CHAPTER XXVI.
LA NOCHE TRISTE.
June 30, 1520.
The Captive-King Drama Carried too Far — Better had the Spaniards Taken Montezuma's Advice, and have Departed while Opportunity Offered — Diplomatic Value of a Dead Body — Necessity for an Immediate Evacuation of the City — Departure from the Fort — Midnight Silence — The City Roused by a Woman's Cry — The Fugitives Fiercely Attacked on All Sides — More Horrors.
And now what must have been the feelings of the invaders, who, like the ancient mariner, had killed the bird that made the breeze blow! For assuredly they were responsible for the emperor's death. Indeed, the direct charge of murder against Cortés has not been wanting, even among Spanish chroniclers; but this was owing greatly to the effort of the general to extricate the army from its desperate situation while the enemy was supposed to be distracted by grief and engaged in solemn obsequies. We may be sure, however, that the Spaniards did not kill Montezuma; that they did not even desire his death; but regarded it at this juncture as the greatest misfortune which could happen to them.[1] For in the vast evolvings of their fast, unfathomable destiny, they were now all like sea-gulls poised in mid-air while following a swiftly flying ship.
- ↑ According to the version of the rabid Duran, based on native paintings and narratives, the bodies of the prisoners were found in the fort after its evacuation, that of Montezuma with five stabs in the breast. Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 477-9. Acosta seems rather to favor the story, improbable as several of its points are. Hist. Ind., 524. To some extent it rests on the statement repeated by Ixtlilxochitl, which assumes that Cacama, who had
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