d to
by the mournful tones of the great drum of the temple, by ten measured
muffled strokes, conveying the melancholy intelligence to every dwelling
in Tenochtitlan.

The breathing of that populous city was now one universal wail, that
seemed to penetrate the very heavens. Partly from a sincere regard for
the fallen monarch, and partly from the hope that he might thus
conciliate the good will of his afflicted subjects, Cortez directed his
remains to be placed in a splendid coffin, and borne in solemn
procession, by his own nobles, to his palace, that it might be interred
with the customary regal honors. It was received by his people with
every demonstration of affectionate joy and respect. Conveyed with great
pomp to the castle of Chapoltepec, followed by an immense train of
priests, nobles, and common people, it was interred amid all the
imposing ceremonies of the Aztec religion. His wives and children,
frantic with grief, gathered around those hallowed remains, and
testified, by all those tender and delicate tokens which seem the
natural expression of a refined feminine sorrow, their profound sense of
the inestimable loss they had sustained.

By one of those singular coincidences, which tend so strongly to confirm
the too easy credulity of the superstitious, and give an unnatural
emphasis to the common accidents of life, it was the festival of the new
moon, the very day on which Montezuma had promised Tecuichpo that he
would join the household circle at Chapoltepec, that his lifeless
remains were borne thither, in the solemn funereal procession.

"Alas! my father," she cried, "is this the fulfilment of that only
promise which sustained my sinking courage in the hour of separation?"
She said no more. The more profound the sorrow, the fewer words it has
to spare. "The shallow murmur, but the deep are dumb."

CHAPTER VIII.

BRIEF REIGN OF CUITLAHUA--EXPULSION OF THE
SPANIARDS--GUATIMOZIN CHOSEN EMPEROR--HIS MARRIAGE
WITH TECUICUPO.

~Grief follows grief. The crowned head
So late the nation's hope, is laid
Low in the dust.~

* * * * *

~Defeat and triumph, tears and smiles,
Life, death, true glory and the depths of shame,
The funeral pall and the pure bridal robe,
In close proximity--~

The sacred dust restored to its native earth, and the last hallowed
rites performed over the sepulchre of the departed, the thoughts of th