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seal, with various other valuable things, and commissioned them to
repair to Tezcuco, and secretly show his signet to all his relations,
and those chiefs of the city whom they knew were ill inclined towards
Cacamatzin, on account of his haughty behaviour, and command them to
seize him, and those who supported him, and bring them to Mexico.

These officers accordingly set out immediately for Tezcuco, and
fulfilled their orders so promptly, that they seized Cacamatzin in his
own palace amidst his adherents, five of whom were also taken. They were
bound hand and foot, thrown into canoes, which were lying ready, well
manned, and so brought to Mexico.

When the officers had arrived there with the prisoners, they allowed
Cacamatzin to mount his royal sedan, and so conducted him, with every
respect due to his station, into the presence of Motecusuma.

In his discourse with Motecusuma, Cacamatzin showed even more audacity
than before; and when the monarch learnt from the other five prisoners
that he had designed to deprive him of the crown, and place it on his
own head, he grew terribly exasperated. He ordered the five other
prisoners to be released, but Cacamatzin to be conducted into the
presence of Cortes, that the latter might take him into his own custody.

Upon this, Cortes repaired to the monarch, thanked him for this great
proof of his friendship, and, with the approbation of Motecusuma, raised
the brother of Cacamatzin, who, as above related, had fled for
protection to Motecusuma, to the throne of Tezcuco. This was done with
great pomp and ceremony, and the election of this new king was hailed by
the inhabitants of that great city, and all the influential men of the
province. The young king of Tezcuco received the name of Don Carlos.[71*]

After the other nephews of Motecusuma, the princes of Cojohuacan,
Iztapalapan, and Tlacupa, had learnt the fate of Cacamatzin, they
naturally concluded that Motecusuma was informed of their having joined
in the conspiracy, and they durst not come, as usual, to pay their court
to him; but the former, in understanding with Cortes, likewise ordered
them to be seized; and scarcely eight days had elapsed before we had the
satisfaction of seeing them all securely locked in chains in our
quarters.

The reader may well imagine from all this that our lives hung, as it
were, by a short thread, and we heard of nothing on all sides than how
we should be cut off to a man, and our bodies devoured. Here a merciful
Providence was our only protection. To him we are alone indebted that
the excellent Motecusuma himself should have furthered all our designs,
and that his subjects, even in his confinement, should have paid
implicit obedience to all his commands. We therefore every way strove to
show the monarch our gratitude for his great kindness; we took every
possible means to amuse him; no one was allowed for one moment to treat
him with disrespect; and Cortes himself even never sat down in his
presence unless he desired him to do so. We not only treated him with
profound respect, but we really loved him; for in all his actions he
indeed proved himself a great monarch. Father Olmedo from time to time
would also speak to him about our holy religion. We also acquainted him
with the great power of our emperor, and the immense extent of his
territories. All of this he would listen to with delight; then again he
would play a game at totoloc with Cortes, and always divided his gains
among us; for liberality was a leading feature in his character.

[71*] The name of the prince was Cuicuitzcatl. (p. 270.)

CHAPTER CI.

 _How the powerful Motecusuma, with several caziques and chief
 personages of the country, declare themselves vassals of our
 emperor; and of other occurrences which happened then._

As peace was again restored to the country after the imprisonment of the
petty kings, Cortes reminded Motecusuma of the offers he had made,
previously to our entering Mexico, to pay tribute to our emperor;
observing at the same time that he must now be sufficiently convinced of
the power and the vast extent of his empire, the number of his vassals,
among whom even there were distinguished sovereigns. It would be good,
therefore, if he, with all his subjects, likewise acknowledged
themselves vassals of our emperor; and it was customary for this act of
submission to be preceded by payment of tribute.

In answer to this, Motecusuma said he was quite willing to assemble all
the grandees of his empire, and deliberate the matter with them: and
after the space of ten days the greater part of the caziques from the
surrounding districts assembled together, with the exception, however,
of the cazique of Matlaltzinco, who was a near relation of Motecusuma,
and considered a man of uncommon bravery; at least his demeanour and
bodily frame fully bespoke it, and he was looked upon as Motecusuma's
successor to the throne of Mexico.

But even this man, it would appear, was seized with terror; for he sent
Motecusuma word from Tula, where he was then staying, that it was
impossible for him to be present at the meeting, and he was unable to
pay tribute; indeed scarcely able to live himself on what his province
produced him.

Enraged at this unexpected answer, Motecusuma despatched some of his
generals to take the refractory prince prisoner. But as he was a very
powerful cazique, he had, of course, numerous adherers, who sent him
intelligence of the steps Motecusuma had determined to take against him;
so that he had sufficient time to retreat into the interior of the
country, where he was quite out of his monarch's reach.

The other chiefs, however, duly assembled at their monarch's bidding;
but neither Cortes nor any of us were present at the meeting, save the
page Orteguilla, from whom we learnt what follows:--Motecusuma opened
the assembly by reminding the caziques of the ancient tradition of their
forefathers, written down in their historical records, of a people that
would one time come from the quarter where the sun rose, who were
destined to rule this country, and put an end to the Mexican empire.
That tradition referred to us, as he concluded, from the declarations of
his gods. The priests of Huitzilopochtli had expressly demanded an
oracle of that god on this point, and had instituted sacrifices for that
purpose; but the god, contrary to his usual custom, had refused the
oracle, and merely referred them to his previous declaration; wherefore
they had not dared to put any further questions. We may therefore
conclude, continued Motecusuma, that Huitzilopochtli meant to say we
were even to take the oath of allegiance to the king of Spain, whose
subjects the teules are. For the present we cannot do otherwise than act
accordingly: we must wait to see if our gods will give a better response
some time hence, we can then act as circumstances require. He therefore
desired and commanded them, for their own good, cheerfully to give some
proof of their allegiance to the Spanish monar

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