Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/601

Rh Cortés and his small band of rescuers came up as Alvarado appeared, pike in hand and bleeding, accompanied by a few stragglers. Among these was Juan Tirado, who, in gratitude for his deliverance, erected at this bridge after the conquest a hermitage to San Acacio, known also as De los Mártires — martyrs to avarice, as Torquemada intimates. The badly wounded were now mounted behind the horsemen, and repelling the foes who still pressed on them, Cortés in person covered the remnant of the army in its retreat toward Tlacopan, losing in this final struggle the gallant Captain Morla. The route lay through Popotla village or suburb; and here, according to tradition, Cortés seated himself on a stone to weep over the misfortunes of this Sorrowful Night.

By a similar process of annealing, gold is made soft and iron hard; so by misfortune the wise man is made wiser while the fool is hardened in his folly.