m. They have not the soul of an Aztec, who scorns to receive a favor
that does not pledge his heart in return. The Spaniard's heart has
nothing to do with his hand. He takes your gift, only to be the better
able to plot and compass your ruin."

The Emperor sighed, as he listened to a remark, to which he could make
no reply. It brought again before his agitated mind, the only course he
could safely adopt in the present crisis of his affairs. In vain did his
paternal heart second the suggestion, and his kingly pride urge its
immediate adoption. He had not the moral courage to execute his own
resolve. Superstition had wholly unmanned him.

* * * * *

The victorious Spaniard had now reached the goal he had so long aimed
at. But his position was far from agreeable, or promising. With a small
force, he was completely shut up in the heart of an immense and powerful
empire, teeming with millions of warriors, who were deemed terrible and
invincible by those whom he had found so formidable, and who might, at a
word or a look from their sovereign, either rush in and overwhelm him at
once, or withhold all supplies, and leave them to perish of famine in
their quarters.

Cortez realized the critical position into which he was drawn, and
resolved immediately on one of his bold measures, to turn it to his own
advantage. Soliciting an interview with Montezuma, in which he was
accompanied by some of his bravest cavaliers, he informed the monarch,
that it was not an idle curiosity that had drawn him to encounter the
perils, and undergo the toils, of the adventure that had brought him to
the capital. He came, as the accredited ambassador of the mighty monarch
of Castile, to whom many kings and many broad lands were tributary, and
who was the rightful lord of all the territories on which his armies had
set their foot. And the object of the present interview was, to demand
of the king an acknowledgment of his allegiance to his royal master, and
his consent to pay an annual tribute for his crown.

The mind of the superstitious Montezuma had long been preparing for this
acknowledgment. With little apparent constraint, therefore, he responded
to this haughty demand--that the oracles of his religion had long ago
instructed him, that the territories over which he reigned belonged to a
race of white men, who had removed to other lands beyond the rising sun,
but would return, in process of time, invested with more