Side by side, the Spaniard and the Aztec knelt
down in prayer; and the Christian hymn mingled its sweet tones of love
and mercy with the wild chant raised by the Indian priest in honour of
the war-god of Anahuac! It was an unnatural union, and could not
long abide.
A nation will endure any outrage sooner than that on its religion.
This is an outrage both on its principles and its prejudices; on the
ideas instilled into it from childhood, which have strengthened with
its growth, until they become a part of its nature,- which have to
do with its highest interests here, and with the dread hereafter.
Any violence to the religious sentiment touches all alike, the old and
the young, the rich and the poor, the noble and the plebeian. Above
all, it touches the priests, whose personal consideration rests on
that of their religion; and who, in a semi-civilised state of society,
usually hold an unbounded authority. Thus it was with the Brahmins
of India, the Magi of Persia, the Roman Catholic clergy in the Dark
Ages, the priests of ancient Egypt and Mexico.
The people had borne with patience all the injuries and affronts
hitherto put on them by the Spaniards. They had seen their sovereign
dragged as a captive from his own palace; his ministers butchered
before his eyes; his treasures seized and appropriated; himself in a
manner deposed from his royal supremacy. All this they had seen
without a struggle to prevent it.
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