h the Mexicans, dashing their
canoes against the sides of the causeway, clambered up and broke in upon
their ranks. The soldiers, anxious only to make their escape, simply
shook them off, or rode over them, or with their guns and swords drove
them headlong down the sides of the dyke again. But the advance of such
a body of men necessarily took time, and the leading files had already
reached the second gap in the causeway before those in the rear had
cleared the first. They were forced to halt, though severely harassed by
the fire from the canoes, which clustered thickly round this opening,
and many were the urgent messages which were sent to the rear, to hurry
up the bridge. But when it was at length clear, and Magarino and his
sturdy followers endeavoured to raise it, they found to their horror
that the weight of the artillery and the horses passing over it had
jammed it firmly into the sides of the dyke, and it was absolutely
immovable. Not till many of his men were slain and all wounded did
Magarino abandon the attempt, and then the dreadful tidings spread
rapidly from man to man, and a cry of despair arose. All means of
retreat were cut off; they were held as in a trap. Order and discipline
were at an end, for no one could hope to escape except by his own
desperate exertions. Those behind pressed forward, trampling the weak
and wounded under foot, heeding not friend or foe. Those in front were
forced over the edge of the gulf, across which some of the cavaliers
succeeded in swimming their horses, but many failed, or rolled back into
the lake in attempting to ascend the opposite bank. The infantry
followed pell-mell, heaped one upon the other, frequently pierced by the
Aztec arrows, or struck down by their clubs, and dragged into the canoes
to be reserved for a more dreadful death. All along the causeway the
battle raged fiercely.

[Illustration]

The Mexicans clambered continually up the sides of the dyke, and
grappled with the Spaniards, till they rolled together down into the
canoes. But while the Aztec fell among friends, his unhappy antagonist
was secured, and borne away in triumph to the sacrifice. The struggle
was long and deadly, but by degrees the opening in the causeway was
filled up by the wreck of the waggons, guns, rich bales of stuffs,
chests of solid ingots, and bodies of men and horses which had fallen
into it; and over this dismal ruin those in the rear were able to reach
the other side. Cortes had