ttle
array, twelve hundred Spaniards and eight thousand native allies; but
they were nearly destitute of provisions, and the natives were rapidly
assembling from all quarters in countless numbers. Cortez sent four
hundred men out into the streets to reconnoitre. They had hardly
emerged from the walls of their fortress before they were assailed
with shouts of vengeance, and a storm of arrows and javelins fell upon
them. Phrenzied multitudes thronged the streets and the house-tops,
and from the roofs and the summits of the temples, stones and all
similar missiles were poured down upon the heads of the Spaniards.
With great difficulty this strong detachment fought their way back to
their fortified quarters, having lost twenty-three in killed, and a
large number being wounded.

This success greatly emboldened the Mexicans, and in locust legions
they pressed upon the Spanish quarters, rending the air with their
unearthly shouts, and darkening the sky with their missiles. The
artillery was immediately brought to bear upon them, and every volley
opened immense gaps in their ranks; but the places of the dead were
instantly occupied by others, and there seemed to be no end to their
numbers. Never did mortal men display more bravery than these
exasperated Mexicans exhibited, struggling for their homes and their
rights. Twice they came very near forcing an entrance over the walls
into the Spanish quarters. Had they succeeded, in a hand to hand fight
numbers must have triumphed, and the Spaniards must have been
inevitably destroyed; but the batteries of the Spaniards mowed down
the assailants like grass before the scythe, and the Mexicans were
driven from the walls. All the day long the conflict was continued,
and late into the night. The ground was covered with the dead when
darkness stopped the carnage.

The soldiers of Narvaez, unaccustomed to such scenes, and appalled by
the fury and the number of their enemies, began to murmur loudly. They
had been promised the spoils of an empire which they were assured was
already conquered; instead of this, they found themselves in the
utmost peril, exposed to a conflict with a vigorous and exasperated
enemy, surrounding them with numbers which could not be counted.
Bitterly they execrated their own folly in allowing themselves to be
thus deluded; but their murmurs could now be of no avail. The only
hope for the Spaniards was in united and indomitable courage.

The energies of Cortez in