t long after the departure of Cortez, one of the great national
festivals of the Aztecs occurred, at which the flower of the nobility,
not of Tenochtitlan alone, but of all the neighboring cities and towns,
were present. They came only to the peaceful performance of the wonted
rites of their religion, and consequently came unarmed. Their numbers
were very great. They were all apparelled in the richest costume of
their country. Their snow white vestments, their splendid mantles of
feather-work, powdered all over with jewels; their sandals of gold or
silver, and their gaudy head-dresses of many-colored plumes, made an
imposing and magnificent display, as they moved in solemn procession, to
the simple music of their shells and horns, towards the court yard of
the great Teocalli, where the festival was to be celebrated. The immense
area was thronged with the gay multitude of worshippers, who,
unsuspicious of treachery, gave themselves up to the wild dances and all
the customary evolutions of Indian festivity. In the midst of their
solemn sports, Alvarado, with his band of armed followers, rushed in,
like so many tigers let loose upon their prey, and put them to an
indiscriminate slaughter. Scarce one of that gay company escaped the
ruthless massacre. The holy place was drenched with the best blood of
Anahuac, and mourning, desolation, and wo were carried into all the
principal families in the land.

It was a fearful stroke, and fearfully was it repaid upon the heads of
the guilty murderers. On every side the cry of vengeance arose, and its
hoarse murmurs came rolling in upon the capital, like the distant
howlings of a gathering tempest. Myriads of outraged Aztecs, smarting
and chafing under their wounds, and thirsting for a worthy revenge,
thronged the avenues to the capital, and demanded the treacherous
strangers to be offered in sacrifice to their offended gods. Guatimozin,
and many other brave, powerful, fearless chiefs were there, eager to
seize the opportunity to chastise the insolent intruder. Day after day,
they stormed the quarters of the beleaguered foe, pouring in upon them
vollies of arrows, darts and stones, that sorely discomfited, though it
could not dislodge them. Every assailable point was so well guarded by
those terrible engines of destruction, the fire-belching artillery, that
the assailants, numerous as they were, and spurred on by an ungovernable
rage, could make but little impression upon them. Neverthe