pprehensive of ultimate defeat
and ruin, applied once more to Montezuma, proposing that he should
appear in person before his people, and require them to lay down their
arms, retire to their homes, and leave his guests in peaceable
possession of the quarters he had voluntarily assigned them.

Arrayed in his royal robes, with the imperial diadem upon his head,
preceded by his officers of state, bearing the golden wands, the emblem
of despotic power, and accompanied by a considerable train of his own
nobles, and some of the principal Castilian cavaliers, the unfortunate
monarch appeared on the battlements, to remonstrate with his own people
for their zeal in the defence of his crown and honor, and appease the
rage of his subjects for insults offered to his own person, and to those
of his loyal nobles. His presence was instantly recognized by the
thronging multitudes below and around. Some prostrated themselves on the
earth in profound reverence, some bent the knee, and all waited in
breathless silence to hear that voice, which had so long ruled them with
despotic sway.

With a sad, but at the same time a calm and dignified tone, the monarch
addressed them, "My children," said he, "why are you here in this fierce
array. The strangers are my friends. I abide with them as their
voluntary guest, and all that you do against them is done against me,
your sovereign and father."

When the monarch declared himself the friend of the detested Spaniard, a
murmur of discontent and rage arose, and ran through the assembled host.
Their ungovernable fury burst at once the barrier of loyalty, and vented
itself in curses upon the king who could, in the hour of their peril,
thus basely forsake his people, and endeavor to betray them into the
hands of a treacherous and blood thirsty foe. "Base Aztec!" they cried,
"woman! coward! go back to the viper friends whom you have taken to your
bosom. No longer worthy to reign over us, we cast away our allegiance
for ever." At the same moment, some powerful arm, more fearless than the
rest, aimed a huge stone at the unprotected head of the king, which
brought him senseless to the ground. His attendants, put off their
guard by the previous calm and reverential attention of the crowd, were
taken by surprise. In vain they interposed their shields and bucklers,
to protect his person from further violence. The fatal blow was struck.
The great Montezuma had received his death-wound from the hand of one of