Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/360

240 son. By expressing gratitude and pretending acquiescence, Marina elicited that envoys had been coming and going between Mexico and Cholula for some time, and that Montezuma had prevailed on the chiefs, by means of bribes and promises, to attack the Spaniards that very night or in the morning. Aztec troops were stationed close to the city, to the number of twenty or even fifty thousand, to aid in the work and to carry the Mexican share of the captives to their capital. Cortés at once secured the communicative woman, who was awaiting the return of Marina with her valuables, and ascertained further that the covered excavations, the stone piles, and the barricades were no fiction.

He also secured two apparently friendly priests, and by bribing them with chalchiuite stones, and showing that he was aware of the plot, obtained a revelation which agreed substantially with the account already given. It appeared that Montezuma had proposed to quarter his troops in the city, but this the lords had objected to, fearing that once within the walls the Aztecs would retain possession. The Cholultecs intended to do the deed themselves, and it was only in case the Spaniards left the city, or escaped, that the confederate Aztecs were to take an active part.

Only three of the wards had consented to share in the treachery, and the priests of the others had that