they could be approached. In the evening he decided to let the astounded and appalled capital hear his voice. Several volleys of artillery roared like thunder-peals through the streets of the capital, while dense volumes of suffocating smoke, scarcely moved by the tranquil air, settled down over the city. All hearts in Tenochtitlanfor that was then the name of the Mexican capital-were filled with dismay. Few slept that night. Supernatural beings, with demoniac energies, were in the bosom of the proud metropolis of the ancient Aztecs, and the fate of the empire was doomed.

The population of this city was probably about five hundred thousand. The houses of the common people were small but comfortable cottages, built of reeds or of bricks baked in the sun. The dwellings of the nobles, lining long, spa

cious, and well-paved streets, were of stone. I was roused by the horrid spectacle of pagan They were extensive on the ground-floor, generally but one story high, and surrounded by gardens blooming with flowers. Fountains of cool water, brought through aqueducts of earthen pipe, played in the court-yards. The police regulations were admirable. A thousand persons were continually employed in sweeping and watering the streets. So clean were the well-cemented pavements kept, upon which no hoof had trod until the cavalry of Cortez clattered into the city, that "a man could walk," says one of the Spaniards, "through the streets with as little danger of soiling his feet as his hands."

idols polluted with blood, and they immediately converted one of the halls of their residence into a Christian chapel. Here the rites of the Roman Catholic Church were introduced, and the whole army of Cortez, with soldierly devotion, attended mass every day. Good Father Olmedo, with a clouded mind, but with a sincere and devout heart, prayed fervently for God's blessing upon his frail creatures of every name and nation. Notwithstanding all delusions and all counterfeits, there is such a thing as spiritual Christianity. So far as man can judge, Father Olmedo was a Christian.

Cortez had now been a week in the capital. He was perplexed what step next to take. He was treated with such hospitality that there was no possible ground for war. To remain inactive, merely receiving hospitality, was accomplishing nothing. It was also to be apprehend

Day after day was passed in the interchange of visits, and in the careful examination, by Cortez, of the strength and the resources of the city. He, however, never for one moment forgot his great object of converting the heathen. He was truly instant, in season and out of sea-ed that the Mexicans would gradually lose their son, in urging his cause. No hour was deemed inappropriate. But Montezuma manifested no disposition to abandon the cruel idolatry of his fathers. One day the idolatrous monarch led the war-girt, blood-stained propagandist into the shrine of the great god of Mexico. Three human hearts, just cut from their victims, were smoking and almost palpitating upon the altar. The chapel was stained with human gore. The soul of Cortez was roused. Turning to Montezuma, he exclaimed,

fears, and fall upon the invaders with resistless numbers. In this dilemma the bold Spaniard resolved to seize the person of Montezuma, who was regarded by his subjects with almost religious adoration, and hold him as a hostage. By the commingling of treachery and force he succeeded, and the unhappy monarch found himself a captive in his own capital, in the intrenched camp of the Spaniards.

He was magnificently imprisoned. A bodyguard of stern veterans, with all external indica"How can you, wise and powerful as you are, tions of obsequiousness and homage, watched put trust in such a representative of the Devil. him by day and by night. The heart sickens at Let me place here the cross, and the image of the recital of the outrages inflicted upon this amithe blessed Virgin and her Son, and these de-able and hospitable prince. Cortez had alleged, testable gods will vanish. as a reason for arresting Montezuma, the senseMontezuma was shocked, and hurried his ir-less pretext that two soldiers of the company left reverent guest away. The zeal of the Spaniards at Vera Cruz had been waylaid by the natives and

slain. The Indian governor in whose province the violence had occurred, was sent for by the humiliated and powerless monarch. Obediently he came, with fifteen chiefs. Cortez doomed them all to be burnt alive in the great court of the city. He gathered from the public arsenals the arrows, javelins, and other martial weapons, to form the immense funeral piles. Thus the city was disarmed. While these atrocities were in progress, Cortez entered the presence of his captive, Montezuma, accused him of being an accomplice in the death of the Spaniards, and pitilessly ordered the manacles of a felon to be fastened on his hands and his feet. The cruel fires were then kindled. Thousands gazed with awe upon the appalling spectacle, and the Indian chieftains, without a remonstrance or a groan, were burned to ashes.

Step after step of violence succeeded, until Montezuma was humiliated to the dust. The helpless and bewildered monarch was thus compelled, with tears of anguish rolling down his cheeks, to take the oath of allegiance to the King of Spain. Cortez then extorted from him, as presents to the Spanish monarch, more than six millions of dollars in silver and gold. conquest of Mexico seemed achieved.

The

Six months had now passed since Cortez had landed on the coast. The Governor of Cuba, indignant in view of the haughty assumptions of Cortez, fitted out a strong expedition to take possession of Mexico and bring Cortez home a prisoner for punishment. Cortez was informed that these, his formidable enemies, had landed in the vicinity of Vera Cruz. The indomitable Spaniard, leaving Alvarado in command of the strongly intrenched camp in the heart of the metropolis, took seventy picked men and marched rapidly and secretly to meet his Spanish foes. The journey was long and perilous. He moved with great celerity, gathered some recruits by the way, fell upon the Spaniards by surprise in a midnight attack, in the midst of a black careering tempest, took their commander, Narvaez, sorely wounded, a prisoner; and having compelled the whole body to surrender, induced them all, by munificent presents and persuasive speech, to enlist under his alluring banner.

The Spaniards arrived at length at the causeway which led to the city. It was a solitude. No one was there to welcome or to oppose. Fiercely these stern men strode on through the now deserted streets, till they entered into the encampment of their comrades.

The insurrection had been excited by a most atrocious massacre on the part of Alvarado. He suspected, but had no proof, that a conspiracy was formed by the Mexican nobles for the extermination of the invaders. He took occasion, while six hundred of the flower of the Mexican nobility were assembled in the performance of some religious rites, in a totally defenseless state, to fall upon them with sword and musket. The massacre was horrible. Not one escaped. This infamous butchery was too much even for the crushed spirit of the natives to endure. Notwithstanding all the terror of horses, steel, and gunpowder, the city rose to arms.

Even Cortez was indignant when he heard this story from his lieutenant.

"Your conduct,” he exclaimed, "has been that of a madman."

Cortez had now, with the efficiency of his European weapons of war, truly a formidable force. In the stone buildings which protected and encircled his encampment he could marshal in battle array twelve hundred Spaniards and eight thousand Tlascalans. But all were in danger of perishing from starvation. A terrible battle soon ensued. The Mexicans, roused by despair, came rushing upon the invaders in numbers which could not be counted. Never did mortal men display more bravery than these exasperated Mexicans exhibited struggling for their homes and their rights. But the batteries of the Spaniards mowed them down like grass before the scythe. The conflict was continued late into the hours of the night. The ground was covered with the dead, when darkness and exhaustion for a time stopped the carnage.

In the early dawn of the morning the contest was renewed, and was continued with the most demoniac fury by both parties through the whole of another day. The Spaniards fired the city wherever they could. And though the walls of the houses were mostly of stone, the inflam

the horrors of conflagration were added to the misery and the blood of the conflict. All the day long the dreadful battle raged. The streets ran red with blood. The natives cheerfully sacrificed a hundred of their own lives to take that of one of their foes.

But in the flush of this wonderful victory, the alarming news reached Cortez that a ter-mable interior and roofs caught the flame, and rible insurrection had broken out in the capital; that his troops were besieged and assailed by almost resistless numbers, and that several of his men were already killed and many wounded. Collecting his whole force, now greatly augmented by the accession of the conquered Spaniards with their cavalry and artillery, he Another night darkened over the blood-stained hastened back from Zempoalla to the rescue and smouldering city. The Spaniards were of his beleaguered camp. He had now, with driven back into their fortress, while the nathis strangely-acquired reinforcement, about a tives, in continually increasing numbers, surthousand infantry and a hundred cavalry, be- rounded them, filling the night air with shrieks sides several thousands of the native allies. of defiance and rage. Cortez had displayed By forced marches they pressed along. The the most extraordinary heroism during the pronatives, however, in the region through which tracted strife. His situation now seemed desthey passed, no longer greeted them with cour-perate. Though many thousands of the Mexitesy, but turned coldly and silently away. cans had been slaughtered during the day, re

cruits flocked in so rapidly that their numbers | pusillanimity of the captive King. A shower remained undiminished. Cortez was suffering anguish from a sorely wounded hand. His men were utterly exhausted. Large numbers were wounded and many slain. The maddened roar of countless thousands of the fiercest warriors almost deafened the ear. Every moment it was feared that the walls would be scaled, and the inundation of maddened foes pour in resistlessly upon them.

In this extremity Cortez appealed to his captive, Montezuma. Cortez was a fearless soldier. He could also stoop to any measures of fraud and perfidy. Assuming the tone of humanity, deploring the awful carnage which had taken place, and affirming his wish to save the nation from utter destruction, he, by such representations, influenced Montezuma to interpose. Reluctantly the amiable, beloved, perplexed monarch at last consented. He was adored by his people. The morning had again dawned. The battle was again renewed with increasing fury. No pen can describe the tumult of this wild war. The yell of countless thousands of assailants, the clang of their trumpets and drums, the clash of arms, the rattle of musketry, and the roar of artillery presented a scene which had never before found a parallel in the New World.

of stones and arrows fell upon him. Notwithstanding the efforts of his body-guard of Spaniards to protect him with their bucklers, a stone struck his temple which brought him senseless to the ground, and three javelins pierced his flesh. The wounded monarch was conveyed to his apartment, crushed in spirit, and utterly broken-hearted. He firmly refused to live. He tore the bandages from his wounds and would take no nourishment. Silent, and brooding over his terrible calamities, he sat the picture of dejection and woe for a few days, until he died.

In the mean time the battle was resumed with all its fury. All the day long it continued without intermission. The wretched city was the crater of a volcano where a demoniac strife was raging. The energies of both parties seemed to redouble with despair. At last another night spread its vail over the infuriated combatants. In the darkest watches of midnight the Spaniards made a sortie and set three hundred buildings in flames. The lurid fire, crackling to the skies, illumined the tranquil lake, and gleamed upon the most distant villages in the vast mountain-girdled valley. The tumult of the midnight assault, the shrieks of women and children, and the groans of the wounded and the dying, blended with the roar of the confla

Cortez now summoned the chiefs to a parley. He stood upon the wall. The beautiful Marina, as interpreter, stood at his side. The Mexican chiefs were upon the ground before him. The inflexible and merciless Spaniard endeavored to intimidate them by threats.

-Suddenly all was hushed as the venerated Emperor, dressed in his imperial robes, ap-gration. peared upon the wall, and waved his hand to command the attention of his people. For a few moments they listened patiently to his appeal. But as he plead for the detested Spaniards their indignation burst all bounds. One ventured to assail him with an exclamation of reproach and contempt. It was the signal for a universal outbreak of vituperation against the

"If you do not immediately submit," said he, "I will lay the whole city in ashes, and