Cortés. He was scarcely fit to be his servant. There were a dozen prominent qualities that combined to make up the great man in Cortés which were absent in Alvarado. Both of them were loyal, brave, and merciless, but there was a method in the excesses of Cortés which those of Alvarado lacked. Cortés was deep, Alvarado shallow; Cortés was patient under affront, Alvarado was violent; Cortés was cool in time of danger, Alvarado was excited — and so on. And yet Alvarado was a gallant cavalier.
The Spaniards now held a council, before which Alvarado placed the information thus far obtained of the plot, and the necessity of prompt measures was at once recognized. They did not believe Montezuma to be taking any active part in the conspiracy, but that swayed by hopes and fears he was allowing himself, with his usual want of resolution, to yield to the stronger will of his courtiers a passive consent to the efforts for his release.[1]
Less prudent than his chief, and less fertile in resources, Alvarado did not look for preventives to check the conspiracy, but to what he regarded as a decisive blow to crush it, such as that administered at Cholula. He had not the foresight of his general with regard to the proper adjustment of means to ends, nor his magic influence over those around him, friend or foe. He remembered only the good effect of the massacre on the effeminate Cholultecs, and felt convinced that so excellent a measure must
- ↑ This received support from his neglect to interfere when supplies were cut down. Even Tapia refers to a change in his disposition, and to Alvarado's displeasure thereat, but his words may apply to the stoppage either of supplies or of presents. Id., 36. Want of power could not be pleaded by Montezuma, because a few days later, when the natives were far more embittered both against the Spaniards and against their captive sovereign, the latter was able by a mere appeal to stay their onslaught. The testimony speaks not only of an undermined wall and scaling ladders, but of weapons, 'porras y otras armas,' and of conspirators within the fort. Id., 67, 113, et seq. Gomara says that his love for the Spaniards has been denied by some. Hist. Mex., 154-5; but Bernal Diaz will not believe Montezuma guilty of conspiracy. Hist. Verdad., 102. The grief of the Spaniards at his death, and the care taken of his children, indicate that they and the crown regarded him as loyal.
