True, they had been forced by threats, and by the exhibition of an apparently superior force, into a submission which they could ill brook, and were justified in striking a blow for liberty, especially when encouraged, or bidden, by the great monarch; but they had no right to complain if they suffered the penalty everywhere affixed to treachery; and the Cholultecs did bear an unenviable reputation in this respect. The native records naturally assert their innocence; but even if we ignore the confession of the Indians, as prompted by fear of their judges and masters, or as colored by Franciscans whose patron Cortés was, and if we disregard all official testimony, we must still admit that there was evidence enough to justify the general in a measure which he regarded as necessary for the safety of his men.38
It might be claimed that by holding captive the chiefs their safety would have been assured; but treason was rife everywhere, and a lesson was needed.
Here among the greatest plotters, and in the holy city, the lesson would be most effective. It might also be claimed that the chiefs were the guilty ones, and should alone have suffered, not the citizens and soldiers; but they were also in arms, even if subordinate, and such discrimination is not observed in our own age.
Outrages equally as cruel are to-day exculpated throughout Christendom as exigencies of war. If we, then, overlook such deeds, how much more excusable are they in the more bloody times of Cortés? But neither now nor then can war, with any of its attendant atrocities, be regarded by right-thinking, humane men as aught but beastly, horrible, diabolical.