Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/567

Rh charged in solid phalanx into the centre of the opposite mass, only to be obliged to retire under the pressure of its weight, and to receive the countercharge, encouraged by wildly gesticulating priests, who flitted to and fro in bloody robes and dishevelled hair. Aware of the inferiority of their weapons, the natives sought rather to seize hold of the Spaniards, singly or in groups, and with the recklessness of doomed men to hurl themselves with their victims from the dizzy height. In one instance Cortés himself was selected for this terrible fate. Inspired to martyrdom and revenge, two young nobles watched their opportunity, and approached him on their knees, as if pleading for mercy. Ere he had time to consider the situation they had seized him in their arms and were struggling to gain the edge. One moment more and he would have been dashed to death, but by putting forth his whole strength, nerved by desperation, he succeeded in freeing himself from their grasp. Ojeda was singled out for a similar attempt, and would have perished had not a Genoese come to his aid.

For three hours the struggle lasted, while one Indian after another was picked off by the bullet and the arrow, or pierced by the pike and sword, or sent headlong over the platform, either to be crushed by the fall or to be transfixed by the Spaniards on the ledges below. As their number diminished, many a one sought the higher martyrdom by leaping from the sacred spot into paradise. Thus melted away that fated band of Aztec warriors. At the portal of Huitzilopochtli's chapel fell the last defender; and two priests, one of them the high-priest, alone remained to offer themselves as captives. On entering the chapel consecrated to the virgin no traces appeared of the holy emblems, only evidences of idolatrous