spicuous. The bodies of these images, so gaily tricked out with jewels and gold, were composed of the seeds of certain plants kneaded up with the blood of human beings, expressly slain for the manufacture. A number of hearts, recently extracted, lay before them, and the walls of their shrine, from long repetition of these hideous offerings, were covered with dried blood to the thickness of two fingers. Struck with horror at the revolting spectacle, Cortes raised his voice in vehement remonstrance against this sanguinary idolatry, but only succeeded in shocking the religious prejudices of his host, who, after the departure of his guests, remained, to deprecate, with renewed sacrifice, the supposed indignation of his gods. In the great square below, the Spaniards beheld fresh evidences of this wholesale system of human butchery. There was a shrine built in the shape of a huge monster, with mouth wide open, as it were gaping for victims, and clotted, as usual, with the gore of ⚫ innumerable sacrifices. "We never gave this accursed building," says Diaz, "any name except that of hell." On another teocalli which they visited, was a vast frame-work, covered with the skulls of more than a hundred thousand victims. Incredible as the statement may seem, "in the same square which contained all these enormities, were extensive and admirable institutions for the educa tion of the youth of both sexes! Not to form too exaggerated an estimate of the horrors of Mexican theology, we must remember that, at this very time, and long afterwards, human sacrifices, in their most revolting form, were commonly celebrated by the most refined nations of Europe. On the score of humanity, the sharp flint and uprooted heart of the Aztec are surely preferable to the san-benito and the stake of the Spaniard; while, as to the principle involved, one can see little to choose between a blood offering to the shrine of the fierce Huitzilopochtli, or to that of some fantastic theory, such as the Real Presence." CHAPTER VII. MONTEZUMA.-BURNING UNPRINCIPLED SCHEME OF CORTES.-HIS TREACHEROUS A chapel was erected in the palace of Axayacatl, and mass was daily performed, with unusual decorum and solemnity of deport ment, for the edification of the Aztecs. These, though little moved. by the mysterious spectacle, continued to pay the most assiduous and hospitable attention to the thousands of strangers, both Spaniards and hostile Tlascalans, who, uninvited, had thrust themselves within the walls of the capital. But the ambitious mind of the Spanish leader, aiming at the immediate subjugation of the country, as the only means of attaining the countenance of his sovereign and eluding the vengeance of the incensed Velasquez, was ill at ease, and darkly revolved a plot, "the most daring, politic, and utterly unprincipled, which the mind of man could devise." This was to seize the person of his host, the generous and hospitable Montezuma, and thus gain instant possession of his realm. Solemn prayer and religious service, as usual in any case of extreme audacity or villany, was maintained by the Spaniards all the night previous to the attempt; and Cortes, during the same time, was heard pacing his room unquietly like one unable to rest from anxiety. In the morning, after mass and benediction, the general, with Alvarado, Sandoval, Lujo, Leon, and Avila, five of his bravest captains, repaired to the palace. The emperor was in a joyous mood, and, with his usual liberality, bestowed rich presents on his guests. A number of soldiers, by instruction, had gradually assembled in the court-yard, and Cortes (to use his own words), "after conversing with him in a sportive manner on agreeable topics, and receiving at his hand some jewels of gold, and one of his own daughters," abruptly changed his tone, and accused his host of the murder of two Span |