CAPTURE OF GUATEMOZIN SURRENDER OF THE CITY. 73 



saving, at least, the unfortunate non-combatants who still were 

 loyal to his throne and person. But the judgment of the con- 

 queror was wrong. " Guatemozin would die where he was ! " 

 was the reply of the royal stoic. 



Again the infuriate troops were let loose, and again were the 

 scenes of the day before re-enacted on the bloody theatre. Many 

 escaped in boats by the lake ; but the brave or reckless Guate- 

 mozin, who seems, at the last moment, to have changed his mind 

 as to perishing, was taken prisoner and brought, with his family, 

 into the presence of Cortez. As soon as his noble figure and dig- 

 nified face were seen on the azotea or terraced roof, beside the 

 conqueror, the battle ceased. The Indians beheld their monarch 

 captive ! And she who had witnessed the beginning of these 

 adventures, — who had followed the fortunes of the General through 

 all their vicissitudes — the gentle but brave Indian girl — Mari- 

 ana — stood by the intrepid Cortez to act as his interpreter in this 

 last scene of the splendid and eventful drama. 

 * 



It was on the following day that the Mexicans who still sur- 

 vived the slaughter and famine, evacuated the city. It was a 

 desert — but a desert covered with dead. The men who rushed 

 in to plunder, — plundered as if robbing graves. Between one 

 and two hundred thousand people perished during the three 

 months' siege, and their festering bodies tainted the air. The booty, 

 though considerable, was far beneath the expectations of the con- 

 querors ; yet there was doubtless enough to reward amply the stout 

 men at arms who had achieved a victory unparalleled in the annals 

 of modern warfare. 



" What I am going to say is truth, and I swear, and say Amen 

 to it!" — exclaims Bernal Diaz del Castillo, in his quaint style — 

 " I have read of the destruction of Jerusalem, but I cannot con- 

 ceive that the mortality there exceeded that of Mexico ; for all the 

 people from the distant provinces, which belonged to this empire, 

 had concentrated themselves here, where they mostly died. The 

 streets, and squares, and houses, and the courts of the Tlatelolco 

 were covered with dead bodies ; we could not step without 

 treading on them ; the lake and canals were filled with them, and 

 the stench was intolerable. 



" When all those who had been able, quitted the city, we went 

 to examine it, which was as I have described ; and some poor 

 creatures were crawling about in different stages of the most offen- 

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