have a large army in waiting to oppose their progress and try their strength. This army was placed in charge of a son of the old chief, Xicotencatl, of the same name, one whose bravery was equal to his skill as a general, and both had been tested in many a fight. "If we remain victors," said one of the senators, "we will do our arms immortal honor; if we are vanquished, we will accuse the Otomies—a nation on their borders—and charge them with having undertaken the war without our orders."
After waiting impatiently several days Cortez (the embassadors not returning) decided to advance. They had marched but a few leagues when they came to a kind of fortification in the shape of a high wall of stone, which, it was said, had been built around their territory by the Tlascallans to defend them from the Mexicans. There was but one narrow passage through it, and this, though generally guarded by the Otomies, allies of the Tlascallans, was now—when most in need of defenders—wholly unprotected.
After seriously regarding this menace in stone and mortar for a while, Cortez ordered his army on, knowing well that when that boundary should be passed he would be in the country of an enemy entitled to more respect than the weak troops of the coast. The Otomies, to whom had been entrusted the keeping of the pass, soon made their appearance in flying detachments, too late to prevent the entrance of the Spanish army, which they might have done at the wall, or have caused them fearful loss. Cortez ordered some of the cavalry to pursue and make them prisoners, when the reckless savages attacked them with such fury that their horses were severely wounded; they could take no prisoners, and so they killed five. This was the first blood shed on Tlascallan territory by order of Cortez, and it was enough to account for the subsequent hostility of the
