Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/778

658 Spaniards, but they could not unmoved behold the cruel death of their countrymen. Then came more processions, music, and idolatrous rites, followed by fresh companies for the sacrifice, white and dark; and so passed the night, until the horror palled on the gazers, and many expressed the opinion that the priests were pretending sacrifice by producing the same bodies upon the stone several times so as to inspire greater fear. This belief was strengthened when they observed similar ceremonies take place on other minor temples, and by the continuance of the sacrifices for several days. The offering at the minor temples consisted chiefly of the lower class of allies. All the pyramids, however, received a quota of heads from Spanish, leading native, and equine victims, wherewith to decorate their summits.

Aware that the sight of the sacrifice, purposely intensified for Spanish edification, must have stirred deeply the breasts of the survivors, the Mexicans took advantage of this to attack the camp of Alvarado during the night. "Behold the fate in store for you all!" they cried, casting in half-roasted pieces of flesh from white and dusky bodies. "Eat, for we are satiated!" The Spaniards were too well prepared to suffer from the assault, but it added to their sorrows. The lesson had been costly, for about sixty men were lost, with six horses, one gun, and a number of smallarms, while the ranks of the allies had been diminished by from one to two thousand, and this without reckoning the vast number of wounded.