of a chess-board.

"Every day, as soon as it was light, six hundred nobles and men of rank
were in attendance at the palace, who either sat or walked about the
halls and galleries, and passed their time in conversation, but without
entering the apartments where his person was.... Daily his larder and
wine-cellar[45] were open to all who wished to eat and drink. The meals
were served by three hundred youths, who brought on an infinite variety
of dishes; indeed, whenever he dined or supped, the table was loaded
with every kind of flesh, fish, and vegetables that the country
produced. The meals were served in a large hall, in which Montezuma was
accustomed to eat, and the dishes quite filled the room, which was
covered with mats, and kept very clean. He sat on a small cushion
curiously wrought of leather.[46] He is also dressed four times every
day in four different suits entirely new, which he never wears a second
time. None of the caciques who enter his palace have their feet
covered, and when those for whom he sends enter his presence, they
incline their heads and look down, bending their bodies; and when they
address him, they do not look him in the face; this arises from
excessive modesty and reverence....[47] No sultan or other infidel lord,
of whom any knowledge now exists, ever had so much ceremonial in his
court."

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SPANIARDS.

It was in the spring of 1519 that Cortez and his company had landed at
Vera Cruz. From that point they had marched toward Mexico without
opposition, except the skirmishes with the Tlascalans, and without
opposition they had entered the city of Mexico on the 5th of November,
1519. Here they had been received with every mark of hospitality and
treated with every kindness. But this did not prevent their
treacherously seizing the person of their host, and making him a
prisoner in their quarters. In his name they had governed his tribe,
and ransacked his dominions in search of the treasures collected by the
gold-washers, and had even interfered in the religious worship of a
superstitious people, and murdered, in cold blood, a party of their
chiefs celebrating an Indian feast. Still there had been no war, until
Ordaz was sent, with his four hundred men, to recapture the concubines
of Cortez, who had been rescued, as already mentioned. This was in July
of the following year, eight months after their first entry into
Mexico, and on the 10th of July, 1520, the licentious rule