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 that Ordas was unable, for a length of
time, to cut his way through. Our cannon, muskets, crossbows, and
lances, did, certainly, great havoc among the enemy's ranks, who, in
fact, rushed in upon our weapons; yet they continued the combat with the
same fury, and closed their ranks more firmly, nor could we drive them
back a single inch. It was only after a good deal of hard fighting that
Diego and his men were able to regain our quarters, though with
twenty-three soldiers less than when he had left it, and the rest all
wounded: add to which, the enemy's numbers were every moment increasing;
nor did they spare abusive language, calling us old women, ragged
scoundrels, and such like beautiful names. But the loss we sustained at
present was nothing to what we subsequently suffered. They even carried
their audacity so far as to throw fire into our quarters, while one body
attacked us in front and another from behind, so that we should soon
have been suffocated by the flames and smoke if we had not succeeded in
putting out the fire by throwing quantities of earth on it, and by
pulling down the apartments from which the fire was spreading.

The combat continued the whole day until late at night, during which
time they continued to throw such quantities of stones and lances into
our quarters, that the place was literally covered with them. In the
meantime we had to dress our wounds, to repair the damage done to our
buildings, and get some rest till the next morning. As soon as day began
to dawn, Cortes determined to sally out with the whole of his troops,
including those of Narvaez and the cannon, either to beat the enemy out
of the field altogether, or at least to give them a greater proof of our
power than we had been able to do on the previous day. The Mexicans, it
seemed, had also determined to do their utmost, and they not only
fought with uncommon bravery but came in overwhelming numbers, so that
every instant they poured in fresh men to the attack. Indeed ten
thousand Trojan Hectors, and as many Rolands, would in vain have tried
to break through the enemy's ranks! At this moment even, that battle is
fresh in my memory; but no words can describe the unyielding
stubbornness of the foe. All the volleys from our heavy guns and muskets
were to no purpose; it was in vain we rushed forward upon them, and
killed from thirty to forty of their numbers at a time; their ranks
still remained firmly closed, while their courage seemed to increase
with every loss. Whenever we did drive them back into the streets to
some distance, they had merely retreated in order that we should follow
them, and by so doing be drawn further away from our quarters, when they
hoped more easily to surround us, and so render our escape impossible.
And sure enough by these retrograde movements they invariably made the
greatest destruction among our ranks. Neither did it avail us anything
whenever we set fire to any of the houses; for, as I have above
mentioned, it was only possible to pass from one house to another by
means of wooden drawbridges. If the latter were drawn up we had to wade
through deep water to gain another house. But our men suffered most from
those of the enemy's troops who pelted them with stones and lances from
the housetops. Indeed I cannot imagine how I thus coolly relate all that
passed. Three or four of our men who had previously served in the
Italian wars, swore over and over again that they had never witnessed
such furious fighting, neither in the wars with the king of France, nor
even in those with the grand Turk himself. Indeed it was no easy matter
for us to retreat to our head-quarters, so desperately did they assail
us under the most horrible sound of drums, pipes and trumpets,
accompanied by the most obscene and abusive language. This day we lost
ten or twelve men, and none of us escaped without a wound. We passed the
night in deliberations and in preparing for another attack. We now
resolved that after the lapse of two days as many of us as were healthy
should sally out with two moving towers. These we had strongly put
together of wood, and were so constructed, that under each of them
twenty-five of our men could stand to move them along. These towers
contained loopholes, from which our heavy guns could be fired; besides
that there was space enough for a number of musketeers and crossbow-men.
At the side of these towers marched a strong body of musketeers and
crossbow-men, as also the whole of our horse, who were from time to time
to charge the enemy at full gallop. The construction of these towers
and the repairing of several small breaches which the enemy had made in
our quarters, occupied us the whole of the following day, so that we
could not sally out till the next.

The enemy, however, continued their attacks upon our quarters, not
merely from ten or twelve, but from twenty different points at once; so
that what with the constructing of the towers, repairing the breaches,
and beating off our assailants who had fixed ladders to our quarters, we
had enough to do. The whole of us, they cried out, were to be sacrificed
to their gods, our hearts were to be torn from our bodies, the blood was
to be drawn from our veins, and our arms and legs were to be eaten up at
their festivals. The remaining parts of our bodies would be thrown to
the tigers, lions and serpents, which they kept in cages; these had not
been fed for these two days, in order that they might devour our flesh
the more greedily. Our gold and other things would be their booty, and
they told the Tlascallans they should be locked up in cages where they
fattened people for their sacrifices. Only deliver us up our monarch
Motecusuma,--added they with great vehemence; while their noise and
their attacks continued through the whole night.

As soon as day had fully broken forth, we commended ourselves to the
Almighty, and sallied out with our war-towers. This time again we killed
a great number of the enemy; but with all our fighting we could not
force them to yield ground, and if they had fought courageously the two
previous days, they stood the more firm this time, and fought
desperately. We however determined, if it were even to cost us all our
lives, to push forward to the great temple of Huitzilopochtli. I will
not detail the severe struggle we had against one house in particular,
which was very strongly fortified, nor the critical position our horse
were placed in. For whenever our cavalry galloped in upon the enemy's
ranks, our horses were assailed by so many arrows, stones and lances,
that they were immediately covered with wounds; while their riders,
however courageously they fought, could make but little impression upon
the foe. If they pushed further on, the Mexicans either jumped into the
canals or into the lake, where the cavalry could not follow them, and
where a whole forest of lances stared them in the face: equally
fruitless were all our attempts to set fire to their houses, or pull
them down, as they

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