Page:Romance of History, Mexico.djvu/86

 science and art. With zealous care it watched over the education of the young, and woe betide the teacher or pupil whom its examinations found wanting! Poets and historians were summoned before the council on certain days to compete for the rich prizes which the three allied princes were pleased graciously to bestow. Nezahualcoyotl himself was a poet, and very beautiful are some of the songs which have come down to us in the Spanish translation of the Tezcucan chronicler.

No wonder that under such a king the Tezcucans became the most refined and civilised of all the people of Anahuac. The Mexicans, their rivals in luxury, splendour, and power, were but humble disciples in the crowning glory of science and culture.

The Mexican king was glad to imitate the form of government and code of laws which the great Nezahualcoyotl devised. Very stringent were these laws, and very perfect was the system by which they were enforced even in the remotest districts of the Tezcucan dominions. In every province were numerous officers, appointed by the people themselves, whose duty it was to watch the conduct of a certain number of families, and report any breach of the law to the provincial court of justice. Important cases were referred to the supreme council of justice, which met every eighty days in the capital.

The splendour of this supreme tribunal, over which the king himself presided, is described by the old Tezcucan chronicler: "In the royal palace of Tezcuco," he says, "was a courtyard, on the opposite sides of which were two halls of justice. In the 64