as no time for regrets.
The victorious cavaliers rushed to the sanctuaries to find that the
cross and the image of the Virgin had disappeared from the one they had
appropriated, and that in the other, before the grim figure of
Huitzilopochtli, lay the usual offering of human hearts, possibly those
of their own countrymen! With shouts of triumph the Spaniards tore the
hideous idol from its niche, and in the sight of the horror-stricken
Aztecs hurled it down the steps of the teocalli, and, after having set
fire to the sanctuaries, descended joyfully into the courtyard.

Passing through the ranks of the Mexicans, who were too much dismayed by
all they had witnessed to offer any resistance, they reached their own
quarters in safety, and that very night they followed up the blow they
had struck by sallying forth into the sleeping town and burning three
hundred houses. Cortes now hoped that the natives were sufficiently
subdued to be willing to come to terms with him. He therefore invited
them to a parley, and addressed the principal chiefs, who had assembled
in the great square, from the turret before occupied by Montezuma. As
usual, Marina interpreted for him, and the Indians gazed curiously at
their countrywoman, whose influence with the Spanish general was well
known. Cortes told them that they must now know how little they had to
hope from their opposition to the Spaniards. They had seen their gods
trampled in the dust, their altars destroyed, their dwellings burned,
and their warriors falling on all sides. 'All this,' he continued, 'you
have brought upon yourselves by your rebellion. Yet, for the sake of the
affection felt for you by the sovereign you have treated so unworthily,
I would willingly stay my hand if you will lay down your arms and return
once more to your obedience. But if you do not,' he concluded, 'I will
make your city a heap of ruins, and leave not a soul alive to mourn over
it.'

But the Spanish commander did not yet understand the character of the
Aztecs if he thought to intimidate them by menaces. It was true, they
replied, that he had destroyed their temples, broken in pieces their
gods, and massacred their countrymen. Many more doubtless were yet to
fall under their terrible swords. But they were content so long as for
every thousand Mexicans they could shed the blood of a single white man.
'Look out,' they said, 'upon our streets and terraces. See them still
thronged with warriors as far as your