of about
half a league from the capital, it was also traversed by a thick heavy
wall of stone, about twelve feet high, surmounted and fortified by
towers at each extremity. In the centre was a battlemented gateway, of
sufficient strength to resist any force that could be brought against
it, by the rude enginery of native warfare. This was called the Fort of
Xoloc.

Here they were met by a very numerous and powerful body of Aztec nobles,
splendidly arrayed in their gayest costume, who came to announce the
approach of Montezuma, and again in his name to bid the strangers
welcome to the capital. As each of the chiefs presented himself, in his
turn, to Cortez, and made the customary formal salutation, a
considerable time was consumed in the ceremony; which was somewhat more
tedious than interesting to the hot spirited Spaniards.

When this was over, they passed briskly on, and soon beheld the
glittering retinue of the Emperor emerging from the principal gate of
the city. The royal palanquin, blazing with burnished gold and precious
stones, was borne on the shoulders of the principal nobles of the land,
while crowds of others, of equal or inferior rank, thronged in
obsequious attendance around. It was preceded by three officers, bearing
golden wands. Over it was a canopy of gaudy feather-work, powdered with
jewels, and fringed with silver, resting on four richly carved and
inlaid pillars, and supported by four nobles of the same rank with the
bearers. These were all bare-footed, and walked with a slow measured
pace, as conscious of the majesty of their burden, and with eyes bent on
the ground. Arrived within a convenient distance, the train halted, and
Montezuma, alighting from his palanquin, came forward, leaning on the
arms of his royal relatives, the lords of Tezcuco and Iztapalapan. As
the monarch advanced, under the same gorgeous canopy which had before
screened him from the public gaze, and the glare of the mid-day sun, the
ground was covered with cotton tapestry, while all his subjects of high
and low degree, who lined the sides of the causeway, bent their heads
and fixed their eyes on the ground, as unworthy to look upon so much
majesty. Some prostrated themselves on the ground before him, and all
in that mighty throng were awed by his presence into a silence that was
absolutely oppressive.

The appearance of Montezuma was in the highest degree interesting to the
Spanish general and his followers. Flung over his s