The White Conquerors: A Tale of Toltec and Aztec by Kirk Munroe
CHAPTER XVI.
A SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN, AND WHAT IT PORTENDED
As the ancient capital of his father's race, Huetzin regarded the cityof Cholula with an intense interest. It was a source of real sorrow tohim that it, rather than another, should be selected as the sacred cityof the Aztec priests. His eyes blazed with indignation on seeing theflames of Aztec altars rising from the mighty pyramid erected by hisToltec ancestors, a thousand years before, in honor of their bloodlessreligion.
This most colossal monument of the New World rose to a height of twohundred feet, and its base covered forty-four acres, an area twice asgreat as that occupied by the Egyptian pyramid of Cheops. It was avenerable pile when the Aztecs took possession of the land and erectedon its summit a magnificent temple, which they dedicated to Quetzal.With the advent of their cruel religion began those daily humansacrifices that drenched its altars with blood for two centuries, oruntil the coming of the white conquerors. Other temples sprang up aboutthat of Quetzal, each demanding human victims, until the number ofthose annually sacrificed, in Cholula alone, was over six thousand.
No sooner was Huetzin left with his command than he began to put intopractice some of the lessons he had learned from his new friends. Hisfirst care was to establish a chain of sentinels and advanced picketsabout his camp. Then he sent out small scouting parties in variousdirections to glean all possible information regarding any other troopsthat might be discovered in that neighborhood. Finally, after darknesshad fallen, disguising himself in the coarse and mud-stained garmentsof a maker of pottery, whom he had caused to be captured for thispurpose, he made his own way into the city.
Once among the streets he avoided those places in which the Spaniardswere being lavishly entertained by the caciques of Cholula, andthreaded the more distant but populous quarters. He was struck withthe number of people still at work, in spite of the lateness of thehour. Masons appeared to be repairing house-walls in all directions,and quantities of stone were being carried to the roofs for theiruse. Laborers were making excavations in the streets, apparentlyfor foundations; woodchoppers were hewing numbers of posts intosharp-pointed stakes. Many old people, women, and children were also tobe seen, and all of these appeared to be removing household goods.
At length, in the most remote part to which he penetrated, Huetzincame upon that which caused his blood to boil, and, at the same time,filled him with horror. Several hundred persons were grouped about theentrance to a small temple. They were silent, almost to breathlessness,and were evidently intent upon some scene being enacted within. Everynow and then a stifled cry, apparently that of a child, came from theinterior of the temple.
Determined to discover what was taking place, Huetzin, by patientand persistent effort, finally forced his way to the very front rankof the spectators, and in another moment was as anxious to make goodhis retreat from this position as he had been to gain it. For fully aminute he was so tightly wedged in by the eager throng about him thatto move was impossible, and he gazed with a horrible fascination at theawful scene disclosed through the open doorway by the flickering lightof its lurid altar flames. It was a scene of human sacrifice, thoughnot one of such every-day occurrence that the spectators were whollyhardened to it. It was a sacrifice of children; and, as one pitifullittle victim after another was roughly seized by the blood-stainedpriests and laid beneath the merciless knife, a suppressed shudderpassed through the gaping throng. Still no manifestation of disapprovalwas made, and every eye eagerly followed the motions of an agedpriest, whose scanty white locks were blood-reddened like his body,and to whom each little heart was handed still palpitating, as it wastorn from a child's breast. He was an augur, and was watched with abreathless interest as he sought for omens from the dread thing held inhis hand. As each was tossed aside, evidently unpropitious, a murmur ofdisappointment arose from the spectators, and more than once Huetzinheard the remark: "The hour is not yet come."
Finally, sick with horror, and raging with a furious anger, the youngToltec could bear it no longer. With a stifled cry he burst throughthe encircling throng of human wolves, and in spite of angry words andeven blows, forced his way into the open space beyond them. When oncemore free he fled, he knew not whither, filled with a tumult of thoughtthe central idea of which was vengeance. At length he reached his owncamp, heart-sick, and exhausted by the strength of his emotions. Herehe received the reports of his scouting parties, and learned severalthings, which, added to his own information, kept him in a state ofwakeful anxiety until morning.
At the earliest possible hour he sought an audience with the Spanishleader, to whom he imparted his fears that some deep-laid plot for thedestruction of the invaders at this point was in preparation. He toldCortes of the Aztec army discovered by his scouts hidden in a valleybut a short distance from the city; of the exodus of those too old orfeeble to fight; of the piles of stones secretly accumulated on thehouse-tops adjoining certain streets; of the pits dug in those samestreets and artfully concealed, after being lined with sharp-pointedstakes; of the various chance expressions that he had overheard; and ofthe awful, but unusual, sacrifice of children of which he had been anunwilling eye-witness. At the same time he expressed it as his beliefthat the hour had not yet come for springing the trap thus set. It wasevident that the portents were not yet favorable, and everything seemedto be awaiting further orders, probably from Montezuma himself. Fromthe nature of the preparations it seemed likely that nothing wouldbe undertaken until the Spaniards were ready to leave the city andcontinue their march.
Marina, who interpreted this communication, added some suspicionsof a similar character, that she had gleaned from certain unguardedutterances of the wife of a Cholulan cacique, with whom she had formedan acquaintance.
Although the conqueror was not one to be easily alarmed, yet he wasprudent and ever on the watch for treachery among those surroundinghim. So important did he deem the information just given him, that heat once doubled his precautions against a surprise. After thankingthe young leader of Tlascalans for his vigilance, he requested him toreturn to his own camp, continue his work of acquiring a knowledge ofwhat was taking place in and about the city, and to hold his warriorsin readiness for instant action.
When Huetzin had departed, Cortes turned his attention to his immediatesurroundings. He ordered that no Spaniard should pass beyond the wallsof the temple enclosure in which they were quartered. Nor should onelay aside his arms, on any pretext, for a moment. The horses of thecavaliers were kept saddled and bridled, ready for instant service, andthe artillery was posted beside the three gateways in the temple walls,in a position to sweep the streets leading to them.
While these preparations were being made, Marina's new acquaintance,the garrulous wife of the cacique, came to pay her a visit. In a shorttime the Indian girl, pretending to be anxious to escape from theSpaniards, had drawn from her a full account of the conspiracy, which,she said, originated with Montezuma. The Christians, on attempting toleave the city, were to be led into the streets prepared with pitfalls,into which it was expected the cavalry would be precipitated. In theresulting confusion they were to be attacked from the housetops and bythe Aztec army that was in waiting, when their easy destruction wasdeemed a certainty. Even a division of the anticipated captives hadalready been made, and, while a certain number were to be retained forsacrifice on Cholulan altars, the remainder were to be led in triumphto Tenochtitlan, in the leathern collars, affixed to the ends of stoutpoles, that were even then prepared for them.
Having agreed to a plan for taking flight to the house of thistalkative acquaintance that night, Marina dismissed the woman andhastened to lay the plot before Cortes. The latter, summoning hiscaptains, disclosed it to them and asked their advice as to what courseshould be pursued. Some of them, in despair at the imminence of thethreatened peril, advised an instant return to Tlascala, if not to thecoast. Sandoval, Alvarado, and others of stouter hearts, declaring thatsuch a retreat would certainly insure their destruction, advised thati
He then sent for some of the Cholulan caciques and announced hisintention of leaving their city early on the following morning. Hedesired that they should furnish him with a thousand porters for thetransport of his artillery and baggage, and should themselves act ashis guides to the limits of their domain. These requests they willinglypromised to grant, and were dismissed.
That night there was little sleep in the Spanish army, and all heldthemselves in readiness for an attack. The period of darkness was,however, passed in peace, and through the night no sound brokethe stillness of the city, save the hoarse voices of the priestsproclaiming the hour from the summit of its lofty teocallis.