lms of Montezuma, of a band of pale
faced strangers, clad in burnished armor, each having at his command a
beautiful animal of great power, hitherto unknown in that country, that
bore him with the speed of the wind wherever he would go, and seemed,
while he was mounted, to be a part of himself. It described their
weapons, representing them as having the lightning and thunder at their
disposal, which they caused to issue sometimes from dark heavy engines,
which they dragged along the ground, and sometimes from smaller ones
which they carried in their hands. It delineated, faithfully and
skilfully their "water houses," or ships, in which they traversed the
great waters, from a far distant country. The peculiar costume and
bearing of their commander, and of his chiefs, were also happily
represented in the rich coloring for which the Aztecs were
distinguished. Nothing was omitted in their entire array, which could
serve to convey to the eye of the emperor a correct and complete
impression of the appearance, numbers and power of the strangers. It was
all before him, at a glance, a living speaking picture, and told the
story of the invasion as graphically and eloquently, as if he had been
himself a witness of their debarkation, and of their feats of
horsemanship. It was all before him, a terrible living reality. The gods
whom he worshipped had sent these strangers to fulfil their own
irresistible purposes--if, indeed, these were not the gods themselves,
in human form.

The mind of Montezuma was overwhelmed. Like Belshazzar, when the divine
hand appeared writing his doom on the wall, his soul fainted in him, his
knees smote together, and he sat, in blank astonishment, gazing on the
picture before him, as if the very tablet possessed a supernatural power
of destruction.

Paralyzed with the influence of his long indulged fears so singularly
and strikingly realized, the monarch sat alone, neither seeking comfort,
nor asking counsel of any one, till the hour of the evening repast. The
summons aroused him from his reverie; but he regarded it not. He
remained alone, in his own private apartments, during the whole night,
fasting and sleepless, traversing the marble halls in an agony of
agitation.

With the first light of the morning, the shrill notes of the trumpet,
reverberating along the shadowy slopes of the cordilleras, announced the
approach of another courier from the camp of the strangers. It rung in
the ears of the deject