their Gold—Uncontrollable Religious Zeal—Taking of the Temple—Wrath of the
With their hand so securely on the spring that moved a mighty empire, there is little wonder that these Spanish adventurers became somewhat insolent toward the people they so injured. The Mexicans were not slow to mark this, and there were those among them, and others beside them, who began to think of taking matters into their own hands, of destroying the invaders and releasing the emperor.
Montezuma’s occasional appearance in public, and the assertion that he remained with the Spaniards of his free-will, and because the gods desired it, had for a time satisfied the nobles; but the hard irons on his limbs and the cruel burning of patriotic men had opened their eyes somewhat to the true state of affairs. No one knew when his turn might come.
Life was insecure enough subject to the caprice of their own sovereign, but the dark uncertain ways of these emissaries of evil were past finding out. These things were thought of and talked of in high places. Race aversions and the political systems of the tripartite alliance caused more than one party to be formed, each with aspirations that could not be entertained by the others.
The most prominent leader at this time was Cacama, who had at first favored the strangers in their character as envoys. And now he began the endeavor to direct the movement of the Aztec nobility, but jealousy of Acolhua influence rose uppermost, and his efforts tended only to create a reaction in favor of abiding by the will of the emperor.1