Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/226

218 When the entire army had passed over this break, the bridge was to be taken up and carried to the next, and so on till all the breaks were passed.

The Spaniards started at midnight, July 1, 1520. The night was dark, and a drizzling rain fell on the silent company which hurried toward the only path of escape. Most of the dwellings in the neighborhood had been destroyed, and there were no priestly watchmen in the high towers of the temple to give the alarm, as in olden times. The Indian sentinels whom they met were soon silenced; the bridge was laid down, and the army was half over before the Aztecs took alarm. Then from far and near they came after their escaping prey, hurrying through the darkness with infuriated yells. The Spaniards pressed on till all were safely over the first opening in the causeway. Then to lift the bridge and carry it to the next! The men plied their strong pikes in vain; the heavy timbers, sunken in the mud and pressed down by the trampling feet of the fugitives, could not be lifted, and, stunned and bleeding from the stones showered upon them, the Spaniards were forced to abandon the bridge, over which the Aztecs now crowded with wild shouts of triumph. Pressed by those behind them, attacked by enemies on the lake, the front ranks fell into the yawning breach, spanned only by a single beam. Some of the horses swam over with their riders; others forded a shallow place. Many were dragged off the causeway and carried away to be slain on the altars of the war-god. The chasm was soon filled with struggling victims or the bodies of the dead horses and men, over which those in the rear made their way to the last opening.

In such peril men often forget everything but their own safety, but in this terrible night the Christians