ctate of common piety to say "the will of the gods be done." Hard and
trying as it was, he felt it incumbent on him to relinquish his crown
and his honors, at their bidding, as cheerfully as he should lay down
his life, when his destined hour should arrive. He counselled them to
bow submissively to their inevitable fate, in the hope that, though
humbled, broken and scattered in this world, they might meet and dwell
together in peace in the paradise of the gods.

His wives and children wept around him. They besought him to hope yet
for the best--to turn away his thoughts from the dark visions on which
he had dwelt too long and too intensely. Their mysterious forebodings of
evil might yet be averted, through the favor of the gods, to whom a
childlike, cheerful confidence in their benignity and paternal regard,
was more acceptable, than that blind abandonment, sometimes mistaken for
submission, which views them as stern, arbitrary, and implacable
tyrants, rather than as parents of the human family, watching over it
for the good of mankind, and ordering all events for the welfare of
their true children.

This was a cheerful faith, and, seasonably adopted, might have saved the
life and throne of Montezuma, and preserved, for many years, the
integrity of his empire. But his heart was not prepared to receive it.
Steeped in the dismal superstitions of the Aztec faith, and yielding
himself unreservedly to the guidance and dictation of its constituted
oracles, he had never, for a moment, allowed himself to falter in his
conviction, that the Aztec dynasty was to terminate with him, and that
he and his family were doomed to a terrible destruction, in the
overthrow of the sacred institutions of his beloved land.

The scene was too thrilling for the tender heart of Tecuichpo, and she
swooned away in the arms of her father, who had drawn her towards him in
an affectionate embrace. The attendants were called, and, as soon as the
unhappy princess was restored to consciousness, the king directed the
royal barges to be prepared, and went out, with all his household, to
enjoy the invigorating air of the lake, and seek relief from the dark
thoughts that oppressed and overwhelmed them, in contemplating, from
various points in view, the rich and varied scenery of that glorious
valley.

It was a brave spectacle to behold, when the imperial majesty of
Tenochtitlan condescended to accompany his little fleet on such an
excursion. The gaily ap