e centre of the army. If that were taken, the natives
deemed themselves forsaken by their gods, and in dismay would break
and fly. In the distance, for there was no smoke of artillery to
darken this field of battle, he saw this standard proudly waving in
the breeze. With impetuosity which crushed down all opposition, he
pushed toward it. The standard-bearers were stricken down and pinned
to the earth with lances. Cortez, with his own hand, seized the sacred
banner, and as he waved it aloft his soldiers raised a simultaneous
shout of triumph.

The natives, with cries of rage, grief, and despair, in the wildest
tumult, broke and fled to the mountains. Their gods had abandoned
them. The victory of the Spaniards was complete. They record, though
doubtless with exaggeration, for they had no leisure to stop and count
the slain, that twenty thousand of their enemies were left dead upon
that bloody field. With new alacrity the victors now pressed on, and
the next day entered the territory of the Tlascalans.

Here they were received with the greatest kindness. The enmity of the
Tlascalans against the Mexicans was so inveterate, and their desire
to avenge the death of their countrymen so intense, that they still
clung tenaciously to the Spanish alliance, with the hope that new
resources might arrive which would enable the Spaniards to retrieve
their fallen fortunes.

In the hospitable city of Tlascala Cortez allowed his shattered
battalions that repose which was now so indispensable. Nearly all his
men were suffering severely from sickness, fatigue, and wounds. But
here the Spanish chieftain learned of new disasters which had befallen
him. A detachment of Spanish soldiers, who were marching from
Zempoalla to the capital as a re-enforcement, had been cut off by the
natives and entirely destroyed. A small party, who had been sent to
convey some treasures from Tlascala to Vera Cruz, had also been
surprised and destroyed among the mountains. When the life of every
Spaniard was of so much importance, these were, indeed, terrible
additional calamities.

The companions of Cortez were now thoroughly disheartened, and were
anxious to return to Vera Cruz, send a vessel to Cuba for some
transports, and abandon the enterprise; but the indomitable warrior,
though lying upon the bed in a raging fever, and while a surgeon was
cutting off two of his mutilated and inflamed fingers, and raising a
portion of the bone of his skull, which had be