, he was still standing, when the tidings of the terrible
+disaster in the city reached him.
+
+His veteran legions were with difficulty restrained from rushing to the
+rescue. The army was almost in a state of mutiny, from their eagerness
+to avenge their slaughtered brethren in Cholula; and all the military
+authority, and unbounded influence of Cuitlahua were required to keep
+them in a state of due subordination.
+
+The influence and authority of Cortez, on the other hand, were scarcely
+sufficient to restrain his victorious allies from ravaging the city, and
+putting men, women, and children to an indiscriminate slaughter. So
+bitter and pervading was the old national animosity, that life was
+scarcely worth possessing to a Tlascalan, if he must share its daily
+blessings side by side with the Aztec. He hated the whole nation with a
+perfect implacable hatred. He execrated the very name, and never uttered
+it without a curse. Of this universal malediction, the Cholulan was
+honored with more than his appropriate share. The other subjects and
+tributaries of Montezuma they feared as well as hated. The Cholulans
+they affected also to despise, though their contempt was not so thorough
+as to mitigate in the least their fierce and uncontrollable hatred.
+
+   [C] As Americus Vespucius, in his letter to Lorenzo Di
+   Pier-Francesco De Medici, reports having met with the lion in
+   South America, I have taken the liberty to introduce him as a
+   native in our forests, notwithstanding the prevalent opinion of
+   naturalists to the contrary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  AGITATIONS IN THE CAPITAL--THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLD--THE
+    SPANIARDS STEADILY ADVANCING.
+
+   ~For monarchs tremble on their thrones,
+      And 'neath the gem-lit crown,
+    Care, fear, and envy dwell--~
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+        ~----They come,
+    Mysterious, dreaded band!
+    With clang of trumpet, torch and brand;
+    With lightning speed, with lightning power,
+    They scale the lofty mountain tower,
+    And sweep along the vale--
+    Who shall arrest their proud career,
+    And save our doomed land?~
+
+
+This position of affairs suited the timid and vacillating policy of
+Montezuma. Finding that Cuitlahua, and his forces, had taken no part in
+the affair, and had not even visited the city, he immediately sent an
+embassy to the Spanish camp, disclaiming all participation in the
+treacherous counsels and doings of the Cholulans, and severely blaming
+them for their unheard of outrage upon the rites of hospitality. Whether
+the sharp-sighted Castilian placed any confidence in these professions,
+or not, it suited his designs to appear to do so. With the utmost
+seeming cordiality, he assured the royal messengers that it gave him the
+most heartfelt satisfaction to know that the treatment he had received
+at Cholula was not instigated or countenanced by their august master,
+that it was unworthy of a great and wise monarch, and that he should
+proceed on his route to the capital, with the same confidence as before,
+and visit the emperor as if nothing had happened to hinder his progress.
+
+Withdrawing the forces under Cuitlahua, and giving orders every where
+for the hospitable reception and entertainment of the Castilians, whom
+he had no longer the heart to oppose either by stratagem or by force,
+Montezuma retired within his palace, and for several days shut himself
+up from all intercourse with his chiefs. He was now fully convinced that
+his destiny was sealed, and with it that of his family and crown. He was
+in the hands of an unappeasable fate. He gave himself up to fasting,
+prayer and sacrifice. He consulted all his oracles anew. But they gave
+no response. He then sought counsel of his chiefs, and the sages of his
+court. Here again he was distracted by the divided opinions of his
+friends. While many of the princes, overawed by the invincible courage
+and invariable success of the Castilians, advised a frank and courteous
+reception, there was still a powerful war-party, with the brave
+Cuitlahua at their head, who were eager to measure lances with the
+strangers, and show them that, in order to reach the capital, they had
+other foes to contend with and overcome, than half savage Tlascalans, or
+trading Cholulans.
+
+Montezuma found no difficulty in following the counsel of the majority,
+though the mystic warning of Karee had not wholly faded from his mind. A
+new embassy was immediately despatched, consisting of a numerous suite
+of powerful nobles, and a long train of servants bearing rich presents
+of gold, and other valuables, and charged with a message couched in
+terms of humble and earnest supplication, proposing, if the Spaniards
+would now return, not only to send them home laden with gold to their
+utmost wish, but to pay an annual tribute of gold to their master, the
+king of Spain. Finding that this bribe only fired the grasping conqueror
+with a more fixed determination to secure the whole prize for which he
+had so long, and against such fearful odds, contended, the messengers
+yielded the point, and threw wide open to the dreaded foe every avenue
+to the heart of the empire, assuring him, in the name of the Emperor,
+that he should be received as a brother, and entertained with the
+consideration due to the powerful representative of a mighty monarch.
+
+The march of the Spaniards was now a continued triumph. No longer
+compelled to fight their way on, they had time to enjoy the rich and
+varied scenery, to scale the mountain, explore the caverns and ravines
+of the sierras, and the craters of the volcanoes, and show to the
+admiring natives, by their agility and love of adventure, that fighting
+and conquest had neither tamed their spirits, nor exhausted their
+physical powers. As they advanced, they were continually surprised and
+delighted with the growing evidences of civilization and high prosperity
+which met them on every side. In the cultivation of the land, in the
+style of architecture, and in all that constitutes the refinement, or
+contributes to the comfort of life, the regions they were now
+traversing very far exceeded the best of those through which they had
+passed. They were continually gaining more exalted ideas of the power,
+wealth and glory of the great Montezuma, and more enlarged views of the
+magnificence of their own adventure, and the importance of their
+position and movements. The ambition of Cortez reached to the
+viceroyalty of this splendid empire; and, though accompanied by a mere
+handful of men, their past achievements inspired him with confidence,
+that he could carry every thing before him.
+
+Though entertained with lordly munificence in every place through which
+he passed, and visited and complimented by envoys from all the states
+embraced in the Mexican domain, the sagacious Spaniard relaxed none of
+his vigilance, nor diminished aught of the strict discipline of his
+little corps. With an eye ever awake to his own safety, and feeling that
+the artful contriver of one stratagem could easily invent another, he
+advanced from post to post, in martial array, always ready for the
+exigency that might arise. His course, however, was unmolested. The
+resources and hopes of the great king seemed to have been exhausted. In
+passive despair, he was waiting for the hour of his doom.
+
+The terror of the events we have described fell not alone upon the
+unfortunate Montezuma; nor did they affect him only as monarch of the
+realm. As a parent, fondly devoted to his children, whose destiny was
+wrapped up in his, as the father of his people, to whom he had been a
+kind of demi-god, the vicegerent of heaven, entitled to their
+unqualified reverence, obedience and love, he felt with tenfold
+intensity the bitterness of his humiliation. In all his sufferings and
+distresses his wives and children shared, showing, by every token in
+their power, their profound respect and affection, and their tender
+sympathy in all his cares.
+
+In these lovely demonstrations of filial affection, none were more
+assiduous or warm-hearted, and none more successful in reaching the
+heart of the broken spirited monarch, or winning from him an occasional
+smile of hope, than Tecuichpo. Just ripening into womanhood, with every
+gift of person, mind and heart that could satisfy the pride of the
+monarch, and requite to the full the yearning love of the father, the
+fair princess lavished on him all her powers of persuasion and
+condolence. It was all in vain. It even aggravated his sorrows; for it
+was on _her_ account, and that of others dearer to him than his own
+life, that he suffered most deeply. The mysterious shadows that had
+brooded so darkly over the infancy of his lovely daughter, had never
+ceased to shed a chilling gloom over his mind. Her clouded destiny was
+linked with his, not merely as a child, but as one specifically marked
+out, by infallible signs from heaven, for a signal doom. His
+superstitious faith invested her and her fate with a peculiar
+sacredness. She was as one whom the gods had devoted to an awful
+sacrifice, from which neither imperial power nor paternal love could
+rescue her. It therefore pierced his soul with a deeper pang to gaze
+upon her loveliness, and witness her amiable efforts to soothe and
+sustain him in the midst of calamities that were more terrible and
+overwhelming to her, than even to himself. If, by offering himself as a
+sacrifice to his offended gods, he could have propitiated their favor
+for his family and his people, and handed down to his posterity an
+undiminished empire and an untarnished crown, he would have gone with as
+much pride and pleasure, to the altar, as to a triumphal festival that
+should celebrate his victory, and clothe his brow with unfading laurel.
+But in this sacrifice there was no substitution. He was himself the most
+distinguished victim, destined to the highest and hottest place on the
+great altar of his country, where a hecatomb would scarce suffice to
+appease the anger of the offended gods.
+
+Gathering his royal household around him, he explained to them the
+peculiarity of his position, avowing his entire confidence in the
+ancient prophecy, which declared that the realm of Anahuac belonged to a
+race of white men, who had gone away, for a season towards the rising
+sun, and who, after the lapse of ages, were to return in power, and
+claim their inheritance. It was the predestined arrangement of the gods,
+and could not be resisted. He had, from the beginning felt that
+resistance was wholly vain, and had only attempted it, in deference to
+the urgent advice and solicitations of his best and most experienced
+counsellors. For himself, he was ready, at any time, to stand at his
+post, and die, if necessary, in defence of his crown and his people. But
+he could not contend with the gods. Empires and crowns, and the lives
+and happiness of nations, were at their disposal, and kings and subjects
+alike must submit to their righteous requirements. It was but the
+dictate of common piety to say "the will of the gods be done." Hard and
+trying as it was, he felt it incumbent on him to relinquish his crown
+and his honors, at their bidding, as cheerfully as he should lay down
+his life, when his destined hour should arrive. He counselled them to
+bow submissively to their inevitable fate, in the hope that, though
+humbled, broken and scattered in this world, they might meet and dwell
+together in peace in the paradise of the gods.
+
+His wives and children wept around him. They besought him to hope yet
+for the best--to turn away his thoughts from the dark visions on which
+he had dwelt too long and too intensely. Their mysterious forebodings of
+evil might yet be averted, through the favor of the gods, to whom a
+childlike, cheerful confidence in their benignity and paternal regard,
+was more acceptable, than that blind abandonment, sometimes mistaken for
+submission, which views them as stern, arbitrary, and implacable
+tyrants, rather than as parents of the human family, watching over it
+for the good of mankind, and ordering all events for the welfare of
+their true children.
+
+This was a cheerful faith, and, seasonably adopted, might have saved the
+life and throne of Montezuma, and preserved, for many years, the
+integrity of his empire. But his heart was not prepared to receive it.
+Steeped in the dismal superstitions of the Aztec faith, and yielding
+himself unreservedly to the guidance and dictation of its constituted
+oracles, he had never, for a moment, allowed himself to falter in his
+conviction, that the Aztec dynasty was to terminate with him, and that
+he and his family were doomed to a terrible destruction, in the
+overthrow of the sacred institutions of his beloved land.
+
+The scene was too thrilling for the tender heart of Tecuichpo, and she
+swooned away in the arms of her father, who had drawn her towards him in
+an affectionate embrace. The attendants were called, and, as soon as the
+unhappy princess was restored to consciousness, the king directed the
+royal barges to be prepared, and went out, with all his household, to
+enjoy the invigorating air of the lake, and seek relief from the dark
+thoughts that oppressed and overwhelmed them, in contemplating, from
+various points in view, the rich and varied scenery of that glorious
+valley.
+
+It was a brave spectacle to behold, when the imperial majesty of
+Tenochtitlan condescended to accompany his little fleet on such an
+excursion. The gaily appointed canoes, with their gorgeous canopies of
+embroidered cotton, and feather-work; the splendid robes and plumes of
+the king and his attendants; the rich and fanciful attire of the women;
+the light, graceful, arrowy motions of the painted skiffs, as they
+danced along the waves; together with the wonderful beauty of the lake,
+and its swimming gardens of flowers, presented a _toute ensemble_ more
+like the fairy pictures of some enchanted sphere, than any thing we can
+now realize as belonging to this plain, prosaic, matter-of-fact world of
+ours. On this occasion, it seemed more gay and fairy-like than ever, in
+contrast, perhaps, with the deep gloom that had settled on the land,
+pervading every heart, with its sombre shadows.
+
+The light pirogues of the natives, flying hither and thither over the
+glassy waters, on errands of business or of pleasure, arrayed in
+flowers, or freighted with fruits and vegetables for the grand market of
+Tenochtitlan, made way, on every side, for the advance of the royal
+cortege, which, threading the shining avenues between the gaily-colored
+_chinampas_, that spotted the surface of that beautiful lake, like so
+many islands of flowers on the bosom of the ocean, danced over the
+waters to the sound of music, and the merry voices of glad hearts,
+rejoicing in the sunny smiles that now played on the countenance of the
+king, as if the clouds that had so long overshadowed it, were never to
+return. Tecuichpo, restored to more than her wonted gaiety, was full of
+life and animation. Never had she seemed, in the eyes of her doting
+father, and of the admiring courtiers, half so lovely as at this moment.
+She was the centre attraction for all eyes. Her resplendent beauty, her
+fairy-like gracefulness of motion, and the artless simplicity of her
+manners, won the admiring notice of all. Her gaiety was infectious. Her
+merry laugh reached, with a sort of electric influence, every heart in
+that bright company, and compelled even her father to abandon, for the
+time, his sad and solemn reflections, and give himself up to the spirit
+of the hour and the scene.
+
+Guatimozin was there, and exerted all his eloquence to keep up the
+spirit of the hour, in the earnest hope that Montezuma would put on all
+the monarch again, and assert the majesty of his insulted crown, and the
+rights of his house and his people, in despite of omen or legend, and in
+the face of every foe.
+
+Tecuichpo became more and more animated, till she seemed quite lifted
+above herself and the world about her. Suddenly rising in the midst, and
+pointing, with great energy of expression, to the royal eagle of
+Mexico, then sweeping down from his mountain eyrie, to prey upon the
+ocelot of the distant valley, she exclaimed--
+
+      'Tis he! 'Tis he! our imperial bird!
+        Whom the gods to our aid have sent;
+      I saw him in my dream, and heard,
+        As down from his airy flight he bent,
+    His victor shout, with the dying wail,
+    Of the coming foe, borne on the gale;
+    While the air was dark with the gathering throng
+    Of bold young eaglets, that swept along
+    From every cliff, in fierceness and wrath,
+    To gorge on their prey, in the mountain path.
+
+When she ceased, an echo from a richly cultivated chinampa, which they
+were then passing, seemed to take up and prolong the strain.
+
+    I saw it too, and I heard the scream,
+    In the midst of my dark and troubled dream;
+    'Twas a dream of despair for our doomed land,
+    For his wings were bound by the royal hand;
+    His talons were wreathed with a golden chain,
+    He smelt the prey, and he chafed in vain,
+    For they trampled him down, in their brave career,
+    While our monarch looked on with unmanly fear,
+    Till his crown and his sceptre in dust were laid low,
+    And proud Tenochtitlan had passed to the foe.
+
+The last words of this solemn chant died away on the ear, just as the
+royal barge rounded the little artificial promontory, which the
+ingenious Karee had constructed, for the double purpose of an arbor and
+look-out, at one of the angles of her chinampa. Leaning over the brow,
+and supporting herself by the overhanging branch of a luxuriant myrtle,
+she dropped a wreath of evergreen upon the head of Tecuichpo, and said--
+
+      Oh! child of doom,
+    Thy long sealed destiny is come--
+      One brief, dark, dreadful night,
+    Then on those blessed eyes
+      Another day shall rise,
+    Fair, glorious, bright,
+      With an unearthly endless light.
+        Thou shall lay down
+        An earthly crown,
+    To win a starry sceptre in the skies
+
+At this moment, signals were heard among the distant hills, which,
+answered and repeated from countless stations along the wild sierras,
+and reverberated by a thousand echoes as they came, burst upon the quiet
+valley, like the confused shouts of a mighty host rushing to battle. It
+fell like a death-knell upon the ear of Montezuma. It announced the
+arrival, within the mountain wall which encompassed his golden valley,
+of the dreaded strangers. It heralded their near approach to his
+capital, and the exposure of all he held dear to their irresistible
+power--their terrible rapacity. His heart sunk within him. But he had
+gone too far to retract. It was the act of the gods, not his. Banishing
+from his mind the impressions of the scenes just passed, he waved his
+hand to the rowers, and instantly every prow was turned, and the gaily
+caparisoned, but melancholy, terror-stricken pageant moved rapidly back
+to the city.
+
+Tenochtitlan was now alive with the bustle of preparation. It was the
+preparation, not for war, which would far better have suited the
+multitude both of the chiefs and the people, but for the hospitable
+reception and entertainment of the strangers. The great imperial palace,
+which had been the royal residence of the father of Montezuma, was
+fitted up for their accommodation. With its numberless apartments, its
+spacious courts, and magnificent gardens, it was sufficient for an army
+much larger than that of the Castilians, swelled as it was by the
+company of their Tlascalan allies. Every room was newly hung with
+beautifully colored tapestry, and furnished with all the conveniences
+and luxuries of Mexican life. The appointments and provisions were all
+on a most liberal scale, for the Emperor was as generous and munificent
+as the golden mountains from which he drew his inexhaustible treasures.
+
+Intending that nothing should be wanting to the graciousness of his
+submission to this act of constrained courtesy, Montezuma proposed to
+his brother Cuitlahua, to choose a royal retinue from the flower of the
+Aztec nobility, and go out to meet the strangers; and bid them welcome,
+in his name, to his realm and his capital. From this the soul of the
+proud undaunted soldier revolted, and he entreated so earnestly to be
+excused from executing a commission, so much at variance with his
+feelings and his convictions, that the monarch relented, and assigned
+the mission to Cacama, the young prince of Tezcuco.
+
+Nothing could exceed the gorgeous splendor of this embassy. Borne in a
+beautiful palanquin, canopied and curtained with the rarest of Mexican
+feather-work, richly powdered with jewels, and glittering with gold,
+Cacama, preceded and followed by a long train of noble veterans and
+youths, all apparelled in the gayest costume of their country, presented
+himself before the advancing host. His approach, and the errand on which
+he came, having been announced by a herald, Cortez halted his band, and
+drew up his forces in the best possible array, to give him a fitting
+reception.
+
+The meeting took place at Ajotzinco, on, or rather within, the borders
+of the lake Chalco, the first of the bright chain of inland lakes which
+the Spaniards had seen, and the place where they first saw that species
+of amphibious architecture, which prevailed so extensively among the
+Mexicans. When the royal embassy arrived in front of the waiting army,
+Cacama alighted from his palanquin, while his obsequious officers swept
+the ground before him, that he might not soil his royal feet, by too
+rude a contact with the earth. He was a young man of about twenty five
+years, with a fine manly countenance, a noble and commanding figure, and
+an address and manners that would have done honor to the most courtly
+knight of Christendom. Stepping forward with a bland and dignified
+courtesy, he made the customary Mexican salutation to persons of high
+rank, touching his right hand to the ground, and raising it to his head.
+Cortez embraced him as he rose, and the prince, in the name of his royal
+master, gave the strangers a hearty welcome, assuring them that they
+should be received with a hospitality, and treated with a respect,
+becoming the representatives of a great and mighty prince. He then
+presented Cortez with a number of large and valuable pearls, which act
+of munificence was immediately returned by the present of a necklace of
+cut glass, hung over his neck by Cortez. As glass was not known to the
+Mexicans, it probably had in their eyes the value of the rarest jewels.
+
+This interview being over, the royal envoy hastened back to the capital,
+while the Castilians and their allies, in the two-fold character of
+hostile invaders and invited guests, followed his steps by slow, easy
+and cautious marches. After a few days, during which they passed through
+large tracts of highly cultivated and fertile ground, and several of the
+beautiful towns and cities of the plateau, they arrived at Iztapalapan,
+a place of great beauty, and large resources, and the residence of
+Cuitlahua, the noble brother of Montezuma. At the command of the
+Emperor, Cuitlahua, as governor of this place, received the strangers
+with courtesy, and treated them with attention. But it was a cold
+courtesy, and a constrained attention. With a proud and haughty mien,
+the brave soldier exhibited to the wondering strangers, all the riches
+and curiosities of the place, disposing every thing in such a manner as
+to impress them most powerfully with the immense wealth of the empire,
+and the irresistible power of the Emperor. He collected around him all
+the richest and most potent nobles in his neighborhood, and displayed a
+magnificence of style, and a prodigality of expenditure, that was truly
+princely. The extent and beauty of his gardens, his beautiful aviary,
+stocked with every variety of the gorgeously plumed birds of that
+tropical clime, his menagerie, containing a full representation of all
+the wild races of animals in Anahuac, struck the Spaniards with surprise
+and admiration; while the architecture of his palaces, and the many
+refinements of his style of living, gave them the highest ideas of the
+advanced state of civilization to which the Mexicans had attained.
+
+But, so far from disheartening them in their grand design, all they saw
+of wealth and splendor in the inferior cities, only served to inflame
+their desire to see the capital, and learn if any thing more brilliant
+and wonderful than they had yet seen, could be furnished at the great
+metropolis. While they were daily more and more convinced of the power
+and resources of their enemy, and the seeming impossibility of their own
+enterprise, they were also daily more and more inflamed with the desire
+and purpose to possess themselves of the incalculable treasures which
+every where met their eyes. The cold aspect, and lofty bearing of the
+Prince Cuitlahua, the commander-in-chief of the Mexican armies, and heir
+apparent to its throne, left no doubt that the final struggle for power
+would be ably and bitterly contested, and that the wealth they so
+ardently coveted, would be dearly bought. To a heart less bold and
+self-reliant than that of Cortez, it would have been no enviable
+position, to be shut up, with his little band of followers, within the
+gates of a city, commanded by so brave and experienced a soldier, whose
+personal feelings and views were known to be of the most hostile
+character. To the iron-hearted Castilian, it was but a scene in the
+progress of his romantic adventure; and, the greater the difficulty, the
+more imminent the peril, the more cordially he trusted to his good
+genius, or his patron saint, he seems not to have known which, to carry
+him triumphantly through.
+
+They were now but one day's march, and that a short and easy one, from
+the imperial city. Already they had seen it from a distance, resting,
+or rather riding, on the bosom of the lake, glowing and glittering in
+the sunbeams, like some resplendent constellation, transferred from the
+azure above to the azure below. They had seen its noble ally, the
+metropolis of the sister kingdom of Tezcuco, shining in rival though
+unequal splendor, on the opposite shore of the lake, and many other
+splendid cities, beautiful towns, and lovely hamlets, studding its
+bright border, in its entire circuit, like mingled gems and pearls,
+richly set in the band of the imperial diadem, all reposing under the
+shadow, and eclipsed by the superior glory, of the capital, the crowning
+jewel of the Western World. They had seen the _chinampas_, those
+wandering gardens of verdure and flowers, seeming more like the fairy
+creations of poetry, than the sober realities of life, and reminding
+them of those islands of the blest, which they had been told, in their
+childish days, floated about in the ethereal regions above, freighted
+with blessings for the virtuous, and sometimes stooping so near to earth
+as to permit the weary and the waiting to escape from their toils and
+trials here, and find repose in their celestial paradise. They had seen
+and admired the wonderful works of art, the causeways of vast extent,
+constructed with scientific accuracy, and of great strength and
+durability--the canals and aqueducts, and bridges, which would have done
+honor to the genius and industry of the proudest nation in Europe. It
+now remained to them to see the imperial lord of all these wide and
+luxuriant realms, and to enter, as invited guests, into the gates of his
+royal abode.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS AT THE CAPITAL--THEIR RECEPTION
+    BY MONTEZUMA--DETERMINED HOSTILITY OF GUATIMOZIN.
+
+   ~Hark! at the very portals now they stand,
+    Demanding entrance. Can I shut them out,
+    When all the gods commission them to come?
+    Can we admit them, and preserve intact
+    Our honor and the state?~
+
+
+The spectacle of this day, the eighth of November, 1519, has not its
+parallel in the annals of history, and will probably never be repeated
+in the history of man. The sovereign and absolute monarch of a populous
+and powerful empire, stooping from his imperial throne, flinging wide
+open the gates of his capital, and condescending to go out, and receive
+with an apparent welcome an invading foe, whom he had in vain attempted
+to keep out, but whom he had now the power to crush under his feet in a
+moment. That invading foe consisted only of a few hundred adventurers,
+three thousand miles from home, in the heart of the country they had
+ravaged, and surrounded by countless thousands of exasperated foes,
+burning to revenge the injuries and insults they had received at the
+hands of the strangers, and only held back from rushing upon them, like
+herds of ravening tigers, by the strong arm of the royal prohibition.
+Their position was like that of a group of children in a menagerie,
+amusing themselves with teasing and exasperating the caged animals
+around them. The furious creatures glare on them with looks of rage,
+growling fiercely, and gnashing their teeth. The keeper sympathizes with
+his enraged subjects, burning to let them loose upon their annoyers, but
+restrained by that mysterious agency, in which the divine hand is every
+where moulding and subduing the natural impulses of humanity, and
+working out its own wise ends by the wrath and passions of men.
+
+Let the keeper but raise the bar of that cage for a moment, and not one
+of the bright group would be left to tell the tragic issue of their
+sport. Let the terror-stricken Montezuma put on once more the air of a
+monarch, and raise his finger as a signal for the onset, before the
+enemy has become entrenched in his fortress, and few, if any, of that
+brave band would be left to tell the world of their fate--the marvellous
+story of the Conquest would never be told; the Aztec dynasty would
+outlive the period assigned it by those mystic oracles; and Montezuma,
+recovered from the dark dreams of an imagination disordered by
+superstition--the long dreaded crisis of his destiny passed--would have
+swayed again the sceptre of undisputed empire over the broad and
+beautiful realms of Anahuac. Having once vanquished and destroyed the
+terrible strangers, and stripped them of that supernatural defence,
+which the idea of their celestial origin threw around them, he would
+never again have yielded his soul to so unmanly a fear. If such had
+been the issue of the invasion of Cortez and his band, it is doubtful
+whether the Aztec dynasty would ever have been overthrown. The
+civilization of Europe would soon have been engrafted upon its own.
+Christianity would have taken the place of their dark and bloody
+paganism; which, with a people so far enlightened as they were, could
+not have endured for a moment the noon-day blaze of the gospel; and the
+terrible power of that heathen despot would have been softened, without
+weakening it, into the consolidated colossal strength of an enlightened,
+Christian, peaceful empire. Christianity propagated by fire and sword
+consumes centuries, and wastes whole generations of men, in effecting a
+revolution, which they who go with the olive branch in their hand, and
+the gospel of peace in their hearts, require only a few years to
+accomplish. Witness the recent triumphs of a peaceful Christianity in
+the Sandwich Islands, as contrasted with the bloody and wasting Crusades
+of Spaniards in all portions of the new world.
+
+With the earliest dawn, the reveille was beaten in the Spanish camp, and
+all the forces were mustered and drawn up in the order of their march.
+Cortez, at the head of the cavalry, formed the advanced guard, followed
+immediately by the Castilian infantry in solid column. The artillery and
+baggage occupied the centre, while the dark files of the Tlascalan
+savages brought up the rear. The whole number was less than seven
+thousand, not more than three hundred and fifty of whom were Spaniards.
+Putting on their most imposing array, with gay flaunting banners, and
+the stirring notes of the trumpet, swelling over lake and grove, and
+rolling away in distant echoes among the mountains, they issued forth
+from the city, just as the rising sun, surmounting the eastern
+cordillera, poured the golden stream of day over the beautiful valley,
+and lighted up a thousand resplendent fires among the gilded domes, and
+enameled temples of the capital, and the rich tiara of tributary cities
+and towns that encircled it. Moving rapidly forward, they soon entered
+upon the grand causeway, which, passing through the capital, spans the
+entire breadth of the Tezcucan lake, constituting then the main
+entrance, as its remains do now the principal southern avenue, to the
+city of Mexico. It was composed of immense stones, fashioned with
+geometrical precision, well laid in cement, and capable of withstanding
+for ages the play of the waters, and the ravages of time. It was of
+sufficient width, throughout its whole extent, to allow ten horsemen to
+ride abreast. It was interrupted in several places by well built draw
+bridges for the accommodation of the numerous boats, that carried on a
+brisk trade with the several towns on the lake, and for the better
+defence of the city against an invading foe. At the distance of about
+half a league from the capital, it was also traversed by a thick heavy
+wall of stone, about twelve feet high, surmounted and fortified by
+towers at each extremity. In the centre was a battlemented gateway, of
+sufficient strength to resist any force that could be brought against
+it, by the rude enginery of native warfare. This was called the Fort of
+Xoloc.
+
+Here they were met by a very numerous and powerful body of Aztec nobles,
+splendidly arrayed in their gayest costume, who came to announce the
+approach of Montezuma, and again in his name to bid the strangers
+welcome to the capital. As each of the chiefs presented himself, in his
+turn, to Cortez, and made the customary formal salutation, a
+considerable time was consumed in the ceremony; which was somewhat more
+tedious than interesting to the hot spirited Spaniards.
+
+When this was over, they passed briskly on, and soon beheld the
+glittering retinue of the Emperor emerging from the principal gate of
+the city. The royal palanquin, blazing with burnished gold and precious
+stones, was borne on the shoulders of the principal nobles of the land,
+while crowds of others, of equal or inferior rank, thronged in
+obsequious attendance around. It was preceded by three officers, bearing
+golden wands. Over it was a canopy of gaudy feather-work, powdered with
+jewels, and fringed with silver, resting on four richly carved and
+inlaid pillars, and supported by four nobles of the same rank with the
+bearers. These were all bare-footed, and walked with a slow measured
+pace, as conscious of the majesty of their burden, and with eyes bent on
+the ground. Arrived within a convenient distance, the train halted, and
+Montezuma, alighting from his palanquin, came forward, leaning on the
+arms of his royal relatives, the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan. As
+the monarch advanced, under the same gorgeous canopy which had before
+screened him from the public gaze, and the glare of the mid-day sun, the
+ground was covered with cotton tapestry, while all his subjects of high
+and low degree, who lined the sides of the causeway, bent their heads
+and fixed their eyes on the ground, as unworthy to look upon so much
+majesty. Some prostrated themselves on the ground before him, and all
+in that mighty throng were awed by his presence into a silence that was
+absolutely oppressive.
+
+The appearance of Montezuma was in the highest degree interesting to the
+Spanish general and his followers. Flung over his shoulders was the
+_tilmatli_, or large square cloak, manufactured from the finest cotton,
+with the embroidered ends gathered in a knot round his neck. Under this
+was a tunic of green, embroidered with exquisite taste, extending almost
+to his knees, and confined at the waist, by a rich jeweled vest. His
+feet were protected by sandals of gold, bound with leathern thongs
+richly embossed with the same metal. The cloak, the tunic, and the
+sandals were profusely sprinkled with pearls and precious stones. On his
+head was a _panache_ of plumes of the royal green, waving gracefully in
+the light breeze.
+
+He was then about forty years of age. His person was tall, slender, and
+well proportioned. His complexion was somewhat fairer than that of his
+race generally. His countenance was expressive of great benignity. His
+carriage was serious, dignified and even majestic, and, without the
+least tincture of haughtiness, or affectation of importance, he moved
+with the stately air of one born to command, and accustomed to the
+homage of all about him.
+
+The strangers halted, as the monarch drew near. Cortez, dismounting,
+threw his reins to a page, and, supported by a few of his principal
+cavaliers, advanced to meet him. What an interview! How full of
+thrilling interest to both parties! How painfully thrilling to
+Montezuma, who now saw before him, standing on the very threshold of
+his citadel, the all-conquering white man, whose history was so
+mysteriously blended with his own; whose coming and power had been
+foreshadowed for ages in the prophetic traditions of his country,
+confirmed again by his own most sacred oracles, and repeated by so many
+signs, and omens, and fearful prognostics, that he was compelled either
+to regard him as the heaven-sent representative of the ancient rightful
+lords of the soil, or to abandon his early and cherished faith, the
+religion of his fathers, and of the ancient race from which they sprung.
+
+Putting a royal restraint upon the feelings which almost overwhelmed
+him, the monarch received his guest with princely courtesy, expressing
+great pleasure in seeing him personally, and extending to him the
+hospitalities of his capital. The Castilian replied with expressions of
+the most profound respect, and with many and ample acknowledgments for
+the substantial proofs which the Emperor had already given of his more
+than royal munificence. He then hung on the neck of the king a sparkling
+chain of colored crystal, at the same time making a movement, as if he
+would embrace him. He was prevented, however, by the timely interference
+of two Aztec lords from thus profaning, before the assembled multitudes
+of his people, the sacred person of their master.
+
+After this formal introduction and interchange of civilities, Montezuma
+appointed his brother, the bold Cuitlahua, to conduct the Spaniards to
+their quarters in the city, and returned in the same princely state in
+which he came, amid the prostrate thousands of his subjects. Pondering
+deeply, as the train moved slowly on, upon the fearful crisis in his
+affairs which had now arrived, his ear was arrested by a faint low voice
+in the crowd, which he instantly recognized as Karee's, breathing out a
+plaintive wail, as if in soliloquy with her own soul, or in high
+communion with the spirits of the unseen world. The strain was wild and
+broken, but its tenor was deeply mournful and deprecatory. It concluded
+with these emphatic words--
+
+    The proud eagle may turn to his eyrie again,
+    But his pinions are clipped, and his foot feels the chain,
+    He is monarch no more in his wide domain--
+    The falcon has come to his nest.
+
+With an air of bold and martial triumph, their colors flying, and music
+briskly playing, the Spaniards, with the singular trail of half savage
+Tlascalans, the deadly enemies of the Aztecs, made their entrance into
+the southern quarter of the renowned Tenochtitlan, and were escorted by
+the brave Cuitlahua, to the royal palace of Axayacatl, in the heart of
+the city, once the residence of Montezuma's father, and now appropriated
+to the accommodation of Cortez and his followers.
+
+As they marched through the crowded streets, new subjects of wonder and
+admiration greeted them on every side. The grandeur and extent of the
+city, the superior style of its architecture, the ample dimensions,
+immense strength, and costly ornaments of the numerous palaces, pyramids
+and temples, separated and surrounded by broad terraced gardens in the
+highest possible state of cultivation, and teeming with flowers of every
+hue and name--the lofty tapering sanctuaries, and altars blazing with
+inextinguishable fires,--and above all, the innumerable throngs of
+people who swarmed through the streets and canals, filling every
+door-way and window, and clustering on the flat roof of every building
+as they passed, filled them with mingled emotions of admiration,
+surprise and fear.
+
+The swarming myriads of the Aztecs were, on their part, no less
+interested and amazed at the spectacle presented by their strange
+visitors. An intense and all-absorbing curiosity pervaded the entire
+mass of the people. Nothing could surpass their wonder and admiration of
+the prancing steeds, or four legged and double-headed men, as to their
+simple view they seemed to be, the rider as he sat with ease in his
+saddle, appearing to be but a part of the animal on which he rode. The
+piercing tones of the loud mouthed trumpets, astonished and delighted
+them exceedingly. But the deep thunder of the artillery as it burst upon
+them amid volumes of sulphurous smoke and flame, and then rolled away in
+long reverberated echoes among the mountains, filled them with
+indescribable alarm, and made them feel that the all-destroying god of
+war was indeed among them in the guise of men.
+
+While these scenes were enacting in the city, the palace was shrouded in
+the deepest gloom. When the monarch arrayed himself, in the morning, to
+go forth to meet the strangers, several incidents occurred, which were
+deemed peculiarly ominous, confirming all the superstitious forebodings
+of the king, and tending to take away from the yet trusting hearts of
+his household, their last remaining hope. The imperial clasp, which
+bound his girdle in front, bearing as its device, richly engraven on the
+precious _chalchivitl_, the emblem of despotic power, which was the
+eagle pouncing upon the ocelot--snapped in twain, scattering the
+fragments of the eagle's head upon the marble pavement. The principal
+jewel in the royal diadem was found loose, and trembling in its setting.
+But, more portentous than all to the mind of the devout Montezuma, the
+priest, who had charge of the great altar on the Teocalli of
+Huitzilopotchli, had been seized with convulsions during the preceding
+night, and fallen dead at his post. The perpetual fire had gone out, for
+want of a hand to replenish it, and when the morning sun shot his first
+beams upon that high altar, there was not a spark among the blackened
+embers, to answer his reviving glow.
+
+It was impossible to shake off the influence of presages like these.
+From infancy, he had been taught to read in all such incidents, the
+shadowy revealings of the will of the gods, the dark lines of destiny
+foreshown to the faithful. The soul of Montezuma was oppressed almost to
+sinking. But he roused himself to his task, and went forth, feeling, as
+he went, that the ground trembled beneath his feet, while an untimely
+night gathered at noon-day over the sky.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Among the noble princes who graced the court of Montezuma, there was no
+one of a nobler bearing, or a loftier heart, than his nephew Guatimozin,
+the favored lover of Tecuichpo. Unlike her disappointed suitor, the
+Prince of Tezcuco, he had uniformly and powerfully opposed the timid
+policy of the king, and urged, with Cuitlahua, a bold and unyielding
+resistance to the encroachments of the intruding Spaniards. His
+reluctance to their admission to the capital was so great, that he
+refused to witness the humiliating spectacle; preferring to shut himself
+up in the palace, and sustain, if he could, the fainting courage of the
+princess, and her mother. All that could be done by eloquence, inspired
+by patriotic zeal and inflamed by a pure and refined love, was attempted
+by the accomplished youth, till, excited and inflamed by his own efforts
+to comfort and persuade others, and nerved to higher resolves, by a new
+contemplation of the inestimable heart-treasures, which were staked upon
+the issue, a new hope seemed to dawn upon the clouded horizon of their
+destiny.
+
+"My fair princess," cried the impassioned lover, "it shall not be. These
+wide and glorious realms, teeming with untold thousands of brave and
+patriotic hearts, ready and able to defend our altars and our hearths,
+shall never pass away to a mere handful of pale-faced invaders. They
+_must_, they _shall_ be driven back. Or, if our gods have utterly
+deserted us--if the time has indeed come, when the power and glory of
+the Aztec is to pass away for ever, let the Aztec, to a man, pass away
+with it. Let us perish together by our altars, and leave to the
+rapacious intruder a ravaged and depopulated country. Let not one remain
+to grace his triumph, or bow his neck to the ignominious yoke."
+
+"Nay, my sweet cousin," she replied, with a tone and look of
+indescribable tenderness, "we will indeed die together, if need be, but
+let us first see if we cannot live together."
+
+"Live?" exclaimed Guatimozin. "Oh! Tecuichpo, what would I not attempt,
+what would I not sacrifice, to the hope of living, if I might share
+that life with you. But my country! my allegiance! how can I sacrifice
+that which is not my own?--that inheritance which was all my
+birth-right, and which, as it preceded, must necessarily be paramount
+to, all the other relations of life."
+
+"But, my father! dear Guatimozin! must he not be obeyed?"
+
+"Yes, and he shall be. But he _must_ be persuaded, even at this late
+hour, to dismiss the strangers, and banish them for ever from his
+domains. He has no right to yield it up. It belongs to his subjects no
+less than to him. He belongs to them, by the same sacred bond that binds
+them all to him. He may not sacrifice them to a scruple, which has in it
+more of superstition than of religion. I must go to the Temple of
+Cholula, and bring up the hoary old prophet of Quetzalcoatl, and see if
+he cannot move the too tender conscience of your father, and persuade
+him that his duty to his gods cannot, by any possibility, be made to
+conflict with his duty to his empire, and the mighty family of dependent
+children, whom the gods have committed to his care."
+
+"Oh! not now, Guatimozin, I pray you. Do not leave us at this terrible
+moment. Stay, and sustain with your courageous hopes the sad heart of my
+dear father, who is utterly overwhelmed with the dire omens of this
+dismal morning."
+
+"Omens! Oh! Tecuichpo, shall we not rather say that the gods have thus
+frowned upon our cowardly abandonment of their altars, than that they
+design, in these dark portents, to denounce an irreversible doom, which
+our prayers cannot avert, nor our combined wisdom and courage prevent?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At this moment Montezuma returned. But the deep distress depicted in his
+countenance, and the air of stern reserve which he assumed in the
+presence of those whose counsels would tend to shake his resolve,
+effectually prevented Guatimozin from pursuing, at that moment, the
+object nearest his heart. He retired into the garden, where he was soon
+joined by the fair princess, who wished to divert him from his purposed
+visit to Cholula, knowing full well it would be a fruitless mission.
+
+"But why, my brave cousin, may not my father be right, in feeling that
+these strangers are sent to us from the gods? And if from the gods, then
+surely for our good; for the gods are all beneficence, and can only
+intend the well-being of their children, in all the changes that befal
+us here. Perhaps these strangers will teach us more of the beings whom
+we worship, and direct us how we may serve them better than we now do,
+and so partake more largely of their favor."
+
+"Alas! my beloved, how can we hope that they who come to destroy, whose
+only god is gold--to the possession of which they are ready to sacrifice
+life, love, honor, every thing--how can we hope that they will teach us
+any thing better or higher than we learn from the ancient oracles of our
+faith, and the holy priesthood of our religion? No, it cannot be. Their
+pathway is drenched in blood, and so it will be, till the throne, and he
+who honors it, are laid in dust at their feet, and you and I, and all
+the myriads of our people, have become their abject slaves."
+
+"Say not so, I beseech you, dear Guatimozin. Where my father leads, I
+must follow, and hope for the best. And you must follow too, for I
+cannot go without you. Here, take this rose, and wear it as a pledge to
+me, over this sparkling fountain, that you will no more hazard the
+imperial displeasure, and the anger of the gods, by your bold and rash
+resistance of the known decrees of fate. And I will weave a chaplet of
+the same, to lay upon the altar, to propitiate for us all the favor of
+heaven."
+
+There was too much real chivalry in the heart of Guatimozin, to resist
+the earnest love and eloquent persuasion of his lady-love. He kissed her
+fair cheek in token of submission to her sway, and then led her to the
+palace, to learn if any thing new had transpired to encourage his hope
+that his wishes would yet be realized, in the exclusion of the Spaniards
+from the city. As they passed along, they heard Karee-o-thán, the
+garrulous pet of the Princess, seemingly soliloquising among the
+branches of the flowering orange that hung over her favorite arbor. They
+paused a moment, but could gather nothing from his chatterings but
+"Brave Guatimozin! noble Guatimozin! all is yours."
+
+"An omen! my sweet cousin, a genuine emphatic omen! Even Karee-o-thán
+encourages me in my treason. I wish I knew how she would respond to the
+name of this redoubtable Cortez. Pray ask her, Tecuichpo, what she
+thinks of the Spaniard."
+
+"Fear you not to trifle thus?" asked Tecuichpo.
+
+"Fear not, brave Guatimozin!" responded the parrot.
+
+"There, I have it again, my love; all she says is against you. And what
+do you say of Malinché, pretty Karee-o-thán?"
+
+"Poor Malinché! brave Guatimozin."
+
+"Bravo!" exclaimed the Prince, "the bird is as good as an omen, and
+I"----
+
+At that moment, Karee appeared, and coming towards them in great haste
+and trepidation, informed them that the Spaniards had already reached
+their quarters in the old palace, and that Montezuma had gone thither,
+in royal state, to receive them.
+
+"And what think you of all these things, my fairy queen," asked
+Guatimozin, playfully.
+
+"Wo! wo! wo! to the imperial house of Tenochtitlan!" energetically
+replied Karee,--"its glory is departed for ever,--its crown has fallen
+from the head of the great Montezuma, and there is none able to wear it,
+or to redeem it from the hand of the spoiler. Thou, most noble Prince,
+wilt do all that mortal courage and prowess can do, to rescue it from
+desecration, and to protect the house of Montezuma from the cruel fate
+to which he has delivered it up; but it will be all in vain. _He_ must
+perish by an ignominious death. _They_ must pass under the yoke of the
+strangers, and thou, too, after all thy noble struggles and sacrifices,
+must perish miserably under their cruel and implacable rapacity."
+
+This was too much for Tecuichpo. She looked upon Karee as an inspired
+prophetess, and had always found it exceedingly difficult to sustain the
+filial confidence which sanctified every act and every purpose of her
+royal father, when the powerful incantations of Karee were directed
+against them. It was a continual struggle between an affectionate
+superstition, and filial love. But that first, and holiest, and
+strongest instinct of her heart prevailed, and she clung the more warmly
+to her father, when she found that every thing else was against him. But
+now the shaft had pierced her at another and an unguarded point. Her
+spirit fainted within her. She swooned in the arms of Guatimozin, and
+was borne to her apartment in a state of insensibility, where, under the
+kind and skilful nursing of Karee, and the affectionate assurances of
+Guatimozin, she was soon restored to health, and her accustomed
+cheerfulness. But these ceaseless agitations, these painful alternations
+of hope and fear, were slowly wearing upon her gentle spirit, and
+undermining a frame so delicately sensitive, that, like the aspen,
+
+    ------It trembled when the sleeping breeze
+    But dreamed of waking.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  MUNIFICENCE OF MONTEZUMA--THE ROYAL BANQUET--THE
+    REQUITAL--THE EMPEROR A PRISONER IN HIS OWN PALACE.
+
+   ~"Was that thunder?"~
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+   ~Those splendid halls resound with revelry,
+    And song, and dance lead on the tardy dawn.~
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+   ~From the hall of his fathers in anguish he fled,
+    Nor again will its marble re-echo his tread.~
+
+
+Montezuma was always and every where munificent. When he had, though
+reluctantly, admitted the strangers into his capital, he prepared to
+give them a royally hospitable entertainment. Partly by way of triumph
+in the success of their movements hitherto, and partly by way of
+amusing, and at the same time overawing their entertainers, the
+Spaniards, the day after their arrival in the city, made a grand
+military display in their quarters, and in the neighboring streets. They
+exercised their prancing steeds in all the feats of horsemanship,
+racing, leaping, and careering, in all the wild majesty of the trained
+charger, under the three fold discipline of bit and spur, and cheering
+shout. They rushed upon each other in the mock warfare of the
+tournament, with clashing sword and glancing spear, and then,
+discharging their carbines in the air, separated amid clouds of dust and
+smoke, as if driven asunder by the bolts of heaven in their own hands.
+The astonished natives, accustomed only to the simple weapons of
+primitive warfare, looked on with undisguised admiration, not unmixed
+with fear. The strange beings before them, wielding such unwonted
+powers, seemed indeed to have descended upon earth from some higher
+sphere, and to partake of that mysterious and fearful character, which
+they had been wont to ascribe to inhabitants of the spiritual world. But
+when, in closing off the day's entertainment, they brought out the
+loud-mouthed artillery, and shook the very foundations of the city with
+their oft-repeated thunders, the spirit of the Aztec sunk within him,
+and he felt, as he retired to his dwelling, that it was for no good end,
+that men of such power, having such fearful engines at their command,
+had been permitted to fix their quarters in one of the fortresses of
+Tenochtitlan.
+
+"Alas!" said an ancient Cacique from the northern frontier, "we are
+fallen upon evil times. Our enemies are even now in the citadel--enemies
+whom we know not, whose mode of warfare we do not understand, whose
+weapons defy alike our powers of imitation and resistance. Let us
+abandon the field, and retire to the far north, whence our fathers came,
+and rear a new empire amid the impregnable fastnesses of the mountains."
+
+"Who talks of abandoning the field to the enemy?" interrupted
+Guatimozin,--"Let no Aztec harbor so base a thought. Rather let us
+stand by our altars and die, if die we must."
+
+"Right," cried the youthful prince Axayatl, from the southern slope of
+the Sierra, "why should the all-conquering Aztec tremble at this display
+of the mysterious strangers? Are not the millions of Anahuac a match for
+a few hundred of their enemies, in whatever form they come? Be they
+gods, or be they demons, they belong not to this soil, nor this soil to
+them, and, by all our altars and all our gods, they must retire or
+perish, though we, and our wives, and our children perish with them."
+
+"Give us your hand, brave Axayatl," exclaimed Cuitlahua and Guatimozin,
+at the same instant, "be that our vow in life and in death, and wo to
+the base Aztec, that abandons the standard of Montezuma, or whispers of
+submission to the haughty stranger."
+
+Thus were the councils of the people divided between a timid
+superstition, and a bold uncompromising patriotism. There wanted not the
+material, if well directed, to annihilate, at a blow, the hopes of the
+daring invaders. The arm of the nation was strong and sinewy, but "the
+head was sick, and the heart faint." The Emperor, the hitherto proud and
+self-sufficient Montezuma,--
+
+    Like a struck eagle fainting in his nest,
+
+had cowered to a phantom of his own diseased imagination, and weakly
+consented to regard _them_ as gods, whose passions, appetites and vices
+proved them to be men, and whose diminished numbers, after every battle
+they had fought, showed they were of mortal mould.
+
+On the following day, a magnificent banquet was prepared for Cortez, and
+his officers, in the imperial palace. It was graced by the presence of
+all the nobility of Azteca, with all the pride and beauty of their
+household divinities--for, among this refined people, the wife and the
+daughter held her appropriate rank, and woman exercised all the
+influence, which, among (so called) civilized nations, Christianity
+alone has assigned her. Every apartment of that spacious and magnificent
+pile blazed with the light of odoriferous torches, which sent up their
+clouds of incense from hundreds of gold and silver stands, elaborately
+carved and embossed in every form that fancy could suggest, or ingenuity
+invent. Flowers of every hue and name were profusely distributed through
+the rooms, clustered in beautiful vases, or hung in gorgeous festoons
+and luxurious chaplets from the walls. The costume of the monarch and
+his court was as rich and gorgeous, as the rare and variegated
+_plumagé_, with a lavish use of gold and gems, could make it. The women
+were as splendidly apparelled as the men. Many of them were extremely
+beautiful. Some were distinguished for their easy refinement of manners,
+which charmed, no less than it astonished, the Castilian knights, who
+had been accustomed to suppose that nothing so beautiful, or refined,
+could be found without the borders of Spain.
+
+By special command of the Emperor, all his nobles were present at this
+festival, so that Guatimozin, contrary to his own will and purpose, was
+brought into contact with Cortez, and his steel-clad cavaliers.
+Tecuichpo also was there, in all her maiden loveliness, outshining all
+the stars of that splendid galaxy. And yet she was as a star in
+eclipse, for her soul was oppressed with those mysterious shadows that
+hung over her destiny and that of her father, as connected with the
+coming of these white men. Karee was there in attendance upon her
+mistress, as she still delighted to call her; but her attention was more
+absorbed by the strangers than by Tecuichpo. She watched every movement,
+and scanned every countenance with a scrutiny that did not escape their
+observation, in order to read, as well as she could, the character of
+each. Her scrutiny satisfied herself, and she whispered in the ear of
+the Princess, that "if these were gods, they came from the dark, and not
+from the sunny side of heaven."
+
+It was a rare spectacle, which this royal banquet presented. The
+contrast between the steel-clad cavaliers of Castile, whose burnished
+armor blazed and glittered in the brilliant torch-light, and rung under
+their heavy martial tramp upon the marble floor, and the comparatively
+fairy figures of the gaudily apparelled Aztecs, was as strong as could
+possibly be presented in a scene like this. The costumes and customs of
+each were matter of wonder and admiration to the other. The Aztec
+trembled at the mysterious power, the incomprehensible weapons, of the
+white man. The Castilian, if he did not tremble, fully appreciated the
+danger of a little band, separated and scattered among a festive throng
+of warlike men, amid the interminable labyrinths of the imperial palace,
+and under the eye of a monarch whose word was absolute law to all the
+myriads of his people.
+
+But, whatever was passing in the inner man, the Aztec and the Castilian,
+alike, appeared perfectly at ease, each abandoning himself to the
+festivities of the occasion, as if each, unannoyed by the presence of a
+stranger, were revelling in the security of his own castle, and
+celebrating some time-honored festival of his own people.
+
+With a benign dignity and grace, the Queen, and her suite of high-born
+ladies, received the homage of the cavaliers, after they had been
+presented to the Emperor. She was struck with admiration at the graceful
+and dignified bearing of the Castilian, which, while it showed all the
+deference and respect due to her sex and her rank, had nothing in it, of
+that abject servility, which placed an impassable barrier between the
+Aztec noble and his monarch, and made them appear to belong to distinct
+races of being. To the chivalrous, impassioned Castilian, accustomed to
+worship woman, and pay an almost divine homage to beauty, in the courtly
+halls and sunny bowers of Spain, the scene presented a perfect
+constellation of grace and loveliness. The flashing eye of the Aztec
+maiden, as lustrous and eloquent as any in the gardens of Hesperides;
+the jetty tresses, glittering with gems and pearls, or chastely
+decorated with natural flowers; the easy grace of the loose flowing
+robe, revealing the full rich bust and the rounded limb, in its fairest
+proportions, won the instant admiration of every mailed knight, and
+brought again to his lips his oft-repeated vows of love and devotion.
+
+But of little avail were honied lips and eloquent tongues to the gallant
+cavaliers at that magic fęte. They formed no medium of communion with
+the bright spirits, and gay hearts around them. The doom of Babel was on
+them all, and there was no interpreter. Nothing daunted by obstacles
+seemingly insurmountable, the gay Spaniards resolved, that, where bright
+eyes were to be gazed on, and sweet smiles won from the ranks of youth
+and beauty, they would make a way for themselves. The first ceremonies
+of presentation over, each knight addressed himself to some chosen fair
+one, and by sign and gesture, and speaking look, and smile of eloquent
+flattery, commenced a spirited pantomimic attack, to the infinite
+amusement of all the gay throng around. It was met with wonderful
+spirit, and ready ingenuity, by the Aztec maidens, to whom the dialect
+of signs, and the language of hieroglyphics was perfectly familiar; that
+being the only written language of all the nations of Anahuac.
+
+The spirit and interest of the scene that followed surpasses all attempt
+at description. Abandoned to the gaiety of the hour, the Spaniards
+forgot alike their schemes of ambition and aggrandisement, and the
+peculiar perils which surrounded them; while the Aztec revellers
+dismissed, for the moment, both their superstitious dread of the white
+man, and their patriotic disgust at his daring pretensions to universal
+dominion.
+
+The noble Sandoval, attracted by the mild beaming eye, and sweet smile
+of the Princess Tecuichpo, with a profound obeisance, laid his plumed
+helmet at her feet, and choosing, from a vase at her side, a half blown
+rose, which he gracefully twined with a sprig of amaranth, he first
+pressed it to his own heart and lips, and then placed it among the
+glittering gems upon her bosom. With queenly courtesy and grace, the
+fair princess received this gallant token, and instantly responded to
+it, by stooping down, and weaving among the plumes, so courteously laid
+at her feet, another, of such rare beauty and brilliancy of hue, that it
+quite eclipsed the gayest feather in the hall.
+
+Cortez and Alvarado were, each in his turn, struck with the deep, dark,
+piercing eye of Karee, and each put forth his best endeavor to win from
+her a smile. But it was so coldly given, and accompanied with a look so
+deep and searching, that the general quailed before it, as he had never
+done before to mortal eye.
+
+Instantly recovering himself, he put on such a smile of blended grace
+and dignity, as melted at once the icy reserve of the maiden, and opened
+the way for a long and animated parley. It was full of sparkles and
+power, but could not be translated into any living tongue, without
+losing all its force and brilliancy.
+
+Meanwhile, an animated discussion had arisen between Guatimozin and the
+Prince of Tezcuco, touching the propriety of receiving gifts from the
+strangers, or, in any way, acknowledging their claims as friends. The
+showy trinket, which Cacama had received from Cortez at Ajotzinco, and
+which he displayed on his person at this festival, gave rise to the
+dispute.
+
+"It is wrong," urged Guatimozin, "wrong to our country and wrong to
+ourselves. Let them gain what they can from the exuberant munificence of
+the Emperor, and let them stay in peace, while he permits and requires
+it,--but let us not weaken our hands, by touching their gifts, or
+accepting their tokens. When they depart, let them not boast that they
+have left any remembrancer behind them, or laid claims upon our hands,
+by their gifts, which we have freely accepted."
+
+"Surely, my dear cousin," said the Princess, "you make too much of so
+small a matter. They are but common courtesies, and too trifling for
+such grave consideration and argument."
+
+"Not so, believe me, my fair cousin. They take us on the weak side of
+the heart--they blind our eyes to our true relations, unnerve our arms,
+and blunt our weapons of defence."
+
+"What then would you do," asked Cacama, as if more than half persuaded
+that Guatimozin was right in his views of duty.
+
+"Do," replied the Prince, with startling energy of tone and manner, "I
+would fling it at his feet, or trample it under my own, before his eyes,
+and show him that I scorn him and his gifts alike."
+
+Tecuichpo turned suddenly round at this remark, as if fearing the
+stranger would understand it, and in her agitation, dropped a
+magnificent jewel from her dress, and with it the rose so gallantly
+presented by Sandoval. A dozen princes and cavaliers sprang, at the same
+instant, to replace the precious toy. Pedro Orteguilla, the beautiful
+young page of Cortez, was so fortunate as to recover it. Doffing his
+cap, and kneeling gracefully at her feet, he presented it to the
+Princess with an air of admiring deference, and, by signs, solicited the
+honor of replacing it upon her arm.
+
+This little incident put an end to the discussion, which was growing too
+warm for the occasion, and the festivities went on as gaily as before.
+
+A group of sprightly, mischief loving girls, who had clustered round the
+cool basin of a sparkling _jet d' eau_, and were amusing themselves by
+free and fearless comments upon the appearance and manners of the
+strangers, arrested the eye of the impulsive, humor loving Alvarado, and
+drew him to solicit a share in their sport; for, in beating a retreat
+from the eagle glance of Karee, he had strolled into an illuminated
+arbor, in one of the open courts of the palace. With hand, and eye, and
+lip, now appealing in emphatic gesture to the stars above, and now, with
+ready tact and admirable sagacity distributing the flowers among the gay
+naiads of the fountain, he soon ingratiated himself into their favor,
+and engaged them in a brilliant and animated pantomime, which, if it
+wanted the eloquence of words, found ample compensation for that defect,
+in the merry shout and ringing laugh, that accompanied each labored
+attempt to utter, or interpret, a sentiment. The gallant cavalier soon
+found himself loaded with a profusion of floral favors. For every flower
+he bestowed upon the fair nymphs, he received an appropriate return,
+till his hands were full, and he found it necessary to arrange them upon
+his person.
+
+Instantly the whole group, as by one impulse of artistic taste, seized
+the idea, and resolved to array him as a flower-god. The magnificent
+cactus flashed among the plumes of his helmet--a pair of splendid
+magnolias, tastefully adjusted on either shoulder, supplied the place of
+the silver epaulette--a rich cluster of unfading _forget-me-not_,
+covered and eclipsed the gilded star upon his breastplate; while every
+joint in his armor, and every loop and button of his doublet, was set
+with its appropriate garden gem. Long wreaths of a blossoming vine were
+dexterously intertwined with flowers of every brilliant hue, and hung
+like a gorgeous sash over his right shoulder, its gay streamers waving
+in the gentle breeze, or winding themselves about the scabbard of his
+sword. His hands were gloved with a moss of the most delicate green
+velvet, dotted with golden stars, and his boots transformed into buskins
+of the most approved classic pattern, by alternate bands of jessamine
+and scarlet lobelia, crossed and plaided with strings of anemone and
+hyacinth.
+
+Thus arrayed, his face skilfully masked with the flowering wax-plant
+despoiled of its leaves, he was conducted into the presence of the
+Queen, under a continually increasing escort of bright girls and fair
+dames, where, with due reverence to her majesty, and with the gallantry
+becoming a true knight, he begged, by significant looks and signs, to be
+permitted to lay all his bright honors at the feet of the lovely
+Tecuichpo.
+
+The signal being given at this moment, he offered his arm to the
+Princess, and led the way into the banqueting hall, where the luxuries
+of all the climes of earth seemed to be spread out in endless profusion,
+and where, the native song of the Aztec alternating with the martial
+strains of the Castilian band, the night wore away with feasting and
+revelry.
+
+The day had almost dawned, when the strangers, laden with presents of
+inestimable value, returned to their quarters, burdened with the weight
+of their treasures, and deeply impressed with the more than regal
+munificence of their host, and the unimagined loveliness and grace of
+the fair beings, who gave life and beauty to his magnificent court.
+
+"If these white gods can be bought, dear father," the Princess naively
+remarked, as they took their leave, "you have surely paid a price worthy
+of the ransom of the proudest monarch on earth."
+
+"The more you bribe them," interrupted Guatimozin, "the less you bind
+them. They have not the soul of an Aztec, who scorns to receive a favor
+that does not pledge his heart in return. The Spaniard's heart has
+nothing to do with his hand. He takes your gift, only to be the better
+able to plot and compass your ruin."
+
+The Emperor sighed, as he listened to a remark, to which he could make
+no reply. It brought again before his agitated mind, the only course he
+could safely adopt in the present crisis of his affairs. In vain did his
+paternal heart second the suggestion, and his kingly pride urge its
+immediate adoption. He had not the moral courage to execute his own
+resolve. Superstition had wholly unmanned him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The victorious Spaniard had now reached the goal he had so long aimed
+at. But his position was far from agreeable, or promising. With a small
+force, he was completely shut up in the heart of an immense and powerful
+empire, teeming with millions of warriors, who were deemed terrible and
+invincible by those whom he had found so formidable, and who might, at a
+word or a look from their sovereign, either rush in and overwhelm him at
+once, or withhold all supplies, and leave them to perish of famine in
+their quarters.
+
+Cortez realized the critical position into which he was drawn, and
+resolved immediately on one of his bold measures, to turn it to his own
+advantage. Soliciting an interview with Montezuma, in which he was
+accompanied by some of his bravest cavaliers, he informed the monarch,
+that it was not an idle curiosity that had drawn him to encounter the
+perils, and undergo the toils, of the adventure that had brought him to
+the capital. He came, as the accredited ambassador of the mighty monarch
+of Castile, to whom many kings and many broad lands were tributary, and
+who was the rightful lord of all the territories on which his armies had
+set their foot. And the object of the present interview was, to demand
+of the king an acknowledgment of his allegiance to his royal master, and
+his consent to pay an annual tribute for his crown.
+
+The mind of the superstitious Montezuma had long been preparing for this
+acknowledgment. With little apparent constraint, therefore, he responded
+to this haughty demand--that the oracles of his religion had long ago
+instructed him, that the territories over which he reigned belonged to a
+race of white men, who had removed to other lands beyond the rising sun,
+but would return, in process of time, invested with more than mortal
+power, to claim their original inheritance. For his part, he was fully
+convinced that that time had now arrived--that the Spaniards were the
+men of destiny foretold by a long line of presages and traditions, and
+that he was fully prepared to acknowledge the king of Castile as his
+lord, and pay allegiance to him as such.
+
+"And recognize me," interposed the wily Castilian, "as his accredited
+ambassador, and representative?"
+
+The monarch assented.
+
+The Aztec nobles, who surrounded the throne, were thunderstruck at the
+humble tone, and humiliating attitude assumed by their once proud and
+imperious lord. But they were accustomed to unqualified and
+unquestioning submission to the word of the king. They accordingly, at
+his command, gave a full assent to all that he had said, and agreed to
+recognize Cortez as the representative of their new sovereign.
+Guatimozin left the hall in disgust, and hastened to Iztapalapan, to
+report the progress of their humiliation to Cuitlahua.
+
+Even with this arrangement, which had been accomplished so much more
+easily than he had expected, Cortez was by no means satisfied. He was
+still in the power of the Mexican, and could never feel safe in the
+position he held, without some substantial pledge, that the peace of the
+city would be preserved, and the ground he had already secured be left
+to him in undisturbed possession. To secure this, he conceived and
+executed a bolder and more audacious measure than that which we have
+just related. Soliciting another and a private interview with the
+Emperor, and directing his best and bravest cavaliers, with some of
+their chosen men, to keep near and about the palace, and be in readiness
+to sustain and defend him, if any resistance or outbreak should follow
+his daring attempt, he entered the royal presence. As the Spaniards
+always carried their arms, it excited no suspicion, to see them on this
+occasion fully equipped.
+
+This disposition of his men and officers being effected, the bold
+cavalier addressed himself, in a stern voice, to the Emperor, charging
+him with secretly designing the destruction of his guests, and alleging,
+in support of the charge, some of the incidents already related, and
+others of more recent occurrence, in which some of the vassals of
+Montezuma had surprised and slain a party of Spaniards, who relied upon
+their hospitality. These were artfully woven into a tale of imaginary
+wrongs, for which he boldly pretended to claim instant redress, or
+rather security against their repetition.
+
+The monarch was thunderstruck at the charge, while he, as well as the
+few attendants that remained near his person, with difficulty restrained
+the expression of their indignation at the disrespectful tone of the
+address, so unlike that to which the royal ears were accustomed. He
+peremptorily denied the charge. But Cortez was not to be foiled thus. He
+knew that he had now gone too far to retract, and that the change of
+feeling now produced would ensure his speedy destruction, if he failed
+of securing the object of the present interview. He, therefore, repeated
+the charge, assuring the monarch that such was the belief of all his
+men, and that nothing would convince them of his innocence, or make them
+willing to rest quietly in the capital, but the consent of the king to
+transfer his residence, for a time, to their quarters. And this he
+boldly demanded of him, in the name of their common sovereign, the great
+king of Castile, and he could not refuse obedience, without breaking
+allegiance with him.
+
+"When was it ever known," exclaimed the astonished and offended king,
+"that the monarch of a great people voluntarily left his own palace, to
+become a prisoner in the camp of a foreign nation. If I should consent
+to such indignity, my own subjects would every where cry out against it,
+and a storm would be raised, which could only be hushed when the last
+Spaniard was sacrificed to the outraged honor of their king, and the
+wrath of their offended gods."
+
+"No, my imperial lord," replied the politic and smooth tongued knight,
+"your majesty entirely misapprehends my meaning, and the position in
+which I would place you. I only propose a temporary removal from one of
+your royal palaces to another, a thing of frequent occurrence, and
+therefore not likely to excite remark among your people. You can bring
+all your household and your court with you, and have the same royal
+attendance, as you now do. This show of confidence and regard, on your
+part, will inspire my men with new confidence in your kind intentions,
+and give stability in the eyes of your own people, to the friendly
+relations existing between us."
+
+Montezuma still protested that it was unworthy the dignity and majesty
+of the sovereign lord of Anahuac, thus to submit his motions to the
+direction of strangers, as it was a daring presumption and impiety, on
+their part, to suggest it. He therefore, peremptorily declined the
+proposal, and requested the general to say no more about it, if he would
+retain the position he now held in his regard, and that of his people.
+
+Upon this, the iron-souled Castilian assumed a loftier aspect, and a
+bolder tone, and abruptly assured the monarch that it was a point he was
+not at liberty to dispense with. If he would not remove peaceably and
+quietly to the Spanish quarters, he must be carried there forcibly,
+though it should involve a struggle that should drench the palace in
+blood, and sacrifice the life of every man in his army.
+
+Suddenly, the spirit of the monarch was gone. His old dread of the
+white man revived in all its power. He felt himself compelled by his
+destiny, to do as he was required. Signifying his assent to the haughty
+demand of the stranger, he ordered his nobles to make ready his
+palanquin, that he might go in royal state, and not appear in the eyes
+of his subjects, as he passed along, as a prisoner in his own capital.
+
+With looks of astonishment, not unmingled with indignation, the proud
+chiefs obeyed, marching under their royal burden, with solemn pace and
+downcast looks, in utter silence, but nursing in their hearts an
+implacable hatred against the insulting Castilians, and a burning rage,
+which was yet to burst upon their devoted heads in an overwhelming storm
+of wrath. As they passed the threshold of the imperial palace, which
+their once proud but now humbled lord was never to recross, they heaved
+a deep sigh, as if the dark shadows of the future already hung
+frowningly over their heads. It was responded to by a deep, mysterious,
+sepulchral groan, which seemed to issue from the very heart of the
+earth, while, at the same instant, a royal eagle, sailing proudly over
+the capital, struck by an invisible leaden messenger from one of the
+sure-sighted marksmen in the Castilian camp, fluttered in his lofty
+flight, drooped his strong wing, and, with a terrible death shriek, the
+blood streaming freely from his wound, fell into the court, at the very
+feet of the royal procession.
+
+The fate of Montezuma, and of his empire, was now sealed. He had, with
+his own hand, taken the crown from his head, and laid it at the feet of
+the Spaniard. And, more than all, he had humbled himself in the eyes of
+his own subjects, and diminished, though few were hardy enough to avow
+it, the profound respect and reverence with which they were accustomed
+to regard him. To his own immediate household, he had represented this
+removal as a voluntary act of courtesy, on his part, designed to
+compliment the strangers, by becoming, for a time, their guest, and to
+inspire them, by his personal presence among them, with confidence in
+his professions of regard, as well as to show his own people how strong
+the bond of amity was between them. At the same time, however, that he
+assured them of his personal safety and his confidence that all would
+end well, he recommended his wives and children to leave him, for the
+present, and take up their abode in his rural mountain palace at
+Chapoltepec.
+
+The timid and sensitive Tecuichpo was thrown into the deepest distress
+by this suggestion. She could not doubt the repeated assurances of her
+royal father, and yet she could not divest herself of the sad impression
+that his liberty, and perhaps his life, was in danger, in thus
+separating himself from the strong arms and devoted hearts of his own
+people, his natural protectors, and throwing himself, unarmed, into the
+garrison of the fearful strangers. What security could she have that he
+would ever return, or that violence would not be offered to his sacred
+person by those who looked upon him only as the vassal of their own
+sovereign, to be used for his purposes and theirs, as their own
+selfishness and rapacity might dictate.
+
+"Leave us not, my dear father," she exclaimed, "or at least compel not
+us to leave _you_. Rather in darkness and in trouble than at any other
+time, would we stand at your side, to administer, as far as we may, to
+your comfort, and to share, and perhaps lighten, your sorrows."
+
+"Nay, my beloved child," the grateful monarch calmly replied, "I have no
+need, at this time, of your solace, or your counsel. I go among friends,
+who respect my person and my authority, and who well know that their own
+safety in Tenochtitlan, depends entirely upon retaining my friendship,
+which alone can shield them from being overwhelmed, and swept away like
+chaff, before the countless hosts of my warrior bands. Why then should I
+fear for myself. But for you, and your mother, and your sisters, the
+camp of the strangers is not a fitting place for you. They have customs
+of their own, and are slow to recognize the propriety of ours, deeming
+us, as they do, an inferior race of beings. They are bold and free in
+their manners, quite too much so for the refined delicacy of an Aztec
+maiden, or an Aztec matron, as you yourself both saw and felt, at the
+festival of their reception. How shall I expose you to the rude gaze of
+these foreign cavaliers, and perhaps to the rude speeches of their
+soldiers. No, my beloved, go to your retirement at Chapoltepec, and
+train the flowers there for my coming, which will be at the approaching
+festival of the new moon."
+
+"But will you certainly come to us then, my dear father? Karee says"----
+
+"Trouble me not with the dreams of Karee, my sweet child. They are not
+always as loyal as they should be. I believe I am right in what I am now
+doing, and I cannot be diverted from it by the mystic night visions of
+your favorite. Go, and the gods be with you."
+
+So saying, he tore himself from her embrace, and returned to his own
+apartments to attire himself for the removal.
+
+The fiery, high spirited Guatimozin was so disgusted with this act of
+suicidal cowardice, on the part of his royal master, that he withdrew at
+once from the city, taking with him his servants and retainers, as well
+as his immense private treasures, and took up his abode at his country
+palace or castle, where he lived in all the pseudo-regal state and
+magnificence of a feudal baron, or a petty sovereign. Here he opened a
+correspondence with a large number of the principal nobles of the realm,
+who, like him, felt that the time had come to prepare for a terrible
+crisis. They concerted no measures, for they dared not move openly
+without the command or assent of their master; but they exchanged
+sentiments, and encouraged each other in their patriotic purpose, to
+defend their country from subjugation to a foreign foe, and their altars
+from desecration.
+
+Passing Chapoltepec on his way, the noble Prince sought an interview
+with his lovely mistress, to inform her that, while the pledge he had
+given, in accepting the proffered rose, over the sparkling fountain of
+Tenochtitlan, should be sacredly regarded, he must be allowed to see
+with his own eyes, when danger was near, and to raise his arm in her
+defence, and in that of his country, from whatever quarter the
+threatened danger might come. He found her, bathed in tears, wandering
+wildly up and down, amid the shade of the tall cypresses that overhang
+and almost bury that mountain retreat. Her raven hair had escaped from
+its pearl-studded band, and was flying loosely in the breeze; the wonted
+bloom was gone from her cheek, and the brilliant lustre of her dark
+flashing eye had given way to a sad and subdued expression, which was
+more in keeping with the uniform mildness and gentleness of her spirit.
+Separated from her adored parent, and banished from the city of her love
+and her pride, she began to feel more deeply than she had ever done, the
+terror of those dark omens which had clouded her destiny, and marked her
+out as the doomed Princess of Anahuac. While she could cling to her
+father, and feel that she was to share all that might befal him, and
+perhaps, by sharing it, extract some portion of the bitterness from the
+cup which he was compelled to drink, she was calm and hopeful. But now,
+the sheet-anchor of her soul was gone, and she was drifting, at the
+mercy of the waves, she knew not whither.
+
+"My sweet cousin," said Guatimozin gently, as he arrested her flying
+step, "why this sudden abandonment to grief and despair. Dark as the
+clouds may be over our heads, all is not lost. Know you not, my love,
+that ten thousand times ten thousand brave hearts and strong arms are
+pledged, by every bond of loyalty and love, to rush to the rescue, the
+moment that any violence is offered to the sacred person of our lord. Be
+assured not a hair of his head shall be touched."
+
+"Ah! my brave Guatimozin! I know full well your courage and your zeal.
+But of what avail to us will be the direst vengeance your arms can wreak
+on the strangers, after the violence is done, and the honored head of
+my father--oh! that I should live to speak it!--laid low at their feet!"
+
+"Fear not, my beloved, they dare not, with all their boasted power, they
+dare not lay a rude hand upon that sacred person. They know, they feel,
+that they are treading on a mighty volcano, that may burst out at any
+moment, and overwhelm them in hopeless destruction. It is this sense of
+impending danger only that has induced them to invite the Emperor to
+their quarters, and so to urge their suit, that he could not, as their
+professed friend, deny it. While he is there, they will feel safe, for
+his hand alone can stay the pent up fires, that they break not forth at
+once. Fear not. I go to-night to Iztapalapan, to confer with your royal
+uncle, the intrepid Cuitlahua. The noble Cacama joins us there,
+convinced already that his was a mistaken policy, when he counselled
+your father to receive the strangers courteously, and treat them as
+friends."
+
+"And what can Cacama do?"
+
+"That is yet to be seen. He is convinced of his error, and is ready to
+atone for it with his life. With Cacama, with Cuitlahua, with a thousand
+more like them--chiefs who never feared danger, and never knew
+defeat--why should we despair, or even doubt?"
+
+"But how know you, Guatimozin, that these Castilian strangers regard
+their own safety as any way involved in that of Montezuma?"
+
+"I gathered it from the oracle, my love, and from omens which never
+deceive."
+
+"What oracle? What omens? I pray you explain?"
+
+"The omens were their own troubled looks and clouded brows, while this
+strange negotiation was pending, and the guarded watchfulness, with
+which they now protect their guest, and prevent the intrusion upon his
+privacy of any considerable number of his friends, at the same time."
+
+"Prince Guatimozin, do I understand the import of those terrible words?
+Is my father already a prisoner in his own palace?"
+
+"What else, my sweet cousin, seeing he cannot come forth, if he would,
+and we can only approach him by permission?"
+
+"O ye gods! has it come to this? Fly, Guatimozin. Fly to Iztapalapan. I
+release you from your pledge. Sound the alarm throughout the realm. And,
+if need be, _I_ will arm, and with you to the rescue."
+
+"Not so fast, brave princess; it is just this rashness that may endanger
+the precious head we would rescue. His life is safe at present; let us
+not put it to hazard, by moving too soon, or striking a useless blow."
+
+"But I see not yet, my dear cousin, how it is ascertained that my father
+is secure from further outrage. May it not be their policy to take away
+the head, hoping thus to dishearten and distract our people, and make
+them an easy prey to their victorious arms."
+
+"If so, they know not the spirit of the Aztec. To a man, throughout
+these broad realms, they would shed their last drop, to avenge the foul
+sacrilege, nor rest in their work of vengeance, till every altar in the
+land was drenched in the blood of the captive foe. But you forget that I
+have oracle as well as omen to sustain my faith."
+
+"What oracle has condescended, at last, to give us light? I thought
+they had all been silent, not deigning, since the advent of these
+mysterious strangers, any response to our prayers."
+
+"Karee is never deaf, or silent, where the welfare of Tecuichpo is
+concerned."
+
+"Karee?"
+
+"Yes, love, Karee! I want no better or more trusty oracle. She has, you
+know, a sort of ubiquity. Nothing escapes her keen observation. Few
+mysteries are too deep for her sagacity to unravel. In her brief
+occasional encounters with the strangers, she has gathered the meaning
+of not a few of the words of their strange tongue. What she has once
+heard she never forgets. Presuming that no one could understand them,
+they have talked freely and boldly in her presence. And it is from her
+that I learn, that the Castilian general said to one of his officers, as
+he crossed the court yard, this morning--'While we have the Emperor with
+us, we are safe. We must see to it, he does not escape.'"
+
+"Escape?" shrieked the agitated Princess; "then he is indeed a prisoner.
+But these white men are gods, are the gods treacherous?"
+
+"The gods of the deep are all treachery, but not those of the blue
+fields and bright stars above us. But, be they gods from below, or gods
+from above, they are not the gods of Anahuac, nor shall they claim a
+foot of its soil, till it is drenched with the blood of the Aztec.
+Farewell. Fear not. I will yet see you return in triumph to the imperial
+halls of Tenochtitlan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  TREACHERY AND RETRIBUTION--MASSACRE OF THE AZTEC
+    NOBILITY--DEATH OF MONTEZUMA.
+
+   ~And bloody treason triumphed.~
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+             ~Feeling dies not by the knife;
+    That cuts at once and kills; its tortured strife
+    Is with distilled affliction, drop by drop
+    Oozing its bitterness. Our world is rife
+    With grief and sorrow; all that we would prop,
+    Or would be propped with, falls; where shall the ruin stop?~
+
+
+Passing lightly over some of the subsequent incidents of this stirring
+period, we must hasten to the catastrophe of our long drawn tale.
+
+Secure in the possession of his royal prisoner, Cortez now thought he
+might safely leave the capital, for a while, and respond to a demand
+which pressed urgently upon him, to relieve his little colony at Vera
+Cruz, threatened with destruction, not by the natives, but a new band of
+adventurers from Spain, who had come to dispute the spoils with the
+conquerors. Leaving one of his principal officers in command, with a
+part of the forces, he placed himself at the head of the remainder, and
+marched quietly off on his new expedition.
+
+Alvarado was a brave knight, but of a rash and headlong disposition, and
+utterly destitute of that cool prudence and far-seeing sagacity which
+was requisite for so important a station. He soon involved himself in a
+most wicked and unjust quarrel with the Aztecs, which had well nigh
+overwhelmed him and his diminished band in utter ruin.
+
+Not long after the departure of Cortez, one of the great national
+festivals of the Aztecs occurred, at which the flower of the nobility,
+not of Tenochtitlan alone, but of all the neighboring cities and towns,
+were present. They came only to the peaceful performance of the wonted
+rites of their religion, and consequently came unarmed. Their numbers
+were very great. They were all apparelled in the richest costume of
+their country. Their snow white vestments, their splendid mantles of
+feather-work, powdered all over with jewels; their sandals of gold or
+silver, and their gaudy head-dresses of many-colored plumes, made an
+imposing and magnificent display, as they moved in solemn procession, to
+the simple music of their shells and horns, towards the court yard of
+the great Teocalli, where the festival was to be celebrated. The immense
+area was thronged with the gay multitude of worshippers, who,
+unsuspicious of treachery, gave themselves up to the wild dances and all
+the customary evolutions of Indian festivity. In the midst of their
+solemn sports, Alvarado, with his band of armed followers, rushed in,
+like so many tigers let loose upon their prey, and put them to an
+indiscriminate slaughter. Scarce one of that gay company escaped the
+ruthless massacre. The holy place was drenched with the best blood of
+Anahuac, and mourning, desolation, and wo were carried into all the
+principal families in the land.
+
+It was a fearful stroke, and fearfully was it repaid upon the heads of
+the guilty murderers. On every side the cry of vengeance arose, and its
+hoarse murmurs came rolling in upon the capital, like the distant
+howlings of a gathering tempest. Myriads of outraged Aztecs, smarting
+and chafing under their wounds, and thirsting for a worthy revenge,
+thronged the avenues to the capital, and demanded the treacherous
+strangers to be offered in sacrifice to their offended gods. Guatimozin,
+and many other brave, powerful, fearless chiefs were there, eager to
+seize the opportunity to chastise the insolent intruder. Day after day,
+they stormed the quarters of the beleaguered foe, pouring in upon them
+vollies of arrows, darts and stones, that sorely discomfited, though it
+could not dislodge them. Every assailable point was so well guarded by
+those terrible engines of destruction, the fire-belching artillery, that
+the assailants, numerous as they were, and spurred on by an ungovernable
+rage, could make but little impression upon them. Nevertheless, they
+would inevitably have carried the defences, and swept away the little
+band of ruthless murderers, had not Montezuma interposed, and besought
+them, for his sake, to desist from their hostile attacks. From regard to
+his safety, they suspended their active operations, but did not
+relinquish their settled purpose of vengeance.
+
+One means of annoyance was left to them, which would soon have reduced
+the fortress to submission, had not an unexpected succor arrived. All
+supplies were cut off from the camp,--already famine began to stare
+them in the face, and relax the iron sinew and with it the iron will, of
+the haughty Castilian. They were beginning to be reduced to extremities.
+A few days more, and the undefended garrison would have fallen into the
+hands of those merciless avengers of blood, who would have doomed every
+individual to the sacrifice.
+
+At this critical juncture, the all powerful, invincible Cortez returned,
+his forces greatly increased by the accession of the very band that had
+been sent against him--Narvaez, who had been commissioned to displace
+him, having become his friend, and arrayed himself, with his whole
+company and munitions of war, under his banner. Hearing of the
+disastrous position of his friends in the capital, he hastened with
+rapid strides and forced marches to their relief. His progress was
+unimpeded by any hostilities on the part of Aztecs, or their allies,
+till he entered the city, and joined his forces with those of Alvarado
+in the beleaguered citadel. It seems to have been the purpose of the
+chiefs to permit a free ingress of the entire force of the enemy,
+preferring rather to shut them up to famine there, than to meet them in
+the open field.
+
+No sooner was the General, with his augmented army, enclosed within the
+walls of the fortress, than active and fearful demonstrations of the
+roused and unappeasable spirit of the people began to be made. The
+streets and lanes of the city, which were silent and deserted as he
+passed through them to his quarters, began to swarm with innumerable
+multitudes of warriors, as if the stones, and the very dust of the
+earth, were suddenly transformed into armed men. The flat roofs of
+their temples and dwellings were covered on every side with fierce wild
+figures, frantic with rage, who taunted the Spaniards with their cruel
+treachery, and threatened them, in the most violent language, with a
+terrible revenge. "You are now again in our power," they cried, "and you
+cannot escape. Shut up in your narrow quarters, you are doomed to the
+lingering tortures of famine, and wo to the traitorous Aztec, that
+furnishes a morsel to relieve your hunger. When, at length, the
+faintness of death overtakes you, and you can no longer offer resistance
+to our arms, we will again spread the tables in your prison-house, and
+fatten you for the sacrifice."
+
+No longer restrained by their reverence for Montezuma, whose
+pusillanimity had been the cause of all his and their troubles, they
+recommenced their active operations, and stormed the defences with an
+energy and perseverance that was truly appalling. Day after day they
+deluged the place with arrows and missiles of every kind, which fell in
+pitiless showers upon the heads of the besieged, till scarcely one was
+left without some wound or bruise. In vain did they apply, as before, to
+their royal prisoner, to appease the rage of his subjects, and induce
+them once more to send them the customary supplies. In moody silence he
+shut himself up in his room, brooding over the ingratitude and treachery
+of Cortez, and the injuries and insults he had received at his hand.
+
+Exasperated by this sudden reversal of his schemes of conquest, and
+maddened by the sense of hunger which began to be severely felt in his
+camp, Cortez resolved to strike terror into the ranks of the besiegers,
+by a vigorous sortie at the head of all his cavalry. First sweeping the
+avenue by a well directed fire from his heavy guns, which were planted
+at the main entrance of the fortress, he rushed out, with all his steel
+clad cavaliers, trampling the unprotected assailants under the iron
+hoofs of the horses, and dealing death on every side. The mighty mass
+gave way before the terrific charge of the advancing column, but
+immediately closed in upon its rear as it passed, till it was completely
+swallowed up in an interminable sea of fierce and angry foes, whose
+accumulating waves swept in from every avenue, and threatened to sweep
+them all away, in despite of the fury and power of their dreaded
+chargers. Convinced of his danger, the intrepid Castilian wheeled his
+horse about, and with a furious shout, called on his brave band to break
+a way through the serried ranks of the enemy. Plunging, rearing and
+leaping, under the double spur of the rider, and the piercing shafts of
+his foe, the fiery animals broke in upon the living wall that impeded
+their way, and rushed fiercely on, trampling down hundreds in their
+path, till they regained the open avenue, that was defended by their own
+artillery. It was not without serious loss, however, that this retreat
+was achieved. The fierce Aztecs threw themselves upon the horses, in the
+crowd, hanging upon their legs, sometimes inflicting serious wounds upon
+them, and sometimes grappling with their riders, dragging them from
+their saddles, and carrying off to captivity or sacrifice. At the same
+time, they were sorely beset by showers of stones and darts that poured
+upon their heads from every building as they passed, battering and
+breaking their armor, and terribly bruising both the horse and his
+rider.
+
+These sorties were several times repeated, but always with the same
+doubtful success. The loss of the Spaniards was always much less than
+that of their enemy. But the latter could better afford to lose a
+thousand, than the former to lose one. Their ranks were instantly
+replenished with fresh combatants, who crowded in upon the scene of
+conflict, like the countless thousands of the over-peopled North, that
+swarmed upon the fair fields of Italy, as if some used-up world had been
+suddenly emptied of its inhabitants. Their numbers seemed rather to
+increase than to diminish with every new onset. In the same proportion
+their fierce resolution increased.
+
+The haughty Spaniard was now convinced that he had wholly mistaken the
+character of the people, whom he had thought to trample down at his
+pleasure. A spirit was raised which could not be laid, either by
+persuasion or by force. He saw and felt his danger, without the power to
+avert it. At length, either by threats or entreaties, or both, he
+prevailed on the captive Montezuma once more to interpose in his behalf,
+by employing what authority remained to him against his own best friends
+and faithful subjects.
+
+The Aztecs, forsaken of their monarch, had bold and talented leaders,
+who were competent both to devise and to execute the measures deemed
+necessary for the public good, and to lead on their marshalled hosts, to
+battle and to victory. Cacama, the young Prince of Tezcuco, burning to
+retrieve his fatal error in counselling and aiding the friendly
+reception of the Spaniards, now joined all his resources with those of
+Cuitlahua and Guatimozin, in endeavoring to recover the ground they had
+lost. Their first object was, to rescue the Emperor from his inglorious
+imprisonment, never doubting that, with his sacred person at their head,
+they would be able to annihilate the treacherous intruders at a blow.
+
+Not far from the city of Tezcuco, and standing out on the bosom of the
+lake, several hundred yards from the shore, was a solitary castle of a
+heavy and sombre architecture, built upon piles, at such an elevation as
+to be above the influence of any extraordinary swell in the waters of
+the lake. Consequently, when at its ordinary level, boats could pass
+freely under. At this place the princes were accustomed to meet for
+private deliberation.
+
+Cortez was informed of these meetings, and knew too well the effect of
+the counsels there matured, not to wish them broken up. With a boldness
+of design peculiar to himself, he resolved to make Montezuma the
+instrument of their destruction. He represented to that monarch the
+danger to his own interests, of allowing such a junto of able and
+ambitious men to assume the guidance of the public affairs, and
+undertake to direct the movements of the people. "What can they do
+more," he craftily exclaimed, "but assume the reins of government, under
+the specious pretence, which they now falsely set up, that their king is
+deprived of his freedom to act, and therefore no longer a king. If, now,
+you would save your sceptre and your crown, assert at once your imperial
+prerogative--show them you have still the power to speak and to
+act--command them, on pain of your royal displeasure, to lay down their
+arms, desist from their treasonable assemblages, and repair at once to
+your court, to answer for their unloyal designs."
+
+Misled by false representations of the facts, and deceived by the
+specious arguments of the Spaniard, Montezuma despatched a message to
+the lord of Tezcuco, under the great seal of the empire, which it was
+high treason to disregard, commanding him instantly to appear before his
+master, to answer for his irregular and ill-advised proceedings. Cacama
+was too well aware of the real position of Montezuma, and of the
+constraint under which he acted, to give any heed to his mandate.
+
+"Tell my royal master," he replied, "that I am too much his friend to
+obey him in this instance. Let him banish the false-hearted Spaniards
+from his capital, the vipers whom he has taken to his bosom--let him
+ascend once more his imperial throne, not as a vassal, but as the
+rightful lord of all these realms, and Cacama will joyfully lay his
+crown, his life, his all, at his feet. Montezuma is my master when he is
+master of himself. To that dignity we intend to restore him, or perish
+in the attempt."
+
+On the evening of the fourth day after the return of the royal
+messenger, with this spirited reply of Cacama, a light pirogue, guided
+by a single hand, its sole occupant, might have been seen gliding
+silently over the Lake to the water-palace, the chosen rendezvous of the
+patriot princes. By the proud and majestic bearing of the boatman, it
+could be no other than Guatimozin. Securing his skiff by a cord passed
+through the fingers of a gigantic hand, curiously carved from the
+jutting rafters on which the floor of the palace was laid, he ascended
+the steps to the hall, which he found unoccupied and still. He was
+presently joined by Cuitlahua and Cacama, arriving from different
+directions, in the same stealthy manner. Their number was soon increased
+by the arrival of four Tezcucan lords, from whom some important
+communications were expected. Scarcely had they entered the hall, and
+seated themselves, when, a slight noise from without attracting his
+attention, Guatimozin rose, and went towards the door, to ascertain the
+cause.
+
+"It is only the chafing of our pirogues against the piles," said one of
+the new comers--"let us proceed to business."
+
+Guatimozin, true to his own impulses, heeded not the remark. Stepping
+upon the outer battlement, he discerned a slight figure in a canoe,
+moving in the shadow of the building, and apparently seeking
+concealment. Supposing it might be a servant, left by the Tezcucans in
+charge of their boats, he was about returning, when a gentle voice
+whispered his name.
+
+"Who calls Guatimozin?" he replied in a whisper, at the same time
+leaning towards the intruder.
+
+"Beware of the Tezcucans, beware." The voice was Karee's, but the skiff
+shot away, like an arrow, before the Prince had time for further parley.
+
+Returning to the council, he instantly demanded, as if nothing had
+happened, that the plans of the evening should be laid open.
+
+A pictured scroll was then produced by the Tezcucans, representing the
+contemplated movements of the enemy, which they professed to have
+ascertained from authentic sources, and delineating a plan of operations
+against them. Guatimozin, somewhat bewildered by the warning he had
+received, sat down with his friends to the examination of this scroll.
+But, while seemingly intent upon that alone, he contrived to keep a
+close watch upon the movements of the Tezcucans. It was soon evident
+that their thoughts were not wholly engrossed by the business before
+them. A slight noise from without, followed instantly by an exchange of
+significant looks between two of the party, confirmed his suspicions.
+Instantly dashing away the false scroll, and springing to his feet, he
+boldly charged the traitors with a conspiracy; and demanded an immediate
+explanation. Alarmed at this mysterious and premature disclosure of
+their designs, the chief of the party, without venturing a word of
+reply, gave a shrill, piercing whistle, which was immediately responded
+to from without. Finding himself entrapped, and not knowing what numbers
+he might have to contend with, Guatimozin sprang to the door, stretching
+one of the conspirators on the floor as he passed, and succeeded in
+reaching his skiff, just as a band of armed men rushed in from the other
+quarter. Cuitlahua also effected his escape, though not without a
+desperate encounter with one of the advancing party, who attempted to
+arrest his flight.
+
+To seize his antagonist with a powerful embrace, to fling him over the
+parapet into the water, and to plunge in after him, was the work of an
+instant. Swimming under water for some distance, and rising to the
+surface within the shadow of the building, he took possession of the
+nearest canoe, and, following in the wake of Guatimozin, was soon out
+of the reach of danger, or pursuit.
+
+Cacama, unsuspicious of danger, and intent only on the object of their
+meeting, was so engrossed with the scroll, and the plans delineated upon
+it, that he did not fully comprehend the meaning of this sudden
+interruption of their council, until his two friends had disappeared,
+and, in their place, a band of twenty armed men stood before him.
+Resistance was vain. By order of the chief of the conspirators, he was
+seized, securely bound, and carried a prisoner to Tenochtitlan. There,
+though treated with indignity by Cortez, and with severity by Montezuma,
+he maintained a haughty and independent bearing, sternly refusing to
+yield, in the slightest degree, to the insolent dictation of the one, or
+the pusillanimous policy of the other. Cuitlahua was afterwards seized
+in his own palace of Iztapalapan; but, after a short detention, was
+released again, at the instigation of Montezuma.
+
+These outrages, so far from intimidating the people, only excited and
+incensed them the more, and led to other and more desperate assaults
+upon the beleaguered foe, till Cortez, apprehensive of ultimate defeat
+and ruin, applied once more to Montezuma, proposing that he should
+appear in person before his people, and require them to lay down their
+arms, retire to their homes, and leave his guests in peaceable
+possession of the quarters he had voluntarily assigned them.
+
+Arrayed in his royal robes, with the imperial diadem upon his head,
+preceded by his officers of state, bearing the golden wands, the emblem
+of despotic power, and accompanied by a considerable train of his own
+nobles, and some of the principal Castilian cavaliers, the unfortunate
+monarch appeared on the battlements, to remonstrate with his own people
+for their zeal in the defence of his crown and honor, and appease the
+rage of his subjects for insults offered to his own person, and to those
+of his loyal nobles. His presence was instantly recognized by the
+thronging multitudes below and around. Some prostrated themselves on the
+earth in profound reverence, some bent the knee, and all waited in
+breathless silence to hear that voice, which had so long ruled them with
+despotic sway.
+
+With a sad, but at the same time a calm and dignified tone, the monarch
+addressed them, "My children," said he, "why are you here in this fierce
+array. The strangers are my friends. I abide with them as their
+voluntary guest, and all that you do against them is done against me,
+your sovereign and father."
+
+When the monarch declared himself the friend of the detested Spaniard, a
+murmur of discontent and rage arose, and ran through the assembled host.
+Their ungovernable fury burst at once the barrier of loyalty, and vented
+itself in curses upon the king who could, in the hour of their peril,
+thus basely forsake his people, and endeavor to betray them into the
+hands of a treacherous and blood thirsty foe. "Base Aztec!" they cried,
+"woman! coward! go back to the viper friends whom you have taken to your
+bosom. No longer worthy to reign over us, we cast away our allegiance
+for ever." At the same moment, some powerful arm, more fearless than the
+rest, aimed a huge stone at the unprotected head of the king, which
+brought him senseless to the ground. His attendants, put off their
+guard by the previous calm and reverential attention of the crowd, were
+taken by surprise. In vain they interposed their shields and bucklers,
+to protect his person from further violence. The fatal blow was struck.
+The great Montezuma had received his death-wound from the hand of one of
+his own subjects, who, but a moment before, would have sacrificed a
+hundred lives, had he possessed them, to shield the person of his
+monarch from violence and dishonor.
+
+The effect of this unexpected catastrophe seemed equally appalling to
+both the belligerent parties. The Aztecs, struck aghast at their own
+sacrilegious deed, dispersed in sorrow and shame to their homes; while
+the Spaniards felt that they had lost their only remaining hold upon the
+forbearance and regard of a mighty people, whose confidence they had
+shamefully abused, and whose altars and houses they had wantonly
+desecrated. It was a season of agonizing suspense. To retreat from their
+post, and abandon the conquest which they once imagined was nearly
+achieved, might be as disastrous as it would be humiliating. To remain
+in their narrow quarters, surrounded with countless thousands of
+exasperated foes, on whom they must be dependent for their daily
+supplies of food, seemed little better than madness. To the proud spirit
+of the haughty Castilian, the alternative was scarcely less to be
+dreaded than martyrdom. It was manifestly, however, the only resource,
+and he resolved to evacuate the city.
+
+Meanwhile, active hostilities had been temporarily suspended. The
+unhappy Montezuma, smitten even more severely in heart than in person,
+refused alike the condolence of his friends and the skill of the
+Castilian surgeon. Tearing off the bandages from his wounds, "leave me
+alone," he cried, "I have already outlived my honor and the affection
+and confidence of my people. Why should I look again upon the sun or the
+earth. The one has no light, the other no flowers for me. Let me die
+here. I feel indeed that the gods have smitten me, when I fall by the
+hand of one of my own people."
+
+In this disconsolate mood, the spirit of Montezuma took its flight. In
+vain did the Castilian general endeavor to suppress, for a time, the
+tidings of his death. The loud wailing of his attendants, would have
+published it far and wide among the thousands of affectionate hearts,
+that listened for every sound that issued from the palace, if they had
+not, unknown to the Spaniards, established a kind of telegraphic signal,
+by means of which they communicated to the priests on the great
+Teocalli, daily reports of the progress of his disease. When the sad
+signal was given, announcing the solemn fact, that the great Montezuma
+had laid down his honors and his troubles together, it was responded to
+by the mournful tones of the great drum of the temple, by ten measured
+muffled strokes, conveying the melancholy intelligence to every dwelling
+in Tenochtitlan.
+
+The breathing of that populous city was now one universal wail, that
+seemed to penetrate the very heavens. Partly from a sincere regard for
+the fallen monarch, and partly from the hope that he might thus
+conciliate the good will of his afflicted subjects, Cortez directed his
+remains to be placed in a splendid coffin, and borne in solemn
+procession, by his own nobles, to his palace, that it might be interred
+with the customary regal honors. It was received by his people with
+every demonstration of affectionate joy and respect. Conveyed with great
+pomp to the castle of Chapoltepec, followed by an immense train of
+priests, nobles, and common people, it was interred amid all the
+imposing ceremonies of the Aztec religion. His wives and children,
+frantic with grief, gathered around those hallowed remains, and
+testified, by all those tender and delicate tokens which seem the
+natural expression of a refined feminine sorrow, their profound sense of
+the inestimable loss they had sustained.
+
+By one of those singular coincidences, which tend so strongly to confirm
+the too easy credulity of the superstitious, and give an unnatural
+emphasis to the common accidents of life, it was the festival of the new
+moon, the very day on which Montezuma had promised Tecuichpo that he
+would join the household circle at Chapoltepec, that his lifeless
+remains were borne thither, in the solemn funereal procession.
+
+"Alas! my father," she cried, "is this the fulfilment of that only
+promise which sustained my sinking courage in the hour of separation?"
+She said no more. The more profound the sorrow, the fewer words it has
+to spare. "The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  BRIEF REIGN OF CUITLAHUA--EXPULSION OF THE
+    SPANIARDS--GUATIMOZIN CHOSEN EMPEROR--HIS MARRIAGE
+    WITH TECUICUPO.
+
+   ~Grief follows grief. The crowned head
+    So late the nation's hope, is laid
+    Low in the dust.~
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+           ~Defeat and triumph, tears and smiles,
+    Life, death, true glory and the depths of shame,
+    The funeral pall and the pure bridal robe,
+    In close proximity--~
+
+
+The sacred dust restored to its native earth, and the last hallowed
+rites performed over the sepulchre of the departed, the thoughts of the
+people were immediately turned to the succession. All eyes were fixed on
+Cuitlahua, the noble brother of Montezuma, whose intrepid spirit, and
+deadly hatred of the intruding Spaniards, accorded with the now
+universal sentiment of the nation. He was elected, without a dissenting
+voice, by the grand council of the nobles. Accepting, with alacrity, the
+post of responsibility and danger, he was immediately inaugurated and
+crowned, with all the gorgeous rites, and imposing ceremonies which a
+pagan priesthood delight to throw around every important event, in which
+their holy influence is necessarily involved.
+
+During the progress of these mournful and exciting events, the rigors of
+the siege had not been materially relaxed, though all active hostilities
+had been suspended. They were now to be renewed with tenfold energy,
+under the lead of their warlike monarch, who had often led the armies of
+Anahuac to victory, and who had never known defeat.
+
+When the Castilian general was informed that the heroic Cuitlahua had
+been placed on the throne of Montezuma, and was about to take the field
+in person, he perceived the necessity of adopting prompt and decided
+measures. The retreat had already been resolved on. It was now to be put
+in execution, and that, without delay. As it was the custom of the
+Aztec, to suspend all hostilities during the night, Cortez determined to
+avail himself of that season to make his escape. Accordingly, every
+thing being made ready for the departure, and the city being hushed in a
+seemingly profound repose, the gates were thrown open, and the little
+army, with its long train of Indian allies, sallied stealthily forth,
+not to the stirring notes of drum or trumpet, but with hushed breath and
+a cautious tread, ill accordant with the haughty bearing, and vaunting
+air, with which they had hitherto attempted to lord it over the proud
+metropolis of Anahuac.
+
+But, though quiet, the sagacious and determined Aztec was wide awake. He
+had anticipated this stealthy movement of his pent up foe, and resolved
+that he should not thus escape the snare into which his own audacious
+insolence had drawn him. The last files of the retreating army had not
+yet passed out from their entrenchments, when a long loud blast from the
+horn of the great Teocalli, stirred the city to its utmost borders,
+calling out the mighty host, who had slept upon their arms, eager for
+the summons which should bring them once more to an engagement with
+their foe.
+
+Confident as the Spaniard was in the overwhelming power of his cavalry
+and artillery, he preferred rather to make good his retreat, while he
+could, than to show his prowess in these perilous circumstances. The
+hoarse distant murmurs which fell upon their ears at every street as
+they passed, indicated too plainly the mustering of a mighty host, which
+soon came rushing in upon them from all quarters, like the swelling
+surges of a stormy sea, each higher and more terrible than that which
+preceded. They fell upon the flying foe with the ferocity of tigers,
+about to be disappointed of their prey. From every lane and alley, and
+from the roof of every house, they pelted them with ceaseless vollies of
+stones. They grappled with them, man to man, reckless of life or limb,
+so that they could maim or destroy an enemy.
+
+Alvarado, with a portion of the cavalry, brought up the rear of the
+retreating army, in order to repel, with an occasional charge upon the
+enemy's ranks, those furious onsets which might have overwhelmed the
+small body of Spanish infantry, or the unmailed and lightly armed
+Tlascalan allies. The cavalier and his horse, encased in armor of proof,
+could better cope with the weapons and missiles of their assailants,
+while they often turned upon them, with a fierce and irresistible
+charge, trampling hundreds in the dust, and mowing down whole ranks on
+this side and that, with their trenchant broadswords.
+
+In this manner the fugitives defiled through the great southern avenue,
+and came out upon the grand causeway, by which they had twice entered
+the city. Here they were met by new and fresh squadrons of the enemy,
+thronging the sides of the dike in their light canoes, and showering
+down arrows thick as hail upon the advancing column. Sometimes keeping
+upon the causeway, they would grapple each with his man, and drag him
+off into the water, to be picked up by those in the canoes, and hurried
+off to a terrible and certain fate, on the great altar of their War-god.
+Their numbers increased every moment, till the lake was literally alive
+with them.
+
+At length the advancing column was brought to stand; while a cry of
+despair from the van revealed the fearful position in which they stood
+in the midst of their implacable foes. The bridges which intersected the
+dike had been removed by order of the Emperor. They had now reached the
+first opening thus made in the causeway. A sudden shout from the myriads
+of Aztec warriors that hung about them on all sides, told at once their
+own wild triumph, and the awfully perilous position of their enemy.
+Crowded together on a narrow causeway, in ranks so close as to render
+their arms and their weapons almost entirely useless--arrested in front
+by a wide chasm which it was impossible to pass--their retreat cut off
+in the rear, by the living masses that blocked up every avenue, and
+pressed them forward upon the crowded ranks of their comrades--assailed
+on both sides from the water, through the whole length of the closely
+compacted column--while all these dangers were enhanced a hundred-fold
+by the darkness of the night--there seemed no possibility of escape for
+one of that brave host.
+
+Cortez was with the principal part of the cavalry in the centre of the
+column, so wedged in by the compacted mass of his own forces, as to be
+quite unable either to advance or retreat, without trampling them under
+his feet, or crowding them off the causeway. He comprehended in a moment
+the perilous position he was in. But such was the utter confusion and
+dismay of the whole army, and such the horrid din of clashing arms, and
+the yet more horrid yells of the savage foe, that he in vain attempted
+either to direct or encourage his men. His voice was drowned in the
+uproar.
+
+Sandoval, one of his bravest and most trusty officers, who led the van,
+with a few other cavaliers as bold as himself, resolved to push forward
+at any personal hazard, rather than stand still to perish in one
+confused mass, dashed their steeds into the water, and made for the
+other side of the gap. Some succeeded in effecting a landing, while
+others, with their horses, perished in the attempt, or fell into the
+hands of the watchful boatmen. The first movement being thus made, an
+impetus was given to the moving column from behind, that drove the front
+ranks, _nolens volens_, into the breach. By far the greater part sank to
+rise no more, or were picked up by the Aztecs, and hurried away to a far
+more terrible death. At length the breach was filled up by the bodies of
+the dead, and the baggage and artillery which occupied the centre, so
+that the rear had a clear passage over the fatal chasm.
+
+A second and a third breach was yet to be passed. It was accomplished as
+before, only by making a bridge of the bodies of one half, for the other
+half to walk upon. Meanwhile the enemy hung upon flank and rear, with
+unappeasable rage, striking down and picking up vast numbers of victims,
+until, when the last breach was cleared, and a footing gained upon
+terra-firma, there was scarce a remnant left of the gallant band that
+entered upon that fatal causeway. The iron-hearted Cortez was so
+overcome with the sight of his shattered band, and the absence of so
+many brave comrades, when the morning light appeared, that he sat down
+upon a rock that overlooked the scene of desolation, and gave vent to
+his emotions in a flood of tears.
+
+Had the Mexicans followed up this success by falling upon the broken
+dispirited remnant of the Castilian army, they would probably have
+vanquished and destroyed them to a man. They were suffered, however, to
+proceed unmolested for several days, until their strength and spirits
+were somewhat recruited. Then, though attacked by immensely superior
+numbers, they succeeded in putting them to rout.
+
+The new Emperor, Cuitlahua, having signalized his accession to the
+throne by the almost total destruction of the formidable foe, who had
+spread the terror of his arms far and wide through all the realms of
+Anahuac, proceeded to fortify his capital and kingdom against another
+invasion. The dikes and canals were thoroughly repaired, the walls were
+strengthened and extended, the army enlarged and improved in discipline
+by some of the lessons which so able a general, was not slow to learn
+from the Spaniards. The immense treasures they had drawn from the
+munificent Montezuma, and which, in the disasters of that melancholy
+night, they had been compelled to leave behind, were all recovered and
+expended in these works of defence. Their arms, too, were gathered up,
+and served to improve and render more effective many of the more
+primitive weapons of the Aztecs. In the midst of these wise and
+patriotic efforts to guard against the probable return of the Spaniards,
+Cuitlahua was seized with a loathsome disease, which in a few days
+brought him to the grave, after a brief reign of four months.
+
+This was a terrible blow to the nation. It was felt throughout all the
+borders of Anahuac, as the severest frown of their gods. But partially
+recovered from the shock occasioned by the death of Montezuma, they were
+now beginning to feel their hopes renewed, and their courage reviving,
+under the bold and decided measures, and the signal successes of their
+new Emperor. He was the idol of the army. His intrepid bravery, his high
+military talents, his unyielding patriotism, and deadly hatred of the
+white men, had secured for him the confidence of all the wisest and best
+men of the realm, so that, with one heart and one voice, they rallied
+around his standard, assured that, under his energetic sway, the ancient
+glory and pre-eminence of the Aztec crown would be not only ably
+asserted, but effectually re-established.
+
+His fall, like a mighty earthquake, shook the empire to its centre. For
+a moment it seemed as if all was lost--hopelessly, irretrievably lost.
+The long funereal wail, that swelled up from every dwelling and every
+heart in that devoted land, seemed like the expiring groan of a world.
+But it was only for a moment. The first shock past, they found
+themselves still standing, though among ruins. Their land, their
+temples, their dwellings, still remained. Their wise and experienced
+counsellors were all in their midst. Their host of armed men were still
+at their post, unbroken, undivided, unappalled. The imperial mantle had
+not fallen to the earth.
+
+As by immediate direction from heaven, all eyes were turned to
+Guatimozin. He was nephew to the last two monarchs, and though only a
+young man, had distinguished himself both in the council and in the
+field. He had uniformly opposed the admission of the Spaniards to the
+capital. He had been prominent in all the recent attacks upon their
+quarters, and had especially signalized himself in the terrible
+overthrow of the disastrous night of their retreat. He had all the
+coolness and intrepidity of a veteran warrior, with all the fire and
+impetuosity of youth. He was about twenty-five years of age, of an
+elegant commanding figure, and so terrible in war that even his
+followers trembled in his presence.
+
+The young prince felt the extreme difficulty of the crisis, but did not
+shrink from the arduous and perilous post assigned him. With a prudence
+and circumspection, only to have been expected from one long accustomed
+to the cares and perplexities of government, he set himself to fortify
+every assailable point, and to prepare for the worst that might arise,
+in the event of another invasion. The works commenced during the brief
+reign of Cuitlahua were carried forward to their completion. By means of
+regular couriers and spies, a constant communication was kept up with
+all parts of the country. The movements of the Spaniards were narrowly
+watched, and their supposed designs frequently reported to the Emperor.
+Nothing was omitted which a sagacious and watchful monarch could do or
+devise, to make ready for a severe and protracted contest, in whatever
+form it might come.
+
+Thus established on the throne, and strengthened against a sudden
+surprise, the ardent young monarch repaired to Chapoltepec, where the
+bereaved household of Montezuma still remained, in sad but peaceful
+seclusion, and claimed the hand of the fair Princess Tecuichpo. Her
+retiring disposition would have preferred a humbler and more quiet
+station. She had seen enough of the agitations and burdens of a crowned
+head; enough of the gaudy emptiness of life in a palace, and longed to
+hide herself in some sweet, sequestered spot, away from the noisy parade
+and anxious bustle of a court, where her own home would be all her
+world.
+
+"Oh! that that crown had fallen on some other head," she exclaimed.
+"Though there is not another in Anahuac so worthy to wear it, not one
+who would so well sustain its ancient glory, yet I would not that _you_
+should bear the heavy burden, or be exposed to that desolating storm
+that is gathering over our devoted capital and throne."
+
+"Said I not, my beloved, that I would yet lead you back in triumph to
+the royal halls of your ancestors? I have come to redeem my pledge.
+Shrink not from a station which no other can so well adorn. Rather, far
+rather would I, if I could, retire with you to the quiet shades of
+private life, and find a home in some sweet glen among the mountains,
+than wear the crown and claim the homage of a world. But, my sweet
+cousin, the crown _must_ be defended, the throne _must_ be sustained
+against the insolent pretensions of these strangers. And _I_ must do my
+part in the defence. I dare not, either as monarch or as subject,
+withhold myself from this great work. If I perish, I fall in the service
+of my country and her altars. And the higher the station I hold, the
+greater the service I render--the heavier the burden I bear, the
+brighter the honors I shall win. As well perish on the throne, as
+fighting at its foot. I should be unworthy of the daughter of Montezuma,
+if I held any thing too dear to sacrifice on the shrine of my country."
+
+"Noble Guatimozin, my heart is yours--my life is devoted only to you.
+Lead me where you will, so that I can share your burdens, and lighten
+your cares, and not prove unworthy of such a father and such a lord. But
+you forget that mine is a doomed life, that oracles and omens, signs and
+presages, have all conspired against me from my birth."
+
+"Nay, my love, it is you that forget, not I. For the very oracles and
+omens that foreshadowed for you a clouded morning, promised with equal
+distinctness a bright and glorious evening. The tempestuous morning is
+passed. The glorious mid-day and the golden evening are yet to come."
+
+"You are quite too fast, I fear, my brave cousin, it was only the
+evening that was to have light. The sunset hour of life was to be
+clear. But what, my dear Guatimozin, what do you suppose that light is
+to be? and whence shall it come?"
+
+"What _can_ it be, but to restore, in your own person and family, the
+disputed pre-eminence of the Aztec dynasty, the tarnished glory of its
+crown. Rely upon it, my gentle cousin, _that_ is your destiny. The timid
+dove of Chapoltepec shall be transformed to the royal eagle of
+Tenochtitlan."
+
+"That cannot be. I rather fear that the deep cloud of my doom will
+overshadow and darken your life. Better far that I should suffer and
+perish alone."
+
+"It _must_ be, Tecuichpo, it shall be. Have not the gods given you to
+me? Have they not made me the defender of the Aztec throne? How then can
+you doubt that they call _you_ to share and adorn it?"
+
+"Oh! my lord! those terrible omens--they are but half fulfilled, and the
+promised light is yet far in the distance. Could I be sure that you
+would share that light with me----."
+
+"Come then with me to the palace. It will be all light for _me_ when
+_you_ are there, and sure I am that time will re-interpret those sad
+omens for you, and turn them all to sunshine."
+
+Suddenly the palace of Chapoltepec was changed from a house of mourning
+to a house of feasting. The nuptial rites of the youthful Emperor with
+the beautiful princess, were celebrated with great pomp. The festivities
+continued through several days, and were honored by the presence of all
+the nobility of the empire. The most costly entertainment was provided
+for the numerous guests. The most munificent royal largesses were
+bestowed upon the priests, and upon those who took a prominent part in
+the grand ceremonies, and gifts of great value lavishly distributed
+among all the inferior attendants. The brilliant and odoriferous
+treasures of the royal gardens, and of the chinampas of the great lake
+were exhausted in adorning the halls and chambers of the palace. The
+refined taste, and exquisite invention of Karee was every where
+apparent. The place, on the day of the nuptials, might have been taken
+for the realm and palace of Flora. The very air was redolent of the
+incense of flowers, which brightened the day with their bloom, and of
+the odoriferous gums, whose blaze extended the reign of day far into the
+realms of night.
+
+It was a national festival, a season of universal rejoicing. The people
+now believed that their days of darkness and temporary depression were
+passed, and that all the power and glory of the days of Montezuma would
+be restored, under those happy auspices which made his favorite daughter
+a sharer of his throne. The priests sanctioned and confirmed this
+belief, to the utmost of their power and influence, giving it out, with
+that oracular force and dignity, which they so well knew how to assume,
+that such was the true interpretation of all the singular predictions
+and presages, which intimated that the life of the princess would close
+with unusual splendor. In this manner, they encouraged the hopes of the
+nation, confirmed its allegiance to its new Emperor, and united all its
+forces in a solid phalanx of resistance to every foreign encroachment.
+
+When these ceremonies were concluded, and the imperial pageant passed
+from Chapoltepec to the capital, there was a new and still more
+imposing display of the reverence and loyalty of this singular people,
+and of the more than oriental magnificence with which they sustained the
+splendors of royalty. The road, through the entire distance, was swept,
+sprinkled, and strewed with flowers. The elite of the army, and the
+nobility in the gayest costumes, formed a brilliant and numerous escort,
+accompanied with flaunting banners, and every species of spirit-stirring
+music then known to Aztecs. The imperial cortege, consisting of a long
+array of magnificent palanquins, with their gorgeous canopies of
+feather-work, all a-blaze with gold and jewels, borne on the shoulders
+of princes and nobles, occupied the centre of the grand procession.
+Those of the Emperor and Empress, which moved side by side, were
+distinguished by the exceeding costliness and beauty of their
+decorations, and by the superior height of their canopies, whose sides
+and ends curved gracefully to a point in the centre, about three feet
+above the cornice, which was surmounted by the imperial diadem of
+Mexico. These were followed by the queen mother, and other members of
+the royal household, conveyed in a style but little inferior to the
+first. This cortege was immediately preceded and followed by all the
+priests and prophets of the nation, in their splendid pontificals, and
+bearing the showy insignia of their various orders. An immense train of
+the most respectable citizens, merchants, mechanics, artizans,
+husbandmen, and men of every honorable profession brought up the rear.
+They were scarcely less gay and brilliant in their costume than the
+escort and immediate attendants of the monarch, though somewhat less
+uniform in the style of their decorations. The road, through its entire
+length, was flanked by women and children, young men and maidens, in
+their gala dresses, with baskets and chaplets of flowers, which they
+continually showered upon the path, in front of the royal palanquins,
+thus renewing, at every step of its progress, the floral carpet, whose
+freshness and beauty the long escort had trampled out. Ever and anon a
+shout would go up from that vast multitude, so loud and long, that its
+echoes, reverberated along the mountain walls that shut in that
+beautiful valley from the great world, would be heard for many a league
+around. Then, from some little group of trained chanters, a song of
+right loyal welcome would burst forth, accompanied with showers of
+roses, and followed by a chorus from thousands of sweet voices--
+
+    Welcome! welcome! warrior, king--
+    Thrice welcome with the prize you bring.
+    Star of Montezuma's line,
+    O'er the empire, rise and shine!
+    Flower of Montezuma's race
+    Return, thy father's halls to grace!
+    Welcome, thrice welcome, mighty one!
+    The nation's heart shall be thy throne.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  FESTIVITIES AT THE COURT OF GUATIMOZIN--THE NEW HYMENEAL
+    VOW.
+
+     ~Heaven gave to Adam one, and so proclaimed
+    Her full equality to man. He who
+    Can ask for more, knows not the worth of one,
+    And so deserves not any--~
+
+
+The imperial court of Tenochtitlan was now again the radiant centre of
+attraction to the confederated and tributary nations of Anahuac. The
+terror of Guatimozin's arm was even more dreaded than that of Montezuma.
+He was a mighty man of valor, of that impetuous courage, and that bold
+directness of action, which executes at a blow the purposes and plans,
+which, with common minds, would require time and deliberation. He was at
+the same time of a generous magnanimous disposition, open, frank,
+unsuspecting, and won the affectionate regard, as well as the prompt
+unquestioning obedience of his people. He had too much good sense, and
+too wise a regard to the dignity of those who should attend upon the
+person of majesty, to require of his nobles, the officers of his court
+and household, those humiliating attentions which were exacted by
+Montezuma. He saw that the only effect of such exactions was to weaken
+and effeminate the character of some of his greatest chieftains,
+reducing them from proud and powerful friends to fawning cringing
+slaves. They were no longer shrouded in the sombre _nequen_, as they
+entered the royal presence, nor did they go barefoot, with their eyes
+cast down to the earth, when they bore the monarch in his luxurious
+palanquin. Arrayed in all their costly finery, with golden or silver
+sandals, and with a bold, manly, cheerful bearing, as if they gloried in
+the precious treasure which it was their privilege, more than their
+duty, to protect and to care for, the imperial palanquin seemed rather
+their trophy than their burden, which they were far more ready to bear,
+than their master was to occupy. He was too active and stirring a
+spirit, to submit often to such a luxurious conveyance. He was ever in
+the midst of his chiefs, consulting and acting for the public good. He
+freely discussed with them the great measures of defence, which he put
+in progress, and evinced the remarkable and rare good sense, to adopt
+wise and politic suggestions, however humble the source from which they
+emanated, and to change his opinion at once when it was shown to be
+wrong. He superintended, in person, the repairing and enlarging of the
+fortifications, and the improvement of the tactics and discipline of the
+army. By a frugal expenditure of the vast revenues of the crown, and a
+careful preservation of the treasures left by his predecessors, he
+accumulated an amount more than equal to the exigencies of a long and
+wasting struggle with all the combined foes of the realm.
+
+Meanwhile, the gay saloons of the palace of Montezuma were gayer than
+they had ever been. For a brief season, the clouds that had so long hung
+over the fate of the lovely Tecuichpo seemed to be dissipated. The skies
+were all bright above her, and every thing around her wore a cheerful
+and promising aspect. Attracted by her resplendent beauty, the
+unaffected ease and graciousness of her manners, and the queenly
+magnificence of her court, the youth, beauty, wit, talent and chivalry
+of the nation, gathered about her, and made her life a perpetual
+gala-day, rivalling in brilliancy and effect the best days of the gayest
+courts in Europe.
+
+Conspicuous among the gay multitude that flitted about the court, was
+Nahuitla, Prince of Tlacopan, a young chief of the Tepanecs. He was just
+ripening into manhood, of an uncommonly lithe and agile frame,
+exceedingly fair and graceful, and gifted with unusual powers of
+intellect. He was one of the rarest geniuses of the age, and astonished
+and amused the court with the variety and beauty of his poems, and other
+works of taste. Nor did his intellectual accomplishments exceed his
+heroism and loyalty. Guatimozin had not an abler or more devoted
+chieftain in all his realm. It was he who fought side by side with the
+Emperor in all his after conflicts, endured with him the horrors of the
+wasting siege and painful captivity which followed, and finally shared
+his cruel and shameful martyrdom, at the hands of the then
+terror-stricken and cowardly Cortez, declaring with his last breath,
+that he desired no better or more glorious lot, than to die by the side
+of his lord.
+
+Nahuitla, like all good knights and brave soldiers, to say nothing of
+true poets, had a heart warmly susceptible of tender impressions, and
+could not resist the bright eyes and witching smiles, that illuminated
+the saloons and gardens of the imperial palace. Promiscuous flirtation
+was less hazardous in Tenochtitlan than in most of the capitals of
+Christendom. The wealthy nobles being allowed to marry as many wives as
+they could support, the young prince could win the affections of all the
+bright daughters of the valley, without at all apprehending a suit for
+breach of promise, or a conspiracy against his own life, or that of his
+favorite, by some disappointed rival. How many conquests he made in one
+brief campaign, does not appear in the chronicles of the day. Atlacan, a
+princess of Tezcuco, was his first trophy. She was very fair and highly
+gifted, resembling in many points of person and character, the guardian
+genius of the young Empress, the talented Karee.
+
+At his first encounter with the Tezcucan princess, Nahuitla was deeply
+impressed with a peculiar expression of thoughtfulness, shading a
+brilliantly beautiful countenance, and imposing a kind of constrained
+awe upon the stranger. This shadow gradually disappeared upon a further
+acquaintance, till the whole face and person were so lighted up with the
+fire of her genius and wit, that it seemed as if invested with a
+supernatural halo. Their intercourse was a perfect tournament of wit,
+and their brilliant sallies and sparkling repartees, were the theme of
+universal admiration.
+
+The princess Atlacan was always attended by a very prudent, watchful,
+anxious chaperone, of a fair exterior, and pleasing manners, who had
+passed the meridian of life, and begun to wane into the cool of its
+evening. She had also a brother, Maxtli, considerably older than
+herself, who, from a two-fold motive, seemed to delight in disappointing
+her expectations, and thwarting her plans. He was a cold, mercenary,
+selfish man, who sought only his own aggrandizement. The princess was a
+special favorite of her father, who was a prince of the highest rank,
+and nearly related to the reigning king of Tezcuco. She had already
+received many substantial proofs of parental partiality, which her
+avaricious brother would fain have claimed for himself. Her brilliant
+qualities and growing influence made her an object of jealousy, as
+seeming to stand in the way of his own preferment. He had used every
+exertion to dispose of her in marriage to some of her numerous suitors,
+and had particularly advocated the cause of a wealthy young merchant of
+Cholula, who rejoiced in the euphonous name of Xitentlóxiltlitl, from
+whom Maxtli had received large presents of gold and jewels.
+
+Atlacan despised the merchant, who fondly imagined that his gold could
+purchase any jewel in the realm. She would not listen to his proposals.
+It was not pride of family, for in Anahuac, under the Aztec dynasty, the
+merchant was a man of note, scarcely inferior to the proudest noble. But
+the merchant was _only_ a merchant, a man of one idea, and that was
+gold, without refinement, without sentiment, without heart, like the
+majority of the same class of mere money mongers all the world over.
+
+Maxtli was enraged by his sister's refusal of this alliance, which, if
+it had been consummated, he would have made subservient to his own
+interests. He determined, from mere revenge, to throw obstacles in the
+way of her alliance with the gifted prince of Tlacopan. The annoyances
+he invented, and the frequent prudential interposition of her cautious
+chaperone, who was in the pay of Maxtli, made her position rather a
+difficult one, and often put her disposition to the severest test. It
+chanced, one lovely evening, that the lovers had stolen a march upon
+both their tormentors, and found, in the royal gardens, a few moments of
+that unwatched uninterrupted conference, which only those in the same
+delicate relation, at the same period of life, know how to appreciate.
+Their absence from the saloons was soon noticed. The duenna was severely
+censured, and sent in pursuit of the fugitive. Karee, who was in the
+secret of the escape, led her a long and wearisome chase, through the
+numberless halls and corridors of that immense pile, and finally left
+her, at the furthest extremity of the building, to find her way back as
+she could. Then, returning to Maxtli, who could scarce restrain his rage
+that they had so long eluded him--
+
+"My lord," said she, "can you tell me where I shall find your sister? I
+have a message for her, which I can only deliver to her personally."
+
+"I know not," he replied angrily, "but she is probably flirting
+somewhere with that fool fop, the royal bard of Tlacopan. But from whom
+does your message come?"
+
+"That can only be made known to herself. I saw her some time since, in
+the garden, leaning upon the arm of this same royal bard, the only young
+prince in Anahuac worthy of such a jewel."
+
+The prince bit his lip with vexation, and Karee ran off toward the
+garden. In a few moments, the poor old chaperone came blustering along,
+out of breath and out of humor.
+
+"Fie upon the giddy girls of this generation," she exclaimed, "they know
+nothing of propriety. I wonder what would have been thought of such
+actions when _I_ was young!"
+
+"Hasten to the garden," said Maxtli, impatiently, "your hopeful pupil is
+there, and that rhyming fop is with her."
+
+He might as well have sent her to the labyrinth of Lemnos or Crete.
+Covering an immense area, and traversed in every direction by serpentine
+walks, shaded lanes, and magnificent avenues, one might have wandered up
+and down there a week, without finding one who wished to elude pursuit.
+She obeyed his directions, however, and was soon lost in mazes more
+intricate and perplexing than those of the palace.
+
+Presently the truants returned, by a different path from that which
+their pursuer had taken. The princess wore in her bosom a significant
+flower, which she had received and accepted from her admirer. With a
+light and joyous step, he led her through the crowded saloon, and
+presented her to the queen, craving her sanction to the vows they had
+just plighted to each other. Gracefully placing a chaplet of white roses
+and amaranths on their heads, the Empress gave them her blessing.
+Guatimozin, approaching at the same instant, confirmed it with hearty
+good will, and requested that the nuptials might be celebrated at an
+early day, and in his own palace.
+
+So distinguished a favor could not be refused. In the course of the next
+week the solemn ceremonies were performed; with all the imposing pomp of
+the Aztec ritual. A royal banquet was prepared, and the palace resounded
+with joyous revelry and music.
+
+When the officiating priest had uttered the last solemn words which
+sealed the indissoluble bond, Nahuitla stood forth, and publicly avowed
+his belief, that the gods designed only one woman for each man, solemnly
+renounced the old doctrine of polygamy, and pledged to his young bride,
+in the presence of his royal master, and the brilliant throng that had
+witnessed his vows of love and constancy, an undivided heart, and an
+undivided house.
+
+Struck with surprise and admiration at this unexpected scene, and
+impressed with the truth and purity of the sentiments, and the soundness
+of the conclusions, which the brave prince had proclaimed, the Emperor
+rose from his throne, and, with a bland but dignified and solemn air,
+addressed him:--
+
+"You are right, Nahuitla, my brave prince; I feel it in my heart, you
+are right. I feel it in the claim which _your_ Empress and _mine_,
+(looking affectionately at Tecuichpo,) has in the undivided empire of my
+heart, and in that sacred bond of union which is so close, that it
+cannot be shared by another without being broken. In the presence of
+these holy men, and of these my witnessing people, I solemnly subscribe
+to the same pure vow which you have uttered, pledging my whole self, in
+the marriage covenant to this my chosen and beloved queen, even as she
+has pledged her whole self to me. And I ordain the same, as the law of
+this my realm, and binding on all my loyal subjects for ever."[D]
+
+If the noble Guatimozin had been permitted to sway the Aztec sceptre in
+peace, his name would be embalmed in the hearts of all the women of
+Anahuac, and the anniversary of the nuptials of Nahuitla and Atlacan
+would be celebrated, to this day, as the household jubilee of the
+nation.
+
+The conclusion of this festival--the last of the kind that was ever
+celebrated in the halls of Montezuma--was a unique and magnificent
+specimen of Aztec taste and luxury. At a signal from the master of
+ceremonies, the royal garden was suddenly illuminated by a thousand
+torches, borne by as many well trained servants in white livery. They
+were so stationed as to represent, from different points of view, groups
+of bright figures whirling in the mazy evolutions of a wild Indian
+dance. The harmony of their movements, and the picturesque effect of
+their frequent changes of position, was truly wonderful. It seemed more
+like magic than any thing belonging to the ordinary denizens of earth.
+By continually passing and re-passing each other, approaching and
+receding, raising and depressing their torches, the bearers were enabled
+to describe a great variety of fantastic figures. So well did they
+perform their parts, that, to the crowd of spectators from the palace,
+it was a perfect pantomime of light.
+
+At length the dance ended, and the figures of the various groups in
+light, gathering around a high altar, all of fire, seemed waiting for
+some sacred rite to be performed. Presently a tall princely figure was
+seen, approaching with slow and solemn pace, leading a lovely female to
+the altar. The high priest joined their hands in the indissoluble bond,
+and waved his wand of fire over their heads, in token of the divine
+blessing; upon which the dance of the torches was instantly renewed,
+accompanied with strains of the most joyous music, each group breathing
+out its peculiar airs and melodies, while the whole were beautifully
+blended and harmonized by the master spirit of the fęte. It seemed like
+the bridal of two angels of light, witnessed and celebrated by all the
+stars and constellations of the celestial spheres.
+
+The sudden extinguishment of these pantomimic stars, revealed to the
+surprised revellers the presence of the dawn, before whose coming the
+stars of every sphere go out, and revelry gives place to the sober
+realities of life.
+
+   [D] If this incident be deemed apocryphal, by the rigid
+   historian, the fable is fully justified by the known state of
+   public sentiment among the Aztecs at this time. Sagahun,
+   according to a note in Prescott, states, that polygamy, though
+   allowed, was by no means generally practised among them; and
+   that the prevailing sentiment of the nation was opposed to it.
+   One of the very few relics of their ancient literature, which
+   were preserved in the general devastation of the conquest, is a
+   letter of advice from a father to his child, on the eve of her
+   marriage, in which he declares that it was the purpose of God,
+   in his grand design of replenishing the earth, to make the
+   sexes equal, and to allow only one wife to each man; and any
+   deviation from this arrangement, was contrary to the plainest
+   laws of nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  RETURN OF CORTEZ--SIEGE OF TENOCHTITLAN--BRAVERY AND
+    SUFFERINGS OF THE AZTECS.
+
+   ~What will not man endure, and woman too,
+    To guard the hearth and altar? Give to each
+    A thousand lives, and hedge them close around
+    With all that makes it martyrdom to die,
+    And agony to suffer--freely still,
+    With all their wealth of blood, and love, and tears,
+    They'll yield them every one, and dying, wish
+    They had a thousand more to give--~
+
+
+Guatimozin was kept constantly informed of the preparations and
+movements of the Spaniards. His faithful spies followed them in all
+their marches, and found no difficulty in divining their general
+intentions and plans, as their courage revived on their arrival at
+Tlascala, and still more on the accession of a large reinforcement of
+Spaniards at Vera Cruz. Cortez was now as resolute as ever in his
+purpose of conquest, and determined to regain his position in the
+capital, or perish in the attempt. He went with the sword in one hand
+and the olive-branch in the other, if that can be called an
+olive-branch, which admits of no answer but submission, and offers no
+alternative but slavery or death. With a large increase of cavalry and
+artillery, an ample supply of ammunition, and a force both of Castilian
+and Indian allies, more than double of that which accompanied him on his
+former expedition, he took up his line of march from the friendly city
+of Tlascala, to cross the mountain barrier that separated him from his
+prey. Previous to his departure, he gave orders for the construction of
+a considerable number of brigantines, under the inspection of
+experienced Spanish shipwrights, conceiving the singular and original
+idea of transporting them, on the shoulders of his men, across the
+mountains, and launching them upon the lake of Tezcuco, to aid him in
+laying siege to the city. His march was unchallenged till he arrived on
+the very shores of the great lake, and stood before the walls of
+Tezcuco.
+
+Here he halted, and sent a message to the governor to throw open his
+gates, and renew his allegiance to the crown of Castile. The messenger
+returned with a request that the Spaniard would delay his entry into the
+city, until the next morning, when he should be prepared to give him a
+suitable reception. Cortez, suspecting that all was not right, ascended
+one of the Teocalli in the neighborhood, to ascertain if any hostile
+movement was contemplated. To his surprise, he saw immense crowds of
+people, thronging the thoroughfares on the other side of the city, and
+going, with as much of their substance as they could carry, towards the
+metropolis. Supposing that the city, when evacuated, would be given up
+to the flames, and that he should thus be cut off not only from
+supplies, but from a place of shelter and retreat, he instantly sent
+forward a strong body of horse, with a battalion of infantry, to arrest
+the fugitives, and to demand an interview with the cacique.
+
+Flight having been resolved upon, and the city having been devoted to
+destruction, as the most effectual annoyance to the Spaniards, no
+preparations were made to resist such a movement as this. The unarmed
+fugitives returned to their homes, in great numbers, and the city, with
+all its abandoned palaces and temples, offered ample accommodations to
+the invaders. The person of the chief was not secured, he having
+effected his escape, with the principal part of his nobles, and all his
+army, to the capital. Cortez, assuming to act in the name of the king of
+Castile, for whom he claimed the sovereignty of all these lands,
+immediately deposed the reigning chief, absolving the people from all
+further allegiance to him, and installed his brother, who was favorable
+to the cause of the Spaniards, in his place.
+
+Thus secured in such commanding quarters, the haughty Castilian surveyed
+the field around him, and prepared himself, with great diligence and
+deliberation, to regain possession of it. The most liberal and
+conciliating overtures were made to the Emperor, if he would peaceably
+acknowledge the sovereignty of Castile, and admit him, as the
+representative of that crown, to the capital. These overtures were
+promptly and scornfully rejected, and every avenue to amicable
+negotiation effectually closed. The people of the country were sternly
+forbidden, on pain of death, from holding any intercourse with the
+strangers, or from administering, in any manner, to their wants. Large
+rewards were offered for captives, and every inducement held out to
+encourage the natives in a resistance, that should admit of no quarter,
+and terminate only in the utter extermination of one of the parties.
+Guatimozin was a man every way adapted to a crisis like this. Of a firm
+indomitable spirit, patient of suffering and of toil, and skilful in all
+the strategy of war and defence, and possessed of the entire confidence
+and affection of his own people, he applied himself to the work of
+self-preservation, with an energy and fertility of resource, which
+scarcely ever, in a righteous cause, fails to ensure success. That he
+was suffered to fail, is one of those inscrutable providences which
+stand frequently out on the page of history, to confound the
+short-sighted sagacity of man, and restrain his too inquisitive desire
+to fathom the counsels and purposes of heaven.
+
+Perceiving that the ground was to be contested, step by step, and that
+not a foot would be yielded but at the point of the bayonet, and the
+mouth of the cannon, Cortez resolved on reducing the smaller towns
+first, and so approaching the capital, by slow degrees, leaving no
+unfriendly territory behind him, to cut off his supplies, or annoy his
+rear. In this manner, after almost incredible hardships, and many severe
+contests, in which his forces were very considerably reduced, he
+succeeded in wresting by violence, or winning by diplomacy, many of the
+tributary cities and districts from their allegiance to the Mexican
+crown. In their attempt upon Iztapalapan, which was led by Cortez in
+person, they were near being entirely overwhelmed by an artificial
+inundation of the city. The great dikes were pierced by the natives, and
+the waters of the lake came pouring in upon them, in torrents, from
+which they made their escape with the utmost difficulty, with the loss
+of all their booty and ammunition, and not a few of their Indian allies.
+The place, however, was reduced to submission. Chalco, Otumba, and many
+other important posts were soon after added to the number of the
+conquered.
+
+This work of subjugation among the tributary provinces and cities, was
+not a little facilitated by the memory of the iron rule of Montezuma,
+and his severe exactions upon all his subjects, to maintain the
+splendors of the imperial palace. They had long felt these exactions to
+be most burdensome and unequal, and had only submitted to them by force
+of the terror of that name, which made all Anahuac tremble. They were,
+therefore, not unwilling to embrace any opportunity to throw off the
+Aztec yoke, when they could do it with the hope of ultimate protection
+from its vengeance. They had not long enough tested the administration
+of Guatimozin, to look for any relief from their burdens under his
+reign. He came to the throne at one of those signal crises in the
+affairs of the empire, which demanded all its resources, both physical
+and pecuniary, and was therefore compelled, for the time, rather to
+increase than diminish their taxes, and make heavier requisitions than
+usual upon their personal services. They were ready for a change of
+masters, and, as is usual in such cases, did not stop to consider
+whether the change might not be rather for the worse than for the
+better. As soon, therefore, as they ascertained that the Spanish power
+was sufficient to protect them against the fury of their old oppressors,
+they rushed to their standard, and arrayed themselves against the brave
+defenders of their native land. The event proved that the rod of iron
+was exchanged for a two-edged one of steel, a natural sovereign of their
+own race, for a worse than Egyptian task-master, and a subjection which
+left undisturbed their ancient customs, and the common relations of
+society, for an indiscriminate slavery which respected neither person
+nor property, and levelled alike the public and private institutions of
+the land.
+
+Meanwhile the brigantines, which had been rapidly progressing at
+Tlascala, were completed. They were thirteen in number. They were first
+put together, and tried upon the waters of the Tahnapan; then taken to
+pieces, and the timbers, with all the tackle and apparel, including
+anchors, transported on the shoulders of the Tlascalan laborers, over
+the hills, and through the narrow defiles of the mountain, a distance of
+sixty miles, and re-constructed within the walls of Tezcuco. To open a
+communication with the lake, it was still necessary to make a canal, a
+mile and a half in length, twelve feet wide, and as many deep. This was
+accomplished in season for launching the little fleet, having eight
+thousand men employed upon it during two months. It was a day of great
+rejoicing and appropriate religious solemnity, when that little squadron
+appeared, with the ensign of Castile floating proudly at each mast head,
+their white sails swelling in the breeze, the smoke of the cannon
+rolling around, and the deep thunder reverberating from every side of
+the distant mountains.
+
+There is, perhaps, no single achievement in the annals of human
+enterprize, more remarkable than this. There is certainly none which
+more clearly shows, or more beautifully illustrates, the daring
+indomitable spirit, and mighty genius, which alone could have achieved
+the conquest of Mexico. Who but Cortez would have conceived of such a
+design? Who but Cortez would have attempted and successfully executed
+it? To construct thirteen vessels of sufficient burthen to sustain the
+weight and action of heavy cannon, and accommodate the men and soldiers
+necessary to navigate and defend them, at a distance of twenty leagues
+from the waters on which they were to swim--to convey them over
+mountains, and through deep and difficult defiles, on the shoulders of
+men, without the aid of any species of waggon, or beast of burden, and
+to do this in the midst of a country, and with the aid of a people,
+where nothing had hitherto been known beyond the primitive bark canoe,
+and where the natural associations, and prevailing superstitions of the
+natives, were totally adverse to his design--to accomplish this alone
+would immortalize any other man. What was the passage of the Alps by
+Hannibal, or by Napoleon, compared to this? Yet, so replete was the
+whole expedition of Cortez with adventures of unparalleled difficulty,
+and achievements of dazzling splendor, that this is but a common event
+in his history, with nothing small or insignificant to place it in
+commanding relief. It was one of the infelicities in the career of this
+wonderful man, that he was continually eclipsing himself, showing an
+originality and power of conception, a fertility of invention and
+resource, and a determination and energy in overcoming difficulties, and
+making occurrences, seemingly the most adverse, bend to his will and
+subserve his designs, which wearies our surprise and admiration, and
+actually exhausts our capacity of astonishment.
+
+Nothing was now wanting to complete the arrangements of the invader for
+laying siege to Tenochtitlan. By the aid of the brigantines, he was able
+to command the entire lake, sweeping away the frail canoes of the
+natives, like bubbles on the surface. All the cities and towns on its
+border had fallen, one after another, into his hands, though not without
+a desperate defence, and frequent and wasting sallies from the foe. The
+metropolis, that beautiful and magnificent gem upon the fair bosom of
+the lake, now stood alone, deserted by all her friends and supporters,
+the object of the concentrated hostility of the foreign invader, the
+ancient enemy, and the recent ally.
+
+In that devoted capital, now so closely and fearfully invested, there
+was a spirit and power fully equal to the awful crisis. As soon as
+Guatimozin perceived, by the movements of his enemy, that the city was
+to be assailed rather by the slow and wasting siege, than by the storm
+of war, he made every possible preparation to sustain himself at his
+post. The aged, the infirm, the sick, and, as far as possible, all the
+helpless among the inhabitants, were sent off among the neighboring
+towns, and country; while all those who were able to do service in the
+army, were brought thence into the city. Provisions were collected in
+great quantities, and all the resources then left to the empire
+concentrated upon one point, that of making an obstinate, unyielding
+defence. In this condition of affairs the siege commenced; a large part
+of the fighting men of the neighboring cities and towns being in the
+capital, preparing to defend it against enemies with whom those cities
+and towns were now in close alliance. Though it thus brought the father
+against the son, and the son against the father, in many instances, it
+did not, in any case, disappoint the confidence of Guatimozin, or
+undermine the loyalty of his troops. There were no deserters from his
+standard. Through all the horrors of that wasting siege, they stood by
+their sovereign, and their capital, as if they knew no other home, no
+other friend.
+
+In vain did the Castilian commander propose terms of accommodation to
+the beleaguered city. The Emperor would not condescend even to an
+interview. His chiefs and his people, whenever they had an opportunity
+to do so, treated every attempt at compromise with utter scorn. They
+derided Cortez upon his disastrous evacuation of the capital on "the
+melancholy night," assuring him that, if he should enter its gates now,
+he would not find a Montezuma on the throne. They taunted their
+Tlascalan allies as women, who would never have dared to approach the
+capital, without the protection of the white men.
+
+Sustained by this spirit, the warlike Mexican did not content himself
+with mere measures of defence. Frequent and desperate sallies were made
+upon the outposts of the enemy, until it seemed as if the hope of the
+noble Guatimozin might possibly be realized, that he might slowly and
+gradually destroy an enemy, whom he could not encounter in a pitched
+battle.
+
+It was not until the last avenue to the surrounding country was cut off,
+by divisions of the invading army, planted upon all the causeways,
+supported in all their movements by the thundering brigantines, that the
+true spirit of the besieged began to show itself. Till then, their
+tables had been plentifully supplied, and their hopes continually
+encouraged by the occasional losses of their enemy, whose numbers were
+too small to admit of much diminution. The priests were unremitting in
+their appeals to the patriotism of the people, and in promises of
+peculiar divine blessings on all who should persevere to the last, in
+defence of their altars and their gods. Guatimozin was ever among his
+people, encouraging them by kind words, and an example of unyielding
+defiance to every advance of the foe. He showed that he was not less the
+father of his people, than their king, suffering the same exposure, and
+enduring the same fatigues with the boldest and hardiest of his
+subjects.
+
+Such was their confidence of ultimate success in the defence of the
+capital, that the splendor and gaiety of the court was little
+diminished, until famine began to stare them in the face. The aqueduct
+of Chapoltepec had been cut off, and there was no longer any supply of
+wholesome water in the city. The dark visions of the lovely queen were
+now renewed. For a brief season, she had been permitted to revel in
+daylight, with scarcely a cloud to darken the sky above her. Suddenly
+that light was obscured. All was gloom and darkness around her. War,
+desolating war hovered once more about the gates of the beloved city.
+Wan faces, and haggard forms began to take the places of the gay, happy,
+spirited multitudes, that so recently thronged the palace. The image of
+her father, insulted by the stranger, murdered by his own people, rose
+to her view. His melancholy desponding look and tone, as he gave way to
+the doom which he felt was sealed upon him, his frequent assurances that
+the white men were "the men of destiny," the heaven appointed
+proprietors and rulers of the land, and that wo would betide all who
+should oppose their pretensions, or offer resistance to their invincible
+arms--all these came up fresh to her thoughts, and filled her with
+sadness. Her own ill-starred destiny too, marked by every possible sign
+and presage, as full of darkness and sorrow--the thought was almost
+overwhelming. Fain would she have severed at once the bond that linked
+her fate with that of Guatimozin, for she felt that he was only sharing
+her doom, and on her account was exposed to these terrible shafts of
+fate. The love of Guatimozin, the faithful devotion of Karee, though
+they soothed in some measure her troubled spirit, could not wholly
+re-assure her, or dissipate the dreadful thought, that all these
+terrible calamities were come upon the nation only as a part of that
+dark doom, for which the gods had marked her out, on her very entrance
+into life.
+
+It was long before the Emperor and his immediate household, were made
+aware of the awful pressure of famine within that devoted city. Watchful
+and observing as he was, the people, with one consent, had contrived to
+keep him in comparative ignorance of the growing scarcity, in order that
+they might be permitted to supply his table, as long as possible, with
+all the necessaries and luxuries of life. So far was this loyal devotion
+carried, that multitudes, both of the chiefs and of the common people,
+were daily in the habit of denying themselves of every thing but what
+was absolutely necessary to sustain life, and sending to the palace
+every article of fresh food, or delicate fruit, which they could obtain
+from their own gardens, or purchase from those of others. This noble
+devotion on the part of his people, was discovered and made known to the
+Emperor by Karee. She was the almoner of the bounty of the queen to
+multitudes of the poor and the sick, in different quarters of the city.
+On one of her errands of mercy, while she was administering to the
+comfort of a poor friend, in the last stages of mortal disease, made
+ten-fold more appalling by the absence of almost every thing that could
+sustain nature in the final struggle, she overheard the conversation of
+a father with his child in the adjoining room.
+
+"Nay, my dear father, you must eat it. Your strength is almost gone, and
+how can you stand among the fighting men, and defend your king and your
+house, when you have eaten nothing for two whole days?"
+
+"My precious child, I shall find something when I go out. But this
+morsel is for you, for I know you cannot live till I come home, if you
+do not eat this. And what will life be worth when you are gone."
+
+"Father, dear father, I cannot eat it. It will do me more good to see
+you eat it, for then I shall be sure you can live another day at least,
+and then, who knows but the gods will send us help."
+
+Karee could listen no longer. Rushing into the apartment whence these
+melancholy sounds proceeded, she beheld the shadow of a once beautiful
+girl leaning on the arm of the pale and wasted figure of a man,
+endeavoring to draw him towards a table on which lay a single morsel of
+dried fruit, which he had brought in for her, it being the only food
+that either of them had seen for two days.
+
+"Take this," said she, offering the sweet child a portion of what she
+had prepared for the invalid, but which she was too far gone to receive,
+"and may it give you both strength till the day of our deliverance." And
+she instantly returned to the death-bed of her friend.
+
+To the famishing group it was like the apparition of an angel, with a
+gift from the gods. The savory mess was readily divided, though the
+affectionate self-denying child contrived to cheat her father into
+receiving a little more than his share, while he tried every effort in
+vain, to persuade her to take the larger half. The wretched pair had not
+had such a feast for many a long week. "Ah!" exclaimed the daughter, as
+she wept over the luxurious repast, "if our dear mother could have had
+such a morsel as this, before she died, to stay her in that last
+dreadful agony."
+
+"Yes, my beloved child," replied the subdued and bitterly bereaved
+father, "but she has gone where there is plenty, and no tears mingled
+with it."
+
+The dried fruit was laid away for the morrow. But the same kind hand
+that relieved them on that day, was there again on the morrow, and on
+every succeeding day, till the city was sacked, and the wretched ghosts
+of its inhabitants given up to an indiscriminate slaughter.
+
+When Guatimozin was made acquainted with this incident, he resolved on
+making another desperate sally, with the whole force of his wasted army,
+in the forlorn hope of breaking through the ranks of the enemy, and
+procuring some subsistence for his famishing people. Having drawn them
+up in the great square, his heart sunk within him, when he saw their
+pale faces and emaciated forms, and contrasted them with the fierce,
+stout, and seemingly invincible host, whom he had so often led into
+battle. But the feeling of despondency gave way instantly to that stern
+fixed purpose, that terrible decision of soul, which is the natural
+offspring of desperation. With a firm voice, he addressed them.
+
+"My brave soldiers, we must not any longer lie still. The enemy is at
+our gates, and we are perishing in our own citadel. Have we not once
+driven them, with a terrible and almost exterminating slaughter, along
+those very causeways which they now claim to occupy and to close up? Are
+they more invincible now than then? Are we less resolute, less fearless?
+By our famishing wives and children, by our desecrated altars and gods,
+let us rush upon them and overwhelm them at once."
+
+The monarch had not yet finished his stirring appeal, when a courier
+rushed in, bringing tidings that the several divisions of the besieging
+army were moving up the causeways, and approaching the city on every
+side.
+
+"They come to their own destruction," said the monarch, bitterly, and
+immediately proceeded to distribute his men, to give them a fitting
+reception. The larger part of the forces were ordered to occupy several
+somewhat retired places, amid the great public buildings in the centre
+of the city, where they should be in readiness to obey the royal signal.
+The remainder were to go out, in their several divisions, to meet and
+skirmish with the advancing foe, doing them as much mischief as
+possible, yet suffering themselves to be driven before them, till they
+were decoyed into the heart of the city. The signal would then be given,
+when every man who could draw a bow, or wield a lance, or throw a stone,
+would be expected to do his duty.
+
+It was a stratagem worthy of Guatimozin, and, in its execution, had well
+nigh overwhelmed the Spaniards, and saved the city. Cortez had appointed
+with the captains of each division of his army to meet in the great
+square of the city. Each one being eager to be first at the goal, they
+followed the retreating Aztecs without consideration, and without making
+any provision for their own retreat. The watchful agents of Guatimozin
+were behind as well as before them; and when they had passed the gates,
+and were pressing up, with all the heat and enthusiasm of a victorious
+army, into the heart of the city, the bridges were taken up in their
+rear, to cut off, if possible, their retreat. When this was effected,
+the fatal horn of Guatimozin blew a long loud blast, from the summit of
+the great Teocalli. In an instant, the retreating Aztecs turned upon
+their pursuers, like tigers ravening upon their prey; while swarms of
+fresh warriors poured in from every lane and street and avenue, rushing
+so fiercely upon the too confident assailants, as to bring them to a
+sudden pause in their triumphant career. At the same moment, the roof of
+every house and temple, along the whole line of their march, was covered
+with men, who poured upon them such a shower of stones that it seemed
+impossible to escape being buried under them. The tide of battle was now
+turned. The too daring invaders were thrown into confusion, and
+compelled to retreat. This they soon found, to their bitter cost, was
+nearly impossible. When it was discovered that the bridges, over which
+they had so recently passed, were removed, the utmost consternation
+prevailed. The heavy cannon were all on board the brigantines, so that
+they were unable, as in former times, to mow down the solid ranks of
+their foes, and break a way for their retreat. Their cavalry was of
+little service, for they could not leap the wide chasms made by the
+removal of the bridges. Cut off in front by the solid masses of warriors
+that blocked up every avenue, and in the rear by these yawning chasms,
+and hemmed in on each side by the massive stone walls of the buildings,
+they could neither protect themselves, nor effectually annoy their
+enemy. They were in imminent danger of perishing ignobly in the ditch,
+without even striking a blow in their own defence.
+
+Fortunately for the invaders, their sagacious and ever-wakeful general
+had anticipated the possibility of such a scene as this, and had taken
+some measures to forestall it. His officers, however, were too
+high-spirited and self-confident to condescend to the cowardly drudgery
+of carrying out his precautionary measures. They thought only of
+victory, and the spoils of the glorious city, which they now regarded as
+their own.
+
+In this fearful dilemma, the genius of Cortez did not desert him. When
+the first shout of battle reached his ears, as he was advancing
+cautiously along the avenue, he instantly conjectured the cause.
+Ordering his own column to halt, and selecting a chosen band of his best
+cavalry, he wheeled about, dashed furiously down the avenue, and put to
+flight the unarmed Aztecs, who were doing the work of destruction for
+him, and had then almost succeeded in tearing away the foundations of
+the great bridge. Making his way through the deserted streets, with the
+speed of the wind, he came round into the other avenue, where one
+division of his army was hemmed in, in the manner above described.
+Charging impetuously upon the gathering crowds of Aztecs, he succeeded
+in forcing his way up to the chasm, where he stood face to face with his
+own troops on the other side. Here, in the midst of a pitiless tempest
+of stones, and darts and arrows, he maintained his stand, while his men,
+with incredible labor, attempted to fill up the chasm.
+
+The work was at length accomplished, though not without the most serious
+loss to Cortez. Some of his bravest officers fell in that merciless
+contest with foes who would neither give nor receive quarter. Many were
+pelted down with the huge stones, that ceased not to rain upon them from
+all the neighboring house tops. Some were taken by the feet as they
+labored to maintain a precarious footing on the slippery causeway, and
+dragged into the canals, either to be drowned in the desperate struggle
+there, or carried off in the canoes to captivity or sacrifice. Cortez
+himself narrowly escaped immolation.
+
+At length, through the indomitable perseverance of the general, the
+breach was so far filled up as to make a practicable passage for the
+troops. A retreat was sounded, and that gallant band, which, a few hours
+before had rushed in with flaunting banners, and confident boastings of
+an easy victory, was glad to escape from the snare into which they had
+fallen, their numbers greatly reduced, their banners soiled and
+tattered, and their expectations of ultimate success terribly shaken.
+They were pursued through all their march by the exulting Aztecs, and
+many a broken head and bruised limb attested the truth of Guatimozin's
+taunting challenge, that the Spaniards, if they entered the capital
+again, would find as many fortresses as there were houses, as many
+assailants as stones in the streets.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+  STRAITNESS OF THE FAMINE--THE FINAL CONFLICT--FLIGHT AND
+    CAPTURE OF GUATIMOZIN--DESTINY FULFILLED.
+
+           ~Death opens every door,
+    And sits in every chamber by himself.
+    If what might feed a sparrow should suffice
+    For soldiers' meals, ye have not wherewithal
+    To linger out three days. For corn, there's none;
+    A mouse, imprisoned in your granaries,
+    Were starved to death.~
+
+
+This shameful defeat was a tremendous blow to the ardent anticipations
+of the conqueror. Many of the timid and the discontented in his own
+ranks availed themselves of the opportunity to create divisions, and
+withdraw from the doubtful contest. The Mexicans, strengthened by the
+spoils of their assailants, and yet more by the new courage which their
+late success infused into every heart among them, immediately commenced
+repairing their works, clearing their canals, and making the most
+vigorous preparations for maintaining the siege. Their priests,
+infuriated with the number of sacrifices which they had been enabled to
+offer to the gods, from the captives of high and low degree taken in the
+conflict, declared with authoritative solemnity, that the anger of the
+gods was now appeased, and that they had promised unequivocally, the
+speedy annihilation of their invading foes. This oracular declaration
+was, by the order of Guatimozin, published in the hearing of the Indian
+allies of his adversary. It was a politic stroke, and, if the oracle had
+not imprudently fixed too early a day for the execution of the predicted
+vengeance, its effect might have been such as to break for ever the
+bonds of that unnatural alliance, and leave the little handful of white
+men, with all their boasted pretensions to immortality, to perish by the
+hands of their own friends.
+
+But why dwell longer upon the appalling details of this miserable siege.
+The day of predicted vengeance arrived, and the Spaniards survived it.
+Their superstitious terror-stricken allies returned to their allegiance.
+By a judicious administration of reward and discipline, of promise and
+threatening, all disaffection was hushed. New measures of offence were
+concerted, with a determination, on the part of the besiegers, to press
+into the city by degrees, securing every step, as they advanced, by
+levelling every building, and filling up every ditch, in their progress,
+till not one stone should be left upon another in Tenochtitlan. This
+terrible resolution was carried into effect. Every building, whether
+public or private, palace, temple, or Teocalli, from which they could be
+annoyed by the indomitable Aztec, was laid waste. The canals were filled
+up and levelled, so as to give free scope for the movements of the
+cavalry and artillery. The beautiful suburbs were reduced to a level
+plain, a dry arid waste, covered with the ruins of all that was dear and
+sacred in the eyes of the Aztec. Slowly, but surely, the Spaniard
+pressed on towards the heart of the city, in which the heroic monarch,
+with his miserable remnant of starving subjects and skeleton soldiers
+were pent up, dying by thousands of famine and pestilence, and yet ready
+to suffer a thousand deaths, rather than yield themselves up to the
+mercy of the foe.
+
+There was now absolutely nothing left, in earth or air, to sustain for
+another day the poor remains of life in the camp of the besieged. Every
+foot of ground had been dug over many times, in quest of roots, and even
+of worms. The leaves and bark had been stripped from every tree and
+shrub, till there was not a green thing on all those terraces, which
+were once like the gardens of Elysium. The dead and the dying lay in
+heaps together, for there was neither life nor spirit in any that
+breathed, to do the last office for the departed. Pestilence was in all
+the air, so that many even of the besieging army snuffed it in the
+breeze that swept over the city, and fell victims to the very fate which
+their cruel rapacity was inflicting on the besieged.
+
+Famine, cruel, gnawing famine, was in the palace of the Emperor, as well
+as in the hovel of his meanest subject. That noble prince quailed not
+before the fate that awaited himself. Had he stood alone in that
+citadel, with power in his single arm to keep out the foe, he would have
+stood till death, in whatever form, released him from his post, and
+spurned every suggestion of compromise or quarter. But the scenes of
+utter distress which every where met his eye--the haggard ghosts of his
+friends, flitting restlessly before him, or crawling feebly and with
+convulsive moans among the upturned earth, in the forlorn hope of
+finding another root--the dead--the dying--the more miserable living
+longing for death, and glaring with their horribly prominent, but glazed
+and expressionless eye-balls on each other--this, this was too much for
+the heart of Guatimozin.
+
+"What!" he exclaimed, "shall I submit to see my last friend die before
+my eyes, and my own sweet wife perish of hunger, only to retain for
+another hour the empty name of king. No. I will endure it no longer. I
+will go to Malinché, alone, and unaccompanied, and offer my life for
+yours. He only wants our gold. Let him find that if he can. He will
+spare _you_, and wreak all his vengeance on my head."
+
+A faint murmur ran through the crowd, and then a feeble expiring "No,
+never," burst feebly from many lips. One, a little stronger than the
+rest, arose and said--
+
+"Most gracious sovereign, think not of us. We only ask to live and die
+with and for you. And the more cruel the death, the more glorious the
+martyrdom for our country and our gods. Trust not Malinché."
+
+The speaker fainted and fell, with his fist clenched, and his teeth set,
+as if he felt that he held the last foe in mortal conflict.
+
+"No, never--trust not Malinché--let us die together," was echoed by many
+sepulchral voices, that seemed more like the groans of the dead, than
+the remonstrances of the living.
+
+"Trust not Malinché, remember my father," whispered the fond, devoted,
+faithful, affectionate wife, now the shadow of her former self,
+beautiful in her queenly sorrow, sublime in her womanly composure.
+
+Guatimozin, the proud, the lofty chief, whose heart had never known
+fear, whose soul had never been subdued, bowed his head upon the bosom
+of his wife, and wept. The strong heart, the lion spirit melted.
+
+"Who, who will care for Tecuichpo? Who will cherish the last daughter of
+Montezuma?"
+
+"Think not of me, Guatimozin, think of yourself and your people, I am
+resigned to my fate. If I may but die with you, it is all I desire--for
+how could I live without you. But think not of trusting Malinché. Let us
+remain as we are. Another day, and we shall all be at rest from our
+sufferings. And surely it were better to die together by our altars,
+than to fall into the hands of the treacherous stranger."
+
+"Trust not Malinché," added Karee. "Was it not trust in him that brought
+all this evil upon us? Think not of submission. You shall see that women
+can die as well as men. Let Malinché come, and take possession of the
+remains of these mutilated walls and desolated gardens, but let him not
+claim one living Aztec, to be his slave, or his subject."
+
+A murmur of approbation followed, and then a long pause ensued. It was
+like the silence of death. The whole scene would have made an admirable
+picture. At length the silence was broken by the voice of the young
+Cacique of Tlacopan.
+
+"My sovereign," said he, in a faint voice, but with something of the
+energy of despair, "there is yet hope. Let us muster what force we can,
+of men who are able to stand, and sally out upon the enemy. We cannot do
+him much harm. But, while he is occupied with us, you and your family,
+with a few attendants can escape by a canoe over the lake. As many of
+us as have life and strength to do it, will follow you, under cover of
+the coming night. Your old subjects will flock around you there, and we
+may yet, when we shall have tasted food, and become men again, make a
+stand somewhere against the foe, and drive him out."
+
+"It is well! it is well!" was the feeble response on every side.
+
+"I cannot leave you," replied the monarch. "What! shall your king fly,
+like a coward, while his people rush upon the enemy only to cover his
+retreat? No, that were worse than death--worse than captivity!"
+
+"It is not flight, my beloved sovereign," responded the Cacique, "it is
+an honorable stratagem of war, for the good of the nation, not less than
+your own. When _you_ are gone, we have no head, and we fall at once into
+the captivity we so much dread. Leave us but the name and person of
+Guatimozin to rally around, and it will be a tower of strength, which
+can never fail us."
+
+"Yes, yes, it is right," was whispered on every side--"Go, noble
+monarch, go at once. It is a voice from heaven to save us."
+
+To this counsel the priests added their earnest advice, and even
+Tecuichpo ventured to say, "it whispered of hope to her heart."
+Guatimozin suffered himself to be overruled. The canoes were made ready
+in the grand canal, which yet remained open on the eastern side. All
+that could be safely taken of treasure, and of convenient apparel, was
+carefully stowed. The Queen and other ladies of the court, with her
+faithful Karee, all wasted to skeletons, and moving painfully, like
+phantoms of beauty in a sickly dream, were conveyed to the barges. The
+Emperor and his attendants followed, and all was in readiness for the
+departure. At that moment the martial horn was sounded from the great
+Teocalli, and the shadowy host of the Aztec army staggered forth to
+offer battle to the enemy. It was a fearful sight. It seemed as if the
+armies of the dead, the mighty warriors of the past, had risen from
+their graves, to fight for their desecrated altars, and to defend those
+very graves from profanation. Feebly, but fearfully, with glaring eyes
+and hideous grin, they rushed upon the serried ranks of the besiegers. A
+kind of superstitious terror seized them, as if these shapes were
+something more than mortal. For a moment they gave way to panic, and
+fell back without striking a blow. Roused by the stentorian voice of
+Cortez, they rallied instantly, and discharging their heavy fire arms,
+swept away whole ranks of their frenzied assailants. It was a brief
+conflict. Many of the Aztecs fell by the swords of the Spaniards, and
+the spears of their merciless allies. Some fell, faint with their own
+exertions, and died without a wound. Some grappled desperately with the
+foe, content to die by his hand, if they could first quench their
+burning thirst with one drop of his blood.
+
+At length, a long blast from the horn sounded a retreat. The poor
+remnant turned towards the city, and were suffered to escape unmolested
+to their desolate homes.
+
+Meanwhile, the little fleet of Guatimozin had put forth upon the lake.
+The canoes separated, as they left the basin of the canal, taking
+different directions, the better to escape the observation of the
+brigantines. The precaution was a wise one, but unavailing. The watchful
+eye of the besieging general was there. The brigantines gave chase to
+the fugitives. Bending to their paddles with the utmost strength of
+their feeble emaciated arms, they found their pursuers gaining upon
+them. Casting their gold into the lake, Guatimozin directed them to
+cease their exertions, and wait the approach of the enemy.
+
+"Not without one little effort more, I beseech you," exclaimed Karee.
+"See, my chinampa is close at hand. Let us try to gain that. It has food
+on its trees for many days, and I have there a place of concealment,
+curiously contrived beneath the water, where you and the queen may
+remain without fear of detection, till we can effect your escape to the
+shore."
+
+In an instant the paddles were in the water, and the canoe shot ahead
+with unusual speed. The combined energy of hope and despair nerved every
+arm, and fired every heart. They neared the beautiful chinampa. Their
+eyes feasted on its fresh and cooling verdure, and its ripe fruits
+hanging luxuriantly on every bough. Their ears were ravished with the
+music of the birds, who had long since deserted their wonted haunts in
+the capital.
+
+While the chase was gaining rapidly upon them, another of those fearful
+brigantines, which had hitherto been concealed by the thick foliage of
+the chinampa, rounded its little promontory, and appeared suddenly
+before them. Instantly, every paddle dropped, every arm was paralyzed.
+Not a word was spoken. In passive silence each one waited for his doom,
+which was now inevitable. When the Spaniard had approached within
+hailing distance, the Emperor rose in his little shallop, and, waving
+his hand proudly, said, "I am Guatimozin."
+
+The royal prisoners were treated with the utmost deference and respect.
+Being brought into the presence of Cortez, the monarch, pale, emaciated,
+the shadow of what he had been, approached with an air of imperial
+dignity, and said--
+
+"Malinché, I have done what I could to defend myself and protect my
+people. Now I am your prisoner. Do what you will with me, but spare my
+poor people, who have shown a fidelity and an endurance worthy of a
+better fate."
+
+Cortez, filled with admiration at the proud bearing of the young
+monarch, assured him that not only his family and his people, but
+himself should be treated with all respect and tenderness. "Better,"
+said Guatimozin, laying his hand on the hilt of the general's poignard,
+"better rid me of life at once, and put an end to my cares and
+sufferings together."
+
+"No," replied Cortez, "you have defended your capital like a brave
+warrior. I respect your patriotism, I honor you valor, and your firm
+endurance of suffering. You shall be my friend and the friend of my
+sovereign, and live in honor among your own people."
+
+The keen eye of the monarch flashed with something like indignation,
+when allusion was made to the king of Castile, and to himself as his
+vassal.
+
+"In honor I _cannot_ live," he said proudly, "for I am defeated. A king
+I _cannot_ be, for he is no king who is subject to another. I am your
+prisoner. The gods have willed it, and I submit."
+
+Renewing his politic assurances of friendship and favor, the conqueror
+sent for the wife and family of his captive, first ordering a royal
+banquet to be prepared for them. Supported by Karee, leaning on the arm
+of the devoted Nahuitla, the lord of Tlacopan, the queen was ushered
+into the presence of the conqueror. Her appearance struck the general
+and his officers with admiration. Timid as she was by nature, she had
+the air and port of inborn royalty; and, in deference to her husband,
+she would not have allowed herself to quail before the assembled host of
+Castile, dreaded as they were, and had long been. With a becoming
+courtesy, she returned the respectful salutations of Malinché and his
+cavaliers, and asked no other favor than to share the fate of her lord.
+
+What that fate was, and how the Castilian knight redeemed his pledges to
+his unfortunate and noble captives, is matter of historical record. It
+is the darkest page in the memoir of that wonderful chief--a foul blot
+upon the name even of _that_ man, who was capable of requiting the
+superstitious reverence and confidence of a Montezuma, with a
+treacherous and inglorious captivity in his own palace, and a yet more
+inglorious death at the hands of his own subjects. History must needs
+record it, dark and painful as it is. Romance would throw a veil over
+it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Years of intense suffering, of harrowing bereavement, of insult,
+humiliation, and every species of mental and social distress, were yet
+appointed to the daughter of Montezuma, the bride of Guatimozin. Her
+predicted destiny was fulfilled to the letter. She bowed meekly to her
+fate, sustaining every reverse with a fortitude and composure of soul,
+that indicated a mind of uncommon resources. It was a long, dark, stormy
+day, "but in the evening time there was light." It was the light of
+faith. She abandoned the false gods of her fathers, and found true and
+lasting peace in the cross of Jesus Christ.
+
+
+
+
+THE FLIGHT
+
+OF
+
+THE KATAHBA CHIEF.
+
+
+                Go now to Greece,
+    Or Rome--to Albion's sea-girt isle--to Gaul,
+    Ancient or modern--to the fiery realm
+    Of Turk or Arab--to the ice-bound holds
+    Of Alaric and Attila--and find,
+    If find thou canst, a nobler race of men--
+    More firm, more brave, more true--swifter of foot,
+    Or readier in action.
+
+
+
+
+THE FLIGHT OF THE KATAHBA CHIEF.
+
+
+      Go not to the chase, my brave hunter, to-day,
+    There's a mist o'er the sun--there's a snare in the way;
+    Manitto revealed last night in my dream
+    A deep dark shadow o'erhanging the stream;
+    The deer, from his thicket, sprung out in thy path--
+    Then he changed to a tiger, and roared in his wrath--
+    Then the warrior hunter, so fearless and brave,
+    Was driven away, like a captive slave;
+    Then the smoke rolled up, and the flames curled high,
+    And the forest rung with the foeman's cry;
+    Then the wind swept by with a desolate wail--
+    The avenger of blood was on thy trail;--
+    Minaree looked out at the cabin door,
+    But her bold brave hunter returned no more.
+      Go not to the chase, my brave hunter, to-day,
+    There's a mist o'er the sun--there's a snare in the way.
+
+So, in sweetly plaintive strains, chanted the beautiful young bride of a
+Katahba chief, as she prepared his frugal morning meal, while he was
+busying himself in examining the string of his bow, replenishing his
+quiver with straight polished shafts, and renewing the edge of his
+trusty hatchet.
+
+In all the forest homes of the native tribes, there was not a fairer
+flower than Minaree, the loved and devoted wife of the brave
+Ash-te-o-láh. The only daughter of a chief of the Wateree tribe, which
+was one branch of the great family of the Katahbas, she inherited the
+spirit and pride of her father, with all the simple beauty, and
+unsophisticated womanly tenderness of her mother. She was the idol of
+Ash-te-o-láh's heart; for, savage as the world would call him, and
+ignorant of the codes of chivalry and of the courtly phrase of love, he
+was as true to all the warmer and purer affections, which constitute the
+bliss of domestic life, as to the lofty sentiments of heroic virtue,
+which made him early conspicuous in the councils of his people. Though
+fearless as the lion, fleet as the roe, and adventurous, sagacious and
+powerful as any that ever sounded the war-whoop, or startled the deer,
+in those interminable wilds--he was noble, generous, warm-hearted, and
+devotedly tender to the objects of his love.
+
+The winning tones, and the affectionate glances of Minaree, as she
+chanted her simple prophetic lay, had almost won Ash-te-o-láh from his
+purpose. But, half doubting whether her oracular dream was any thing
+more than a little artifice of affection, and always superior to that
+prevailing superstition of his people, which gave to dreams all the
+sanctity and force of divine revelation, and excited by the preparations
+he had been making, he flung his rattling quiver to his back, whispered
+a gentle intimation that Ash-te-o-láh feared neither tiger nor foeman,
+and returning the affectionate glance of his bride, left the wigwam.
+
+It was a clear bright summer morning. There was a balmy sweetness in the
+air, and melody in all the groves; but they won not the ear, they
+regaled not the sense of Minaree, whose heart sunk within her, as she
+saw her beloved Ash-te-o-láh launch his canoe into the stream, and dash
+away over its glassy surface, like a swallow on the wing. Ere he dipped
+his paddle in the water, he turned and gracefully waved her a parting
+salute, the affectionate desire to stay and soothe the troubled spirit
+of her dream, still struggling with that lofty pride which told him that
+he had never yet shrunk from any form of danger, or known the name of
+fear.
+
+The lands bordering on the Katahba, were covered, for many a league,
+with a dense and thriving population. More than twenty tribes were
+clustered there into one powerful fraternity, capable of bringing two
+thousand warriors into the field. Their grounds were extensively
+cultivated, their forests abounded with the choicest game, and their
+rivers with fish, and they regarded themselves as the most prosperous of
+the nations.
+
+Nothing could exceed the romantic beauty and loveliness of some of their
+villages. Stretching along the banks of the rivers, and embowered deeply
+in the luxurious forests of that favored clime, the numerous wigwams,
+simple enough in their construction, but adorned here and there with the
+trophies of war or the chase, and often alive with the athletic sports
+of the young Indians, formed a scene as animated and picturesque as ever
+glowed on the bosom of the earth--a scene of patriarchal life, such as
+cannot now be found among all the families of men.
+
+Conspicuous among them all was the wigwam of Ash-te-o-láh. The hand of
+Minaree was visible in the tasteful arrangement of a few simple
+ornaments about the door, and the trailing of a white flowering vine
+over its walls, which fell in luxuriant festoons, or floated in feathery
+pensiles on every side.
+
+Minaree stood in the door of the wigwam, watching the retreating form of
+her lord, as his light canoe swept down with the current of the river,
+till it was lost in the distance, and then pensively, and as if
+unconsciously to herself, resumed her solemn chant, weaving the while a
+wreath of her wild flowering vine.
+
+    He has gone to the chase, my brave hunter has gone--
+    He will not return in the moonlight, or morn;
+    Minaree shall look out at the cabin door,
+    But her bold brave hunter shall come no more;
+    There's a cloud in her wigwam--a fire in her brain,
+    For her warrior hunter shall ne'er come again.
+
+Gently and placidly flowed the Katahba--every tree and shrub mirrored in
+its beautiful waters. Not a sound disturbed the perfect stillness; not
+even the hum of the cricket, or the song of the bird. It seemed an utter
+solitude. Then a light canoe was seen slowly gliding down the stream. A
+noble looking Indian was standing in it, erect and tall, with his paddle
+poised, as if wrapped in meditation, or unwilling to disturb the quiet
+and charm of the silence. It was a scene to awaken a sense of poetic
+beauty, even in the mind of an untutored savage. It thrilled the soul of
+Ash-te-o-láh, and held him some moments in admiring contemplation.
+Suddenly starting from his unwonted reverie, he rounded a jutting
+promontory, and moored his skiff, carefully concealing it amid the
+overhanging shrubs.
+
+There was something surpassingly graceful and majestic in the figure of
+this noble son of the forest. Formed by nature in her most perfect
+mould, tall, sinewy, athletic, yet with every feature and every limb
+rounded to absolute grace, he was a fine subject for a painter or
+sculptor. His dress consisted of a beautiful robe, gracefully flung over
+one shoulder, and confined at the waist by a richly ornamented belt. His
+hair was wrought into a kind of crown, and ornamented with a tuft of
+feathers. Equipped with bow and quiver, he seemed intent on game; and
+yet one might have imagined, from his keen glance and cautious manner,
+that he expected a foe in ambush.
+
+Ash-te-o-láh was soon on the track of the deer, which, starting from the
+thicket, bounded away with the speed of the wind. Pursuing with equal
+pace, the bold hunter dashed into the depths of the forest, watching for
+a favorable moment to take the deadly aim. The arrow was on the string,
+and about to be raised to fly at his panting victim, when the shrill
+war-whoop burst suddenly on his ear. It arrested his step, for a moment,
+but not his arm; for the arrow sped as if nothing had occurred to divert
+its course, and buried itself in the heart of the flying deer.
+
+Perceiving, at a glance, that a party of the Senecas, the old and deadly
+enemies of the Katahbas, were down upon him, and had cut off his retreat
+to the river, he held on his course, as before, but with redoubled
+speed, intending, if possible, to secure a refuge from his pursuers, in
+a cavern about five miles distant. Fleet as the wind, he would have
+gained his purpose, if the course had been direct, for there was not a
+red man in the wide forests of America, who could outrun Ash-te-o-láh.
+Dividing themselves into several parties, and taking different courses
+to intercept his flight, his enemies gave instant chase to the fugitive.
+One party followed close on his trail, but he was soon lost to their
+view. Another struck off northwardly, towards a bend in the West Branch,
+where the rapids afforded an opportunity for crossing the stream without
+impeding his flight. A third made for a deep cut, or ravine, about a
+mile further down, where a fallen tree, extending from bank to bank,
+served the purpose of a bridge.
+
+Ash-te-o-láh soon perceived that his enemies were divided, and resolved
+that, if they _did_ intercept or overtake him, it should cost them dear.
+Halting a little in his flight, and taking to the covert of a tree, he
+drew upon the foremost of his pursuers, and laid him dead in the path.
+The next in the pursuit, pausing a moment over his fallen brother,
+shared the same fate. Knowing, as by instinct, that the other parties
+would endeavor to cut him off at the rapids and the bridge, he dashed
+forward, in a straight line for the stream, plunged into the water, and
+holding his bow aloft, struggled with a powerful arm to reach the other
+side. He gained the bank, just as his pursuers made their appearance on
+the opposite shore. Turning suddenly upon them, he levelled another
+shaft with such unerring aim, that one of their number fell bleeding
+into the stream. Another and another, in the act of leaping over the
+bank, received the fatal shaft into his heart. Hearing the distant
+whoop, which indicated that the other party had reached the bridge,
+Ash-te-o-láh waited not for another victim, but bounded away for his
+mountain fastness. The little delay which had been necessary to cut off
+five of his pursuers, had given an advantage to the other parties, who
+were now on the same side of the stream with himself, and gaining upon
+his steps. No sooner was this perceived, than the heroic fugitive turned
+upon the nearest of them, and, with the same infallible aim, laid him
+dead in the path. Still another had fallen before his sure aim, and his
+bow was strained for another shot, when one of the other party, who had
+made a circuit, and come up behind him unperceived, leaped upon, and
+held him pinioned in his powerful grasp. His struggles were terrible;
+but he was immediately surrounded, overpowered and disarmed.
+
+Though seven of their number had fallen in this brief chase, the brave
+Senecas were so struck with admiration at the wonderful skill and noble
+bearing of their captive, that they did not, as usual, instantly avenge
+the slain, by taking the life of the slayer; but resolved to take him
+along with them, and to lead him in triumph into the midst of the
+council of their nation, there to be disposed of by the united voices of
+their chiefs.
+
+It was a sad triumph, for they were filled with grief and mortification
+for the loss of so many of their brave kindred, all fallen by the hand
+of one of the hated Katahbas, and he now completely in their power.
+Though stung with shame, and thirsting for a worthy revenge, yet such
+was their love of martial virtue, that, during all their long journey
+homeward, they treated their haughty captive with far greater respect
+and kindness than if he had acted the part of a coward, and suffered
+himself to fall into their hands without any attempt at resistance. As
+for him, with an unsubdued spirit, and an air of proud superiority, he
+marched in the midst of his enemies, as if defying their power, and
+scorning the vengeance from which it was impossible to escape. To one
+unaccustomed to the modes of Indian warfare, and the code of Indian
+etiquette, who might have witnessed that triumphant procession,
+Ash-te-o-láh would have appeared the proud and absolute prince,
+surrounded by his admiring and subservient life-guard, rather than the
+subdued and helpless captive, escorted by his enemies to an ignominious
+execution.
+
+Arrived within the territories of their own tribe, the triumph of the
+captors began. The whole nation was roused to revenge the death of their
+lost heroes. In every village, as they passed along, the women and
+children were permitted to beat and insult the unresisting captive, who
+bore every indignity with stoical indifference, and proud disdain, never
+indicating by word or look, the slightest sense of mortification or
+pain, nor bating one jot of his lofty and scornful bearing.
+
+Before the great council of assembled chiefs, he maintained the same
+tone of fearless dignity and self-respect. His very look was defiance,
+that quailed not before the proudest glance of his enemy, nor showed the
+slightest symptom of disquietude, when the decision of the council was
+announced, condemning him to die by the fiery torture. It might
+reasonably be imagined that his past sufferings, his tedious marches,
+his scanty fare, lying at night on the bare ground, exposed to the
+changes of the weather, with his arms and legs extended and cramped in a
+pair of rough stocks, the insulting treatment, and cruel scourgings of
+the exasperated women and children, who were taught to consider it a
+virtue to torment an enemy, along with the anticipation of those more
+bitter sufferings which he was yet to endure, would have impaired his
+health, and subdued his hitherto proud and unyielding spirit. Such would
+have been the effect of similar circumstances upon the physical frame,
+and stout-hearted fortitude of the great majority of the heroes of that
+pale-faced race, who boast of a proud superiority over the unlettered
+children of the forest. There are few so hardy, that they could endure,
+not only without a murmur, but without shrinking, what Ash-te-o-láh had
+already suffered--few so courageous, that they could hear, with an
+unmoved countenance, the terrible doom which his enemies had prepared
+for him, or witness undisturbed the fearful arrangements, and horrid
+ceremonies, that were designed to give intensity and effect to its
+infliction.
+
+Ash-te-o-láh was insensible to fear, and would sooner have undergone a
+thousand torturing deaths, than permit his enemies to see that he was
+conscious even of suffering. So nobly did he sustain his courage amid
+the trial, so well did he act his heroic part, that his enemies, who
+admired and inculcated the same unflinching fortitude, were surprised
+and vexed at his lofty superiority, and resolved, by every possible
+aggravation of his sufferings, to break down and subdue his proud
+indomitable spirit.
+
+The hour of execution had arrived. The pile was ready for its victim.
+Every engine of torture, which savage ingenuity could invent, was
+exhibited in dreadful array, within the area selected for the trying
+scene. The whole nation was assembled to witness, and take part in the
+ceremony, which had, in their view, all the solemnity and sacredness of
+a religious rite. Ash-te-o-láh was led forth, unpinioned, into the
+midst--for the red man would scorn the weakness of leading a victim in
+chains to the altar.
+
+The place of sacrifice was an open space near the bank of the river, the
+dark forest frowning over it on every side, the entire foreground being
+filled and crowded with an eager, angry multitude, to whom a sacrifice
+was a feast, and revenge the sweetest luxury that could be offered to
+their taste. Their wild parade, their savage dances, their hideous yells
+and demoniacal looks and gestures, designed to terrify, only fired the
+soul of Ash-te-o-láh to a yet prouder and more majestic bearing. His
+firm step, his unblenching eye, his fearless and lofty port, touched
+even his executioners with admiration, and struck his guards with a
+momentary awe.
+
+Suddenly, as with a bolt from the cloud, he dashed down those who stood
+in his way, sprung out, and plunged into the water, swimming underneath,
+like an otter, only rising occasionally to take breath, till he reached
+the opposite shore. He ascended the steep bank at a bound; and then,
+though the arrows had been flying thick as hail about him from the time
+that he took to the water, and though many of the fleetest of his
+enemies were, like very blood-hounds, close in pursuit of him, he turned
+deliberately around, and with a graceful and becoming dignity, took a
+formal leave of them, as if he would acknowledge the extraordinary
+favors they had shown him. Then, raising the shrill war-whoop of
+defiance, as his last salute, till some more convenient opportunity
+should be afforded him to do them a warrior's homage, he darted off,
+like a beast broke loose from its torturing enemies. Inspired with new
+strength by his sudden release, and the returning hope of life, he flew
+with a winged speed, so as entirely to distance the fleetest of his
+eager pursuers. Confident in his speed, and assured that his enemies
+could neither overtake nor surprise him, he rested nearly a whole day,
+to recruit his wasted strength, and watch an opportunity to gain, if
+possible, some further advantage over those who were scenting his track,
+and thirsting for his blood.
+
+Passing a considerable distance beyond a spot, which his well-trained
+sagacity told him would be the natural resting place of his pursuers, he
+retraced his steps, walking carefully backwards, and planting each step
+with great precision, in the very tracks he had just made, so as
+effectually to conceal the artifice of his return. In this way, he came
+to a high rock, in which there was a considerable fissure, very narrow
+at the top, but widening toward the ground, and so concealed by the
+dense shrubbery that grew around, that it could only be discovered by
+the most careful scrutiny. Into this fissure he thrust himself,
+scrupulously replacing every leaf that had been disturbed by his
+entrance, and adjusting the whole so as not to excite the slightest
+suspicion in his keen-sighted enemies. Here he awaited their approach.
+
+It was near night of the second day, when the Senecas reached the spring
+where Ash-te-o-láh lay concealed, and where he had already rested nearly
+a whole day. Following his track some distance beyond, and not doubting
+he was yet in advance, they returned without suspicion to the spring,
+lighted their fires, partook hastily of their simple meal, and laid
+themselves down to sleep, in perfect security. They were five in number,
+powerful men, and thoroughly armed, after their own peculiar fashion.
+Ash-te-o-láh, from his narrow cavern, had watched all their movements.
+He well knew that they slept soundly, for they had satisfied themselves
+that no danger was near. But he also knew equally well how wakeful is
+the sleep of an Indian, and how almost impossible it is to surprise him,
+even in his soundest sleep. Every circumstance of his situation occurred
+to him, to inspire him with heroism, and urge him to attempt an
+impossibility, though his life was the certain forfeit of a failure. He
+was naked, torn, and hungry. His enraged enemies, who had so recently
+held him in their toils, and made him ready for a sacrifice, were now
+come up with him. In their little camp was every thing to relieve his
+wants. He would not only save his own life, but get great honor and
+sweet revenge, if he should succeed in cutting them off.
+
+Resolution, a convenient spot, and a sudden surprise, might effect this
+main object of all his wishes and hopes. Creeping cautiously out from
+his covert, and approaching the sleepers with the noiseless and stealthy
+cunning of a fox, he seized one of their tomahawks, and wielding it with
+inconceivable power and rapidity, left four of them in an eternal sleep,
+before the fifth had time to awake and spring to his feet. The struggle
+that ensued was terrible; but Ash-te-o-láh had the advantage in every
+respect, and the conflict ended in a very few minutes, by leaving him
+alone in the camp of his enemies.
+
+Selecting from the spoils of the fallen a suitable dress for himself,
+with the choicest of their bows, a well-stored quiver, a tomahawk, and
+an ample pouch of provisions, and securing to his belt the scalps of his
+yet breathing victims, Ash-te-o-láh set off afresh, with a light heart,
+and a bounding step, for the sunny vales of the Katahba. Resolved not to
+hazard any of the advantage he had gained, he did not allow himself any
+sleep, for several successive nights, only as he reclined, for a few
+moments, a little before day, with his back to a tree, and a clear space
+about him, where he could not be taken by surprise. Growing more secure,
+as he approached his home, and discovered no sign of his pursuing enemy,
+he sought out the spot where he had killed seven of the chase, in the
+first day of his flight, opened their yet fresh graves, added their
+scalps to the five then hanging to his belt, burnt their bodies to
+ashes, and returned in safety, laden with his hard earned trophies, to
+gladden his humble wigwam, and thrill the council of his people with the
+story of his singular adventures.
+
+Her prophetic dream had made so deep an impression upon the mind of
+Minaree, that, from the first, she did not expect "the bold hunter's
+return." His lengthened absence troubled, but did not surprise her. She
+yielded him to a stern fate, from which there was no escape; and with a
+calmness which we, of another race, too often regard as coldness and
+insensibility, prepared to follow him to the spirit land. His return was
+to her soul like a visit from that land--a gift from the Great
+Spirit--and ever after, to the deep devotion of her early love, was
+added that peculiar reverence, that tender, holy affection, which the
+Indians every where cherish for the departed.
+
+When the second party of the Senecas, in the course of the third day of
+the pursuit, arrived at the camp of their slaughtered people, the sight
+gave them a greater shock than they had ever known before. In their
+chilled war council they concluded, that he who had performed such
+surprising feats in his defence, before he was captured, and since that
+in his naked and unarmed condition, would, now that he was well armed
+and free, be a match for them all, if they should continue the pursuit.
+They regarded him as a wizard enemy, whose charmed life it was vain and
+wicked to attempt. They, accordingly, buried their comrades, and
+returned, with heavy hearts, to their homes.
+
+
+
+
+MONICA,
+
+OR
+
+THE ITEAN CAPTIVE.
+
+
+    What glorious hopes, what gloomy fears
+      Have sunk beneath time's noiseless tide!--
+    The red man at his horrid rite,
+      Seen by the stars at night's cold noon,--
+    His bark canoe, its track of light
+      Left on the wave beneath the moon;--
+    His dance, his yell, his council fire,
+      The altar where his victim lay,
+    His death song, and his funeral pyre,
+      That still, strong tide hath borne away.
+
+
+
+
+MONICA.
+
+                   ~"Speak not, but fly--
+    There are a thousand winged deaths behind,
+    Thirsting for blood. Hope, life, and liberty
+    Are all before; and this good arm is pledged
+    To guide thee."~
+
+
+The grave of the Indian is a temple, a sort of gateway to heaven. Around
+it linger the tenderest affection, the purest devotion of the surviving
+friend. The grass and flowers that grow over it are never suffered to
+wither. The snow and the rain are not permitted to remain upon it. The
+least profanation of that sacred place would be visited with a more
+terrible vengeance than an affront to the living. Nothing illustrates
+more clearly the cruel injustice we have done to our red brethren of the
+forest, by regarding and treating them only as savages, and delineating
+them always and every where, as destitute of all the refined sympathies
+of humanity--than this prevailing national characteristic, an
+affectionate reverence for the dead, and a religious regard for the
+sepulchres and bones of their ancestors. It touches one of the deepest
+cords in the human heart. It springs from the very fountain head of
+social and moral refinement. It links the visible and material, with the
+unseen and spiritual world; blending all that is tender, and pure, and
+subduing, in the one, with all that is bright, hopeful, and inviting, in
+the other. Its existence in any heart, or its prevalence among any
+people, is proof sufficient that that heart is not wholly hardened in
+selfishness, and that people not wholly given over to barbarism.
+
+The infant child of an Itean mother lay dead in her tent. He was a
+beautiful boy, and already the fond mother had read in his brilliant
+eye, and the vigorous movements of his tiny limbs, the heroic deeds of
+the future chieftain. But her darling hope was nipped in the very germ.
+Her only son was shrouded for the grave, and the hour of burial had
+come. His shroud was a blanket, in which the head, as well as the body,
+was completely enveloped. His bier was a train, or Indian sled, in the
+form of a common snow-shoe, on which the body was laid, without a
+coffin, and secured by bandages from side to side. Into this train was
+harnessed a favorite dog of the family, when it was drawn with slow and
+solemn step, to the grave, preceded by the priest or medicine man of the
+village, in his gorgeous robes of office, and followed by the parents
+and sister of the child, with all the inmates of the neighboring
+wigwams.
+
+Arriving at the grave, the procession stopped, and gathered round the
+bier, the women and children seating or prostrating themselves on the
+ground, the men standing in a grave and solemn circle around them. The
+dog, still remaining in his harness, was then shot, and the medicine
+man, standing over it, addressed it in the following strain, "Go on your
+journey to the Spirit land. Long and weary is the way you have to go.
+Linger not on the journey, for precious is the burden you carry. Swim
+swiftly over the river, lest the little one be lost in the stream, and
+never visit the camp of its fathers. When you come to the camp of the
+White-headed Eagle, bark, that they may know who it is you bring, and
+come out and welcome the little one among its kindred band."
+
+The body was then laid in the grave, on its little train. The dog was
+placed by its side, with a kettle of food at its head, to supply it on
+the journey. A cup, containing a portion of the mother's milk, freshly
+drawn, was also put into the grave for the use of the child. The earth
+was laid gently over it, and covered with the fresh sod, the mother, and
+her female friends, chanting, the while, a plaintive dirge, designed to
+encourage the spirit of the departed on its dark and perilous journey.
+The mother held in her hand a roll of bark, elaborately decorated with
+feathers and bead-work, encompassed with a scarf of broadcloth, highly
+embroidered. This was intended as a memento of the deceased, to be
+sacredly preserved in the family lodge. Such mementoes are always seen
+there, after the death of a friend, and one may always know, by their
+number, how many of that household have gone to the spirit-land. It is
+usually placed upright in the spot where the departed was accustomed to
+sit, dressed in the same ornaments and bands that he wore while living.
+At every family meal, a portion of food is set before it. If it be a
+child who has died, the mother offers it a cup of milk, wraps it in the
+cradle bands of her lost infant, and bears it about with her wherever
+she goes.
+
+An Indian grave is a protected spot. That which is described above, was
+surrounded by a small enclosure of logs, and covered with a roof of
+bark, to shield it from the rain. At its head, a small round post was
+set, painted with vermilion. Other decorations were displayed upon the
+wall of the enclosure, which were carefully guarded, and frequently
+replaced, as they were soiled by the rains, or torn and defaced by the
+violence of the winds. Day after day, the bereaved mother and sister
+visited that grave, taking their work with them, and sitting down by its
+side, chanted their plaintive lullaby to that sleeping infant, and
+cheered on that faithful dog in his wearisome journey, charging him not
+to lag or go astray in traversing the plain, nor suffer his precious
+burden to fall into the water, in crossing the deep dark rapid river to
+the spirit land.
+
+Weeks and months had passed since that humble grave was made, and that
+precious treasure confided to its bosom. It was a calm glorious evening
+in mid-summer. The moon shone brightly on the Itean encampment. There
+was not, in the whole valley of the west, a more beautiful spot for a
+settlement. The smooth open green-sward was closely surrounded with
+trees on three sides. On the other, the land gradually sloped towards
+the river, which flowed quietly by, ever and anon sparkling in the
+moonbeams, or reflecting the dark forest and flowery banks in its azure
+depths.
+
+The wigwams in the opening were all closed. Their inmates were at rest.
+Presently, the buffalo-skin, that served as a door to the principal
+cabin, was drawn aside, and the beautiful daughter of the chief emerged
+into the light, and passed swiftly on to the river. Following its
+course a short distance, by the narrow path that threaded the woods on
+its bank, she came to the little grave, threw herself on the earth by
+its side, and wept. It was Monica, the sister of that buried infant, the
+same whom we saw at his grave when it was first opened, and who had
+daily, since that time, sung over it her simple song.
+
+The grief and disappointment of the mother, in the loss of her only son,
+was not more deep or sincere, or enduring, than that of this
+affectionate and devoted sister. From the moment of his birth, he was
+the idol of her soul. She looked forward to the time, in her ardent
+imagination very near at hand, when, emulating the virtues and deeds of
+his father, he should become the noblest chief of his tribe. She had
+pictured to herself the many wonderful exploits he should achieve, and
+the love and veneration with which he would be regarded throughout the
+nation. But now, those hopes were blasted, those visions had all faded
+into darkness. Time had not soothed her disappointment, or softened the
+poignancy of her grief. Waking or sleeping, the image of her lost
+brother was before her. She longed to follow him, that she might
+overtake him on the way, and help him in his passage over that fearful
+stream.
+
+She had laid down that night, as usual, and slept by the side of her
+mother. Her dreams were troubled. She thought that arid plain and dark
+river were before her. The faithful dog was struggling with the waves.
+The little ark which held that precious treasure, was buffeted about by
+the winds. Chilled with the cold, and terrified by the dark howling
+storm, the lone child sobbed bitterly, and looked imploringly round for
+his mother. In her distress and agitation, she awoke. Unable to sleep,
+or even to rest, she rose, and ran to the grave.
+
+    "I come, I come, my precious one,
+      I am ever by your side--
+    Fear not, your voyage is almost done
+      Over that dismal tide;
+    The winds shall hush, the storm pass o'er,
+      And a friendly band shall come
+    To meet you on the spirit shore,
+      And bid you welcome home.
+    Fear not, for love that never sleeps
+      Shall guard you o'er that wave;
+    And mother her constant vigil keep
+      Beside your quiet grave."
+
+Having chanted her simple lay of love, Monica turned from the grave,
+stepped into a canoe, and paddled down the stream. Overcome with grief,
+she dropped her paddle, sat pensively down in her shallop, and left it
+to follow its course down the current. For several hours it glided
+silently on. She gave no heed to the hours, till morning broke in the
+east. Suddenly starting up from her long dream, she looked for her
+paddle. It was gone. Seeing a bough floating on the water near her, she
+leaned out to catch it, as the canoe passed on. It was decayed, and
+broke in her hand. Throwing it from her, she looked eagerly about for
+some other means of reaching the shore. At length, passing under the
+shadow of an immense tree, that overhung the stream, she seized a branch
+that almost dipped into the water, and drawing herself in to the bank,
+sprang on shore.
+
+Slowly and doubtfully the timid girl threaded the thick forest,
+scarcely knowing which way to turn. Hoping to find some friendly wigwam
+near, she sounded the shrill call of her tribe. The call was instantly
+answered, but not by a friendly voice. Two stern and stalwart warriors
+of the Pawnee tribe, who were deadly enemies to the Iteans, chanced to
+be passing that way, and, recognizing the call as that of an enemy,
+sprang from the thicket, seized the trembling maiden, and bore her away
+in triumph. Many a weary league she travelled on by the side of her
+merciless captors, ere she reached their distant encampment. Worn,
+exhausted in strength and desponding in heart, she fell to the earth in
+the midst of the throng that gathered around her, and besought them to
+kill her at once, and let her go to her poor infant brother.
+
+The Pawnees were not only hostile to the Iteans, but were, in some
+respects, the most savage tribe in the great valley. They alone, of the
+North American Indians, continued, down the present century, and far
+within it, to practice the savage rite of sacrificing human victims on
+the altar of their gods. With them it was a propitiatory sacrifice,
+offered to the _Great Star_, or the planet Venus. This dreadful ceremony
+annually preceded the preparations for planting corn, and was supposed
+to be necessary to secure a fruitful season. The victim was always some
+prisoner, who had been captured in war, or otherwise; and there was
+never wanting an individual who coveted the honor of making a captive
+from some hostile tribe, and dedicating the spoils of his prowess to the
+national benefit.
+
+The captors of Monica were in quest of a victim for this sacrifice, when
+they wandered away alone, and prowled for several days, about the
+encampment of her tribe. With this view, they bore her away in triumph,
+deaf to all her entreaties and tears, and gave her in charge to the
+priests, to be made ready against the return of the season.
+
+The best wigwam in the village was assigned for her accommodation.
+Cheerful companions of her own age were given her. The most sedulous
+attention was paid to her wants. She was dressed in gay apparel,
+continually feasted on the choicest luxuries which their fields and
+hunting grounds afforded, and treated with the utmost tenderness by all
+about her. Every possible means was employed to allay her grief, and
+promote that cheerfulness of spirit, which is essential to health and
+comeliness, in order that she might thus be made a more suitable and
+acceptable offering.
+
+The personal charms of Monica required no such system of treatment, in
+order to their full development. She was a rare specimen of native grace
+and loveliness, and would have been a fitting model, in every feature
+and limb, for a Phidias or a Praxitiles. The exceeding beauty and
+gentleness of their captive, while it won the admiration and regard of
+all her young companions, only made her, in the view of the priests and
+chiefs of the tribe, a more desirable victim for the altar.
+
+For a long time, Monica was inconsolable. Deprived of that dearest
+privilege of visiting daily the grave of her brother, distracted in view
+of the anxiety which her mother would feel for her, she refused to be
+comforted, or to take any pleasure in the means employed to amuse her.
+Time and kindness, however, and the promise that she should, by and by,
+return to her father-land, restored, in a degree, her serenity of mind.
+She was too affectionate and confiding, to reject the sympathy and
+kindness even of an enemy. Grateful for the unwearied efforts which her
+companions made to amuse and comfort her, she came, at last, to regard
+them as friends. Gratitude begat affection. Affection created
+confidence. She unburdened her heart of the sorrows that oppressed it.
+By that effort, the burden was lightened. Something of the elasticity
+and vivacity of youth returned. She sang and played, if not to amuse
+herself, yet to gratify others, whose assiduous kindness, and seemingly
+generous sympathy, she had no other means of repaying. Thus, entirely
+ignorant of the terrible doom that awaited her, Monica passed the winter
+of her captivity, looking ever forward to the opening spring as the
+period of her promised release, and return to the wigwam of her mother.
+
+At length the fatal day arrived, and every thing was ready for the
+sacrifice. The whole Pawnee tribe was assembled to witness and take part
+in the solemnities. From every side, they were seen emerging from the
+thick forest, or gliding noiselessly over the bosom of the silver
+stream, leaping from cliff to cliff of the distant hills, or winding
+down their steep passes and narrow defiles, to meet in the great central
+village, around the grand council fire of the nation. The whole tribe
+was there--the chiefs in all their gaudy array of bead-work, feathers,
+and paint, their embroidered moccasins, their gaily wrought tunics and
+belts, their polished rifles, and glittering tomahawks--the women and
+children, and the rank and file of the people, in all the finery and
+gewgaws they could command. It was a brave sight to those accustomed to
+the barbaric finery and wild sports of the Indian, but fearful and
+hideous to one unused to the rude painted visages and half naked forms
+of the warriors.
+
+The awful hour of those dreadful orgies was announced by all those
+discordant shouts and hideous yells, which, with those primitive races,
+serve the purpose of trumpet, drum and bell. The stake was set, and the
+faggots made ready, in the centre of the great opening. The priests
+stood at their post, and the vast multitude of eager excited witnesses
+thronged around, waiting in terrible expectation for the consummation of
+that horrid rite, and kindling into phrenzy in view of the mad revelry
+that would follow. Presently, the outer ranks of that crowding circle
+made way, and opened a passage to the ring within. Through this living
+avenue, a company of chiefs marched in, singing, or rather shouting, a
+wild song, and dancing in fantastic measures. At their head was the
+captor of Monica, leading the timid girl by the hand. She was arrayed in
+the most showy and expensive style of Indian costume, the various
+decorations of her person comprising all that was beautiful and rare in
+ornament, according to the uncultivated taste of that people.
+Unconscious still of the doom that awaited her, and hoping, perhaps,
+that this was to be the festival of her freedom, when she would be sent
+away in peace to her home, she entered the circle with a cheerful face,
+and an elastic step, smiling on her young companions as she passed, and
+wondering at the cold look, or sometimes averted eye, with which her
+salutation was answered.
+
+It was not until she was led quite up to the stake, and saw the fearful
+faggots piled around it, that she comprehended the meaning of these
+mysterious preparations. Her awful doom flashed upon her, like a bolt
+from heaven. With one loud, piercing, heart-rending shriek, she fell to
+the earth, and called upon her mother. She was lifted up by the stern
+priest, placed upon the pile, and bound to the stake. With wild
+incantations, and horrid yells, the dread orgies were commenced. The
+torch was lighted, and ready to be applied. At that instant, a shrill
+whoop burst from the adjoining wood. A brave young warrior, leaping into
+the midst of the circle, rushed to the stake, cut the cords that bound
+the helpless victim, tore her away from the pile, and, dashing back
+through the panic-struck crowd, flung her upon a fleet horse which he
+had prepared for the occasion, sprung himself upon another, and was soon
+lost in the distant windings of the wood.
+
+It was the act of a moment. Even the Indian warriors, who are not easily
+surprised, or put off their guard, were confounded and paralysed. Before
+they could comprehend the object of this sudden phantom, this rash
+interruption of their festival, their victim was gone. The bare stake,
+and the useless heap of faggots were there. The proud chief, who
+furnished the victim, and the fierce-looking priests, who were to
+officiate in the dark rites of the sacrifice, stood in blank
+astonishment around, as if a bolt from the cloud had smitten them. A
+momentary silence prevailed among that mighty throng. A low murmur
+succeeded, like the distant moans of a coming storm: then, like the
+tempest, bursting in all its wrath, fierce cries of vengeance from a
+thousand flaming tongues, furious discordant yells and shouts,
+accompanied with frantic gestures, and looks of rage, such as would
+distort the visage of a fiend. Some of the fleetest started off in hot
+but vain pursuit. Those who remained, promised themselves a day of
+terrible retribution. The mothers secretly rejoiced in the escape; while
+those of the young girls who had been the chosen companions of the
+captive, gave vent to their joy and gratitude in wild songs and dances.
+
+In this manner, that turbulent assembly broke up. Without the usual
+feast and its accompanying games, they scattered to their several homes,
+coolly meditating revenge, and darkly foreboding the famine that should
+ensue from the absence of the accustomed sacrifice.
+
+Meanwhile, the fugitives held on their way, with the speed of the wind.
+Not a word was spoken. It was a race of life and death, and every
+faculty of the rescuer as well as of the rescued was absorbed in the one
+idea and effort to escape. Over hill and plain, and shallow stream,
+those foaming steeds flew on, pausing not even to snuff the breeze, till
+they had cleared the territory of the Pawnees, and reached a sheltered
+nook within the precincts of a neutral tribe. Here, as among all the
+Indian tribes the woman is considered competent to take care of herself
+in all ordinary emergencies, her deliverer left her, giving her ample
+directions for the way, and cautioning her to use the utmost diligence
+to avoid pursuit.
+
+"But, tell me first," she cried, tears of grateful joy standing in her
+eyes, "tell me to whom I am indebted for this miraculous escape--that,
+in all my prayers to the Great Spirit, I may call down his blessing upon
+your head."
+
+"I am Petalesharro," replied the youth, modestly. "My father is
+Latalashaw, the chief of my tribe. We do not believe, with our people,
+that the Great Spirit delights in the sacrifice. He loves all his red
+children, and they should all love one another."
+
+"But, will not your chiefs revenge upon your head this interference with
+their solemn rites? If any national calamities follow, will they not
+charge them all to your account? I could not bear that my generous
+deliverer should be struck down by those terrible hands, in the prime of
+his youth, as the reward of his heroic benevolence. Better that I should
+return and submit to the fate they had prepared for me."
+
+"Fear not for me, Monica. Petalesharro fears not to meet the assembled
+council of his nation. Not a brave among them all will raise a hand to
+hurt him. He will make them know that the Great Star needs not the blood
+of the captive. And never again shall the fires be kindled for that
+cruel sacrifice."
+
+Encouraged by the words of the young chief, Monica turned, with a strong
+heart, towards her home, still some four hundred miles distant. The same
+kind providence which had rescued her from the devouring flames, still
+guided and guarded her solitary way, and gave her strength and spirits
+for her toilsome journey.
+
+On the second day of her pilgrimage, as she climbed the summit of a
+range of hills that ran athwart her path, she was alarmed by the
+appearance of a considerable body of armed men, just emerging from a
+distant ravine of the same range, in a direction that would lead them
+immediately across her path. They were too far off to enable her to
+discern, by their dress and accoutrements, to what tribe they belonged.
+She supposed they must be Pawnees in pursuit of their lost captive. If
+she attempted to pass on before them, they would discover her track, and
+soon overtake her flight. She had nothing to do, therefore, but wait
+till they had passed, in the hope of eluding their eager scent.
+Concealing herself in the thicket, in a position that overlooked the
+valley, she awaited with composure the coming of that fearful band. They
+descended into the valley, and, to the utter consternation of Monica,
+began to pitch their tents under the shade of a spreading oak, on the
+bank of a little stream. She watched the movement with an anxious heart,
+not knowing how she should escape, with a pursuing enemy so near. Her
+consternation and anxiety were soon, however, changed to joy, when one
+of the company, approaching the vicinity of her hiding place, to cut a
+pole for his tent, was recognized as a chief of her own tribe. Springing
+from the thicket with a scream of delight, which startled the whole
+encampment, and brought every brave to his feet, with his hand on the
+trigger of his rifle, she rushed into the midst of her astonished
+people, and was received with silent joy, as one restored from the dead.
+Under their protection, the remainder of her journey was safely and
+easily performed. Before the moon, which was then crescent, had reached
+her full, Monica had embraced her mother, and added a fresh flower to
+the grave of her brother.
+
+The brave, the generous, the chivalrous Petalesharro returned to his
+father's tent with the fearless port and composed dignity of one whose
+consciousness of rectitude placed him above fear. He was a young man,
+just entered upon manhood, and a general favorite of his tribe.[E] His
+countenance, as represented in Col. McKenney's magnificent work upon the
+North American tribes, is one of uncommon beauty of feature. In its
+mildness of expression, it is almost effeminate. But in heart and soul
+he was a man and a hero. His courage, and the power of his arm, were
+acknowledged by friend and foe; and on the death of his father, he was
+raised to the chieftaincy of his tribe. The season which followed his
+noble act of humane, may we not say religious chivalry, was one of
+uncommon fertility, health and prosperity. "_The Great Star_" had not
+demanded the victim. And the Pawnees never again polluted their altars
+with the blood of a human sacrifice.
+
+   [E] Major Long, in his "Expeditions to the Rocky Mountains,"
+   thus describes Petalesharro, as he appeared in his native
+   wilds, and among his own people, in the full costume which he
+   wore on the occasion of some great festival of his tribe.
+
+   "Almost from the beginning of this interesting fete, our
+   attention had been attracted to a young man, who seemed to be
+   the leader or partisan of the warriors. He was about
+   twenty-three years of age, of the finest form, tall, muscular,
+   exceedingly graceful, and of a most prepossessing countenance.
+   His head-dress, of war-eagles' feathers, descended in a double
+   series upon his back, like wings, down to his saddle-croup; his
+   shield was highly decorated, and his long lance by a plaited
+   casing of red and blue cloth. On enquiring of the interpreter,
+   our admiration was augmented by learning that he was no other
+   than Petalesharro, with whose name and character we were
+   already familiar. He is the most intrepid warrior of the
+   nation, the eldest son of Letalashaw, and destined, as well by
+   mental and physical qualifications, as by his distinguished
+   birth, to be the future leader of his people."
+
+   Petalesharro visited Washington in 1821, where his fine figure
+   and countenance, and his splendid costume attracted every eye.
+   But there was that in his history and character, which had gone
+   before him, that secured for him a worthier homage than that of
+   the eye. His act of generous chivalry to the Itean captive was
+   the theme of every tongue. The ladies of the city caused an
+   appropriate medal to be prepared, commemorating the noble deed,
+   and presented it to him, in the presence of a large assemblage
+   of people, who took a lively interest in the ceremony. In reply
+   to their complimentary address, the brave young warrior
+   modestly said--"My heart is glad. The white woman has heard
+   what I did for the captive maid, and they love me, and speak
+   well of me, for doing it. I thought but little of it before. It
+   came from my heart, as the breath from my body. I did not know
+   that any one would think better of me for that. But now I am
+   glad. For it is a good thing to be praised by those, who only
+   praise that which is good."
+
+
+
+
+TULA,
+
+OR
+
+THE HERMITESS OF ATHABASCA.
+
+
+      I thought to be alone. It might not be!
+    There is no solitude in thy domains,
+      Save what man makes, when in his selfish breast,
+    He locks his joys, and bars out others' grief.
+
+
+
+
+TULA.
+
+             ~Death is not all--
+    Not half the agony we suffer here:
+    The cup of life has drugs, more bitter far,
+    That must be drained.~
+
+
+That solitary wigwam, in the outskirts of the village, was the home of
+Kaf-ne-wah-go, an aged Chippeway warrior, who had weathered the storms,
+and outlived the wars, of three score and ten seasons, and was yet as
+fiery in the chase, and as mighty and terrible in battle, as any of the
+young chiefs of his tribe. His voice in the council was, like the solemn
+tones of an oracle, listened to with a reverence approaching to awe, and
+never disregarded. His sons all inherited the spirit of their father,
+and distinguished themselves among the braves in fight, and the sages in
+council. Three of them fell in battle. One was principal chief of the
+western division of the Chippeway family. Another, the brave
+Ish-ta-le-ó-wah, occupied the first in that group of wigwams in yonder
+grove, about a hundred yards from his father's.
+
+The only daughter of the good old sachem, the child of his old age, and
+"the light of his eyes," was the fairest and loveliest wild-flower, that
+ever sprung up amid the interminable wildernesses of the Western World.
+Tula, the singing bird, was distinguished among the daughters of the
+forest, not only for those qualities of person and character which are
+recognized as graces among the Indians, but for some of those peculiar
+refinements of feeling and manner, which are supposed to be the
+exclusive product of a civilized state of society. She was remarkable
+for the depth and tenderness of her affection, and for her ingenuity,
+industry and taste. Her dress, and those of her father and brother,
+exhibited the traces of her delicate handiwork; while the neat and
+tasteful arrangement of the humble cabin, superior in all that makes
+home comfortable and pleasant to any in the village, bore testimony to
+her industry and skill.
+
+Tula had many suitors. There was scarce a young brave in the tribe who
+did not seek or desire her. But O-ken-áh-ga, the only son of their great
+chief, won her heart. She became his bride, but she remained, with him
+and their first-born child, in the tent of her aged parents, who could
+not live, as they said, "when the singing bird, the light of their eyes
+was gone."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was mid-summer. The night was still, clear, and lovely. All nature
+seemed to breathe nothing but calmness and peace. But the heart of
+man--how often and how sadly is it at variance with nature! The inmates
+of that humble wigwam were all wrapped in a profound sleep, not dreaming
+of danger near. The infant, nestling in his mother's bosom, by a sudden
+start roused her to partial consciousness. A deep groan, as of one in
+expiring agonies, awakened all her faculties. She sprung up and called
+upon her husband--
+
+"O-ken-áh-ga, what is the matter?"
+
+Another deep groan, and a stifled yell of triumph, was the only answer.
+
+Staring wildly round, what a scene of horror met her eyes! Her father,
+her mother, her husband, pierced with many wounds, and weltering in
+their yet warm blood, lay dead before her; while a band of fierce and
+terrible enemies, of the Athapuscow tribe, stood over them, with the
+reeking instruments of death in their hands, their eyes gleaming with
+savage delight, and their whole faces distorted with the most fiend-like
+expression of rage and triumph. With the true instinct of a mother, she
+clasped her infant to her breast, and bowed her head in silence, utterly
+unable to give any utterance to the bitterness of her wo. It was this
+silence that saved her and her child from an instant participation in
+the fate of the mangled ones around her. The first word spoken, would
+have brought down that reeking tomahawk upon their heads. The
+Athapuscows were few in number, and their only safety consisted in doing
+their work of revenge with secrecy and despatch, for the Chippeways were
+many and powerful, and to disturb the slumbers of one of them would be
+to rouse the whole tribe in a moment.
+
+The work of death was done. The scalps of their victims hung dripping at
+the belts of the murderers, and the spoils of the cabin were secured.
+The spoilers turned to depart, and Tula, in obedience to their word,
+without complaint or remonstrance, rose and followed them. Gathering up
+a few necessary articles, among which she contrived to conceal her babe,
+she took one farewell look upon the loved ones, whom death had so
+suddenly and fearfully claimed, and left them, and the home of her
+youth, for ever.
+
+With cautious stealthy steps, the murderous band plunged into the deep
+forest, threading their way through its intricate mazes, with
+inconceivable skill and sagacity, till they reached an opening, on the
+bank of the Wapatoony river, where a considerable detachment of their
+tribe was temporarily encamped. Delivering their prisoner into the hands
+of the women, the braves proceeded at once to the council of the chiefs,
+to show their trophies, and relate the incidents of their scout.
+
+When the Athapuscow women, in examining the contents of the poor
+captive's bundle, discovered the still sleeping infant, they seized him
+as they would have done a viper, and dashed him on the ground. In vain
+did the fond mother plead for her child. In vain did the voice of
+nature, and a mother's instinct in their own bosoms, plead for the
+innocent. It was an enemy's child, a hated Chippeway, and that was
+enough to stifle every other feeling in their hearts, and make even "an
+infant of days" an object of intense and implacable hatred. With the
+Indian, the son of an enemy is an enemy, doomed only to death or
+torture. The daughter may be spared for slavery or sacrifice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The morning dawned with uncommon brilliancy and beauty upon the
+Chippeway village, and warriors and children were astir with the
+earliest light, some to fish in the smooth stream, that, like a silver
+chain, bound their two beautiful lakes together--some to look after the
+traps they had set over-night--some to prepare for the hunt--and some
+for the merry games and athletic sports of the village. The quick eye of
+Ish-ta-le-ó-wah soon discovered that all was not right in the tent of
+his father. Kaf-ne-wah-go was not abroad, as usual, with his net in the
+stream. O-ken-áh-ga was not seen among the hunters with his bow, nor
+among the wrestlers on the green. No smoke was seen curling among the
+branches of the old tree that overshadowed his mother's tent. All was
+still as the house of the dead.
+
+"Why sleep the brave so long, when the light of day is already on the
+hill-top, and coming down upon the valley. Has the snake crept into the
+tent of Kaf-ne-wah-go, and charmed the father with the children? I must
+go and see."
+
+The loud and piercing yell of Ish-ta-le-ó-wah, as he looked in upon that
+desolate wigwam, roused the whole village, like the blast of a trumpet.
+The counsellors and braves of the nation were soon on the spot. The
+whole scene was understood in a moment, as clearly as if a written
+record of the whole had been left behind. Pursuit, and the recovery of
+the captive Tula and her child, were instantly resolved; and, ere the
+sun had surmounted the eastern barrier of their beautiful valley,
+Ish-ta-le-ó-wah, with a band of chosen braves, was on the trail of the
+foe.
+
+With the keen eye and quick scent of a blood-hound, they followed the
+almost obliterated track, through forest and brake, through swamp and
+dingle, over hill and prairie, till it was lost on the border of the
+Athabasca lake. Though the party in retreat was large, so well were they
+all trained in the Indian tactics of flight and concealment, that it
+required a most experienced eye to keep on their track. They had
+marched, according to custom, in Indian file, each carefully walking in
+the steps of the other, so that, to an unpractised observer, there would
+appear to have been but one wayfarer in the path. Wherever it was
+practicable, the path was carried over rocks, or the soft elastic
+mosses, or through the bed of a running brook, with the hope of eluding
+the pursuer. But no artifice of the Athapuscow could elude the
+well-trained eye of the Chippeway. He would instantly detect the
+slightest trace of a footstep on the ground, or the passage of a human
+body through the thicket. In one place, the edges of the moss had been
+torn, or a blade of grass trampled in upon it; in another, the small
+stones of the surface had been displaced, showing sometimes the fresh
+earth, and sometimes the hole of a worm uncovered, with half the length
+of its astonished occupant protruded to the light, as if investigating
+the cause of the sudden unroofing of his cell. Here some dry stick
+broken, or the bark of a protruding root peeled off, would betray the
+step of the fugitive; and there a shrub slightly bent, or a leaf turned
+up and lapped over upon another, or a few petals of a wild flower torn
+off and scattered upon the ground, would reveal the rude touch of his
+foot, or arm, or the trailing of his blanket, as he passed. Even on the
+bare rock, if a few grains of earth had been carried forward, or a
+pebble, a leaf, a dry stick, or a bit of moss, adhering to the foot had
+been deposited there, it was instantly noticed and understood. The
+rushing of the waters in the brook did not always replace, in a moment,
+every stone that had been disturbed in its bed, nor restore the broken
+limb, nor the bent weed, to its place. So quick and intuitive were these
+observations, that the march of the pursuer was as rapid and direct as
+that of the pursued. The one would seldom lose more time in hunting for
+the track, than the other had consumed in his various artifices of
+concealment.
+
+On arriving at the lake, it was evident that a considerable number of
+the enemy had been encamped, and that they had just embarked. Their
+fires were still smoking, and the rocks were not yet dry, from which
+they had pushed off their canoes, in the haste of their departure.
+
+The Chippeway was not easily diverted from his purpose. With the speed
+of a chamois, he climbed a tall cliff, which, jutting boldly out into
+the lake, concealed its great eastern basin from his view. Arrived at
+the summit, he discerned, dimly relieved in the distant horizon, a
+number of moving specks, which he knew to be the canoes of the
+retreating foe. In the double hope of avenging the dead, and recovering
+the living from captivity, he continued his course along the shores of
+the lake, and, early the next morning, fell once more upon the trail of
+his enemy. Pursuing it a short distance into the forest, it suddenly
+divided, one part continuing on to the east, and one striking off toward
+the south. In neither of them could he discover the track of his sister.
+Her captors had placed her, with their own women, in the middle of the
+march, so that the large and heavy track of the warriors who came after,
+should cover and obliterate the lighter traces of her foot.
+
+Taking the eastern track, and moving on with accelerated speed, he
+overtook the flying party in the act of encamping for the night.
+Concealing himself carefully from view, and watching his opportunity
+when all were busily engaged in pitching their tents, he raised the
+terrible war-whoop, with a volley of well directed arrows, and rushed,
+with his whole band, upon his unarmed victims. Not one of them escaped;
+and, so sudden and complete was the retribution, that not one remained
+to tell where the captive Tula had been carried. The real murderers had
+escaped with their captives, and the vengeance intended for _them_ had
+fallen upon the heads of their innocent comrades.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Tula was treated with kindness by the Athapuscow chief, who claimed her
+as his own. Every means was tried to reconcile her to her new lot, and
+to make her content to be the wife of her enemy. But her heart was bound
+up with the memories of the dead. Her parents, her husband, her child,
+filled all her thoughts. And the idea of being for ever bound to those
+whose hands were stained with the blood of these precious lost ones, was
+not to be endured for a moment. She was inconsolable, and her captors,
+for a time, respected her grief. Day after day, they travelled on, with
+long and weary marches, till the face of the country was changed, and
+the green forest gave way to the barren and rocky waste, that skirts the
+northern borders of the great valley of prairies. As they advanced, they
+grew more and more secure against pursuit, and less watchful of their
+captive. At length, she suddenly disappeared from their view.
+
+They had pitched for the night, on the bank of the north branch of the
+Sascatchawan. The night was dark and tempestuous. The lightnings flashed
+vividly from the dark cloud, and threatened to "melt the very elements
+with fervent heat." The hoarse thunders roared among the wildly
+careering clouds, and reverberated along the shores of the stream, and
+the cliffs of the distant mountains, as if those everlasting barriers
+were rent asunder, and nature were groaning from her utmost depths. The
+Indian feared not death, in whatever shape it might come. But he feared
+the angry voice of the Great Spirit. He shrunk with terror to the covert
+of his tent, and covered his eyes from the fearful glare of those
+incessant flashes, and prayed inwardly to his gods.
+
+The poor disconsolate captive lay trembling under the side of the tent.
+She thought of the storm that had swept over her beautiful home, and
+desolated her heart in the spring time of its love. She looked at her
+savage captors, now writhing in the agonies of superstitious fear, which
+her more absorbing private grief alone prevented her from sharing to the
+full. They heeded her not. They scarcely remembered that she was among
+them. Something whispered to her heart--"No eye but that of the Great
+Spirit sees you. He bids you escape from your enemies."
+
+In the ten-fold darkness that follows the all-revealing flash from the
+storm-cloud, Tula slipped noiselessly under the edge of the robe that
+sheltered her from the beating rain, and plunging into the stream, swam
+with the current a few rods, till she was arrested by a thick covert of
+overhanging shrubs, which grew to the water's edge. Thinking she might
+be able to cover her head with these bushes, while her body was hid by
+the water, she crept cautiously under, close to the bank, when, to her
+surprise and joy, she found that this shrubbery covered and curiously
+concealed a crevice in the jutting rock, sufficiently large to admit a
+free entrance to an ample cave within. Having carefully adjusted every
+limb and leaf without, and replaced with instinctive sagacity, the
+mosses that had been disturbed by her feet, she devoutly thanked the
+good spirit for her hope of deliverance, and anxiously watched for the
+morning.
+
+The dark cloud of the night had passed over. The voice of the tempest
+was hushed. The day broke clear and cloudless, amid the singing of
+birds, and the quickened music of the swollen stream. The first thought
+of the Athapuscow chief, as he started from his troubled slumbers, was
+of his captive. But she was gone. With a shrill and angry whoop, he
+roused the whole band, and all started in pursuit. The old woods rung
+again with the whoop and yell of the pursuers, and were answered by the
+sullen echoes of the hills and cliffs around. But neither wood, nor
+hill, nor cliff, revealed the hiding-place of the captive. The heavy
+torrents of rain had obliterated every mark of her footsteps, and
+neither grass, nor sand, nor the yielding soil of the river-bank
+afforded any clue to the path she had taken.
+
+Safe in the close covert of her new found retreat, the poor captive
+heard all the loud and angry threats of her disappointed pursuers. She
+even heard their frequent conjectures and animated discussions of the
+means to be adopted for her recovery, and often, they were so near to
+her place of refuge, that she could see their anxious and angry looks,
+as they passed, and almost feel their hands among the bushes that
+sheltered her, and the quick tramp of their feet over the roof of her
+cave. But there was no track or mark, on land or water, to guide them to
+that spot, and so naturally had every leaf been adjusted, that it had
+not attracted a single suspicion from any one of those sagacious and
+quick-sighted inquisitors.
+
+Two hours of fruitless search for a hiding place, or a track that should
+reveal the course of her flight, brought them to the conclusion that the
+Great Spirit had taken her away, and that it was not for man to find her
+path again. With this conviction, they struck their tents, swam the
+stream, and resumed their march to the south.
+
+Too cautious to leave her covert at once, and wearied with her anxious
+watchings, Tula composed herself to sleep, as soon as the last sound of
+the retiring party died on her ear. The sun had declined half way to his
+setting, when she awoke. She listened, with a suspicions ear for every
+sound without. The singing of birds, the rustling of the leaves, and the
+murmur of the waters, were all that disturbed the silence of the scene.
+She put her ear to the rock, but it brought nothing to her sense that
+revealed the presence of man. With extreme caution, she ventured to look
+out from her cave, and, by slow degrees, peering on every side for some
+concealed enemy, she emerged into the light, and dropping noiselessly
+into the stream, swam to a point on the opposite shore, from which she
+could obtain a good view of the recent encampment. It was deserted and
+still. Not a trace was left behind, except the trampled grass, and the
+blackened embers.
+
+Recrossing the stream, she commenced, with a light step, and a hopeful
+spirit, the seemingly impossible task of finding her way back to her
+home and her people. The consciousness of freedom buoyed her up, and
+inspired her with a new hope, at almost every step. With a light heart,
+and an elastic step, she bounded away over the desolate waste, that lay
+between the river and the forest, having neither path, nor track, nor
+land-mark, to guide her way, and with nothing but the instinct of
+affection to point out the course she should take. She had been so
+absorbed with her many griefs, during the long and weary march hitherto,
+and so little did she dream of the possibility of escape, that she had
+scarcely taken any notice of the direction, or attempted to observe any
+land-marks to guide her return. The way by which she had been led was
+circuitous and irregular, and she had only the vague general ideas, that
+her home was near "the star that never moves," and that she had been
+leaving her shadow behind, to aid her in her solitary wanderings. With a
+hopeful courageous heart, she sought only to widen the distance between
+her cruel captors and herself, trusting that her way would open as she
+went, and that her guardian angel, her tutelar divinity, would keep her
+from going astray. _Her_ tutelar divinity was the moon, whose light and
+protection she invoked, with a devout, if not an enlightened faith.
+While she could enjoy her mild clear light, she was always happy and
+secure; but when those beams were withdrawn, a shadow came over her soul
+that was full of dark forebodings and anxious fears.
+
+She had travelled several leagues, without seeing a track of any kind,
+and without the consciousness of fatigue or hunger. When night came on,
+she was just entering a deep forest, whose impenetrable shade made a
+sudden transition from twilight to utter darkness. With no star to guide
+her, and with no appearance of a path through thickets which seemed
+never to have been penetrated by a human footstep, she was soon
+bewildered, and felt that it was vain to proceed. With a few half-ripe
+nuts for a supper, and the soft moss which had gathered about the trunk
+of a fallen tree for a bed, she committed herself to sleep.
+
+About midnight, her slumbers were disturbed by a heavy rustling among
+the bushes, at no great distance, accompanied by a constant crackling,
+as of some large animal, trying to penetrate the thicket. Perceiving
+that it approached nearer at every step, she seized a club, with which
+she had provided herself before entering the forest, and hastened to
+climb into the nearest tree. As she ascended, it began to grow lighter
+overhead. The stars looked smilingly down upon her, but it was darker
+than ever below. She breathed a silent prayer to the star of her
+faith--the bright orb where she supposed her guardian angel resided--and
+took courage. The mysterious step approached nearer and nearer. She
+soon perceived that it was a bear, and supposed he would follow her into
+the tree. She therefore seated herself upon a stout limb, a few feet
+from the main trunk, and prepared to give him a warm reception.
+Presently the heavy trampling ceased, and was followed by a silence
+vastly more oppressive than the previous noise.
+
+In this condition, the remaining hours of the night passed away. With
+the first light of the morning, the shaggy intruder was discerned,
+quietly reposing near the foot of the tree, and showing no signs of
+being in haste to depart. That he was conscious of the presence of a
+stranger, was evident only from an occasional upward glance of his eye,
+and a significant turning of the nose in that direction, as if there was
+something agreeable in prospect.
+
+Tula would have been no match for Bruin on level ground, but she felt
+confident of her power in the position she had chosen, and therefore
+quietly waited the movements of her adversary. For two or three hours,
+he behaved himself with the gravity of a true philosopher, coolly
+expecting to weary out the patience of his victim by a close siege, and
+so save himself the trouble of taking the tree by assault. But Tula was
+as patient and prudent as Bruin, and could endure hunger, and thirst,
+and wakefulness as well as he. Rousing at length from his inactivity, he
+travelled round and round the tree, as if taking its measure, and
+estimating the probable result of an encounter. Tula watched his motions
+with more interest than anxiety, hoping soon to be relieved from her
+imprisonment, and at liberty to pursue her journey. It was near noon,
+when, having satisfied himself that offensive measures were necessary,
+he began to climb the tree. Having reached the leading branch, and
+embraced the trunk to raise himself to that on which Tula was seated,
+the brave girl rose suddenly to her feet, and brought down her club upon
+the enemy's nose with such desperate and well directed force, as to send
+him, stunned and insensible, to the ground. Without allowing him a
+moment to recover, she leaped down to his side, and dealt a succession
+of heavy blows upon his head, till the blood flowed in torrents, and his
+struggles and his breathing ceased.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In this manner, many days and nights passed on, during which she
+encountered many imminent dangers, and severe conflicts, and made but
+little progress. Hunger, weariness, a continual sense of danger, and
+that sickness of the heart, which solitude and suspense beget, were her
+inseparable companions. Every day, her hope of ultimately reaching the
+home of her childhood grew fainter and fainter. But she had a woman's
+endurance, and a woman's fertility of resource. She never for a moment
+repented her flight. She would have preferred death in any form to a
+forced espousal with the murderer of her family. Sometimes with roots
+and herbs, sometimes with nutritious mosses, and sometimes with wild
+fruits and nuts, she continued to satisfy the cravings of appetite, and
+to sustain her severely tried fortitude, for the fatigues and perils
+that were yet before her.
+
+The forest seemed interminable; and so indeed it might well have been
+regarded, for she was continually travelling round and round, in the
+same track, having only an occasional glimpse of the sun to direct her
+way, or a view of the stars, when she climbed some tall tree at night.
+She knew little of the direction in which she was going; but she was
+sure that that forest lay between her enemy and her home, and was
+therefore resolved, at any expense of labor and suffering, to find her
+way through it, or perish in the attempt.
+
+After several weeks of incredible toil, fatigue, hardship and danger,
+the brave persevering Tula emerged into a wide opening, having a
+considerable mountain on one side, and a large sheet of water, and a
+stream from the mountain pouring into it, on the other. It was a
+beautiful spot, but the whole aspect of it was new and strange. She was
+confident she had not passed that way, while a captive in the hands of
+the Athapuscows. She was now wholly at a loss which way to turn. To
+retrace her steps through the intricacies of that dark forest, would be
+as vain as the thought of it was appalling. To go on, when she was
+absolutely certain she was out of her track, seemed little less than
+madness. To choose either the right hand or the left, was to leap in the
+dark, and involve herself in new doubts and difficulties. She needed
+rest. Her apparel was torn by her difficult passages through the tangled
+thickets, and her frequent contests with the enemies she found there.
+Pondering deeply on the difficulties before her, she began to think,
+that if there was any place of shelter near, she would make herself a
+new home, and live and die alone in the great wilderness.
+
+"And why," said she to herself, "why should I return to the wigwam of my
+father? Kaf-ne-wah-go is not there. My mother, she has gone with him to
+the spirit land. O-ken-áh-ga waits no longer for my return. I left my
+brave chief in his blood. His voice will no longer be heard in the
+valley, with the hunters, nor his shout in the battle. He fell in the
+glory of his strength, like the young oak that is full of sap, and whose
+roots have struck deep into the earth. And my child, the son of
+O-ken-áh-ga, alas! he has not even a grave to sleep in. He lies on the
+cold bosom of the earth, and I know not where. Why then should I return
+to a desolate home, only made more desolate by the memory of what it
+was?"
+
+With such thoughts as these, she beguiled her inward yearnings for the
+spot where all her joys had been, and where all her hopes were buried.
+Wandering on the shores of the lake and the stream by day, and seeking
+such shelter as she could find in the clefts of the rocks at night, she
+sought for a place where she might provide a suitable protection against
+the cold and the storms of winter, which were not far distant. Wild
+berries and fruits afforded her only sustenance for a considerable time,
+until her own ingenuity provided her with the means of procuring a more
+certain substantial diet.
+
+Having found a convenient spot in a deep ravine of the mountain, which
+opened towards the south, and was consequently always exposed to the
+sun, she immediately commenced the construction of a place to dwell in.
+The spot selected was romantic and beautiful in the extreme, and seemed
+to have been designed by nature "for some especial use." It was
+sufficiently elevated to command a fine view of the opening, including
+all the meanderings of the river, and the whole extent of the lake, and
+yet it was not difficult of access, nor so high as to be too much
+exposed to the wintry storms. It was a little nook, chipped out from the
+solid rock, having a smooth slaty floor, about twelve feet square, with
+a semi-circular recess of about half that depth into the side of the
+mountain. A jutting rock, about ten feet above this floor, and
+overhanging it on every side, formed a natural ceiling. It only needed
+to be enclosed on two sides, to make a lodge that any of the great
+caciques of the wilderness might be proud of.
+
+Fortunately Tula was not entirely destitute of tools to work with. A
+piece of an iron hoop, about six inches in length, and the shank of an
+arrow head, also of iron, both of which she had picked up while among
+the Athapuscows, constituted her whole stock. With these, which she
+sharpened upon the rocks, she contrived to cut down a number of young
+saplings, and shape them to her purpose. Planting two of them upright
+upon the outer line of the floor, and laying the end of one against the
+inside, and the end of the other against the outside of the cornice, or
+overhanging ceiling, she bound them firmly together with green withes.
+In this manner she went all round, leaving a space open for a door on
+the sunny side. This done, she wove it, inside and out, with willow
+boughs, stuffing the intervening spaces with moss, till it was entirely
+impervious to the weather. The door was of close basket-work hung at the
+top, and secured at the sides, in a storm, or during the night, by means
+of withes fastened round the door-posts. This served the double purpose
+of door and window, while a crevice in the rock above, performed the
+part of a chimney.
+
+The work went on slowly and heavily at first, but patience and
+perseverance, which can conquer all but impossibilities, accomplished it
+before the cold weather set in. Meanwhile, the ingenuity of the fair
+builder had found means to make a fire upon the hearth. Her materials
+for that purpose were two hard sulphureous stones, which, by long
+friction, or hard knocking, produced a few sparks. These, communicated
+to touchwood, were soon formed into a blaze.
+
+When fruits, berries and nuts failed, her ready ingenuity supplied her
+with other means of sustaining life. She had, among her scanty stock of
+furniture, a few deer-sinews, which, with the Indians, are a common
+substitute for thread. With the aid of these, she managed to snare
+partridges, rabbits and squirrels. She also killed several beavers and
+porcupines. The sinews of the rabbit's legs and feet were twisted with
+great dexterity, to supply the place of deer-sinews, when _they_ were
+gone. Their skins also, with those of the squirrels, served to replenish
+her exhausted wardrobe, supplying, under her skilful hand, a neat and
+warm suit of winter clothing. Her industry was as untiring as her
+ingenuity was fruitful of resources. Forlorn as her situation was, she
+was composed and resigned, if not contented, and seemed to find pleasure
+in employing every moment of her waking hours in some useful or
+ornamental contrivance.
+
+Her dress evinced much taste, and exhibited no little variety of
+ornament. The materials, though rude, were very curiously wrought, and
+so judiciously arranged, as to give to the whole a pleasing and romantic
+effect. Her tunic was composed of the skins of squirrels and rabbits, in
+alternate strips of grey and white. It was secured at the waist by a
+belt of skin, beautifully wrought with porcupine quills, colored
+pebbles, and strips of bark of various brilliant hues. Her mantle, which
+was large, was of the fairest and most delicate skins, arranged with a
+certain uniformity and harmony of design, which gave it all the grace
+and beauty, without the stiffness, of a regular pattern. It had a
+tasteful border, of brilliant feathers, and, like the belt before
+described, was fastened by a clasp of an unique and original
+contrivance, being made of the beaks and claws of her captives, arranged
+and secured so as to interlock with each other. Her head-dress, leggings
+and moccasins, were equally perfect in style and effect.
+
+Besides accomplishing all this work, in her solitude, and even laying in
+a stock of provisions in advance, sufficient for her wants, in case of a
+long season of storms, sickness, or any other exigency, she had found
+time to make several hundred fathoms of net-twine, by twisting the inner
+rind, or bark, of willow boughs, into small lines. Of these, she
+intended to make a fishing-net, as soon as the spring should open, and
+thus enlarge her sources of subsistence and enjoyment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was past mid-winter. The snow lay deep and hard upon all the northern
+hills and valleys. The lakes and rivers were frozen. The fountains of
+nature were sealed up, and verdure, and fruitfulness, and almost all
+the elements of life, seemed to have followed the sun in his journey to
+the far south. A company of English traders, under the guidance of a
+party of Indians, were traversing the country from Hudson's Bay to the
+Northern Ocean, in quest of furs and peltries. Emerging from a deep
+forest into a broad open plain, they discovered the track of a strange
+snow-shoe, which, from its lightness, they judged to belong to a woman.
+Not knowing of any encampment in that vicinity, it excited the more
+curiosity. They followed it. It led them a considerable distance out of
+their way, across the valley, and into the gorge of the mountain on its
+southern side. Pursuing it still, as it ascended by a circuitous path,
+they came to a small cabin, perched like an eagle's nest in the clefts
+of the rock. They entered, and found a young and beautiful woman sitting
+alone at her work. It was Tula, the hermitess of Athabasca. For more
+than seven moons she had not seen a human face, nor heard a human voice,
+nor did she ever expect again to see the one, or hear the other. She had
+become reconciled to her lot. She loved the solitude where her spirit
+could commune with the departed, undisturbed, and where only the sun,
+the moon, and the stars, and the Great Spirit that controlled and guided
+them all, could read her thoughts, and know the history of her griefs.
+
+The first surprise being over, Tula offered the strangers a place by her
+fire, and such other hospitalities as her cabin afforded.
+
+"How comes the dove alone in the eagle's nest?" enquired the leader of
+the party.--And then, regarding her with a look of admiration,
+added--"does she not fear the hawk or the vulture, here in the cold
+cliffs of the mountain?"
+
+Tula replied by relating the story of her life--her bereavement--her
+captivity--her escape--her weary wanderings--her hardships--and the
+repose she had found in her solitude; and concluded by saying, "If the
+eagle's nest be lonely and cold, it is quiet and safe. It is not too
+high for the moon to smile upon. It is not too cold for Tula."
+
+"Would the 'singing bird' seek out her people, and let her song be heard
+again among the trees of the valley?"
+
+"Tula is no longer the singing bird. Her song is shut up in her heart.
+Her heart is with her kindred in the spirit land. Her father's cabin is
+more desolate than the wilderness, or the mountain top. Her tree is
+plucked up by the roots. It cannot live again."
+
+After some considerable persuasion, in which the voice of the humane
+Englishman--suggesting that, if the Ottawas had discovered her retreat,
+the Athapuscows might discover it also,--had its full share of weight,
+the fair hermitess consented to accompany the strangers; though she
+could not conceal her regret, in abandoning her snug little castle, to
+set off on a new pilgrimage, she knew not whither.
+
+"It matters little to Tula where she goes, so that she does not meet the
+Athapuscow. His hands are red with the blood of her father, her husband,
+her child. Let her never see his face, or walk in his shadow."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The singular romance of Tula's story, the comeliness of her person, and
+her approved accomplishments, touched the hearts of some of the young
+braves of the party. They had not gone far on their way, before a
+contest arose between them, who, according to immemorial usage among the
+tribes, should claim the privilege of making her his wife. The
+dispute--to which she was no party, for her views were not so much as
+consulted in the matter--ran very high, and had nearly resulted in
+serious consequences. The poor girl was actually won and lost, at
+wrestling, by near half a score of different men, in the course of as
+many days. When, at length, a compromise was effected, and the prize
+awarded to Lak-in-aw, a young warrior of the Temiscamings, Tula refused
+to receive the pipe at his hands, or to listen in any way to his suit.
+
+"Tula is buried in the grave of O-ken-áh-ga," she said. "Tula will walk
+alone on the earth. Her heart is in the spirit land. It will never come
+back. It has nothing here to love."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Onward--onward--over interminable fields of snow and ice, where scarce a
+green thing appeared to relieve the utter desolation, the party
+proceeded, with their prize, on their journey to the far north. She was
+treated with chivalric tenderness and respect, and her comfort and
+convenience consulted in all the arrangements of the way. She needed but
+little indulgence, and solicited _none_. She was capable of enduring the
+fatigues and hardships of a man. She never flagged in the march, nor
+lingered a moment, when the word was given to go forward.
+
+In traversing a deep valley near the eastern extremity of the Great
+Slave Lake, their track was crossed by that of a considerable party of
+Indians, returning from an expedition to the fur regions of the north.
+Their course lay along the southern border of the lake. Perceiving their
+encampment at no great distance, on the other side of the valley, it was
+resolved to visit them, and, if they were found to be friendly, to join
+their camp for the night. On approaching the spot, they were met by the
+chief, who, with a few attendants, came out to bid them welcome to his
+tent. He was a fine specimen of a young Indian brave--one who, in his
+green youth, had gained laurels, which it usually requires a life-time
+to win. His costume, though adapted to the severity of the climate, was
+tasteful and picturesque, and so fitted and arranged as to develop, to
+the best advantage, the admirable proportions of his person.
+
+The parley that ensued was a fine specimen of Indian courtesy and
+diplomacy. But it was suddenly and violently interrupted, when Tula, who
+had remained in the rear of her party, with the Englishmen, came up. At
+the first sight of the young chief, she uttered a loud and
+piercing shriek--for the extremes of joy and grief use similar tones and
+gestures--and rushing forward, pushed aside friend and stranger alike,
+and flung herself upon his neck, exclaiming--"Ish-ta-le-ó-wah!--my
+brother! my brother!"
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+                     Transcriber's Note
+
+    The following changes were made to the original text:
+
+      Accents were restored to the Table of Contents.
+
+      Page 5,  "Ka-ree-o-than" changed to "Karee-o-thán"
+               (Tezcuco--Karee-o-thán)
+
+      Page 12, "Kaf-na-wa-go" changed to "Kaf-ne-wah-go"
+               (wigwam of Kaf-ne-wah-go)
+
+      Page 20, "skillfully" changed to "skilfully"
+               (craftily and skilfully worked)
+
+      Page 35, "paralasis" changed to "paralysis"
+               (struck with instant paralysis)
+
+      Page 40, "acknowledgements" changed to "acknowledgments"
+               (ample acknowledgments)
+
+      Page 50, "terrestial" changed to "terrestrial"
+               (paradise of terrestrial sweets)
+
+      Page 53, "harrass" changed to "harass"
+               (harass his soul)
+
+      Page 58, "anything" changed to "any thing"
+               (his position any thing but)
+
+      Page 60, "discomfitted" changed to "discomfited"
+               (among the discomfited Cholulans)
+
+      Page 66, "unappeaseable" changed to "unappeasable"
+               (an unappeasable fate)
+
+      Page 67, "suprised" changed to "surprised"
+               (continually surprised and delighted)
+
+      Page 73, "cortége" changed to "cortege"
+               (the royal cortege)
+
+      Page 78, "mein" changed to "mien"
+               (proud and haughty mien)
+
+      Page 102, "chastly" changed to "chastely"
+                (chastely decorated)
+
+      Page 121, "it's" changed to "its"
+                (Oozing its bitterness)
+
+      Page 125, "beseiged" changed to "besieged"
+                (heads of the besieged)
+
+      Page 193, "to day" changed to "to-day"
+                (my brave hunter, to-day) [First instance on page]
+
+      Page 205, "calmess" changed to "calmness"
+                (a calmness which we)
+
+      Page 227, "Kaf-ne-wa-go" changed to "Kaf-ne-wah-go"
+                (home of Kaf-ne-wah-go)
+
+      Page 227, "Ish-ta-le-áh" changed to "Ish-ta-le-ó-wah"
+                (the brave Ish-ta-le-ó-wah)
+
+      Page 245, "patridge" changed to "partridge"
+                (to snare partridges)
+
+      Page 247, "controled" changed to "controlled"
+                (controlled and guided)
+
+      Page 250, "grief" was typeset on the incorrect line and
+                 was repositioned accordingly
+                (joy and grief use)
+
+    All other inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation were
+    retained as printed in the original text.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Sketches of Aboriginal Life, by V. V. Vide
+
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