d the
archers and arquebusiers stationed so as to give the assailants a warm
reception. On they came, with the companies, or irregular masses, into
which the multitude was divided, rushing forward each in its own dense
column, with many a gay banner displayed, and many a bright gleam of
light reflected from helmet, arrow, and spear head, as they were tossed
about in their disorderly array. As they drew near, the Aztecs set up a
hideous yell, which rose far above the sound of shell and atabat, and
their other rude instruments of warlike melody. They followed this by a
tempest of missiles--stones, darts, arrows--which fell thick as rain on
the besieged. The Spaniards waited till the foremost column had arrived,
when a general discharge of artillery and arquebusses swept the ranks of
the assailants, and mowed them down by hundreds." {222} . . .

So the fight raged on with fury for two days, while the Aztecs, Indians
who only fought by day, howled out to the wretched Spaniards every night.
On the third day Cortez brought out the Emperor Montezuma, and commanded
him to quiet the Indians. The unhappy man obeyed him. He had made up
his mind that these Spaniards were the white gods, who were to take his
kingdom from him, and he submitted to them like a sheep to the butcher.
He went up to a tower in all his royal robes and jewels. At the sight
the Indians who filled the great square below were all hushed--thousands
threw themselves on their faces; and to their utter astonishment, he
asked them what they meant by rebelling. He was no prisoner, he said,
but the Spaniard's guest and friend. The Spaniards would go peaceably,
if they would let them. In any case he was the Spaniard's friend.

The Indians answered him by a yell of fury and contempt. He was a dog--a
woman--fit only to weave and spin; and a volley of stones and arrows flew
at him. One struck him on the head and dropped him senseless. The
Indians set up a howl of terror; and frightened at what they had done,
fled away ashamed.

The wretched Emperor refused comfort, food, help, tore the bandages from
his wounds, and died in two days. He had been a bad man, a cannibal, and
a butcher, blood-thirsty and covetous, a ravisher of virgins, and a
tyrant to his people. But the Spaniards had got to love him in spite of
all; for a true friend he had been to them, and a fearful loss to them
just now. The battle went on worse than ever. The great idol temple
commande