Page:The Conquest of Mexico Volume 1.djvu/454

 were of daily occurrence in the great temples of the capital; and the people were too blindly attached to their bloody abominations for the Spaniards to deem it safe, for the present at least, openly to interfere.

Montezuma showed, also, an inclination to engage in the pleasures of the chase, of which he once was immoderately fond He had a large forests reserved for the purpose on the other side of the lake. As the Spanish brigantines were now completed Cortés proposed to transport him and his suite across the water in them. They were of a good size, strongly built. The largest was mounted with four falconets, or small guns. It was protected by a gaily coloured awning stretched over the deck, and the royal ensign of Castile floated proudly from the mast. On board of this vessel, Montezuma, delighted with the opportunity of witnessing the nautical skill of the white men, embarked with a train of Aztec nobles and a numerous guard Spaniards. A fresh breeze played on the waters and the vessel soon left behind it the swarms of light pirogues which darkened their surface. She seemed like a thing of life in the eyes of the astonished natives who saw her, as if disdaining human agency, sweeping by with snowy pinions as if on the wings of the wind, while the thunders from her sides now for the first time breaking on the silence of this "inland sea," showed that the beautiful phantom was clothed in terror.1

The royal chase was well stocked with game; some of which the emperor shot with arrows, and others were driven by the numerous attendants into nets.2 In these woodland exercises, while he ranged over his wild domain, Montezuma seemed to enjoy again the sweetness of liberty. It was but the shadow of liberty, however; as in his quarters at home he enjoyed but the shadow of royalty. At home or abroad the eye of the Spaniard was always upon him.

But while he resigned himself without a struggle to his inglorious fate there were others who looked on it with very different emotions Among them was his nephew Cacama, lord of Tezcuco, a young man not more than twenty-five years of age, but who enjoyed great consideration from his high personal qualities, especially his intrepidity of character. He was the same prince who had been sent by Montezuma to welcome the Spaniards on their entrance into the valley; and when the question of their reception was first debated in the council he had advised to admit them honourably as ambassadors of a foreign