rt and easy one, from
the imperial city. Already they had seen it from a distance, resting,
or rather riding, on the bosom of the lake, glowing and glittering in
the sunbeams, like some resplendent constellation, transferred from the
azure above to the azure below. They had seen its noble ally, the
metropolis of the sister kingdom of Tezcuco, shining in rival though
unequal splendor, on the opposite shore of the lake, and many other
splendid cities, beautiful towns, and lovely hamlets, studding its
bright border, in its entire circuit, like mingled gems and pearls,
richly set in the band of the imperial diadem, all reposing under the
shadow, and eclipsed by the superior glory, of the capital, the crowning
jewel of the Western World. They had seen the _chinampas_, those
wandering gardens of verdure and flowers, seeming more like the fairy
creations of poetry, than the sober realities of life, and reminding
them of those islands of the blest, which they had been told, in their
childish days, floated about in the ethereal regions above, freighted
with blessings for the virtuous, and sometimes stooping so near to earth
as to permit the weary and the waiting to escape from their toils and
trials here, and find repose in their celestial paradise. They had seen
and admired the wonderful works of art, the causeways of vast extent,
constructed with scientific accuracy, and of great strength and
durability--the canals and aqueducts, and bridges, which would have done
honor to the genius and industry of the proudest nation in Europe. It
now remained to them to see the imperial lord of all these wide and
luxuriant realms, and to enter, as invited guests, into the gates of his
royal abode.

CHAPTER V.

ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS AT THE CAPITAL--THEIR RECEPTION
BY MONTEZUMA--DETERMINED HOSTILITY OF GUATIMOZIN.

~Hark! at the very portals now they stand,
Demanding entrance. Can I shut them out,
When all the gods commission them to come?
Can we admit them, and preserve intact
Our honor and the state?~

The spectacle of this day, the eighth of November, 1519, has not its
parallel in the annals of history, and will probably never be repeated
in the history of man. The sovereign and absolute monarch of a populous
and powerful empire, stooping from his imperial throne, flinging wide
open the gates of his capital, and condescending to go out, and receive
with an apparent welcome an invading foe, whom he