Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/166

150 and the order is issued to kill and spare not. Against the burning door, although not yet consumed, they throw themselves until it yields, and the maddened crowd rush like a torrent of flame over the burning debris through the entrance. A deadly volley at point-blank range is poured into them by Berázabal and his men, strewing the ground with the dead. But their impetus is irresistible. Surging onward over the fallen, the human wave overwhelms or drives before it the defenders at the entrance, and Berzábal with a few survivors makes his last stand in a corner of the court.

The struggle is brief. His soldiers are soon stretched upon the pavement; the standard-bearers fall; but Berzábal, supporting the colors with his left arm, for a while defends himself with his sword, till pierced by a dozen lances he sinks lifeless on the ground, still clinging to the standard in his death agony. The victors now rush forward into every part of the building, killing without mercy and without discrimination. Surrendered soldiers are cut down, and