the brave soldier exhibited to the wondering strangers, all the riches
and curiosities of the place, disposing every thing in such a manner as
to impress them most powerfully with the immense wealth of the empire,
and the irresistible power of the Emperor. He collected around him all
the richest and most potent nobles in his neighborhood, and displayed a
magnificence of style, and a prodigality of expenditure, that was truly
princely. The extent and beauty of his gardens, his beautiful aviary,
stocked with every variety of the gorgeously plumed birds of that
tropical clime, his menagerie, containing a full representation of all
the wild races of animals in Anahuac, struck the Spaniards with surprise
and admiration; while the architecture of his palaces, and the many
refinements of his style of living, gave them the highest ideas of the
advanced state of civilization to which the Mexicans had attained.

But, so far from disheartening them in their grand design, all they saw
of wealth and splendor in the inferior cities, only served to inflame
their desire to see the capital, and learn if any thing more brilliant
and wonderful than they had yet seen, could be furnished at the great
metropolis. While they were daily more and more convinced of the power
and resources of their enemy, and the seeming impossibility of their own
enterprise, they were also daily more and more inflamed with the desire
and purpose to possess themselves of the incalculable treasures which
every where met their eyes. The cold aspect, and lofty bearing of the
Prince Cuitlahua, the commander-in-chief of the Mexican armies, and heir
apparent to its throne, left no doubt that the final struggle for power
would be ably and bitterly contested, and that the wealth they so
ardently coveted, would be dearly bought. To a heart less bold and
self-reliant than that of Cortez, it would have been no enviable
position, to be shut up, with his little band of followers, within the
gates of a city, commanded by so brave and experienced a soldier, whose
personal feelings and views were known to be of the most hostile
character. To the iron-hearted Castilian, it was but a scene in the
progress of his romantic adventure; and, the greater the difficulty, the
more imminent the peril, the more cordially he trusted to his good
genius, or his patron saint, he seems not to have known which, to carry
him triumphantly through.

They were now but one day's march, and that a sho