Page:Romance of History, Mexico.djvu/89

 Content though the Mexicans were to adopt the policy and institutions of Nezahualcoyotl, they refused to follow his lead in the vital question of religion. Rather did they seek to imbue the Tezcucans with their own dark, blood-stained superstition, and even in his own realm the great king did not really succeed in his attempt to restore the pure faith of the ancient Toltecs, though human sacrifices were limited to slaves and captives. Once, indeed, the king himself, in a moment of weakness and despair, sank under the influence of the priesthood who lusted always for human blood. Many wives he had and many children, but the queen, his one lawful wife, had borne him no son. Who then would be his successor? "The gods," cried the priests, "must have victims ere you can have a son!" The king consented, but all in vain did the blood of slaughtered captives stain the altars of the gods. Never again did Nezahualcoyotl swerve from his enlightened faith. "These idols of wood and stone can neither hear nor feel," he solemnly declared, "much less could they make the heavens and the earth, and man, the lord of it. These must be the work of the all-powerful, unknown God, creator of the universe, on whom alone I must rely."

Forty days did he fast and pray, and then strove more earnestly than ever to wean his people from the ferocious rites of their Aztec allies. To "the unknown God, the cause of causes," he built a temple, and on the summit he placed a tower nine stories high, to represent the nine heavens; a tenth story was added with a black roof sparkling with golden 67