unded, bleeding, starving, their comrades gone,
some to death, some to the sacrifice, and annihilation threatening all.
Baggage and artillery were gone, not a carbine was left, and Cortes,
seating himself upon the steps of a ruined temple on the shore, wept
bitter tears of sorrow and vanished fortune. So passed the _Noche
Triste_.

The next great event of this remarkable campaign was the battle of
Otumba. The wretched soldiers, having obtained what rest and
nourishment were possible, continued their retreat around the northern
part of the lake valley; passed beneath the shadow of the pyramids of
Teotihuacan--standing ever there ruined and wrapped in the mystery of
their prehistoric builders--and seven days after the events of that
awful night crossed the summit of the range which bounds the plain of
Anahuac. Thence they set their gaze eastwards towards the coast. What
was it that greeted their eyes on the plain below? A mighty army of
warriors whose hosts absolutely covered the plain with glowing lance
and waving plumes--the forces of the warlike Otomies. So numerous were
they that, dressed in their armour of white quilted cotton, it "looked
as if the land was covered with snow," as the historians put it. There
was nothing for it but to face these fearful odds, and, weakened as
they were, the remnant of the Spanish force, encouraged by their leader
and exhorted by their priest, fell valiantly on. They were soon wrapped
in the enfolding masses of the savages, who attacked them with the
utmost ferocity. The cavalry fell back; the Spaniards were stricken on
every side, and absolute disaster hung over them. "We believed it to be
our last day," Cortes wrote to Spain afterwards. But the tide of battle
changed miraculously. In a last furious charge Cortes, followed by the
few officers who remained, leaped upon the foe, reached the litter of
their chief, and, running him through the body with a lance, tore down
the standard. This act saved the day. Stricken with panic at the loss
of their leader, the Indians fell into disorder, threw down their arms,
and turned and fled. Hot upon them, and thirsting for revenge, poured
the Spaniards and Tlascalans--it is to be recollected that the
Christians had no firearms nor artillery--and utterly routed them. The
victory of Otumba is considered one of the most remarkable in the
history of the New World.

[Illustration: THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO: CORTES AT THE BATTLE OF OTUMBA.
(From the pain