Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/585

Rh of their outrage on the emperor. The body would be sent to them, so that they might accord it the last honors. The leaders replied curtly that they had now a new chief, and cared no longer for Montezuma, dead or alive. The corpse was nevertheless carefully arrayed in fitting robes and given in charge of two prisoners, a priest and a chief, with instructions to carry it to the Mexican camp, and explain the circumstances of the death and the grief of the Spaniards. On appearing outside the fort a leader motioned them back, and would probably have used force but for the priestly character of the bearers, behind whom the gate had been closed. A few moinents later they disappeared from view. The disrespect shown the living was not spared the dead. As the corpse was borne through the streets jeers and insults fell from lips which formerly kissed the ground on which the monarch had stood. Many declared that a coward like Montezuma, who had brought so many misfortunes on the country, was not worthy of even ordinary burial. The imperial party managed, however, to secure the body, and, assisted by those to whom the royal blood and high priestly character of the deceased outweighed other feelings, an honorable though quiet cremation was accorded in the Celpalco, where Sahagun intimates that the ashes remained.