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318 have been one superior to that which guided the Spaniards. With troops similar in number and equipment, Guatemotzin would have been more than a match for Cortez. If we read of any brilliant movement or piece of strategy executed by the Spaniards, we shall find upon examination that it was suggested by their observation of the superior skill of the Mexicans.

Among the prisoners captured at the second attack of the canoes were several nobles, who were sent by Cortez to Guatemotzin with a message of peace. They undertook this commission unwillingly, declaring that the fierce king would have them instantly put to death; but, though much enraged at them for bringing him such proposals, he spared their lives, and sent them back to Cortez with a message of defiance.

About this time news came from Cuernavaca and other frontier towns that the Malinalchese, instigated by the messengers of the Mexicans who had been sent to them with the heads of the Spaniards, were marching upon the besiegers with a large army. These were met and defeated by two detachments, and thus the last hope of the Mexicans of aid from without was taken from them. Their condition was most deplorable; they were now "forsaken by all their friends, surrounded by enemies, and oppressed by famine." Not only the Spaniards were arrayed against them, but nearly every native kingdom and republic lying between the sea and the gulf. Still they were undismayed, and to the overtures of peace sent them by the Spaniards returned only answers breathing defiance and threatenings of the vengeance they would take upon them when their gods should have delivered them into their hands.

The Tlascallan chief, Chichimecatl, made restless by the delay of the Spaniards to attack, one day entered the city with his own troops, carefully guarding the great ditch by