Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/277

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War: and How Montezuma Died
239

marched to Tlaxcala we continued to the great city Texcoco. Here we began to discover the ill feeling the people had against us, for they showed us not the smallest honor and not a single cacique appeared.

On midsummer day, St John's day, In the month of June, 1520, we for the second time entered the city of Mexico. None of our Mexican friends met us on the streets, and all the houses were empty. Not until we reached our quarters did Montezuma come to welcome Cortes and congratulate him on his victory over Narvaez. Our captain, however, flushed with newly acquired power, refused to listen to the monarch, who returned sad and depressed to his apartments.

We soldiers again took our lodgings in the old quarters, and Narvaez' men found similar comforts. We then saw and talked with Alvarado and the soldiers who had stayed with him, and heard many conflicting reports of the revolt. Some of the soldiers said that Montezuma had quieted the people and put down the insurrection, and if he had had secret understanding with his people, our men would have been killed. Alvarado, for his part, told Cortes that the Mexicans had risen In arms because their god, Huitzilopochtli, commanded It In revenge for our having set up a cross and the image of Our Lady in his temple. Further, they had risen because of