CHAPTER XXVII.
THE CONQUERORS ARE BESIEGED IN THEIR QUARTERS
The brave girl who had risked and lost her life in bringing Alvarado'smessage to Cortes, was buried that same day, at sunset, amid thedrooping cypresses and perfumed flowers of the royal garden of Tezcuco.During the day, Marina, and a few young Tezcucan girls whom shepersuaded to venture timidly forth from their homes, lined the gravewith a plait of sweet-scented grasses. When Tiata had been laid gentlywithin it, there was erected above it a snow-white cross, the symbol ofthe Toltec faith, for love of which she died. It was a day of sadnessin the deserted city, for the story of the great sorrow that had fallenon both Huetzin and Sandoval was known to every soldier and warrior. Atthe young Tlascalan leader they cast glances of respectful sympathy,but Sandoval was seen of no man that day. When, on the followingmorning, he reappeared among them, none dared speak to him of what hadhappened, for to his face had come that look of sternness that it heldto the day of his death, and which caused even the boldest to shrinkfrom incurring his displeasure.
From Tezcuco the army swept around the southern shore of the saltlake, to that same great causeway over which the first triumphal entryhad been made into Tenochtitlan. Then, they had barely found roomto advance amid the welcoming throngs of spectators with which itwas crowded. Now, save for their own heavy tread, it was silent anddeserted. Then, the sparkling waters on either side had swarmed withswift canoes filled with eager sight-seers. Now, only an occasionalcraft was to be seen stealthily regarding their movements from adistance and darting away like a frightened water-fowl when attentionappeared to be attracted to it. Even from the far-reaching city, beforethem came no sound, nor was there sign of life. A death-like stillnessbrooded over the entire scene, and it filled the hearts of theadvancing troops with an ominous dread. To dispel this, Cortes orderedthe trumpets to sound a merry blast. Its echoes had hardly died awaybefore they were answered by a glad roar of artillery from the distantfortress, in the heart of the city.
With this evidence that the little garrison still held out, and thatthe cross was still uplifted in the very shadow of Huitzil's temple,the troops entered Tenochtitlan with lighter hearts and a briskertread. As they marched through its silent streets, these appearedeven more deserted than had those of Tezcuco. The active populationof former days had vanished, and the tramp of iron-shod hoofs onlyawoke melancholy echoes from empty houses. The veterans, who had seenthese same streets teeming with eager multitudes, gazed about them inbewilderment, while the levies of Narvaez jeered at them for having,with all their boasted prowess, only conquered a city of the dead.
Finally they came to the Spanish quarters. The great gates behind whichtheir friends had been besieged so long, were flung joyously open, andthe new-comers were received with greetings as hearty as they weresincere. To the veterans little seemed changed since their departure.Some traces of the siege, in the shape of fire-blackened buildings andshattered walls, were to be seen here and there, but Montezuma wasstill a prisoner; military order still prevailed, and, with the adventof this fresh army, there was every reason to believe that the formerstate of affairs would speedily be restored. Thus Cortes believed, andthus he wrote to the officer whom he had left in command at Vera Cruz.
Only two comparatively unimportant matters gave him any uneasiness.One of these was the escape of Cuitlahua, the king's brother, and thusheir to the Aztec throne, which had been made only a few days before.The other was Montezuma's complaint that Tlalco, his favorite priestlyadviser, was no longer permitted to visit him. When Cortes questionedAlvarado concerning this, the latter denied having refused admittanceto any person whom the king desired to see. He added that he hadnoted the absence of this particular priest, but had accounted for itby supposing that he had joined his fellows in inciting the presentinsurrection. Both Huetzin and Sandoval deeply regretted that they wereunable to question Tlalco concerning certain matters. Knowing what theydid of his personality, they feared lest it should have been discoveredby the chief priest, in which case they knew there was little hope ofever again meeting with the devoted Toltec.
A day or two after his arrival, Cortes, having completed his despatchesfor Vera Cruz, entrusted them to a messenger who was ordered to proceedto that fort. He set forth; but in less than half an hour, came flyingback, terror-stricken and covered with wounds. "The city is in arms!"he cried. "The drawbridges are raised, and no avenue of escape is left!"
Even as he spoke, his words were confirmed by a dark flood of Aztecwarriors, sweeping down the great avenue, like some mighty tidethat has burst its limits. At the same time the parapeted roofs ofneighboring buildings were covered with a multitude of slingers andbowmen, who seemed to spring into existence as though by magic. Asthe astonished Spaniards gazed on this sudden repopulating of thedeserted city with warriors instead of traders, the dread tones of thegreat serpent drum, thundering forth from Huitzil's temple, proclaimedthat the Aztec gods had at length awakened and were about to wage apitiless, unrelenting war against all followers of the cross.
The ominous booming of the war-drum was instantly answered by theringing notes of Christian trumpets, summoning every man within thepalace-fortress to his post. Their call was so promptly obeyed that erethe tawny Aztec wave reached the wall, every musketeer, cross-bowman,and gunner was in place, and waiting.
A blinding flight of arrows, darts, and stones, from the Aztec front,and a storm of missiles from the house-tops, together with a fierceyell from ten thousand Aztec throats, opened the battle. In replycame a rattling volley from Spanish guns, that mowed down hundreds ofthe advancing hosts. But they did not falter. Again and again theycharged, dashing themselves with impotent fury against the low stonewall separating them from their enemies, and, time after time, thesame murderous volley drove them back. Hundreds of them, upborne byhundreds more, scaled the walls, only to fall victims to the Tlascalanmaquahuitls, that sprang to meet them from the opposite side. Theytried to effect a breach with battering-rams, and to set the quarterson fire with blazing arrows. The woodwork of some of the buildings wassoon burning briskly, and a few rods of wall were levelled; but thefire died out without injuring the more substantial portions of thebuildings, and a grinning battery lay in wait behind the breach. Likecrouched tigers the black guns seemed to leap at the swarming foe, andin a few minutes the breach was choked with lifeless human bodies.Still the battle raged with unabated fury until, with the coming ofnight, both sides were thankful for a respite.
With earliest sunrise the Spaniards were again under arms and attheir posts, but only to see the streets and squares swarming witha more numerous and determined foe than had attacked them on thepreceding day. In its approach to military order the hand of thewarlike Cuitlahua was visible. Instead of being a disorderly mob,the Aztec force was drawn up in compact bodies, each under its ownleader. Above them streamed banners emblazoned with the devices of manycities, while over all soared a golden eagle, bearing in his talonsa writhing serpent, the proud cognizance of the Montezumas, and thestandard of the Aztec nation. Among the crowded ranks, fierce priestswere everywhere to be seen promising the protection of the gods, andinviting their followers to deeds of valor. The gorgeous feathermantles and golden bucklers of the nobles glistened in the morning sun,while above the cotton-armored, or naked ranks of the humbler warriors,a forest of tossing spears reflected his rays from their myriadgleaming points.
As Cortes had determined to take the offensive in this day's fight,he ordered a general discharge of artillery and musketry to be pouredinto the thickset Aztec ranks before they had made a movement ofattack. Under cover of the resulting confusion, the gates were thrownopen, and out of the smoke clouds the Spanish cavalry dashed forth ina resistless charge. They were supported by Huetzin with a thousandTlascalan warriors, and such was the fury of their onslaught that,for several blocks, the Aztecs were swept helplessly before it.Their precipitate flight ended at a barricade of timber and stones,that had been thrown across the great avenue during the night. Herethe
y made so determined a stand that the Spaniards, galled by theirhurtling missiles, and an incessant rain of stones from the neighboringhouse-tops, were compelled to retire.
Two heavy guns, advanced on the run by scores of lusty Tlascalans,soon levelled the barricade. But it had served as a rallying-point forfresh battalions of the enemy, by whom an attempt of the Spaniards torepeat their brilliant charge was doggedly and successfully resisted.Regardless of wounds or death, numbers of them would, at a signal, dartunder the horses' bellies and cling to their legs, while others stroveto fell the riders from their saddles.
It was fortunate for the bulk of the Spanish army that the effortsof the Aztecs were invariably directed toward the taking ofprisoners, rather than to the killing of their enemies; though to theunfortunates thus captured and dragged away for sacrifice, instantdeath would have been infinitely preferable. Everywhere the Spaniardsfound barricades erected, and at these points were massed fresh bodiesof Aztec troops, impatiently awaiting their turn to plunge into thefray. No matter how often they were repulsed or how many of themwere killed, they appeared to the disheartened whites to swarm inundiminished numbers, and with unabated courage.
So the day was spent in a steady succession of petty, but desperateengagements. At its close, although the Spaniards had been everywherevictorious, they were exhausted and filled with gloomy forebodings,while their adversaries seemed more confident and in a better humor forfighting than at the beginning of the struggle.
All night long they gathered outside the Spanish quarters, taunting theinvaders with their helplessness, now that the gods were awake. "Thealtars of Huitzil thirst for your blood!" they cried. "But soon theywill be drenched with it, and the wild beasts of the palace shall feaston your carcasses! The knives of sacrifice are sharpened!--and cagesfor fattening await the lean and hungry Tlascalans!"