ied, "and you
cannot escape. Shut up in your narrow quarters, you are doomed to the
lingering tortures of famine, and wo to the traitorous Aztec, that
furnishes a morsel to relieve your hunger. When, at length, the
faintness of death overtakes you, and you can no longer offer resistance
to our arms, we will again spread the tables in your prison-house, and
fatten you for the sacrifice."

No longer restrained by their reverence for Montezuma, whose
pusillanimity had been the cause of all his and their troubles, they
recommenced their active operations, and stormed the defences with an
energy and perseverance that was truly appalling. Day after day they
deluged the place with arrows and missiles of every kind, which fell in
pitiless showers upon the heads of the besieged, till scarcely one was
left without some wound or bruise. In vain did they apply, as before, to
their royal prisoner, to appease the rage of his subjects, and induce
them once more to send them the customary supplies. In moody silence he
shut himself up in his room, brooding over the ingratitude and treachery
of Cortez, and the injuries and insults he had received at his hand.

Exasperated by this sudden reversal of his schemes of conquest, and
maddened by the sense of hunger which began to be severely felt in his
camp, Cortez resolved to strike terror into the ranks of the besiegers,
by a vigorous sortie at the head of all his cavalry. First sweeping the
avenue by a well directed fire from his heavy guns, which were planted
at the main entrance of the fortress, he rushed out, with all his steel
clad cavaliers, trampling the unprotected assailants under the iron
hoofs of the horses, and dealing death on every side. The mighty mass
gave way before the terrific charge of the advancing column, but
immediately closed in upon its rear as it passed, till it was completely
swallowed up in an interminable sea of fierce and angry foes, whose
accumulating waves swept in from every avenue, and threatened to sweep
them all away, in despite of the fury and power of their dreaded
chargers. Convinced of his danger, the intrepid Castilian wheeled his
horse about, and with a furious shout, called on his brave band to break
a way through the serried ranks of the enemy. Plunging, rearing and
leaping, under the double spur of the rider, and the piercing shafts of
his foe, the fiery animals broke in upon the living wall that impeded
their way, and rushed fiercely on, trampli