The Mexicans had stripped the bark from all the trees and had dug up the roots and eaten them, and were still eating their dead companions and drinking salt water, but not one asked for quarter or begged for mercy. All the houses had been destroyed but a small cluster which were still filled by dying Mexicans. The Spaniards and Indians were wading in mire caused by the pools of blood, and closed upon the last remaining Mexicans. Thirteen days of slaughter and starvation had reduced them to skeletons, but they hurled stones with their weak arms at their enemies. As their enemies closed upon them, many plunged into the canal to commit suicide. Twenty Spaniards closed around Guatemotzin and the brave king with buckler and sword stood to receive them all. His subjects begged the conquerors to spare his life. His only remark was that he hoped they would spare his wife and child. When he was taken before Cortez, he proudly walked up to him and said: “Malinche, I have done all a brave man can do, now do what you will.” Then touching a knife in the belt of Cortez, he said: “You had better use that on me.” Cortez afterwards tortured him to make him disclose his wealth and then murdered him.
Of all that mighty host, not one had proved a traitor or begged for mercy, or acted a coward. They had lived by the sword and died by it without a murmur. Probably thirty thousand were left alive on that last day, too weak to fight, and not quite dead from hunger, and that was all that was left of the great Mexican Empire. Of the beautiful dream city, not one stone was left above another and today, only the four causeways are left in the city of Mexico that was a part of Tenochtitlan.
“Here didst thou fall, and here thy hunters stand
Signed in thy spoil, and crimsoned in thy lethe.”
The siege of the city of Tenochtitlan lasted seventy five days.
CHURCH OF SAN AUGUSTIN.
CHAPTER VII.
THE VALLEY OF MEXICO.
WHERE stood the ancient pyramid and temple to the war-god in Tenochtitlan, today stands the great Cathedral facing the Plaza Mayor in the City of Mexico. Where stood Montezuma’s palace is now the National Palace; where was Montezuma’s treasure-house are now the Post-office and National Museum, with Montezuma’s shield, the sacrificial stone from the ancient temple, and a thousand gods and idols inscribed in the ancient Aztec and Toltec languages. Chapultepec, which was used as Montezuma’s summer-house, is still used as the “White House” of Mexico. Montezuma’s favorite cypress tree, which measures fifty feet in circumference, is as green today as any tree in the beautiful park of Chapultepec, and nowhere outside the pages of the Arabian Nights is there such an enchanting, living story as can be seen every day in the City of Mexico.