Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/148

 and the said captain, Garci Holguin, immediately brought the said sovereign of the city and the other chief prisoners to the terrace where I was, which was near the lake. When I invited them to sit down, not wishing to show any rigour, he approached me and said to me in his language that he had done all that on extenuation that he yielded to the angry clamours of disappointed soldiers, and the insinuation that he had arranged with Quauhtemotzin to conceal the treasure so as later to appropriate it for himself. The custodian of the royal fifth, Aldarete, seems to have insisted on the torture. The king bore the pain unflinchingly and rebuked his fellow sufferer who groaned aloud, saying: "Do you think I am taking my pleasure in my bath?" His feet were almost burned off, and he remained a cripple until his death. The anniversary of his capture and the fall of the city were celebrated as a public holiday all during the period of Spanish rule in Mexico, but the Republic has abolished this observance. The eleventh and last of the Aztec sovereigns was the son of Ahuitzotl; he succeeded Cuitlahuatzin and married his widow Tecuichpo. He was a young man of great personal bravery and energy, in all things the opposite of his superstitious uncle Montezuma. He worked indefatigably to win allies, organise an effective defence, and save the tottering kingdom and city; he galvanised the timid into something like courage, confirmed the waverers, and encouraged the patriots; large stores of arms and provisions were laid in, the useless, aged men, and women and children, were sent off to safe places in the mountains, while the city was filled with warriors. The kings of Texcoco and Tlacopan joined in these plans, co-operating with their fellow sovereign. Had like zeal and harmony existed a year earlier Cortes and his men would never have reached the capital, save as victims to be offered to Huitzilopochtli. Quauhtemotzin arrived too late. Nothing could ward off the oncoming disaster. The powerful states of Tlascala, Cholula, and others, had openly gone over to the Spaniards, blind to the inevitable destruction they were preparing for themselves; the allies of Mexico were doubtful and faint-hearted, — some of them merely neutrals, awaiting the issue to declare for the victor. Never did prince die for duty's sake, choosing death with open eyes and making a last stand for a forlorn cause, more nobly than did the heroic Quauhtemotzin. His captivity and death are noted in the Fifth Letter.