arina, who fortunately escaped the massacre of the _dismal
night_, remarked that they often, in exultant tones, exclaimed,

"Hurry along, robbers, hurry along; you will soon meet with the
vengeance due to your crimes."

The significance of this threat was soon made manifest. As the
Spaniards were emerging from a narrow pass among the cliffs of the
mountains, they came suddenly upon an extended plain. Here, to their
amazement, they found an enormous army of the natives filling the
whole expanse, and apparently cutting off all possibility of farther
retreat. The sight was sufficient to appal the most dauntless heart.
The whole plain, as far as the eye could extend, seemed as a living
ocean of armed men, with its crested billows of banners, and gleaming
spears, and helmets, and plumes. Even the heart of Cortez for a moment
sank within him as his practiced eye told him that there were two
hundred thousand warriors there in battle array, through whose serried
ranks he must cut his bloody path or perish. To all the Spaniards it
seemed certain that their last hour had now tolled; but each man
resolved to sell his life as dearly as possible.

Cortez immediately assembled his band around him, and invigorated
them with a forcible harangue. He assured them that there was no
possible hope but in the energies of despair; but that, with those
energies, they might confidently expect God's blessing, for they were
his servants, his missionaries, endeavoring to overthrow the idols of
the heathen, and to introduce the religion of the cross. In solid
column, with their long spears bristling in all directions, and clad
in coats of mail which protected a great part of their bodies from
both arrow and spear, they plunged desperately into the dense masses
of the enemy. Wherever this solid body of iron men directed its
course, the tumultuous throng of the foe was pierced and dashed aside,
as the stormy billows of the ocean yield to the careering steamer. The
marvelous incidents of this fight would occupy pages. The onset of the
Spaniards was so fierce that the natives could present no effectual
resistance; but as the Indians were compelled to retire from the front
of the assailing column, they closed up with shouts of vengeance and
with redoubled fury upon the flanks and the rear. Cortez had heard
that the superstition of the Mexicans was such that the fate of a
battle depended upon the imperial banner, which was most carefully
guarded in th