9. "Earth, we Christians praise thee thus,

Even for the change that comes,

With a grief, from thee to us;
For thy cradles and thy tombs,

For the pleasant côrn and wine
And summer-heat, and also for
The frost upon the sycamore
And hail upon the vine!"

1. Infiniteness, presently, furzy, ecstasy, dilated, impassioned, achieves, viewless, sprite, ransomed.

2. Who are "earth's children"? Explain "with spirits running up to man," "the sign of mysteries," "the leanings of the tree have a sound," "viewless things." Do we find earth beautiful or the reverse just as we look at it?

LXIV. STORMING THE TEMPLE OF MEXICO.

1. Cortez, having cleared a way for the assault, sprang up the lower stairway, followed by Alvarado, Sandoval, Ordaz, and the other gallant cavaliers of his little band, leaving a file of arquebusiers and a strong corps of Indian allies to hold the enemy in check at the foot of the monument. On the first landing, as well as on the several galleries above, and on the summit, the Aztec warriors were drawn up to dispute his passage. From their elevated position they showered down volleys of lighter mis

siles, together with heavy stones, beams, and burning rafters, which, thundering along the stairway, overturned the ascending Spaniards, and carried desolation through their ranks.

2. The more fortunate, eluding or springing over these obstacles, succeeded in gaining the first terrace; where, throwing themselves on their enemies, they compelled them, after a short resistance, to fall back. The assailants pressed on, effectually supported by a brisk fire of the musketeers from below, which so much galled the Mexicans in their exposed situation that they were glad to take shelter on the broad summit of the teocalli.

3. Cortez and his comrades were close upon their rear, and the two parties soon found themselves face to face on this aërial battlefield, engaged in mortal combat in presence of the whole city, as well as of the troops in the courtyard, who paused, as if by mutual consent, from their own hostilities, gazing in silent expectation on the issue of those above. The area, though somewhat smaller than the base of the teocalli, was large enough to afford a fair field of fight for more than a thousand combatants.

4. It was paved with broad, flat stones. No impediment occurred over its surface, except the huge sacrificial block, and the temples of stone which rose to the height of forty feet, at the further

extremity of the arena. One of these had been consecrated to the Cross; the other was still occu

very shadow of their respective shrines; while the Indian priests, running to and fro, with their hair wildly streaming over their sable mantles, seemed hovering in mid-air, like so many demons of darkness urging on the work of slaughter.

5. The parties closed with the desperate fury of men who had no hope but in victory. Quarter was neither asked nor given; and to fly was im possible. The edge of the area was unprotected by parapet or battlement. The least slip would be fatal; and the combatants, as they struggled in mortal agony, were sometimes seen to roll over the sheer sides of the precipice together.

6. Cortez himself is said to have had a narrow escape from this dreadful fate. Two warriors, of strong, muscular frames, seized on him, and were dragging him violently towards the brink of the pyramid. Aware of their intention, he struggled with all his force, and, before they could accomplish their purpose, succeeded in tearing himself from their grasp, and hurling one of them over the walls with his own arm! The story is not improbable in itself, for Cortez was a man of uncommon agility and strength. It has been often repeated, but not by contemporary history.

7. The battle lasted with unintermitting fury for three hours. The number of the enemy was double that of the Christians; and it seemed as

if it were a contest which must be determined by numbers and brute force, rather than superior science. But it was not so. The invulnerable armor of the Spaniard, his sword of matchless temper, and his skill in the use of it, gave him advantages which far outweighed the odds of physical strength and numbers.

8. After doing all that the courage of despair could enable men to do, resistance grew fainter and fainter on the side of the Aztecs. One after another they had fallen. Two or three priests only survived, to be led away in triumph by the victors. Every other combatant was stretched a corpse on the bloody arena, or had been hurled from the giddy heights. Yet the loss of the Spaniards was not inconsiderable: it amounted to forty-five of their best men; and nearly all the remainder were more or less injured in the desperate conflict.

9. The victorious cavaliers now rushed towards the sanctuaries. The lower story was of stone; the two upper were of wood. Penetrating into their recesses, they had the mortification to find the image of the Virgin and Cross removed. But in the other edifice they still beheld the grim figure of Huitzilopochtli, with his censer of smoking hearts, and the walls of his oratory reeking with gore,not improbably of their own countrymen. With shouts of triumph the Christians tore the uncouth