CHAPTER XVIII.
DOUBLY REFINED DEALINGS.
1519-1520.
Hollow Homage to the Captive King — Montezuma has his Wives and Nobles — He Rules his Kingdom through the Spaniards — The Playful Page — Liberality of the Monarch — The Sacred Treasures — Cortés Resents the Insults of the Guard — Diversions — Quauhpopoca, his Son and Officers, Burned Alive — Plantations Formed — Villa Rica Affairs — Vessels Built — Pleasure Excursions.
A pompous reception was accorded the imperial prisoner. With no small ceremony was he conducted to apartments adjoining those of Cortés, as selected by himself, and there surrounded by all accustomed comforts and every show of greatness. At hand were his favorite wives, his most devoted servants; he held court daily, received ambassadors, issued orders, and with the aid of his learned jurists administered justice. To outward appearance the monarch was as absolute as ever; yet Montezuma knew that his glory had departed, that the continued forms of greatness were hollow, and that his power was but the power of a puppet. He was wise enough to know that a strong man is not to be trusted who is officiously kind to a weak one.
Henceforth the power of the nation, in the hands of these insidious strangers, was to be directed against himself. It was a cunning policy, craftily conceived and deftly executed.
Cortés took care that everything round the prisoner should move smoothly, and that his presence in the Spanish quarters should appear to the natives a
