ness
of the causeway as his companions, left behind, were struggling in
desperation with the multitudes who inclosed them. Cortez heroically,
with every man in his little band still able to fight, marched back
to their rescue. A few succeeded in breaking through the enemy, and
joined him. Multitudes were struck down or hurled into the lake; but
dreadful was the anguish of Cortez as he heard, piercing through the
clamor, the cries for help of his companions who were seized by the
natives as captives, and who were being borne away to be offered in
sacrifice to their gods. The few who escaped, exhausted and bleeding,
clung together for the remainder of the night near the village of
Tacuba, where the causeway reached the main land.

When the first gray of the lurid morning dawned, the whole length of
the causeway was seen covered with the bodies of the slain. The chasms
were clogged up with fragments of artillery, baggage-wagons, dead
horses, and the corpses of Spaniards and natives. The features of the
dead were distorted by all the hateful passions of the strife. A few
only had escaped. Nearly all the horses, all the cannon, all the
plundered treasure, and all the baggage-wagons, were either sunk in
the lake, or were floating in fragments upon its surface. The storm
had passed away, and the placid waters were blackened with the
war-canoes of the natives. Not even a musket remained to the
Spaniards. Bernal Diaz records that in this bloody night eight hundred
and seventy of the Spaniards perished. More than four thousand of
their allies were also slain.

As Cortez gazed upon the feeble band of mangled and bleeding soldiers
which now alone remained to him, even his stern heart was moved, and
he bowed his head and wept bitterly. We can not regret that some drops
of retributive woe were wrung from the heart of that guilty conqueror.
He had overwhelmed a benighted nation with misery. Under the divine
government, such a crime can not go unpunished, and the penalty must
descend either in this life or in that which is to come.

But this was no time to indulge in grief. It was necessary immediately
to find some shelter for the wearied troops. The Mexicans were
preparing to renew the attack, and the inhabitants of Tacuba were
assembling in arms. At a little distance, on a rising ground, Cortez
discovered a large stone temple. He immediately took possession
of it, and here found not only temporary shelter, but, fortunately,
provi