acle which the natives could
interpose. Though they thus sternly fought their way along, trampling
beneath them the mutilated bodies of the dying and of the dead, at
the close of the second day they found their foes more numerous and
their situation more desperate than ever.

As the gloom of night again descended, a deeper, heavier gloom rested
upon all in the heart of the Spanish camp. A wailing storm arose of
wind and rain, and nature mourned and wept as if in sympathy with the
woes of man. Availing themselves of the darkness and of the uproar of
the midnight tempest, though weary, faint, and bleeding, they urged
their steps along the war-scathed streets, for a time strangely
encountering no opposition. But when they reached the long causeway,
nearly two miles in length and but thirty feet wide, by which alone
they could reach the land, a yell of exultation suddenly rose from the
black and storm-lashed waters of the lake, loud as the heaviest
thunders. The whole lake, on both sides of the causeway, seemed alive
with the boats of the natives, and the Spaniards were immediately
assailed by the swarming multitudes, who, in the fierce and maddened
strife, set all danger at defiance.

War never exhibited a more demoniac aspect. The natives opposed their
advance, crowded their rear, and clambered up the sides of the
causeway, attacking the foe on each flank with indescribable fury.
Fresh warriors instantly rushed into the place where their comrades
had fallen, and those in the rear of the tumultuous mass crowded their
companions in the front ranks resistlessly upon the compact enemy.

There were three chasms in the causeway broken by the Mexicans which
the Spaniards were compelled to bridge in the darkness and the storm,
and while assailed by an innumerable and almost an invisible foe.
Imagination can not compass the horrors of that night. _Noche
triste_, dismal night, is the name by which it has ever since been
distinguished. In the awful confusion, military skill and discipline
were of but little avail. The Spaniards could with difficulty
distinguish friend from foe, and ere long they were nearly all quite
swept away by the torrent rushing so resistlessly upon them.

[Illustration: THE BATTLE UPON THE CAUSEWAY.]

Cortez succeeded in keeping about a hundred men around him, and, using
the bodies of the dead to aid him in bridging two chasms, he at length
reached the main land. The horrid clamor still rose from the dark