46 BATTLE IN THE CITY MONTEZUMA MEDIATES. 



receive no apology from his countrymen who sought to exculpate 

 the sovereign, or from the mediating nobles of the court : — "Go 

 tell your master," was his reply, " to open the markets, or we will 

 do it for him, at his cost ! " 



But the stern resistance of the natives was not intermitted. On 

 the contrary, active preparations were made to assault the irregular 

 pile of stone buildings which formed the Palace of Axayacatl, in 

 which the Spaniards were lodged. The furious populace rushed 

 through every avenue towards this edifice, and encountered with 

 wonderful nerve and endurance, the ceaseless storm of iron hail 

 which its stout defenders rained upon them from every quarter. Yet 

 the onset of the Aztecs was almost too fierce to be borne much 

 longer by the besieged, when the Spaniards resorted to the linger- 

 ing authority of Montezuma to save them from annihilation. The 

 pliant Emperor, still their prisoner, assumed his royal robes, and, 

 with the symbol of sovereignty in his hand, ascended the central tur- 

 ret of the palace. Immediately, at this royal apparition, the tumult 

 of the fight was hushed whilst the king addressed his subjects in the 

 language of conciliation and rebuke. Yet the appeal was not satis- 

 factory or effectual. " Base Aztec," — shouted the chiefs, — " the 

 white men have made you a woman, fit only to weave and spin ! " — 

 whilst a cloud of stones, spears and arrows fell upon the monarch, 

 who sank wounded to the ground, though the bucklers of the 

 Spaniards were promptly interposed to shield his person from 

 violence. He was borne to his apartments below ; and, bowed to 

 the earth by the humiliation he had suffered alike from his subjects 

 and his foes, he would neither receive comfort nor permit his 

 wounds to be treated by those who were skilled in surgery. He 

 reclined, in moody silence, brooding over his ancient majesty and 

 the deep disgrace which he felt he had too long survived. 



Meanwhile the war without continued to rage. The great 

 Teocalli or Mound-Temple, already described, was situated at a 

 short distance opposite the Spanish defences ; and, from this 

 elevated position, which commanded the invader's quarters, a body 

 of five or six hundred Mexicans, began to throw their missiles into 

 the Spanish garrison, whilst the natives, under the shelter of the 

 sanctuaries, were screened from the fire of the besieged. It 

 was necessary to dislodge this dangerous armament. An assault, 

 under Escobar, was hastily prepared, but the hundred men who 

 composed it, were thrice repulsed, and obliged finally to retreat 

 with considerable loss. Cortez had been wounded and disabled in 



