Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/85

Rh saving, at least, the unfortunate non-combatants who still were loyal to his throne and person. But the judgment of the conqueror was wrong. "Guatemozin would die where he was!" was the reply of the royal stoic.

Again the infuriate troops were let loose, and again were the scenes of the day before re-enacted on the bloody theatre. Many escaped in boats by the lake; but the brave or reckless Guatemozin, who seems, at the last moment, to have changed his mind as to perishing, was taken prisoner and brought, with his family, into the presence of Cortéz. As soon as his noble figure and dignified face were seen on the azotea or terraced roof, beside the conqueror, the battle ceased. The Indians beheld their monarch captive! And she who had witnessed the beginning of these adventures,—who had followed the fortunes of the General through all their vicissitudes—the gentle but brave Indian girl—Mariana—stood by the intrepid Cortéz to act as his interpreter in this last scene of the splendid and eventful drama.

It was on the following day that the Mexicans who still survived the slaughter and famine, evacuated the city. It was a desert—but a desert covered with dead. The men who rushed in to plunder,—plundered as if robbing graves. Between one and two hundred thousand people perished during the three months' siege, and their festering bodies tainted the air. The booty, though considerable, was far beneath the expectations of the conquerors; yet there was doubtless enough to reward amply the stout men at arms who had achieved a victory unparalleled in the annals of modern warfare.

"What I am going to say is truth, and I swear, and say Amen to it!"—exclaims Bernal Diaz del Castillo, in his quaint style—"I have read of the destruction of Jerusalem, but I cannot conceive that the mortality there exceeded that of Mexico; for all the people from the distant provinces, which belonged to this empire, had concentrated themselves here, where they mostly died. The streets, and squares, and houses, and the courts of the Tlatelolco were covered with dead bodies; we could not step without treading on them; the lake and canals were filled with them, and the stench was intolerable.

"When all those who had been able, quitted the city, we went to examine it, which was as I have described; and some poor creatures were crawling about in different stages of the most