40 



TEZCATLIPOCA CORTEZ MONTEZUMA SEIZED. 



necklace of alternate gold and silver hearts ; and on the altar 

 before him, three human hearts which had recently been torn 

 from living breasts, were still quivering and bleeding, fresh from 

 the immolated victims. 



In the other chamber, or sanctuary, were the milder emblems of 

 Tezcatlipoca, who " created the world and watched it with provi- 

 dential care." The lineaments of this idol were those of a youth, 

 whose image, carved in black and polished stone, was adorned 

 with discs of burnished gold, and embellished with a brilliant 

 shield. Nevertheless, the worship of this more benign deity was 

 stained with homicide, for on its altar, in a plate of gold, the 

 conqueror found five human hearts ; and, in these dens of inhu- 

 manity, Bernal Diaz tells us, that the "stench was more intolerable 

 than in the slaughter houses of Castile ! " 



Such is a brief summary of the observations made by the 

 Spaniards during a week's residence in the city. They found 

 themselves in the heart of a rich and populous empire, whose 

 civilization, however, was, by a strange contradiction for which 

 we shall hereafter endeavor to account, stained with the most 

 shocking barbarity under the name of religion. The unscrupulous 

 murder, which was dignified with the associations and practice of 

 national worship, was by no means consolatory to the minds of 

 men who were really in the power of semi-civilized rulers and 

 bloody priests. They discovered, from their own experience, that 

 the sovereign was both fickle and feeble, and that a caprice, a 

 hope, or a fear, might suffice to make him free his country from a 

 handful of dangerous guests by offering them as sacrifices to his 

 gods. The Tlascalans were already looked upon with no kind 

 feelings by their hereditary foes. A spark might kindle a fatal 

 flame. It was a moment for bold and unscrupulous action, and 

 it was needful to obtain some signal advantage by which the 

 Spaniards could, at least, effect their retreat, if not ensure an 

 ultimate victory. 



News just then was brought to Cortez that four of his country- 

 men, whom he left behind at Cempoalla, had been treacherously 

 slain by one of the tributary caciques of Montezuma ; and this at 

 once gave him a motive, or at least a pretext, for seizing the 

 Emperor himself, as a hostage for the good faith of his nation. 

 Accordingly, he visited Montezuma with a band of his most reli- 

 able followers, who charged the monarch with the treachery of his 



