On every terrace as well as on the topmost platform the Aztec warriors
were drawn up to dispute his passage. From their elevated position they
showered down heavy stones, beams, and burning rafters, which thundering
along the stairway overturned the ascending Spaniards and carried
desolation through their ranks. The more fortunate, eluding or springing
over these obstacles, succeeded in gaining the first terrace, where they
fell upon their enemies and compelled them to give way, and then, aided
by a brisk fire from the musketeers below, they pressed on, forcing
their opponents to retreat higher and higher, until at last they were
glad to take shelter on the broad summit of the teocalli. Cortes and his
companions were close behind them, and the two parties soon found
themselves face to face upon this strange battle-field, engaged in
mortal combat in the presence of the whole city, while even the troops
in the courtyard ceased hostilities, as if by mutual consent, and
watched with breathless interest the issue of the struggle.

The Spaniards and Mexicans closed with the desperate fury of men who
have no hope but in victory. Quarter was neither asked nor given, and to
fly was impossible. The edge of the platform was unprotected by parapet
or battlement, and many of the combatants, as they struggled together,
were seen to roll over the edge of the precipice, locked in a
death-grip. Cortes himself but narrowly escaped this frightful fate. Two
powerful warriors had seized upon him, and were dragging him violently
towards the side of the pyramid, when, by sheer strength, he tore
himself from their grasp and hurled one of them over the brink with his
own arm.

[Illustration]

The battle raged unceasingly for three hours. The number of the Mexicans
was double that of the Spaniards, but the armour of the latter and their
skill as swordsmen outweighed the odds against them. Resistance grew
fainter and fainter on the side of the Aztecs. The priests, who had run
to and fro among them with streaming hair and wild gestures, encouraging
and urging them on, were all slain or captured. One by one the warriors
fell dead upon the blood-drenched pavement, or were hurled from the
dizzy height, until at last the wild struggle ceased, and the Spaniards
stood alone upon the field of battle. Their victory had cost them dear,
for forty-five of their comrades lay dead, and nearly all the remainder
were more or less seriously wounded; but there w