Happy, indeed, was the hour in which Euetzin and Itzalmo were set down in the Tezcucan palace, and the little circle of friends, so ruthlessly broken up by the Tepanec despot, was again complete. To emphasize his pleasure, the prince ordered a grand reception and banquet to be given in honor of the restoration of his friends. It was a glorious time of rejoicing, hardly less affecting than were the scenes which followed the prince's return to his joyful people a victorious leader. "Let joy be unconfined!" Hualcoyotl might have proclaimed in that hour of a happy reunion; and yet, how deep was the mental affliction which, all unknown to him, was then hanging over and threatening not only his own peace of mind, but that of nearly all the chief participants in the pleasurable event. CHAPTER XXXVII. We pass over the ceremonies which made Hualcoyotl a king, except to say that the occasion was of an exceptional character, and one that could take place only under conditions in which barbaric ideas of pomp and splendor are brought into operation in the achievement of a climax at once imposing and ostentatious. Many of the nobility from the surrounding principalities were present to witness the grand pageant, among whom was the Aztec monarch, one of the line from which sprang the first and second Montezumas--possibly Itzcoatl, a son of the first. He was there not only as a witness of the pageantry, but to congratulate his young kinsman, the Prince of Tezcuco, on his accession to the throne of his ancestors; and, also--we may further presume--to seek an immediate alliance with him for the purpose of waging a war of extermination against Maxtla, whose arbitrary and insolent conduct had so wrought upon the feelings of the Mexican prince that he had resolved, with the help of his neighbor, to destroy the power and influence of the Tepanec dynasty forever, by its complete subversion. Hualcoyotl could not be assured of a continued and uninterrupted reign so long as his powerful and mortal enemy was permitted to exercise his despotic and aggressive disposition, and readily consented to join his royal cousin, of Tenochtitlan, in a crusade against him. The first business of the new king, however, was the organization of his governmental household--the selection of his chief officials who should comprise his privy council. In filling the most exalted positions, he remembered those who had been his personal friends when friendship was at a premium with him. Itzalmo was made his chief counselor, Ixtlilchoatl his chief war officer, and Euetzin his chief officer of state. In the latter he invested unusual authority, placing in his charge all matters of a tribal character. Cacami was not forgotten, but, by his own expressed wish, assigned to an important position in the army, near the person of Ixtlilchoatl.