Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 2.djvu/119

 by this, they retreated into their camp, having fought very well that day and arrived almost to the market-place which would have been won that day if God, on account of our sins, had not permitted so great a misfortune. We returned to our camp sadly, somewhat earlier than we were accustomed to on other days; also because we heard the brigantines were lost as the Mexicans had fallen on our rear with the canoes, though it pleased God that this should not be true. The brigantines and canoes of our friends had indeed found themselves in tight straits; so much so that a brigantine was almost lost, and the  for a resumption of hostilities, while the Mexicans were engaged in making overtures to win back their faithless subjects and allies.

The situation of the Spaniards was well-nigh desperate, but that of the Mexicans was hardly better, for famine stalked their streets, claiming as many victims as the Spanish cannon, and terribly weakening the defenders of the city. The besiegers tenaciously held their position on the causeways, and, aided by the brigantines, on the lakes, were unceasingly vigilant in maintaining the blockade.

Throughout the siege there were a few Spanish women — some of them described as "wives" of the soldiers — in camp, who displayed scarcely less courage than the men, for, not only did they occupy themselves in the nursing which is women's natural function in wartime, but they even mounted guard to relieve the weary soldiers, who needed rest; and instances are given of their joining in the actual fighting. Cortes had intended leaving all these women at Tlascala, but his proposed order to that effect aroused such opposition, especially among the women themselves who declared that Castilian wives, rather than abandon their husbands in danger, would die with them, that it was never given. Little has been said of the courage and devotion of these obscure heroines, but Herrera has recorded the names of five, Beatriz de Palacios, Maria de Estrada, Juana Martin, Isabel Rodriguez, and Beatriz Bermudez, as meriting honorable mention in the annals of the conquest.

The eight days appointed by the priests for the destruction of the besiegers expired, and the prophecy remained unfulfilled; seeing which the vacillating allies returned to the Spanish camp in large numbers where the politic general received them with his customary imperturbable urbanity, and, after reproaching them for their faithless desertion in a panic of foolish superstition, declared that he pardoned their fault and accepted them once more as vassals of Spain, and his allies.