This second Montezuma was a born prince, and might have been a pattern for Niccolo Machiavelli, with whom he was contemporary. For, like the Florentine’s ideal, he was talented, learned, crafty, and unscrupulous. Had he studied in his own language that immaculate manual of political ethics, _The Prince_, he could not have more faithfully followed its precepts. No sooner had he assumed the sceptre than, throwing off the mask by which he had deceived the plebeians, he dismissed every person of that class employed about the palace, and filled all vacancies, civil and military, from the ranks of the nobles. He applied himself with energy to war and diplomacy, in both of which he was eminently successful, and raised himself and his throne to the highest pinnacle of grandeur; whereupon he did not disdain the title of Emperor of the World. Notwithstanding his talents and accomplishments, he was exceedingly superstitious, surpassing in this respect many of his followers, and was dependent on diviners and astrologers, appealing also to the counsels of Nezahualpilli and other prominent personages. Men, whom he knew, he did not fear; but the gods, whom he did not know, he feared exceedingly. And because he practised human sacrifice to propitiate them he has been called cruel, but the actions of a blind devotee of religion must not be measured by a too critical standard. There was nothing cruel in the wish of Caligula, however hateful and vindictive it might be, that the Roman people had but one head, so that he might strike it off at a single blow; but when he tortured men and women for amusement while at his meals, that was the quintessence of cruelty. As for honor, integrity, and all those virtues which go to make a man, we must not expect them in princes or in politicians; yet we may safely say that in all the generous qualities of mind and heart the Aztec monarch was no whit behind contemporary European rulers. From all which it is safe to say that Montezuma, though most magnificent and lordly among his lords, was not popular with the masses, and his position at this juncture was not of the safest. His extravagance exceeded all bounds; his continuous wars were expensive; and to meet the heavy draughts upon the treasury required excessive taxation. This was made to weigh with special heaviness on the subjugated provinces, on which likewise was laid with peculiar aggravation the horrible burden of furnishing victims for human sacrifices. The successful resistance to his arms of several states enclosed by his conquests, or bordering on his domain, caused him no small unhappiness. There was the little republic of Tlascala, on the very border of the Mexican valley, which often he had tried to conquer, and failed. Then there was the Tarascan kingdom of Michoacan, on the western side, whose people boasted as high a culture as any of the lake region, which stood firm against all efforts of the confederation.