mine.

But now we were face to face with a new trouble. Large as was the summit
of the pyramid, it would not give shelter to a half of our numbers, and
if we desired to defend it some of the multitude herded round its base
must seek refuge elsewhere. Calling the leaders of the people together,
I put the matter before them in few words, leaving them to decide what
must be done. They in turn consulted among themselves, and at length
gave me this answer: that it was agreed that all the wounded and aged
there, together with most of the children, and with them any others who
wished to go, should leave the teocalli that night, to find their way
out of the city if they could, or if not, to trust to the mercy of the
Spaniards.

I said that it was well, for death was on every side, and it mattered
little which way men turned to meet it. So they were sorted out, fifteen
hundred or more of them, and at midnight the gates of the courtyard were
thrown open, and they left. Oh! it was dreadful to see the farewells
that took place in that hour. Here a daughter clung to the neck of her
aged father, here husbands and wives bade each other a last farewell,
here mothers kissed their little children, and on every side rose up the
sounds of bitter agony, the agony of those who parted for ever. I buried
my face in my hands, wondering as I had often wondered before, how a God
whose name is Mercy can bear to look upon sights that break the hearts
of sinful men to witness.

Presently I raised my eyes and spoke to Otomie, who was at my side,
asking her if she would not send our son away with the others, passing
him off as the child of common people.

'Nay, husband,' she answered, 'it is better for him to die with us, than
to live as a slave of the Spaniards.'

At length it was over and the gates had shut behind the last of them.
Soon we heard the distant challenge of the Spanish sentries as they
perceived them, and the sounds of some shots followed by cries.

'Doubtless the Tlascalans are massacring them,' I said. But it was not
so. When a few had been killed the leaders of the Spaniards found that
they waged war upon an unarmed mob, made up for the most part of aged
people, women and children, and their commander, Bernal Diaz, a merciful
man if a rough one, ordered that the onslaught should cease. Indeed he
did more, for when all the able-bodied men, together with such children
as were sufficiently strong to bear the fatigues of travel, ha