d palace of Flora. The very air was redolent of the
incense of flowers, which brightened the day with their bloom, and of
the odoriferous gums, whose blaze extended the reign of day far into the
realms of night.

It was a national festival, a season of universal rejoicing. The people
now believed that their days of darkness and temporary depression were
passed, and that all the power and glory of the days of Montezuma would
be restored, under those happy auspices which made his favorite daughter
a sharer of his throne. The priests sanctioned and confirmed this
belief, to the utmost of their power and influence, giving it out, with
that oracular force and dignity, which they so well knew how to assume,
that such was the true interpretation of all the singular predictions
and presages, which intimated that the life of the princess would close
with unusual splendor. In this manner, they encouraged the hopes of the
nation, confirmed its allegiance to its new Emperor, and united all its
forces in a solid phalanx of resistance to every foreign encroachment.

When these ceremonies were concluded, and the imperial pageant passed
from Chapoltepec to the capital, there was a new and still more
imposing display of the reverence and loyalty of this singular people,
and of the more than oriental magnificence with which they sustained the
splendors of royalty. The road, through the entire distance, was swept,
sprinkled, and strewed with flowers. The elite of the army, and the
nobility in the gayest costumes, formed a brilliant and numerous escort,
accompanied with flaunting banners, and every species of spirit-stirring
music then known to Aztecs. The imperial cortege, consisting of a long
array of magnificent palanquins, with their gorgeous canopies of
feather-work, all a-blaze with gold and jewels, borne on the shoulders
of princes and nobles, occupied the centre of the grand procession.
Those of the Emperor and Empress, which moved side by side, were
distinguished by the exceeding costliness and beauty of their
decorations, and by the superior height of their canopies, whose sides
and ends curved gracefully to a point in the centre, about three feet
above the cornice, which was surmounted by the imperial diadem of
Mexico. These were followed by the queen mother, and other members of
the royal household, conveyed in a style but little inferior to the
first. This cortege was immediately preceded and followed by all the
priests and p