Page:Young Folks History Of Mexico.pdf/76

 70 life at this time under peculiar circumstances. Tezozomoc had left the kingdom to his son Tajatzin, but another son, Maxtla, took possession of it. Tajatzin complained of this injustice to Chimalpopoca, and was advised by the Mexican king to kill his brother at an entertainment which he should prepare. This Maxtla heard of, and acted so promptly that he not only killed Tajatzin, but succeeded finally in making captive Chimalpopoca himself.

When the King of Mexico sent his annual tribute to Azcapozalco, consisting of fish, cray-fish and frogs, accompanied by a polite message to the king as lord of the valley, Maxtla showed his contempt for him by sending back by the embassadors a woman's gown, thereby implying that the Mexican king was a coward. After this insult, which Chimalpopoca was unable to avenge, Maxtla succeeded in getting a favorite wife of his enemy into his power, and after doing her all the injury he was capable of, he sent her back to her husband in tears and misery.

Chimalpopoca resolved, as he could not take revenge on the tyrant, to sacrifice himself as an offering to his god, Huitzilopochtli. This, in his opinion, and in the eyes of his people, would wipe out the insult, to him as a king, and to the nation he ruled over. Dressed in the garb of sacrifice, the unfortunate king was led to the temple, where the priests stood ready to plunge into his breast the knife of flint, and to tear out his troubled heart and offer it to their god. But the tyrant anticipated this event and despatched troops to the temple, who seized Chimalpopoca and hurried him to Azcapozalco, where they confined him in a strong wooden cage. Here he was visited by the fugitive Prince of Tezcoco, to whom he related his woes, and besought him to. remember his poor people, the Mexicans, if he should succeed in gaining again the ancient throne of Acolhua. Then, giving him a golden pendant from his