as it rose in the east and settled above the city. Montezuma, who had been roused to witness the phenomenon, called on his sorcerers for an explanation, and on finding that they had seen nothing, had them punished for their sloth. The wise Tezcucan then came and presaged dire calamities, which would also afflict himself. He was resigned, and would retire to await death. This was to be the last interview between the two kings. _Hist. Ind._, MS., ii. 274-85. Torquemada compares the comet to that which, according to Josephus, lib. vii. cap. xii., presaged the entry of Titus into Judea. When Nezahualpilli returned to his palace, a hare ran into the halls, pursued by eager domestics, but he bade them to leave it, saying that even so would a strange people enter into Anáhuac without resistance. _Torquemada_, i. 211-12, 214. Bernal Diaz speaks of a round sign in the eastern sky, of a reddish green, to which was attached a streak extending eastward. The consequent predictions of war and pestilence he finds fulfilled in the campaign of Cortés, and in the smallpox epidemic introduced by Narvaez. _Hist. Verdad._ (Paris ed. 1837), iv. 460-1. Among the accounts of celestial signs which may be based on the preceding is one by Camargo, describing a brightness observed in the east by the Tlascaltecs, three hours before dawn, accompanied by a whirlwind of dust from the summit of Mount Matlalcueje. Remesal refers probably to the same whirlwind under the guise of a white cloud, like a pillar, which often appeared in the east before sunrise, and afterward descended upon the cross erected in Tlascala by the Spaniards. The natives accepted this as an intimation that the new-comers were heaven’s chosen people, and received the cross. _Hist. Chyapa_, 304; _Camargo_, _Hist. Tlax._, 140. Gomara appears to connect this eastern light with a thick smoke and with the fiery pyramid, which were followed by a battle in the sky between bodies of armed men, attended with great slaughter. Some of the courtiers surrounding Montezuma while he observed this phenomenon, pointed out that the arms and dress of the victorious faction resembled those in the chest which had been washed up on the coast. He declared his conviction, however, that they must be relics of his divine ancestors, not of mortal beings who fell on a battle-field, as these forms appeared to do. He proposed, as a test, that they should break the divine sword. This they tried, but in vain, and remained mute with wonder at its flexibility and strength. _Hist. Mex._, 214; _Herrera_, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap. ix. Mendieta places this sign in 1511. _Hist. Ecles._, 179. The last celestial sign, as described by Mendieta, is a large, brilliant comet, which appeared the very year of