h upstanding plumes....
... With war-songs and wild music they came on.[21]

[Footnote 21: Southey (Madoc, i, 7).]

The Tlascalan warriors had attained wonderful skill in throwing the
javelin. "One species, with a thong attached to it, which remained in
the slinger's hand, that he might recall the weapon, was especially
dreaded by the Spaniards." Their various weapons were pointed with bone
or obsidian, and sometimes headed with copper.

The yell or scream of defiance raised by these Indians almost drowned
the volume of sound from "the wild barbaric minstrelsy of shell, atabal,
and trumpet with which they proclaimed their triumphant anticipations
of victory over the paltry forces of the invaders."

Advancing under a thick shower of arrows and other missiles, the Spanish
soldiers at a certain distance quickly halted and drew up in order,
before delivering a general fire along the whole line. The front ranks
of their wild opponents were mowed down and those behind were "petrified
with dismay."

But for the accident of dissension having arisen between the chiefs of
the Tlascalans, it almost seemed as if nothing could have saved Cortes
and his Spanish army. Before the battle, the haughty treatment of one of
those chiefs by Xicotencatl, the cazique, provoked the injured man to
draw off all his contingent during the battle, and persuade another
chief to do the same. With his forces so weakened, the cazique was
compelled to resign the field to the Spaniards.

Xicotencatl, in his eagerness for revenge, consulted some of the Aztec
priests, who recommended a night attack upon Cortes's camp in order to
take his army by surprise. The Tlascalan, therefore, with 10,000
warriors, marched secretly toward the Spanish camp, but owing to the
bright moonlight they were not unseen by the vedettes. Besides that,
Cortes had accustomed his army to sleep with their arms by their side
and the horses ready saddled. In an instant, as it were, the whole camp
were on the alert and under arms. The Indians, meanwhile, were
stealthily advancing to the silent camp, and, "no sooner had they
reached the slope of the rising ground than they were astounded by the
deep battle-cry of the Spaniards, followed by the instantaneous
appearance of the whole army. Scarcely awaiting the shock of their
enemy, the panic-struck barbarians fled rapidly and tumultuously across
the plain. The horse easily overtook the fugitives, riding them down,
and cutting them