[1078] Of the rank and file none suffered penalty on returning, for captivity was regarded as disgraceful only to a noble. Native Races, ii. 419.
[1079] Bernal Diaz states that the soldiers were tired of these repeated calls, many being also on the sick-list, but Cortés had now a large fresh force only too eager for a fray attended with spoliation.
[1080] According to a native painting the army entered here April 5th, which is a day or two too early, and received a reënforcement of 20,000. See copy in Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., ii. 523.
[1081] So says Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 130, who names four. Cortés allows only two killed and twenty wounded; how many fatally so, he carefully omits to mention. Cartas, 194.
[1082] Twenty fell, says Bernal Diaz. He speaks of two futile attempts on the previous evening to scale the central hill. It seems unlikely for soldiers, tired by repulse and march, to undertake so difficult a feat, and that at the least assailable point.
[1083] Yet Bernal Diaz relates a story to show that the order was a mere pretence.
[1084] Cartas, 196; Torquemada, i. 536.
[1085] Some write Xilotepec. Bernal Diaz mentions Tepoxtlan, which may have been visited by a detachment.
[1086] Place of the Eagle. Corrupted into the present Cuernavaca, which singularly enough means cow’s horn.
[1087] See Native Races, v.