The royal habitation was at no great distance. It stood on the ground, to the southwest of the cathedral, since covered in part by the _Casa del Estado_, the palace of the dukes of Monteleone, the descendants of Cortés.[291] It was a vast, irregular pile of low stone buildings, like that garrisoned by the Spaniards.[292] So spacious was it, indeed, that, as one of the Conquerors assures us, although he had visited it more than once, for the express purpose, he had been too much fatigued each time by wandering through the apartments ever to see the whole of it.[293] It was built of the red porous stone of the country, _tetzontli_, was ornamented with marble, and on the façade over the principal entrance were sculptured the arms or device of Montezuma,{*} an eagle bearing an ocelot in his talons.[294] {*} [The totem or “beast symbol” of the clan to which it belonged.--M.] In the courts through which the Spaniards passed, fountains of crystal water were playing, fed from the copious reservoir on the distant hill of Chapoltepec, and supplying in their turn more than a hundred baths in the interior of the palace. Crowds of Aztec nobles were sauntering up and down in these squares, and in the outer halls, loitering away their hours in attendance on the court. The apartments were of immense size, though not lofty. The ceilings were of various sorts of odoriferous wood ingeniously carved; the floors covered with mats of the palm-leaf. The walls were hung with cotton richly stained, with the skins of wild animals, or gorgeous draperies of feather-work wrought in imitation of birds, insects, and flowers, with the nice art and glowing radiance of colors that might compare with the tapestries of Flanders. Clouds of incense rolled up from censers and diffused intoxicating odors through the apartments. The Spaniards might well have fancied themselves in the voluptuous precincts of an Eastern harem, instead of treading the halls of a wild barbaric chief in the Western World.[295] On reaching the hall of audience, the Mexican officers took off their sandals, and covered their gay attire with a mantle of _nequen_, a coarse stuff made of the fibres of the maguey, worn only by the poorest classes. This act of humiliation was imposed on all, except the members of his own family, who approached the sovereign.[296] Thus bare-footed, with downcast eyes and formal obeisance, they ushered the Spaniards into the royal presence.