t the most of them were in canoes which covered the waters
of the lake further than the ear could hear. Now the Spaniards to
the number of fifteen hundred or so, accompanied by some six or eight
thousand Tlascalans, were emerging on the causeway in a long thin line.
Guatemoc and I rushed before them, collecting men as we went, till we
came to the first canal, where canoes were already gathering by scores.
The head of the Spanish column reached the canal and the fight began,
which so far as the Aztecs were concerned was a fray without plan or
order, for in that darkness and confusion the captains could not
see their men or the men hear their captains. But they were there in
countless numbers and had only one desire in their breasts, to kill the
Teules. A cannon roared, sending a storm of bullets through us, and by
its flash we saw that the Spaniards carried a timber bridge with them,
which they were placing across the canal. Then we fell on them, every
man fighting for himself. Guatemoc and I were swept over that bridge by
the first rush of the enemy, as leaves are swept in a gale, and though
both of us won through safely we saw each other no more that night. With
us and after us came the long array of Spaniards and Tlascalans,
and from every side the Aztecs poured upon them, clinging to their
struggling line as ants cling to a wounded worm.

How can I tell all that came to pass that night? I cannot, for I saw
but little of it. All I know is that for two hours I was fighting like
a madman. The foe crossed the first canal, but when all were over the
bridge was sunk so deep in the mud that it could not be stirred, and
three furlongs on ran a second canal deeper and wider than the first.
Over this they could not cross till it was bridged with the dead. It
seemed as though all hell had broken loose upon that narrow ridge of
ground. The sound of cannons and of arquebusses, the shrieks of agony
and fear, the shouts of the Spanish soldiers, the war-cries of the
Aztecs, the screams of wounded horses, the wail of women, the hiss of
hurtling darts and arrows, and the dull noise of falling blows went up
to heaven in one hideous hurly-burly. Like a frightened mob of cattle
the long Spanish array swayed this way and that, bellowing as it swayed.
Many rolled down the sides of the causeway to be slaughtered in the
water of the lake, or borne away to sacrifice in the canoes, many were
drowned in the canals, and yet more were trampled to