The lord Cuitlahua heard the patriotic speech with glistening eyes. Undoubtedly he appreciated the self-denial that made it beautiful; for he said, with emotion, “I accept the government, and, as its cares demand, will take my brother’s place in the palace; do you take what else would be my place under him in the field. And may the gods help us each to do his duty!”
He held out his hand, which the ’tzin kissed in token of fealty, and so yielded the crown; and as if the great act were already out of mind, he said, ——
“Come, now, good uncle,—and you, also, Tula,—come both of you, and I will show what use I made of the kingly power.”
He led them closer to the verge of the azoteas, so close that they saw below them the whole western side of the city, and beyond that the lake and its shore, clear to the sierra bounding the valley in that direction.
“There,” said he, in the same strain of simplicity, “there, in the shadow of the hills, I gathered the people of the valley, and the flower of all the tribes that pay us tribute. They make an army the like of which was never seen. The chiefs are chosen; you may depend upon them, uncle. The whole great host will die for you.”
“Say, rather, for us,” said the lord Cuitlahua.
“No, you are now Anahuac”; and, as deeming the point settled, the ’tzin turned to Tula. “O good heart,” he said, “you have been a witness to all the preparation. At your signal, given there by the palace gate, I kindled the piles which yet burn, as you see, at the four corners of the temple. Through them I spoke to the chiefs and armies waiting on the lake-shore. Look now, and see their answers.”
They looked, and from the shore and from each pretentious summit of the sierra, saw columns of smoke rising and melting into the sky.
“In that way the chiefs tell me, ‘We are ready,’ or ‘We are coming.’ And we cannot doubt them; for see, a dark line on the white face of the causeway to Cojohuacan, its head nearly touching the gates at Xoloc; and another from Tlacopan; and from the north a third; and yonder on the lake, in the shadow of Chapultepec, a yet deeper shadow.”
“I see them,” said Cuitlahua.