SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



39 



empire is too well known to be repeated in a 

 work of this kind, but it is probably requisite, 

 previous to describing its existing antiquities, 

 to give some idea of the state of the ancient 

 capital and the magnificence of the monarch 

 who then governed it, which the following 

 selections will, it is hoped, in some measure 

 convey. 



" All the servants of his palace consisted 

 of persons of rank. Besides those who con- 

 stantly lived in it, every morning six hundred 

 feudatory lords and nobles came to pay court 

 to him. They passed the whole day in the 

 antechamber, where none of their servants 

 were permitted to enter, conversing in a low 

 voice, and waiting the orders of their sovereign. 

 The servants who accompanied those lords 

 were so numerous as to occupy three small 

 courts of the palace, and many waited in the 

 streets. The women about the court were not 

 less in number, including those of rank. 



