Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/365

Rh dykes, throw up breastworks; still others were crying for more javelins and arrows, and again others shouting to women rounding stones for the slings—while from the chapels and towers of the idols the drums and shell trumpets dinned day and night, particularly the horrible, mournful sound of the accursed drum of Huitzilopochtli, whose tones pierced the very soul, never ceased for a moment. On the capture of Guatemoc all the uproar ended, and this is the reason of my likening our condition to those who have been standing in a belfry amid a clangor of bells.

I have read of the destruction of Jerusalem. I know not if there were greater carnage there. But this I know, that of the great number of warriors from the provinces who had crowded into the city of Mexico, most of them were slain. Land and lake were full of dead bodies, and the place became intolerable, and in this was the reason why, after we captured Guatemoc, the three divisions drew off to their former quarters and Cortes himself was ill from that which assailed his nostrils.

The atmosphere at last became so pestiferous that Guatemoc asked Cortes to permit all the inhabitants and the remainder of the Mexican forces to leave the city. Our captain promptly urged them to go, and for three days and nights an unending stream of men, women and children, so emaciated, dirty and