Ere long there will be
merry doings in Tenoctitlan.'
He was right. Within a week Montezuma was treacherously seized by the
Spaniards and kept a prisoner in their quarters, watched day and night
by their soldiers. Then came event upon event. Certain lords in the
coast lands having killed some Spaniards, were summoned to Mexico by the
instigation of Cortes. They came and were burned alive in the courtyard
of the palace. Nor was this all, for Montezuma, their monarch, was
forced to witness the execution with fetters on his ankles. So low had
the emperor of the Aztecs fallen, that he must bear chains like a common
felon. After this insult he swore allegiance to the King of Spain, and
even contrived to capture Cacama, the lord of Tezcuco, by treachery and
to deliver him into the hands of the Spaniards on whom he would have
made war. To them also he gave up all the hoarded gold and treasure of
the empire, to the value of hundreds of thousands of English pounds. All
this the nation bore, for it was stupefied and still obeyed the commands
of its captive king. But when he suffered the Spaniards to worship the
true God in one of the sanctuaries of the great temple, a murmur of
discontent and sullen fury rose among the thousands of the Aztecs. It
filled the air, it could be heard wherever men were gathered, and its
sound was like that of a distant angry sea.
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