their rude musical
instruments. They followed this by a tempest of stones, darts, and
arrows, which fell thick as rain on the besieged, and at the same time
those upon the roofs also discharged a blinding volley. The Spaniards
waited until the foremost column was within fire, and then, with a
general discharge of artillery, swept the ranks of their assailants,
mowing them down by hundreds. The Mexicans for a moment stood aghast,
but soon rallying swept boldly forward over the prostrate bodies of
their comrades: a second and third volley checked them and threw their
ranks into disorder, but still they pressed on, letting off clouds of
arrows, while those on the house-tops took deliberate aim at the
soldiers in the courtyard. Soon some of the Aztecs succeeded in getting
close enough to the wall to be sheltered by it from the fire of the
Spaniards, and they made gallant efforts to scale the parapet, but only
to be shot down, one after another, as soon as their heads appeared
above the rampart. Defeated here, they tried to effect a breach by
battering the wall with heavy pieces of timber, but it proved too strong
for them, and then they shot burning arrows among the temporary
buildings in the courtyard. Several of these took fire, and soon a
fierce conflagration was raging, which was only to be checked by
throwing down part of the wall itself, and thus laying open a formidable
breach. This was protected by a battery of heavy guns, and a file of
arquebusiers, who kept up an incessant volley through the opening. All
day the fight raged with fury, and even when night came, and the Aztecs
suspended operations according to their usual custom, the Spaniards
found but little repose, being in hourly expectation of an assault.
Early the next morning the combatants returned to the charge. Cortes did
not yet realise the ferocity and determination of the Mexicans, and
thought by a vigorous sortie he would reduce them to order, and, indeed,
when the gates were thrown open, and he sallied out, followed by his
cavalry, supported by a large body of infantry and Tlascalans, they were
taken by surprise and retreated in some confusion behind a barricade
which they had thrown up across the street.

But by the time Cortes had ordered up his heavy guns and demolished the
barrier they had rallied again, and though, when the fight had raged all
day, Cortes was, on the whole, victorious, still he had been so harassed
on all sides by the battalions