of the Sun, tarry so
long in finishing, when the Sun himself makes circuit of the earth in a
day, and so accomplishes his work speedily?"

This remarkable appeal struck renewed pity to the heart of Cortes, and
once more he begged them to surrender and avoid further suffering, and
the Spaniards drew off their forces for a space. But the inexorable
Guatemoc, although he sent an embassy to say he would hold parley, and
the Spaniards waited for him, did not fulfil the promise at the last
moment. Incensed at this behaviour, the Spaniards and the Tlascalans
renewed the attack with overpowering energy on the one part and
barbaric savagery on the other. Contrary to the orders of the
Spaniards, their savage allies gave no quarter, but murdered men,
women, and children in fiendish exultation. The stench of the dead in
the beleaguered city was overpowering; the soil was soaked with blood;
the gutters ran as in a rain-storm, say the chroniclers, and, wrote
Cortes to the King of Spain: "Such slaughter was done that day on land
and water that killed and prisoners numbered forty thousand; and such
were the shrieks and weeping of women and children that there were none
of us whose hearts did not break." He adds that it was impossible to
contain the savage killing and torturing by their allies the
Tlascalans, who practised such cruelty as had never been seen, and "out
of all order of nature."

At nightfall the attacking forces drew off, leaving the remainder of
the inhabitants of the stricken city to consider their position. It is
stated that the Tlascalans made a great banquet of the flesh of the
fallen Aztecs, and that on this and other occasions they fished up the
bloated bodies of their enemies from the lake and devoured them! At
sunrise on the following day Cortes and a few followers entered the
city, hoping to have a supplication for terms from Guatemoc. The army
was stationed outside the walls, ready, in the event of a refusal--the
signal of which should be a musket-shot--to pour in and strike the
final blow. A parley was entered into as before, which lasted several
hours. "Do you surrender?" Cortes demanded. The final reply of Guatemoc
was, "I will not come: I prefer to die where I am: do your worst."

A musket-shot rang out upon the air; the Spaniards and their allies
fell on to merciless slaughter: cannons, muskets, arrows, slings,
lances--all told their tale upon the huddled mass of panic-stricken
people, who, after presen