CHAPTER XXIV.
FIGHT UPON THE TEMPLE SUMMIT.
June, 1520.
The Natives Continue the Assault — Their Fierce Bravery — The Spaniards Build Turrets — Still the Mexicans Prove too Strong for Them — Montezuma Called to Intercede — He is Insulted and Stoned by his Subjects — Cortés Attempts Egress by the Tlacopan Causeway — Failure of Escobar to Take the Pyramid — Cortés Gains the Slippery Height — The Gladiatorial Combat there.
At dawn the assault was renewed with the same fierceness as before, and with even less regard for the sweeping volleys of the cannon, which were fired without aim into the packed masses of the natives, bringing them down by the score. The gaps were quickly closed, and the rapidly repeated shots seemed to make no more impression on the surging mass than pebbles dropped into the boiling surf. It was a critical time for Cortés, who seemed not yet to recognize the full extent of the danger. He felt the necessity of open communication with the mainland, for obvious reasons, and to this end, in the course of the morning, he arranged another sortie like that of the preceding day, but in one direction only. The Indians retired, as before, into lanes and buildings, and beyond canals, raising the bridges behind them. Barricades having been thrown up to impede the advance since the last sally, some guns were brought to the front, and with their aid a few of the obstructions were demolished and more than one bridge was gained, together with a number of houses, to which the torch was applied.
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