The Slave Sculptor — page 80: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Sad THE SLAVE SCULPTOR time, Maxtla had not tasted food or drink, and had suffered great agony from the cruel manner in which he was bound. But he was destined still to endure. All that night he was com- pelled to travel at a rapid pace, and his strength was fast failing. He had tried his utmost to sever the cords on his wrists, or remove the gag from his mouth, but in vain. His inhuman captor laughed at his pain, and mocked his sufferings. LKvery groan was rewarded with a blow, every falter with a curse and a goad, until his trail was marked plainly by his blood. As the first gray light of morning lit up the eastern horizon, they came upon the camp of a wandering tribe, with whom Cruzilli seemed familiar, and to whom he sold his captiveas a slave, a greater punishment to the Aztec than death itself. CHAPTER XVIIL FROM THE CAGES TO THE FIELD OF CARNAGE. Tue nature of our narrative forbids that we should detail the in- cidents which marked the career of Cortez in his conquest of Mexico. The whole record would, as we have already written, read like an Arabian Nights tale — so full of the wildest romance is the entire history of that conquest. We have introduced the conqueror and his achievements so far as they had relation to our more individual story; and we shall now pass over as briefly as possible that most wonderful period of time when the Spaniards accomplished the sub- jugation of the Aztecs. We left Cortez on the battlements, at Cempoalla, with the cry upon his lips of Espiritu Santo ! as he rushed upon Narvaez. That cry was the precursor of victory. The emissary of Velasquez was not only conquered, but his well-equipped army became the compa- triots of Cortez in the conquest. With recruited fortunes and forces, he again turned his face westward, for the most alarming accounts had come from the little garrison left in the capital :—the natives were all up in arms, determined upon the extermination of the Span- iards. The cruel Alvarado had murdered, in cold blood, siz hun- dred cf the flower of the Aztec nobility, as they were gathered at one of their annual feasts, and this act had stirred up in the hearts of the people a fire of hate, which only the blood of the invaders could extinguish. Cortez arrived after forced marches at the eapi- tal, to find all in a state of siege. Business was entirely suspended -—the whole country around swarmed with Indians ready for the charge. That charge came. It seemed as if the very stones of the comcbooks.com -