ommon consent)
Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent."

(_To be continued_.)

MASTER MONTEZUMA.

(_With Illustrations copied from Mexican Hieroglyphics_.)

By C.C. HASKINS.

[Note.--Montezuma II., the last of the Aztec (or native Mexican)
emperors, was born about 1480. He was taken prisoner by Hernando
Cortes, the commander of the Spanish army which conquered Mexico, and,
in the hope of quelling an insurrection which had arisen among his
former subjects, he consented to address them from the walls of his
prison. Stung by the apparent desertion of their leader to the cause
of the enemy, the Mexicans assaulted him with stones and other
missiles. He was struck on the temple by one of the stones, and died
from the effects in a few days. The illustrations are true copies of
old Mexican pictures, which appeared originally in the "Collection
of Mendoza," a work frequently referred to by all writers on ancient
Mexico.--C.C.H.]

The Emperor Montezuma was a great man, and historians have recorded
much about him, but of his earlier life, when he was plain Master
Montezuma, comparatively little is known of this rising young
gentleman.

Master M. commenced his earthly career as a crying baby, in the
year "one cane," which, when properly figured down according to the
Gregorian calendar, would be about the year of our Lord 1480.

No sooner had Master M. reached the fourth day of his existence, than
the nurse, under instructions from his anxious mamma, took off what
few clothes the poor boy had on, and repairing to the baptismal font
in the yard, sprinkled cold water upon his naked breast and lips,
presented his credentials in the shape of offerings to propitiate the
gods of war, agriculture, etc., whose names you will find further
along in this history, repeated a prayer in which "the Lord was
implored to wash away the sin that was given him before the foundation
of the world, so that the child might be born anew," and told the
three little boys who sat near by, what Master M.'s name was to be.
The three little boys left off eating their parched corn, and boiled
beans, repeated the name, and the little baby was christened.

Now, if Master M. had been a girl--which he was not--the offerings
would have been a mat, a spinning machine and a broom, all of which
would have been buried under the _metate_, the stone where corn was
ground. As it was, the offerings were implements of war, articles o