were detailed for the management of the fleet. The force, in all, with late reinforcements, amounted to eighty-seven horse, and more than eight hundred foot; and a vast swarm of native allies, exultant in the prospect of conquest and plunder, summoned from all quarters, flocked to Tezcuco and Chalco. The Tlascalans alone, under Xicotencatl and Chichemecatl, numbered fifty thousand men. Half of these, with two hundred Spaniards, under Alvarado, were ordered to occupy Tacuba, and command the causeway of the "Noche Triste," while Olid, with an equal force, was dispatched to Cojohuacan, the terminus of another avenue leading from the capital. Cortes determined to take charge of the fleet in person, and to commence operations by a fresh attack on Iztapalapan, from the causeway of which he had been recently repulsed.

A singular instance of the fidelity of the Tlascalans presently occurred. Xicotencatl, between whom and Cortes there had never been any real cordiality, prompted by some private motive, suddenly left his command and hastened to Tlascala. This act of desertion was punished by his arrest, and speedily afterwards by his execution on the gallows, in the great square of Tezcuco; and, singular to state, this act of unscrupulous violence, committed against their bravest and most patriotic chief, does not appear to have alienated, in any serious manner, the attachment which that warlike people had conceived to the Spanish commander.

The campaign opened disastrously. Alvarado and Olid, setting forth in company, on the 10th of May (1521), soon reached Tacuba, where they took up their quarters. After some hard fighting, they succeeded in destroying a portion of the aqueduct of Chapultepec, and cutting off the copious supply of water which it had hitherto afforded to the capital. The next day they marched boldly on to the fatal causeway, the scene of the "Noche Triste." It was strongly fortified, and bravely defended by a multitude of Aztec warriors. Swarms of canoes, on either side, poured in a storm of missiles. Both Spaniards and Tlascalans fought long and obstinately, but were at last compelled, from the natural difficulty of the place and the valour of the defenders, to retreat, with much loss and grief, to their quarters in Tacuba. Olid, with his forces, the next day, marched, according to his orders, to Cojohuacan.

The assault under Cortes, in person, was more successful, and the terrors of a fleet under sail, provided with artillery, were now firstdisplayed to the astonished Aztecs. Sandoval, by hard fighting, had

taken a portion of Iztapalapan, and Cortes, sailing with the fleet to assist him, gained a signal victory on the way. Being assailed with missiles from a fort perched on a steep cliff, ("The Rock of the Marquess,") he landed, and taking the position by storm, put its defend. ers to the sword. As he rëembarked, a vast number of canoes (four thousand, according to some accounts) came over from Mexico to give him battle. From their multitude and the brilliancy of the native arms and plumage, they formed a spectacle both beautiful and terrible. Favoured, however, by a sudden gust of wind, the brigantines bore down among these frail craft, and, dashing them asunder successively, whelmed their crews in the lake. "We broke,' says the general in his dispatches, "an immense number of canoes, and destroyed many of the enemy in a style worthy of admiration. It was," he continues, "the most gratifying specta

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cle, as well as the most desirable one in the world."

Those who escaped took refuge in the canals of Mexico, and Cortes, following up his advantage, sailed round the city, every tower and terrace of which was covered with an innumerable multitude, watching with awe these new demonstrations of the power of the naughty strangers. After firing some shot among them, rather for bravado than attack, he sailed to Xoloc, where the great southern causeway was intersected by that of Cojohuacan. The garrison which occupied this important post was compelled to relinquish it, and the Spaniards took up their quarters there. The Aztecs, however, with invincible courage, endeavoured to regain it, day and night, especially from those basins which the vessels could not enter, keeping up such showers of arrows that the ground of the camp was completely covered with them. "The multitude," says Cortes, "was so great, that neither by land or water could we see any thing but human beings, who uttered such dreadful howls and outcries, that it seemed as if the world would come to an end. *

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Considering," he presently proceeds, with extraordinary coolness and naïveté, "that the inhabitants of this city were rebels, and that they discovered so strong a determination to defend themselves or perish, I inferred two things; first, that we should recover little or none of the wealth of which they had deprived us; [!] and secondly, that they had given us occasion and compelled us utterly to exterminate them."

This terrible avowal was followed up by the action best adapted to ensure its fulfilment. The third causeway, that of Tepejacac, on the north, hitherto left open, was now occupied by a large force

under Sandoval, and the city was thus completely blockaded. A general assault was then made from each of these three approaches, Cortes, on foot, leading a heavy column over the great southern causeway, while his generals attempted those allotted to their charge. Neither Alvarado nor Sandoval, desperately opposed, were able to penetrate the city; but the force led by Cortes, assisted by the brig antines sailing on either side, despite the valiant defence of the Aztecs, carried barrier after barrier, and filled up breach after breach in the long dike which led to the great street of Mexico. As they forced their way, fighting furiously, up that splendid avenue, the scene, two years before, of their peaceful and triumphant entry, a tempest of missiles, from every roof and terrace, was showered upon their heads. They entered the houses, and by destroying the partitions, slowly forced their way into the heart of the city. They were held at bay for two hours before a strong stone barricade, which, however, was finally broken down by the artillery, and at last gained the great square. Here Cortes, with a number of his companions, ascended the teocalli, and with his own hand tore from the face of the idol, again enshrined in his gory dwelling, a mask of gold and jewels. As he rejoined his force below, the Aztecs made an attack so furious that the whole allied army, Spaniards and Tlascalans, were driven in confusion down the street. Nothing saved them from utter defeat, except the exertions of the cavalry, who in some measure were enabled to protect their retreat to their quarters. That this daring and obstinate assault should have met with so much success as it did, is certainly wonderful.

The besieging force was soon augmented by fifty thousand Tezcucans, under Ixtlilxochitl, and, with the aid of these forces, which he distributed among the three camps, Cortes planned a fresh gen eral assault. After a repetition of the scenes already described, he once more made his way into the square, and fired the palace of Axayacatl, his former quarters, and a magnificent aviary, called "The House of Birds," one of the finest ornaments of the city. Although it grieved me much," he writes, "yet, as it grieved the enemy more, I determined to burn these palaces; whereupon they manifested great sorrow, as well as their allies from the cities on the lake, because none of them had supposed we should be able to penetrate so far into the city. This filled them with terrible dismay"a dismay not a little increased, he adds, when his allies "displayed to the inhabitants of the city the bodies of their countrymen cut

into pieces, exclaiming at the same time that they would have them for supper that night and for breakfast the next day, as was in fact the case." Indeed, throughout this horrible siege, cannibalism, both from necessity and from the habits of the combatants, appears to have played a most conspicuous part; and it is certain that, but for the sustenance afforded to the garrison by their numerous victims, the defence could never have been so long protracted.

Ixtlilxochitl, the fierce young prince of Tezcuco, signalized himself in this engagement, fighting by the side of Cortes, amid yells and reproaches from his Aztec countrymen, and slaying their general with his own hand. Alvarado, on his part, though his men had made the most desperate exertions, was unable to effect an entrance, and Cortes himself finally judged it prudent to retreat to his camp The Mexicans hung on his rear, fighting with such fury and recklessness of life, that nearly all the Spaniards were wounded before they could regain their quarters. This scene was repeated for many ensuing days, Cortes continually assaulting the city from his cause way, and the Mexicans, though compelled to give way before the cavalry and the superior arms of their enemies, always annoying the retreat with great obstinacy. "Their conduct," says that general himself, "was certainly worthy of admiration, for however great the evils and losses to which they were exposed in harassing our march, they did not relax their pursuit till they saw us out of the city."

CHAPTER XIV.

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GENERAL ASSAULT ON THE CITY. ARTFUL DEVICE OF THE BESIEGED.-DEFEAT OF THE SPANIARDS. THEIR LOSSES. -TERRIBLE PARTICULARS OF THE SACRIFICE OF PRISONERS. THE GREAT DRUM.- DISCOURAGEMENT AND DEFECTION OF THE ALLIES.THEIR RETURN.

GRADUAL DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY.

THE brave Guatemozin, though famine began to press heavily on the multitudes crowded within his walls, rejected all overtures for peace and capitulation, and bent his sole energies to the annoyance of the enemy. He made frequent and furious sallies upon the three

camps, especially those where Cortes did not command in person, and once succceded in seizing two of the brigantines. A number of the Spaniards, to the inexpressible delight of his people, had been taken alive for sacrifice, and the dread inspired by this circumstance induced the survivors to fight to the death rather than encounter a similar fate. A vast swarm of Indian allies, (a hundred and fifty thousand in number, according to Cortes,) attracted by the hope of sharing the plunder of the Aztec capital, now flocked into the Christian camps, and assisted in rendering the siege more strict They were also employed, with good effect, against the outposts and detached strongholds of the Mexican emperor, and such cities as yet remained faithful to his sway.

On the three causeways, the fighting was almost continual, and many gallant actions, both by besiegers and besieged, for want of space, are necessarily omitted in this account. "For ninety-three days together," says Diaz, who was with Alvarado, "we were engaged in the siege of this great and strong city, and every day and night we were engaged with the enemy. Were I to extend my narrative to include every action which took place, it would be almost endless, and my history would resemble that of Amadis and the other books of chivalry." Cortes, his army swelled by vast rëinforcements, at last resolved on a grand attempt to take the city by storm. Alvarado and Sandoval were instructed to use every exertion to effect an entrance by the causeway of Tacuba, while he attempted that of the south, and all were to endeavour to gain possession of the great market-place, that a communication might be opened between the opposite camps.

"On the following morning, the army of Cortes having entered the city, moved in three great bodies along the same number of parallel avenues, or causeways, flanked by deep canals, all leading to the market-place. The Mexicans made no very formidable resistance; barricade after barricade was carried; and the ditches, except in one lamentable instance, were carefully filled up. But when the desired goal was nearly gained, all of a sudden, the horn of Guatemozin sent forth its shrill blast from the summit of the teocalli. At the sound, as if by magic, swarms of Aztec warriors closed around the advancing columns. The water was covered with their canoes, and the air was darkened by their missiles. The foremost column, driven back in confusion, was arrested by a deep gap, which they had neglected properly to fill up. Plunged into the water by the