Ch. V.]
HIS CHARACTER.
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will for the celebration of two thousand masses forthe souls of those who had fought with him in thecampaigns of Mexico . 33
His character has been unconsciously traced bythe hand of a master.
“ And oft the chieftain deigned to aidAnd mingle in the mirth they made ;
For, though, with men of high degree,
The proudest of the proud was he,
Yet, trained in camps, he knew the artTo win the soldiers’ hardy heart.
They love a captain to obey,
Boisterous as March, yet fresh as May;
With open hand, and brow as free,
Lover of wine, and minstrelsy;
Ever the first to scale a tower,
As venturous in a lady’s bower ; —
Such buxom chief shall lead his hostFrom India ’s fires to Zembla’s frost.”
Cortés , without much violence, might have sat forthis portrait of Marmion.
Cortes was not a vulgar conqueror. He did notconquer from the mere ambition of conquest. If hedestroyed the ancient capital of the Aztecs , it wasto build up a more magnificent capital on its ruins.If he desolated the land, and broke up its existinginstitutions, he employed the short period of his ad-ministration in digesting schemes for introducingthere a more improved culture and a higher civiliza-tion. In all his expeditions he was careful to 'Studythe resources of the country, its social organization,and its physical capacities. He enjoined it on his