Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/809

Rh headed by the viceroy and the alférez mayor bearing a banner commemorative of the conquest. For seventy-five days consecutively, says Cortés, the siege had been wreathing its coils midst almost hourly scenes of bloodshed, wherein nearly one thousand Spaniards and two hundred times that number of allies had taken part, one hundred or thereabout of the former falling, and many thousands among the latter.

As for the Mexicans, most of the early authorities assert that fully one hundred thousand perished, besides those who died from pest and famine. At the order of their sovereign, after the proclamation of peace, the miserable remnant began to evacuate their