Shortly after, the temple of the fire god Xiuhtecutli, at Zocomolco, was stricken by lightning and burned. This occurred without the usual accompaniment of thunder, and with but a sprinkle of rain; many regarded it as done by a sunbeam, and consequently as particularly ominous. ‘Los Indios decian ... el Sol ha quemado este Templo; porque ni hemos visto Relampago, ni hemos oido Trueno.’ _Torquemada_, i. 214, 234. Believing, or pretending to believe, the city attacked by enemies, the Tlatelulcans rushed to arms, for which excess of zeal they were punished by a suspension of all their townsmen who held positions at court. _Native Races_, v. 461-67. [141] Torquemada assumes that the 12,210 victims comprised also those offered at the consecration of two new temples, Tlamatzinco and Quauhxicalli. See _Native Races_, v. 471. Tezozomoc relates that the laborers, after striving in vain to move the stone from its original site, heard it utter, in a muffled voice, ‘Your efforts are in vain; I enter not into Mexico.’ The incident finds a parallel in the vain effort of Tarquin to remove certain statues of the gods, to make room for Jupiter’s temple, and in the firm adherence of Apollo’s head to the ground, shortly before the death of the Roman ruler. But recovering from their alarm, they tried again, and now the stone moved almost of its own accord. Another halt is made, a second oracle delivered, and finally the stone reaches the bridge, where it disappears into the water. Amid the invocation of priests, divers descend in search, only to come back with the report that no vestige of it is to be found; but there is a fathomless pit extending toward Chalco. While diviners are cudgelling their brains for clues, in comes a messenger to announce that the stone, like the Penates of Æneas, had returned to its original site, arrayed in all the sacrificial ornaments. Observing in this occurrence the divine will, Montezuma let the stone remain, and recognizing at the same time a menace to himself, perhaps of speedy death, he ordered his statue to be at once sculptured by the side of his predecessors, on the rocky face of Chapultepec Hill. Tezozomoc describes the statue. _Hist. Mex._, ii. 204-7. _Duran_, _Hist. Ind._, MS., ii. 313-27. _Clavigero_, _Storia Mess._, i. 292-3. Among the troubles which after this fell upon the doomed people are mentioned: An earthquake in 1513. _Codex Tell. Rem._, in _Kingsborough’s Mex. Antiq._, v. 154. A locust plague. ‘Vieronse gran cantidad de mariposas, y langostas, que passauan de buelo hàzia el Occidente.’ _Herrera_, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap. ix. A deluge in Tuzapan, and a fall of snow which overwhelmed the army en route for Amatlan. While crossing the mountains, rocks and trees came tumbling