Preparations for defense.--Cuitlahua.--Pestilence.--Guatemozin.--The brigantines.--The fleet is attacked.--The Spanish victorious.--Dismay of the Mexicans.--Cortez's skill.--The siege continued.--Obstinate resistance.--Sortie by the Mexicans.--Preparations for sacrifice. --Torturing the captives.--The sacrifice.--The Mexicans are elated by their victory.--Shrewdness of Cortez.--His allies.--Progress of the siege.--The allies in the city.--Sufferings of the Mexicans.--The public square.--Affairs in the Mexican camp.--A desperate resolve. --Pursuit.--The monarch captured.--His dignity.--Guatemozin's fortitude.--Pretended magnanimity of Cortez.--The Mexicans surrender. --Loss of the Spanish.--Appearance of the captured city.--Piety of Cortez.--Searching for the treasures.--The native allies.--Their carousals.--Spanish revelries and religious celebrations.--An entertainment.--The plant of Noah.--Father Olmedo.--Religious ceremonies.--Discontent.--Clamors of the army.--Cortez yields.-- Guatemozin's tortures.--Cortez rescues him.--The divers.--Nature of the Mexican empire.--The various Mexican governments yield to Cortez.--Perplexity of Cortez.--His treason.--Velasquez.--Cortez's labors.--His dispatches.--An extract.--Cortez's address to the nobles.--Ciquacoacin's reply.--He departs.--Loss of the Mexicans. --Fifty thousand killed.--Cannonading the city.--The musketry.-- Capture of Guatemozin.--His behavior.--Anniversary of the capture of Mexico. While Cortez was thus vigorously preparing to renew the assault upon the city of Mexico, the Mexicans were no less busy in their preparations for defense. Upon the death of Montezuma, the crown passed to his more warlike brother Cuitlahua. By his energies the Spaniards had been driven from the metropolis, and he immediately, with great vigor, fortified the city anew, and recruited and drilled his armies, now familiar with the weapons of European warfare. He sent an embassy to the Tlascalans, urging alliance against a common foe, and endeavoring to incite them to rise and crush the Spaniards, who, without their alliance, would have been entirely helpless. The sagacity of Cortez, however, baffled these efforts, and he succeeded in binding the Tlascalans to him by still stronger ties. Among other woes, the Spaniards had introduced the small-pox into Mexico. The terrible curse now swept like a blast of destruction through the land. The natives perished by thousands. Many cities and villages were almost depopulated. The fearful pestilence reached the Mexican capital, and the emperor, Cuitlahua, soon fell a victim to its ravages.