ng a strong guard at each of its
three gates of entrance. The rest of what troops he had in the town, he
posted without with the cannon, to command the avenues. He had already
sent orders to the Tlascalan chiefs to keep their soldiers in readiness
to march, at a given signal, into the city to support the Spaniards.
Presently the caziques of Cholula arrived with a larger body of levies
than Cortes had demanded. He at once charged them with conspiring
against the Spaniards after receiving them as friends. They were so
amazed at his discovery of their perfidy that they confessed everything,
laying the blame on Montezuma. "That pretense," said Cortes, assuming a
look of fierce indignation, "is no justification; I shall now make such
an example of you for your treachery that the report of it will ring
throughout the wide borders of Anahuac!"

At the firing of a harquebus, the fatal signal, the crowd of
unsuspecting Cholulans were massacred as they stood, almost without
resistance. Meantime the other Indians without the square commenced an
attack on the Spaniards, but the heavy guns of the battery played upon
them with murderous effect, and cavalry advanced to support the attack.

The steeds, the guns, the weapons of the Spaniards, were all new to
the Cholulans. Notwithstanding the novelty of the terrific
spectacle, the flash of arms mingling with the deafening roar of
the artillery, the desperate Indians pushed on to take the places
of their fallen comrades.

While this scene of bloodshed was progressing, the Tlascalans, as
arranged, were hastening to the assistance of their Spanish allies. The
Cholulans, when thus attacked in rear by their traditional enemies,
speedily gave way, and tried to save themselves in the great temple and
elsewhere. The "Holy City," as it was called, was converted into a
pandemonium of massacre. In memory of the signal defeat of the
Cholulans, Cortes converted the chief part of the great temple into a
Christian church.

Envoys again arrived from Mexico with rich presents and a message
vindicating the pusillanimous Emperor from any share in the conspiracy
against Cortes. Continuing their march, the allied army of Spaniards and
Tlascalans proceeded till they reached the mountains which separate the
table-land of Puebla from that of Mexico. To cross this range they
followed the route which passes between the mighty Popocatepetl (i. e.,
"the smoking mountain") and another c