ed to slip away without exciting her suspicion, and, rushing to the
general, told him all. Cortes at once caused the cacique's wife to be
seized, and she repeated to him the same story that she had told to
Marina. He was most anxious to gain further particulars of the
conspiracy, and accordingly induced two priests, one of them a person of
much influence, to visit his quarters, where by courteous treatment and
rich presents he got from them a complete confirmation of the report.
The emperor had been in a state of pitiable vacillation since the
arrival of the Spaniards. His first orders had been that they should be
kindly received, but on consulting his oracles anew he had obtained for
answer that Cholula would be the grave of his enemies, and so positive
of success were the Aztecs, that they had already sent into the city
numbers of the poles with thongs attached to them with which to bind the
prisoners. Cortes now dismissed the priests, bidding them observe the
strictest secrecy, which, indeed they were likely to do for their own
sakes. He also requested that they would induce some of the principal
caciques to grant him an interview in his quarters. When they came he
gently rebuked them for their want of hospitality, and said that the
Spaniards would burden them no longer, but would leave the city early
the next morning. He also asked that they would supply him with two
thousand men to carry his artillery and baggage. The chiefs, after some
consultation, agreed to this as being likely to favour their own plans.
Then he sent for the Mexican ambassadors, and acquainted them with his
discovery of the plot, saying that it grieved him much to find Montezuma
mixed up in so treacherous an affair, and that the Spaniards must now
march as enemies against a monarch they had hoped to visit as a friend.
The ambassadors, however, asserted their entire ignorance of the
conspiracy, and their belief that Montezuma also knew nothing of it. The
night that followed was one of intense anxiety; every soldier lay down
fully armed, and the number of sentinels was doubled; but all remained
quiet in the populous city, and the only sounds which reached their ears
were the hoarse cries of the priests who, from the turrets of the
teocallis, proclaimed through their trumpets the watches of the night.

With the first streak of morning light Cortes was on horseback,
directing the movements of his little band, part of which he posted in
the great squa