pointed canoes, with their gorgeous canopies of
embroidered cotton, and feather-work; the splendid robes and plumes of
the king and his attendants; the rich and fanciful attire of the women;
the light, graceful, arrowy motions of the painted skiffs, as they
danced along the waves; together with the wonderful beauty of the lake,
and its swimming gardens of flowers, presented a _toute ensemble_ more
like the fairy pictures of some enchanted sphere, than any thing we can
now realize as belonging to this plain, prosaic, matter-of-fact world of
ours. On this occasion, it seemed more gay and fairy-like than ever, in
contrast, perhaps, with the deep gloom that had settled on the land,
pervading every heart, with its sombre shadows.

The light pirogues of the natives, flying hither and thither over the
glassy waters, on errands of business or of pleasure, arrayed in
flowers, or freighted with fruits and vegetables for the grand market of
Tenochtitlan, made way, on every side, for the advance of the royal
cortege, which, threading the shining avenues between the gaily-colored
_chinampas_, that spotted the surface of that beautiful lake, like so
many islands of flowers on the bosom of the ocean, danced over the
waters to the sound of music, and the merry voices of glad hearts,
rejoicing in the sunny smiles that now played on the countenance of the
king, as if the clouds that had so long overshadowed it, were never to
return. Tecuichpo, restored to more than her wonted gaiety, was full of
life and animation. Never had she seemed, in the eyes of her doting
father, and of the admiring courtiers, half so lovely as at this moment.
She was the centre attraction for all eyes. Her resplendent beauty, her
fairy-like gracefulness of motion, and the artless simplicity of her
manners, won the admiring notice of all. Her gaiety was infectious. Her
merry laugh reached, with a sort of electric influence, every heart in
that bright company, and compelled even her father to abandon, for the
time, his sad and solemn reflections, and give himself up to the spirit
of the hour and the scene.

Guatimozin was there, and exerted all his eloquence to keep up the
spirit of the hour, in the earnest hope that Montezuma would put on all
the monarch again, and assert the majesty of his insulted crown, and the
rights of his house and his people, in despite of omen or legend, and in
the face of every foe.

Tecuichpo became more and more animated, till she see