Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 1.djvu/64

52 prompt submission of the Tlascalans, and, assuring their alliance, had conquered the Cholulans, and obtained the control even of the capital and person of the Aztec Emperor himself. But now they returned defeated, plundered, unarmed, poor, scarcely clad, and with the loss of a large part of those Indian allies who had accompanied the expedition. There was reason for disheartening fear in the breast of Cortéz, had it been susceptible of such an emotion. But the Lord of Tlascala reassured him, when he declared that their "cause was common against Mexico, and, come weal, come woe, they would prove loyal to the death!"

The Spaniards were glad to find a friendly palace in Tlascala, in which to shelter themselves after the dreadful storms that had recently broken on their head. Yet, in the quiet of their retreat, and in the excitement of their rallying blood, they began to reflect upon the past and the disheartening aspect of the future. Murmurs, which were at first confined to the barrack, at length assumed public significance, and a large body of the men, chiefly the soldiers of Narvaez, presented to Cortéz a petition which was headed by his own secretary, demanding permission to retreat to La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz. Just at this moment, too, Cuitlahua, who mounted the throne of Mexico on the death of Montezuma, despatched a mission to the Tlascalans, proposing to bury the hatchet, and to unite in sweeping the Spaniards from the realm. The hours which were consumed by the Tlascalans in deliberating on this dread proposal were full of deep anxiety to Cortéz; for, in the present feeble condition of his Spanish force, his whole reliance consisted in adroitly playing off one part of the Indian population against another. If he lost the aid, alliance, or neutrality of the Tlascalans, his cause was lost, and all hope of reconquest, or perhaps even of retreat, was gone forever.

The promised alliance of the Mexicans was warmly and sternly supported in the debates of the Tlascalan council by some of the nobles; yet, after full and even passionate discussion, which ended in personal violence between two of the chiefs, it was unanimously resolved to reject the proposal of their hereditary foes, who had never been able to subdue them as a nation in battle, but hoped to entrap them into alliance in the hour of common danger. These discussions, together with the positive rejection by Cortéz of the Spanish petition, seem to have allayed the anxiety of the invaders to return to Vera Cruz. With the assured friendship of the Tlascalans they could rely upon some good turn in fortune, and, at length, the vision of the conquest might be realized under the