Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/362

242 made, the Spaniards planting guns at the approaches to the streets and courts, looking to the horses and accoutrements, and sending a message to the Tlascaltecs to enter the city and join them on hearing the first shot.

In the morning, so early indeed as to indicate a decided eagerness, came the lords and leading priests, with an immense throng. A force even larger than had been demanded followed them into the Spanish quarter, and was allowed to file into the court, which was commanded at all points by the soldiers and the cannon, the latter as yet innocent-looking instruments to the Cholultecs. The lords and leading men, to the number of thirty or forty, were invited to Cortes' rooms to receive his farewell. He addressed them in a severe tone, in the presence of the Aztec envoys, representing that he had sought to win their friendship for himself and their adhesion for his king, and to further this he had treated them with every consideration. They had withheld the necessary supplies, yet he had respected their property and persons, and for their sake he had left his stanch allies outside the city. In return for this they had, under the mask of friendship, plotted against the lives of his party, the invited guests of themselves and of Montezuma, with the intention of assassinating them. But they had been caught in their own trap. The amazement of the chiefs deepened into terror as he concluded. "Surely it is a god that speaks," they murmured, "since he reads our very thoughts." On the impulse of the moment they admitted their guilt, but cast the blame on Montezuma. This, rejoined Cortes, did not justify treachery, and the excuse should avail them naught. The lords who had been opposed to the plot, and a few others less guilty or less responsible chiefs and priests, were now taken aside, and from them further