dress, and attitude, down to their very swagger, and leaving orders that the strangers should be treated with every consideration, the chief men of the province set out by fast relays to report the awful tidings to the emperor.8
Entering the imperial presence they prostrated their bodies to the ground, which they kissed, declaring themselves worthy of death for having ventured unbidden before their lord, but their mission permitted no delay.
“For oh! most dread sovereign,” they exclaimed, “we have seen gods! All of us here present have seen their water-houses on our shores. We have talked with them, and eaten with them, and have handled them with our hands; we have given them gifts, and have received in return these priceless treasures.”
Then they showed the glass beads, a specimen too often approaching the value of the gifts received by the strong from the weak.
Montezuma sat mute, scarcely heeding the messages sent him by Grijalva, concerned most of all that vassals should not witness his dismay. Here again was his phantasy before him, like the shade of dead Hector before Æneas, warning him against hopeless resistance to the preordained fall of Troy.
Bidding the men retire and keep secret what they had seen, Montezuma hastily summoned his privy council,9 King Cacama of Tezcuco, his brother Cuitlahuatzin, lord of Itzapalapan, and laid before them the mystery. After sage consultations, attended by divinings and comparisons of signs, prophecies, and traditions, not unlike the means by which we of to-day likewise ascertain the unknowable, it was concluded that this