Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/517

Rh to his aid. By the time the guns were in position, most of the forces of Sandoval and Olid were free to aid Velazquez de Leon in the task of reducing the quarters in which Salvatierra and Diego Velazquez still held out.

They were summoned to submit to the king and to Cortés, under pain of death, but gave a defiant answer. The guns were now brought into play, and fired first over their heads to frighten them. As the balls came whizzing by, the blustering Salvatierra, who had sworn to eat the ears of Cortés, declared himself sick. His fierceness changed to abject fear, and his men asserted that they never saw a captain behave so contemptibly. The shots, supported by promises, soon brought about the surrender of this pyramid.

The last to hold out was Diego Velazquez, a brave fellow, well liked by his followers; but after a few more parleys, and the loss of three men from well directed shots, his party was also prevailed on to descend and deliver up their arms, the leaders being secured and removed in irons to the chapel, the wounded receiving there the attentions of a surgeon. Cortés looked in to examine their condition, and as the whisper reached Narvaez that the hero of the day was present, he turned and said: "Señor Cortés, you may hold high the good fortune you have had, and the great achievement of securing my person."