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Rh a storm of stones and darts, were dragging the drawbridge back into position, and Cortez was lost to sight for a time. A rumor spread that the general was dead. Both he and his horse reappeared, however, but many another brave warrior fell that day to rise not again. The Aztecs were once more masters. They held four bridges, while the Spaniards held four others, on the western causeway, nearest the mainland.

The Spaniards now resolved to leave the city. The soldiers of Narvaez had long been clamoring to go to the coast, and all were exhausted by ceaseless efforts by night and by day and unnerved by the seemingly hopeless character of the struggle with a foe which not only outnumbered them a thousand to one, but which, if every Aztec now in the city were slain, could bring a still greater force to the attack in a few hours. It was determined to fall back on Tlascala, going by the western causeway, though it led in a directly opposite direction. But it was the shortest path and partly in the possession of the Spaniards; once on the mainland, they would make their way northward around Lake Tezcuco, and finally due east to Tlascala. Cortez gave up his own horse to carry the king's treasure, but by far the largest part of what had been gained at such a cost was left behind, though a few, more greedy than the rest, loaded themselves with spoil. A son and two daughters of Montezuma, with several leading chiefs—among them Cacama, the fiery young chief of Tezcuco—were in the sad company which marched out of Mexico that night. The most important duty was the management and defence of a pontoon-bridge hastily constructed by the general's orders. This was intended to span the chasm in the causeway, which had been again uncovered and its movable bridge