CORTES DREW REIN ONLY AT ITS FOOT
When the night came, the garrison were not rested; and as to the infidels, the lake received some hundreds more of them, which was only room made for other hundreds as brave and devoted.
Over the palace walls the besiegers sent words ominous and disquieting, and not to be confounded with the half-sung formulas of the watchers keeping time on the temples by the movement of the stars.
“Malinche, Malinche, we are a thousand to your one. Our gods hunger for vengeance. You cannot escape them.”
So the Spaniards heard in their intervals of unrest.
“O false sons of Anahuac, the festival is making ready; your hearts are Huitzil’s; the cages are open to receive you.”
The Tlascalans heard, and trembled.
The fourth day. Still Cortes kept within the palace, and still the assault; nor with all the slaughter could there be perceived any decrease either in the number of the infidels or the spirit of their attack.