man they met. Two of the priests were said to have confessed that Montezuma had notice from his gods that the Spaniards were to be delivered into their power at Cholula to be sacrificed, and an old woman had confessed to Marina that her husband, who was a chief, had received from Mexico a present of a golden drum, and that many other presents had been distributed among the chiefs and generals. Next morning, as the nobles assembled to superintend the removal of the baggage of the Spanish army, and the men of burden were preparing to take up their loads, Cortez ordered the great gates of the court to be closed. There were already assembled in the courts of the immense building in which the Spaniards were lodged, a multitude of people, comprising the flower of Cholulan nobility. After addressing these people, informing them that he knew they were preparing to sacrifice his soldiers, that he knew they had pots already boiling, and seasoning of salt and tomatoes ready for the preparation of their flesh, he ordered his soldiers to fall upon the defenceless crowd. The signal was given by the discharge of a musket; then all those ferocious villains fell upon the Cholulans and slaughtered them without mercy. Not one was left alive; blood flowed in streams, and the groans and cries of the dying rent the air. When all these hundreds had been put to death, the savage Spaniards sallied into the streets, and, together with the fierce Tlascallans, rushed like famished tigers upon the Cholulans. Fire added to the sword in sweeping the city clear of people, and in a short time over six thousand inhabitants had died most miserable deaths.
And all this had been done in revenge for a fancied slight! There was no necessity for the passing of the Spanish army this way; in fact, the other was the shorter road. There was no demand for such a wholesale mas-
