perished in this retreat out of Mexico; and what added to their misfortune, forty of them fell alive into the hands of an enemy never known to show mercy to a captive. Night coming on, every quarter of the city was illuminated, and the Mexican priests were busy in hastening the preparations for the death of the prisoners. It was a barbarous triumph-it was a horrid festival! And the Spaniards could distinctly hear the shrieks of those who were sacrificed, and thought they could distinguish each unhappy victim by the well known sound of his voice.

12. The Mexicans, elated with their victory, sállied out next morning to attack Cortez in his quarters. But they did not rely on the efforts of their own arms alone. They sent the heads of the Spaniards whom they had sacrificed, to the leading men in the adjacent provinces, and assured them that the god of war, appeased by the blood of their invaders, had declared with an audible voice, that in eight days time those hated enemies should be finally destroyed, and peace and prosperity established in the empire. A prediction uttered with such confidence gained universal credit. The zeal of those who had already declared against the Spaniards, augmented; and those who had hitherto been inactive, took arms with enthusiastic ardour to execute the decree of the gods. The Indian auxiliaries who had joined Cortez, abandoned his army as a race of men devoted to certain destruction. Even the fidelity of the Ilascalans was shaken, and the Spanish troops were left almost alone in their stations. Cortez immediately suspended all military operations for the period marked out by the oracle. Under cover of the brigantines, which kept the enemy at a distance, his troops lay on the lake in safety, and the fatal term expired without any disaster.

13. Many of his allies, ashamed of their own credulity, now returned to their station. Other tribes, judging that the gods, who had thus deceived the Mexicans, had decreed finally to withdraw their protection from them, joined his standard; and so striking was the levity

of this simple people, moved by every slight impression, that in a short time after such a defection of his cenfederates, Cortez saw himself at the head of a hundred and fifty thousand Indians. Notwithstanding this immense force, Cortez proceeded against the city with the greatest caution; nor could he make any impres sion, till the stores which Guatimozin had laid up, were exhausted by the multitudes which had crowded into the capital, to defend their sovereign, and the temples of their gods Then people of all ranks felt the utmost distresses of famine. But under the pressure of so many and such various evils, the spirit of Guatimozin remained firm and unsubdued. He rejected with scorn every overture of peace from Cortez; and disdaining the idea of submitting to the oppressors of his country, determined not to survive its ruin. At the earnest solicitation of several of his chiefs he attempted to escape, but was taken by the Spaniards. When brought before Cortez he appeared with a dignified countenance—“I have done," said he, "what became a monarch. I have defended my people to the last extremity. Nothing now remains but to die. Take this dagger," laying his hand on one which Cortez wore, "plant it in my breast, and put an end to a life which can no longer be useful to my country."

14. As soon as the capture of the emperor was known, the resistance of the Mexicans ceased, and Cortez took possession of the small part of the city that was not destroyed. The Spaniards, as may be expected, were elated with joy, by the completion of their difficult conquest, and the expectation of sharing immense spoils. But in the latter respect, they were miserably disappointed. Guatimozin, foreseeing his impending fate, had caused all the riches amassed by his ancestors to be thrown into the lake, and, instead of becoming masters of the treasures of Montezuma, and the spoils of the temples, the conquerors could collect only a small booty, amidst the ruins of a general desolation. The Spaniards exclaimed loudly against their general, whom they suspected of appropriating the greatest part of the

sures.

spoils to his own use, as well as against Guatimozin, whom they accused of obstinately concealing his treaIn order to allay this ferment, Cortez consented to a deed that sullied all the glory of his former actions. He suffered the royal captive, with his principal minister, to be put to the rack, in order to oblige him to discover the place where his riches were concealed. The unhappy monarch bore his sufferings with all the firmness of a hero, till Cortez, ashamed of so horrid a scene, rescued the royal victim from the hands of his torturers. The unfortunate Guatimozin, however, was only reserved for further indignities. Some time afterwards, suspected by Cortez of forming a scheme to throw off the Spanish yoke, he and two other persons of the greatest eminence in the empire, were condemned to be hanged

15. The fate of the capital, as both parties had foreseen, decided that of the empire. The provinces submitted, one after another, to the conquerors. It was not without difficulty, however, that they were reduced to the form of a Spanish colony. And, to the everlasting infamy of the conquerors, they affected to consider every effort of the Mexicans to assert their own independence, as the rebellion of vassals against their sovereign, or the mutiny of slaves against their master. Under the sanction of those ill-founded maxims, they reduced the common people in the provinces to the most humiliating of all conditions, that of personal servitude.

Their

chiefs were punished with greater severity, and put to death by the most excruciating tortures. In almost every district of the Mexican empire, the progress of the Spanish arms is marked with blood, and with deeds so atrocious as disgrace the enterprising valour that conducted them to success. In the country of Panuco, sixty caziques, and four hundred nobles, were burnt at one time; and to complete the horror of the scene, the children and relatives of the wretched victims were assembled, and compelled to be spectators of their dying agonies.

QUESTIONS.

1. With what new dangers was Cortez threatened, after once being in possession of Montezuma and Mexico?-2. How did he treat the Spaniards that he conquered?-3. How many Spaniards had Cortez under his banner, on the accession of the army of Narvaez?-4. What was the end of Montezuma ?-5. How did Cortez succeed in dispersing the Mexicans at the valley of Otumba?-6. What method did Cortez adopt, when at Ilascala, to secure the command of the lake?-7. Who was elected successor to Montezuma ?-8. And who to Quetlevaca?-9. What circumstance for a time caused the allies of Cortez to forsake him?-10. What induced them to return to him?-11. How many Indians had he in his last attack on Mexico?-12. What disappointment did the Spaniards experience on the conquest of Mexico?-13. To what disgraceful act did Cortez submit to satisfy them?-14. What became of Guatimozin?

VICTORY.

WAFT not to me the blast of fame,
That swells the trump of victory;
For to my ear it gives the name
Of slaughter and of misery.

Boast not so much of honour's sword;
Wave not so high the victor's plume;
They point me to the bosom gor'd—
They point me to the blood-stain'd tomb.

The boastful shout, the revel loud,
That strive to drown the voice of pain;
What are they, but the fickle crowd,
Rejoicing o'er their brethren slain?
And ah! through glory's fading blaze,
I see the cottage taper, pale,
Which sheds its faint and feeble rays,
Where unprotected orphans wail—

Where the sad widow weeping stands,
As if her day of hope was done-
Where the wild mother clasps her hands,
And asks the victor for her son-

Where the lone maid, in secret, sighs
O'er the lost solace of her heart,
As prostrate, in despair, she lies,
And feels her tortur'd life depart!-

Where, midst that desolated land,
The sire, lamenting o'er his son,
Extends his weak and powerless hand,
And finds its only prop is gone.

See, how the bands of war and woe
Have rifled sweet domestic bliss;

And tell me, if your laurels

grow,

And flourish, in a soil like this!

WILLIAM WALLACE.

1. An obscure individual, of no high rank, and of still less fortune, rose to assert the honour and independence of his country, while the nobles and grandees of the kingdom, divided into factions, or adhering to the conqueror, seemed desirous of perpetuating its slavery. That strenuous patriot, but barbarous warrior, William Wallace, to whom many fabulous exploits are ascribed, but who in reality possessed all the valour of Achilles, joined to the prudence of Ulysses, and in these two respects merited the pen of a Homer to celebrate his actions, ventured, almost singly, to attack the colossal power of the conqueror. His band of troops was so inconsiderable, and his progress so rapid, that the boldness and success of his enterprise are equally astonishing. His army, however, was daily increased by the numbers whom success allured to his standard.

2. Having in a very short time recovered all the places which the English had held in their possession, except the single town of Berwick, his courage and conduct raised him so high in the esteem of the army, that he was, by a kind of military election, declared regent of the kingdom. Edward, who had engaged in a war