this, poured his musketry and cannon upon the harmless, helpless mass, slaughtering them by the thousands. Cannon also commanded the approaches to the place, and swept down all the excited masses that attempted to enter and rescue their brethren. That deed gave him free egress from this city and free ingress to Mexico; for it inspired the country with great fear of these invaders, who could learn every secret and master every opposition.
The plaza gives no sign of this terrible history. Two sides of it are occupied with churches, one with small shops and stores, and one with a long, wide, handsome arcade, as empty of people, however, as a handsome head usually is of sense. A few Indian women, descendants of the poor fellows who were here done unto the death, sit on their mats among their beans, bananas, oranges, water-melons, and other summer fruits, and do a little trading for the little town.
A high wall incloses the immense area assigned to the great church, which fills all the eastern side of the plaza and goes back for several acres, an empty court and church and convent, except a corner occupied by soldiers. The smaller church on the north side was erected by Cortez, so it is said, and contains the little image of the Virgin which he carried in all his campaigns. It is a small church, and not rich in any of its trappings. I did not know that the Cortez's Virgin was there, and so, if I saw it, saw it not. It shows the tact of this general, that he should put his battle banner in charge of the righting Tlascalans, and his worshiped image in charge of the praying Cholulans. Suum cuique. Each had its own, and the country saw, Spanish and Mexic, the fitness of the appropriation.
A ride through one of the half-dozen occupied streets, and that but poorly inhabited, carries us by the door of an exceedingly fresh and pretty chapel. It is flush to the sidewalk, and brilliant with all manner of stucco and fancy-colored washes. It is not paint, but water-colors, that here set off the houses. Puebla is being thus rewashed under orders of the governor, who declares if each house is not thus refreshened within a certain time he will make the
