It was a national festival, a season of universal rejoicing. The people now believed that their days of darkness and temporary depression were passed, and that all the power and glory of the days of Montezuma would be restored, under those happy auspices which made his favorite daughter a sharer of his throne. The priests sanctioned and confirmed this belief, to the utmost of their power and influence, giving it out, with that oracular force and dignity, which they so well knew how to assume, that such was the true interpretation of all the singular predictions and presages, which intimated that the life of the princess would close with unusual splendor. In this manner, they encouraged the hopes of the nation, confirmed its allegiance to its new Emperor, and united all its forces in a solid phalanx of resistance to every foreign encroachment.
When these ceremonies were concluded, and the imperial pageant passed from Chapoltepec to the capital, there was a new and still more imposing display of the reverence and loyalty of this singular people, and of the more than oriental magnificence with which they sustained the splendors of royalty. The road, through the entire distance, was swept, sprinkled, and strewed with flowers. The elite of the army, and the nobility in the gayest costumes, formed a brilliant and numerous escort, accompanied with flaunting banners, and every species of spirit-stirring music then known to Aztecs. The imperial cortege, consisting of a long array of magnificent palanquins, with their gorgeous canopies of feather-work, all a-blaze with gold and jewels, borne on the shoulders of princes and nobles, occupied the centre of the grand procession. Those of the Emperor and Empress, which moved side by side, were distinguished by the exceeding costliness and beauty of their decorations, and by the superior height of their canopies, whose sides and ends curved gracefully to a point in the centre, about three feet above the cornice, which was surmounted by the imperial diadem of Mexico. These were followed by the queen mother, and other members of the royal household, conveyed in a style but little inferior to the first. This cortege was immediately preceded and followed by all the priests and prophets of the nation, in their splendid pontificals, and bearing the showy insignia of their various orders. An immense train of the most respectable citizens, merchants, mechanics, artizans, husbandmen, and men of every honorable profession brought up the rear. They were scarcely less gay and brilliant in their costume than the escort and immediate attendants of the monarch, though somewhat less uniform in the style of their decorations. The road, through its entire length, was flanked by women and children, young men and maidens, in their gala dresses, with baskets and chaplets of flowers, which they continually showered upon the path, in front of the royal palanquins, thus renewing, at every step of its progress, the floral carpet, whose freshness and beauty the long escort had trampled out. Ever and anon a shout would go up from that vast multitude, so loud and long, that its echoes, reverberated along the mountain walls that shut in that beautiful valley from the great world, would be heard for many a league around. Then, from some little group of trained chanters, a song of right loyal welcome would burst forth, accompanied with showers of roses, and followed by a chorus from thousands of sweet voices—
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Welcome! welcome! warrior, king— Thrice welcome with the prize you bring. Star of Montezuma’s line, O’er the empire, rise and shine! Flower of Montezuma’s race Return, thy father’s halls to grace! Welcome, thrice welcome, mighty one! The nation’s heart shall be thy throne. |
CHAPTER IX.
FESTIVITIES AT THE COURT OF GUATIMOZIN—HYMENEAL VOW.
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Heaven gave to Adam one, and so proclaimed Her full equality to man. He who Can ask for more, knows not the worth of one, And so deserves not any— |
The imperial court of Tenochtitlan was now again the radiant centre of attraction to the confederated and tributary nations of Anahuac. The terror of Guatimozin’s arm was even more dreaded than that of Montezuma. He was a mighty man of valor, of that impetuous courage, and that bold directness of action, which executes at a blow the purposes and plans, which, with common minds, would require time and deliberation. He was at the same time of a generous magnanimous disposition, open, frank, unsuspecting, and won the affectionate regard, as well as the prompt unquestioning obedience of his people. He had too much good sense, and too wise a regard to the dignity of those who should attend upon the person of majesty, to require of his nobles, the officers of his court and household, those humiliating attentions which were exacted by Montezuma. He saw that the only effect of such exactions was to weaken and effeminate the character of some of his greatest chieftains, reducing them from proud and powerful friends to fawning cringing slaves. They were no longer shrouded in the sombre nequen, as they entered the royal presence, nor did they go barefoot, with their eyes cast down to the earth, when they bore the monarch in his luxurious palanquin. Arrayed in all their costly finery, with golden or silver sandals, and with a bold, manly, cheerful bearing, as if they gloried in the precious treasure which it was their privilege, more than their duty, to protect and to care for, the imperial palanquin seemed rather their trophy than their burden, which they were far more ready to bear, than their master was to occupy. He was too active and stirring a spirit, to submit often to such a luxurious conveyance. He was ever in the midst of his chiefs, consulting and acting for the public good. He freely discussed with them the great measures of defence, which he put in progress, and evinced the remarkable and rare good sense, to adopt wise and politic suggestions, however humble the source from which they emanated, and to change his opinion at once when it was shown to be wrong. He superintended, in person, the repairing and enlarging of the fortifications, and the improvement of the tactics and discipline of the army. By a frugal expenditure of the vast revenues of the crown, and a careful preservation of the treasures left by his predecessors, he accumulated an amount more than equal to the exigencies of a long and wasting struggle with all the combined foes of the realm.
Meanwhile, the gay saloons of the palace of Montezuma were gayer than they had ever been. For a brief season, the clouds that had so long hung over the fate of the lovely Tecuichpo seemed to be dissipated. The skies were all bright above her, and every thing around her wore a cheerful and promising aspect. Attracted by her resplendent beauty, the unaffected ease and graciousness of her manners, and the queenly magnificence of her court, the youth, beauty, wit, talent and chivalry of the nation, gathered about her, and made her life a perpetual gala-day, rivalling in brilliancy and effect the best days of the gayest courts in Europe.