By Right of Conquest; Or, With Cortez in Mexico

by G. A. Henty

"You were right, Roger Hawkshaw, in warning us against these men. They are without faith and honor, thus to seize a host who has loaded them with presents, who has emptied his treasuries to appease their greed, and who has treated them with the most extraordinary condescension. It is a crime unheard of, an act of base ingratitude, without a parallel. What is to be done?"

Roger was silent. Such a situation, so strange and unlooked for, confounded him.

"I should say," Cuitcatl burst out passionately, "that every Mexican should take up arms, and annihilate this handful of invaders. What though Montezuma fall? Better that a monarch should perish than a nation. Besides, Montezuma has shown himself unfit to govern. It is his weakness that has brought things to this pass. Think you that the white men could ever have advanced beyond the plateau of Tlascala, had all the forces of Mexico barred the way? Think you that they could ever have entered the capital, had it been defended with resolution? One moment he flattered the strangers and loaded them with gifts; the next he was ready to send his forces against them. The Cholulans had good reason for believing that he designed the annihilation of the Whites, if he did not actually order the attack upon them.

"So on the seacoast. Had the chiefs believed that Montezuma was really friendly to the whites, would they ever have attacked them? There were two courses open: he might from the first have received the Spaniards frankly, and sent a mission to escort them honorably to the capital; or he might have called upon every man in his dominion to take up arms, and drive them into the sea. He took neither. It is he who has brought them here; and it is better, a thousand times, that he should die than that ruin should fall upon the country.

"My advice is, that the troops be called out; that messengers be sent to every city in the valley, bidding them send in their contingent; and that we march to aid the people of Mexico to annihilate this handful of treacherous white men."

Cacama was silent. The advice was in accordance with his own feelings and temperament; but the extreme reverence with which the Aztecs regarded their emperor paralyzed him.

"We shall see," he said, gloomily. "In a short time we shall know why Montezuma thus tamely suhmitted to be made a prisoner. He may have some motives which we cannot fathom. I cannot believe him to be a coward. No Aztec monarch, yet, has ever shown want of courage."

Three or four days later, another event occurred which heightened the fury of the Mexicans against the Spaniards. The cazique who had attacked the Spaniards on the coast arrived at Mexico, accompanied by his son and fifteen other chiefs who had acted with them. Montezuma referred the matter to the examination of Cortez. The cazique admitted the part he had taken in the attack on the Spaniards, and did not seek to shelter himself under royal authority; until sentence of death was passed on him and the other chiefs, when they all declared that they had acted on the authority of Montezuma. They were condemned to be burnt alive, in the space in front of the palace, and this sentence was carried out.

Not content with this, Cortez placed irons upon Montezuma himself, saying there could now be no longer a doubt as to his guilt. After the execution was carried out, Montezuma was released from his fetters.

The news of this insult to their monarch created a profound impression upon the Mexicans. Although they despised the weakness of a sovereign who appeared ready to suffer every indignity, and yet to claim an appearance of courtesy and goodwill towards his oppressors, the bolder spirits determined that the nation should be no longer humiliated in the person of its sovereign, and that even should it cost Montezuma his life, an effort should be made to overthrow his oppressors.