enoctitlan, and
being on the edge of the territory of the Tlascalans his allies, it was
most suitable to Cortes as a base of action. And then began one of the
most terrible wars that the world has seen. For eight months it raged,
and when it ceased at length, Tenoctitlan, and with it many other
beautiful and populous towns, were blackened ruins, the most of the
Aztecs were dead by sword and famine, and their nation was crushed for
ever. Of all the details of this war I do not purpose to write, for were
I to do so, there would be no end to this book, and I have my own tale
to tell. These, therefore, I leave to the maker of histories. Let it be
enough to say that the plan of Cortes was to destroy all her vassal and
allied cities and peoples before he grappled with Mexico, queen of the
valley, and this he set himself to do with a skill, a valour, and a
straightness of purpose, such as have scarcely been shown by a general
since the days of Caesar.

Iztapalapan was the first to fall, and here ten thousand men, women, and
children were put to the sword or burned alive. Then came the turn of
the others; one by one Cortes reduced the cities till the whole girdle
of them was in his hand, and Tenoctitlan alone remained untouched. Many
indeed surrendered, for the nations of Anahuac being of various blood
were but as a bundle of reeds and not as a tree. Thus when the power of
Spain cut the band of empire that bound them together, they fell this
way and that, having no unity. So it came about that as the power
of Guatemoc weakened that of Cortes increased, for he garnered these
loosened reeds into his basket. And, indeed, now that the people saw
that Mexico had met her match, many an ancient hate and smouldering
rivalry broke into flame, and they fell upon her and tore her, like
half-tamed wolves upon their master when his scourge is broken. It was
this that brought about the fall of Anahuac. Had she remained true to
herself, had she forgotten her feuds and jealousies and stood against
the Spaniards as one man, then Tenoctitlan would never have fallen, and
Cortes with every Teule in his company had been stretched upon the stone
of sacrifice.

Did I not say when I took up my pen to write this book that every wrong
revenges itself at last upon the man or the people that wrought it?
So it was now. Mexico was destroyed because of the abomination of the
worship of her gods. These feuds between the allied peoples had their
root in the