sults, in accordance with their superstitious veneration for the
oracles of their faith. The third day after the departure of the envoys,
the king was pacing up and down one of the beautifully shaded walks of
the royal gardens, listening with a disturbed mind to the powerful
expostulations of his brother, Cuitlahua, who, from the beginning, had
vehemently opposed every concession to the invaders, and urgently
solicited permission to lead the army against them, and drive them from
the land. Suddenly, a voice as of a distant choir of chanters arrested
his ear. The melody was solemn, sweet and soothing. It seemed to come
sometimes from the upper regions of the air, in tones of silvery
clearness and power, sometimes from beneath, in suppressed and muffled
harmony, as when the swell organ soliloquises with all its valves
closed,--sometimes it retreated, as if dying into an echo along the
distant avenues of royal palms and aged cypresses, or the citron and
orange groves that skirted the farther end of the garden, and then,
suddenly, and with great power, it burst in the full tide of impassioned
song, from every tree and bower in that vast paradise of terrestrial
sweets. Enchanted by the more than Circean melody, the brothers paused
in their animated discourse, and stood, for a few moments, in silent
wonder and fixed attention. Presently the chanting ceased, and one
solitary voice broke forth in plaintive but emphatic recitative as from
the midst of the sparkling jet that played its ceaseless tune in the
grand porphyritic basin near which they stood. The words, which were
simple and oracular, struck deep into the heart of Montezuma, and found
a ready response in that of his royal brother.

The lion[C] walks forth in his power and pride,
The terror and lord of the forest wide--
When the fox appears, shall he flee and hide?

* * * * *

The eagle's nest is strong and high,
Unquestioned monarch of the sky--
Should he quail before the falcon's eye?

* * * * *

The sun rides forth through the heavens afar,
Dispensing light from his flaming car--
Should he veil his glory, or turn him back,
When the meteor flashes athwart his track?

* * * * *

Shall the eagle invite the hawk to his nest?
Shall the fox with the lion sit down as a guest?
Shall the meteor look out from the