ced march to the coast--
Cortes defeats Narvaez--Bad news from Mexico--Back to the capital--
Alvarado's folly--Barbarous acts of the Spaniards--The fight on the
pyramid--Destruction of Aztec idols--Death of Montezuma--Spaniards flee
from the city--Frightful struggle on the Causeway--Alvarado's leap--The
_Noche Triste_--Battle of Otumba--Marvellous victory--Spanish
recuperation--Cuitlahuac and Guatemoc--Fresh operations against the
capital--Building of the brigantines--Aztec tenacity--Expedition to
Cuernavaca--Xochimilco--Attack upon the city--Struggles and reverses--
Sacrifice of Spaniards--Desertion of the Allies--Return of the Allies--
Renewed attacks--Fortitude of the Aztecs--The famous catapult--
Sufferings of the Aztecs--Final attack--Appalling slaughter--Ferocious
Tlascalans--Fall of Mexico.

The Valley of Mexico is a region of somewhat remarkable topographical
character. It consists of a plain or inter-montane basin, enclosed on
all sides by ranges of hills, forming a hydrographic entity whose
waters have no natural outlet.[15] A group of lakes occupy the central
part of this valley, very much reduced, however, in size since the time
of the Conquest.

[Footnote 15: See p. 17.]

[Illustration: THE LAKES OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO AT THE TIME OF THE
CONQUEST, SHOWING THE CAUSEWAYS TO THE AZTEC ISLAND-CITY OF
TENOCHTITLAN. (From Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico.")]

It was the 8th of November, 1519. Across the southern end of the great
Lake Texcoco stretched a singular dyke or causeway, several miles in
length and a few yards in width--a road or pathway built up of stone
and mortar above the surrounding water, connecting the shores of that
inland sea with an island and three other similar causeways. Upon this
island arose a beautiful city with streets of strange buildings, above
which rose great pyramids with sanctuaries upon their summits; and upon
the bosom of the lake numerous canoes were plying, laden with men and
merchandise. So rose those towers, and lived and moved the dwellers of
this lake city, unknowing and unknown of European man, living their
life as if no other world than theirs held sway beneath the firmament
of the "unknown God." But the spell is broken. A trumpet sound is
ringing through the morning air. Across the causeway comes a troop of
strange men-animals--fearful things which snort and tramp, making the
causeway rumble, whilst the notes of that strange music echo away among
the towers and pyr