the Aztecs were, on their part, no less
interested and amazed at the spectacle presented by their strange
visitors. An intense and all-absorbing curiosity pervaded the entire
mass of the people. Nothing could surpass their wonder and admiration of
the prancing steeds, or four legged and double-headed men, as to their
simple view they seemed to be, the rider as he sat with ease in his
saddle, appearing to be but a part of the animal on which he rode. The
piercing tones of the loud mouthed trumpets, astonished and delighted
them exceedingly. But the deep thunder of the artillery as it burst upon
them amid volumes of sulphurous smoke and flame, and then rolled away in
long reverberated echoes among the mountains, filled them with
indescribable alarm, and made them feel that the all-destroying god of
war was indeed among them in the guise of men.

While these scenes were enacting in the city, the palace was shrouded in
the deepest gloom. When the monarch arrayed himself, in the morning, to
go forth to meet the strangers, several incidents occurred, which were
deemed peculiarly ominous, confirming all the superstitious forebodings
of the king, and tending to take away from the yet trusting hearts of
his household, their last remaining hope. The imperial clasp, which
bound his girdle in front, bearing as its device, richly engraven on the
precious _chalchivitl_, the emblem of despotic power, which was the
eagle pouncing upon the ocelot--snapped in twain, scattering the
fragments of the eagle's head upon the marble pavement. The principal
jewel in the royal diadem was found loose, and trembling in its setting.
But, more portentous than all to the mind of the devout Montezuma, the
priest, who had charge of the great altar on the Teocalli of
Huitzilopotchli, had been seized with convulsions during the preceding
night, and fallen dead at his post. The perpetual fire had gone out, for
want of a hand to replenish it, and when the morning sun shot his first
beams upon that high altar, there was not a spark among the blackened
embers, to answer his reviving glow.

It was impossible to shake off the influence of presages like these.
From infancy, he had been taught to read in all such incidents, the
shadowy revealings of the will of the gods, the dark lines of destiny
foreshown to the faithful. The soul of Montezuma was oppressed almost to
sinking. But he roused himself to his task, and went forth, feeling, as
he went, that the grou