Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/604

484 should have charged their death wounds to the Spaniards, who, rather than see men like King Cacama free to create mischief, should have preferred to dispatch them, offering, Medea-like, a bribe to reverence and love with a view to retard the Colchian pursuers. Although this accusation could not be proven, their death was nevertheless to be avenged. At least forty Spaniards and a number of allies had been captured during the night, and at the obsequies, which were of the most imposing order, they added solemnity to the occasion by yielding their hearts' blood; while those who, according to native tradition, turned back to hold the fort for three days before they swelled the throng of victims, were reserved for the coronation soon to follow.

The respite from close pursuit had enabled the fugitive army to join, in detached groups, the nucleus already gathered under Jamarillo in one of the squares of Tlacopan, the capital of the smallest tripartite state, half a league from Mexico. A sorry spectacle was this remainder of the brilliant army which had so lately entered Mexico as conquerors. A haggard, bleeding, ragged crowd, dreggy with mire and smeared with gore, many without weapons, and without a vestige of their baggage and war stores. When Cortés arrived with the last remnant the sun was rising, and fearing the danger of an attack in the narrow streets, such as had made the sallies in Mexico so disastrous, he hastened to conduct his men into the open field. The movement was made none too soon, for