Chapter 7 TREACHERY AND RETRIBUTION-MASSACRE OF THE AZTEC NOBILITY-DEATH OF MONTEZUMA.

And bloody treason triumphed.

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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."

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