[787] For a full description of this pyramid see Native Races, ii. 579 et seq. Some horses had been taken to clear the approaches, but they slipped on the smooth pavement, and were sent back as unserviceable. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 105.
[788] ‘Acometiola tres o quatro vezes, y otros tantos dias,’ is Gomara’s interpretation, in order to fill up the time assumed by him. Hist. Mex., 156.
[789] Ojeda appears to be the sole authority upon which Herrera relies for these two struggles. dec. ii. lib. x. cap. ix. Clavigero doubts them; yet there is nothing unlikely in either attempt.
[790] It was related afterward that when the natives first sought to remove the virgin image their hands clove powerlessly to it for some time, and left their marks upon it. Oviedo, iii. 510. Montezuma, being told of this miracle, ordered the image to be left in its place. Afterward, ‘pareciò, segun supimos, que el gran Monteçuma tenia ó deuocion en ella, ó miedo, y la mandó guardar.’ Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 104, 102. Others, as will be shown, suppose it to have been saved by its owner, Villafuerte, perhaps when Cortés withdrew the troops from the temple, or to have fled by its own miraculous power to the shrine at Remedios.
[791] ‘Comierõ de los caualleros Mexicanos muertos.’ Herrera, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. ix.
[792] Cortés, Cartas, 130-1. According to Bernal Diaz the sally with the engines was directed against the temple, which he appears to place at some distance. It was held by 3000 or 4000 Indians, ‘all chiefs,’ and cost the Spaniards 46 lives, every man being beside wounded. They returned hard pressed by the enemy. ‘Se mostrò Cortes mui varõ, como siẽpre.’ Hist. Verdad., 103-4. ‘Murieron todos quinientos Indios, como valientes.’ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 157. ‘En trecientos caualleros que alli estauan no quedaron seys viuos.’ Herrera, loc. cit. This author describes on a later occasion the capture of a tower attached to Montezuma’s own palace, from which missiles fell with telling effect. Cortés goes with 200 men to reduce it, and is hotly received; yet the Indians, relying upon the execution to be made by some loose beams which are to be rolled down upon the assailants at a favorable moment, allow the Spaniards to rush forward and gain the tower, putting almost every occupant to the sword. This story is probably a version of the temple fight.
CHAPTER XXV.
DEATH OF MONTEZUMA.
June, 1520.
A Living Death—The Old Imperial Party and the New Power—Aztec Defiance—Perilous Position or the Spaniards—Disappointment to Cortés—Another Sally—The Dying Monarch—He has no Desire to Live—His Rejection of a New Faith—He will None of the Heaven of the Spaniards—Commends his Children to Cortés—The Character of Montezuma and of his Reign.
Long before this the Spaniards had learned that the power which had arisen in Montezuma’s stead was of a different quality from that lately wielded by the poor caged monarch, whose proud spirit they had so blighted and brought low. No Quetzalcoatl or other personage, fair or dark, heaven-descended or of import infernal, might now interpose to prevent the killing and cooking of the strangers. Cortés had thought that the late spoliation of idols would fill the people with awe toward beings so superior to their gods. But when he threatened that if they did not lay down their arms not a man of them should remain alive, nor one stone be left on another throughout all their city, they laughed at him, the priests abetting. “How speak you so foolishly,” they said, “mortal as we now know you to be, when for every Spanish life we are prepared to sacrifice, if need be, twenty-five thousand of our own lives?” They had cut off retreat at the causeways, so that the lake alone was open to exit, and here they were prepared with fleets of canoes filled with resolute men. Even should the Spaniards hold out against assault, hunger and thirst must overcome them in the end. “The truth of this was too evident,” observes Cortés, “for hunger alone would have soon killed us.”
The imperial party, which had sunk to insignificance since the elevation of Cuitlahuatzin to the leadership, and was now sustained only by a few relatives of Montezuma, had no longer a voice in the direction of affairs. Their efforts to make terms with the Spaniards might have gained public approval, but the ambition of Cuitlahuatzin stood in the way of any compromise. To release the strangers would be to restore Montezuma, and he preferred to occupy the throne himself. He was also covetous of military fame; and knowing the desperate condition of the besieged, he hoped by their reduction to add to his record of glorious achievements.[793]