CHAPTER XXXIX.
ALDERETE'S FATAL ERROR
The next day another assault was made that penetrated, as before, tothe square of the temple. On this occasion the Spaniards, filled withhatred against the ancient palace in which they had suffered so much,set fire to it in a hundred places, and soon had the satisfaction ofseeing it in ruins. As on the previous occasion, the retreat to theirown camp was so bitterly assailed that few reached it without bearingon their bodies smarting tokens of the fight. These assaults werecontinued for many days, though with but slight results; for, whereverthe besiegers filled canal openings during the day, the Aztecs clearedthem out again at night. They also, contrary to their usual custom,made constant night attacks upon the Christian camps, so that theSpaniards were allowed no rest.
THIS THEY DRAGGED FROM ITS PEDESTAL.]
At this stage of the siege, Guatamotzin succeeded in capturing anddestroying two of the brigantines, by luring them into a trap of stoutstakes, driven just below the surface of the water. Thus, with varyingfortunes did the days and weeks of the siege pass, until July came,and still the city made no sign of surrender. Famine was beginning tostalk through its streets, and its hardy defenders were sickening ofthe brackish water with which they eked out the scanty supplies nightlysmuggled to them in canoes from the mainland; but the priests stillpromised ultimate victory, and were still believed.
At length another concerted attack was planned, by which two armiesshould advance from opposite sides of the city, and endeavor toforce their way to a meeting in the great market-place of Tlateloco.Alderete, the royal treasurer, one of the late arrivals, wasparticularly anxious to have the market-place captured and occupied asa base of operations against the rest of the city. Reluctantly yieldingto his importunities, Cortes ordered the assault to be made. From oneside were to advance the combined forces of Sandoval and Alvarado,and from the other his own troops were to make their way, in threedivisions, up three parallel streets, all of which led to the tinguez.One of these divisions was entrusted to Alderete, one to a youngerAlvarado, while Cortes himself commanded the third. With this divisionwent Huetzin, in command of the Tlascalans.
To each commander the General's last and most implicit instructionwas, to be sure and fill the canal openings as he advanced, so as toprovide a way of retreat. Then, dismounting and advancing on foot,he led his own division to the assault. The Aztecs fell back afteroffering less resistance than usual, and the division carried barricadeafter barricade with comparative ease, carefully filling each canalwith rubbish ere they left it. On either side of the street, Huetzinand his active warriors scaled the house-tops, engaging in hand-to-handconflict with the defenders, and ever driving them from theirpositions. Nor did the young Toltec neglect the teocallis, several ofwhich were encountered on the way. In every case these were deserted oftheir priests, and Huetzin caused them to be quickly deserted of theirgods as well. From one of these tall observatories he descended withthe information that the other divisions were so far in advance of thatled by Cortes, that they were actually entering the great market-placewhile he was still but half way to it.
"Then," exclaimed the commander, "they cannot have stopped to fill thecanals, and I fear me greatly are being decoyed into some trap!"
Halting his own division, he ordered Quinones, the captain of hisguard, to maintain it in that place at all hazards, until hearing fromhim. Then, accompanied by Huetzin, Olea, and several other cavaliers,Cortes hastened through a narrow street connecting with the broadavenue up which Alderete had passed. The roadway of this was borderedby canals on either side, so that the Spaniards had been able to bringa fleet of canoes with them. In these they had been ferried across awide gap, connecting the two canals, from which the bridge had beenremoved. In the exciting rivalry and ease of their advance, they forgotthe commander's instructions, and neglected to fill this gap. Thus theypressed exultingly forward, without a thought of disaster or of makingprovision for a hurried retreat.
Cortes had hardly reached the avenue before he discovered this yawningchasm in the roadway, and realized the deadly error committed byAlderete. He and those with him attempted to remedy it by casting inrubbish with their own hands. They had scarcely begun, when the distantroar of conflict grew louder, and in another minute a torrent ofpanic-stricken humanity came rolling back, down the avenue to where thefatal opening awaited its victims.
Alderete had made his way to the market-place with such ease as toinspire him with a contempt for his adversaries, and fill him with theidea that he was about to conquer the city at a blow.
Suddenly, from the lofty summit of a neighboring temple sounded, loudand clear, the thrilling tones of the horn of Guatamotzin. It was asummons rarely issued, and, as the Spaniards had learned to their cost,was invariably followed by a struggle to the death. On this occasionits long-drawn, piercing notes had not died away, when the Aztecs, whohad fled before the advance of Alderete, turned on him with the utmostfury. At the same moment swarms of ambushed warriors poured out fromevery cross street and lane, rending the air with their savage cries,and springing upon the flanks of his straggling column.
Bewildered and staggered by the force and unexpected nature of theonset, the Spaniards paused, listened in vain for the accustomedrallying-cry of their great leader, wavered, and broke into a madflight back over the way they had just come. In the frenzied rushfriends and foes, Spaniards, Tlascalans, and Aztecs, were mingled ininextricable confusion; so that many of the terrified fugitives werestruck down by those beside them, and snatched into waiting canoes byunseen hands.
Blinded by terror, the fierce human wave rolled on toward the gulf, onthe opposite side of which Cortes and half a dozen companions shudderedat the impending horror. There was no pause at the awful brink. Theleading files were forced to the leap by those pressing from behind,and in a moment the most hideous feature of the _noche triste_ wasbeing re-enacted. In this case there were no horses nor guns to plungewith wretched humanity into the chasm, nor did darkness multiply theconfusion. Still it was a fearful sight, and Cortes, extending helpinghands to whom he could, groaned aloud to behold his soldiers disappearby scores beneath the choking waters, or dragged into waiting Azteccanoes.
As he thus stood in the edge of the water, striving to save somevictims of this terrible disaster, a large canoe containing sixathletic Aztec warriors dashed up to him, and with wild yells of"Malinche! Malinche!" its occupants made a determined effort to draghim into their boat. A spear-thrust in the leg partially disabled him,and though he struggled with the almost superhuman strength suppliedby a vision of the sacrificial altar, his assailants would haveaccomplished their purpose had not Olea on one side, and Huetzin on theother, sprung to his rescue with flashing swords. After killing two ofthe Aztecs, Olea fell mortally wounded. Another cavalier named Lermawas instantly in his vacant place, and for several minutes he and theTlascalan Knight, bestriding the prostrate body of their leader, heldthe whole swarming mob of assailants in check. The cool bravery andexpert skill of the two were a match for the reckless ferocity of anuntrained score.
Meantime the report carried to the General's own division that he wasslain, spread such dismay through the ranks that, but for the promptaction of the captain of the guard and a few others, they would havejoined in the senseless flight of Alderete's men. Those who preventedthis, refusing to believe that their leader was dead, rushed to hisrescue, and with a fierce charge pulled him from the very edge of thewater, into which the Aztecs, despite the efforts of Huetzin andLerma, had succeeded in dragging him.
The body of brave Olea was borne away in triumph by the enemy, as wasthat of a page, pierced through the neck by a javelin, as he came upwith the General's horse. As the lifeless hand of the page dropped fromthe bridle this was instantly seized by Guzman, the chamberlain; butere Cortes gained his saddle, this faithful attendant was also snatchedaway and dragged into an Aztec canoe, vainly screaming for help.
The continued retreat along the canal-bordered roadway was marked
bydeath and disaster to its very end. The Aztec attack was bold andincessant, while the press was so great that many an unfortunate wasforced from his footing and slipped into the fatal waters. From thesehe was only rescued by Aztec canoes, that would bear him to a fate farworse than instant death.
The dismay and terror of the fugitives was heightened by the display,on the uplifted ends of Aztec spears, of two bloody Spanish heads.This dismal spectacle was accompanied by savage cries of "Sandoval!Sandoval! Tonatiah! Tonatiah!" intimating that the other army hadalso been routed, and its leaders slain. At the same time that army,barely holding its own against a most determined attack, was horrifiedat seeing a bloody Spanish head tossed, with wildest glee, from handto hand of their assailants, who greeted it with exulting shouts of"Malinche! Malinche!" thus striving to convey the idea that the greatleader had fallen.
The disastrous retreat of Alderete and his men was not stayed untilthey reached a place where the light battery and a body of cavalry,sent to their succor, could operate. Even then the Aztecs did notgive way, until, in return for the losses inflicted upon them by theartillery, they had captured several troopers and killed their horses.
Next to the _noche triste_, this affair was more disastrous to thewhites than any in which they had been engaged since entering that landof battle and death. Besides their long list of killed and wounded,sixty-two Spanish and a multitude of Tlascalan prisoners had beencaptured by the triumphant Aztecs. These had also killed seven horses,and gained possession of two pieces of artillery.
As the sun was setting that evening, the penetrating vibration ofthe great serpent drum, from the lofty but dismantled temple of thewar-god, attracted all eyes in that direction. A long procession ofpriests wound slowly up and around the sides of the vast teocal. Asit reached the summit, the Spaniards recognized with horror, in thefigures of several men stripped to their waists, the white skins oftheir compatriots. These, urged on by cruel blows, were compelledto dance in front of the altar, before submitting to the itzitliblade of sacrifice. For eighteen successive evenings was this awfulscene repeated, and on the last of them, Guzman, the General'sdevoted attendant, met the cruel fate that had already overtaken hiscompanions, whose number he had seen dwindle, day by day, until healone was left.
The Aztec priests caused it to be proclaimed throughout the valley,that within eight days from the date of their terrible defeat, everySpaniard would be either dead or a prisoner, for so the gods haddecreed. At the same time they warned all allies of the Spaniards, whodid not wish to share their fate, to desert the Christian cause, andretire to their own places.
This prophecy had such an effect upon the allies, that by thousands andten of thousands they left the camps of the besiegers, until only afew hundred faithful Tlascalans remained. But when the eight days werepassed, and, in spite of repeated attacks from the city, the white menstill held their ground, their shame-faced allies began to return insuch numbers that the besieging army was soon as strong as before.