The two hostile bodies soon met. According to the estimate of the Spaniards, the number of the enemy amounted to above seventy thousand warriors. "But it was God's will," the historian records, "that we should obtain a victory, with such a slaughter of the rebels as deprived them of all thought of making any head for the present." Cortez ravaged the country, mercilessly crushing all who offered the slightest resistance. Having thus quenched in blood the flickering flame of independence, he returned victorious to the metropolis. Here he was informed that some of the inhabitants of the neighboring mountains had manifested a restive spirit, and had caused disturbance in other peaceable districts. Sternly he marched to chastise them. The punishment was prompt and severe; thousands were shot down, and their chiefs were hanged. "They were punished," says Diaz, "with fire and sword; and greater misfortunes befell them when Nuno de Guzman came to be their governor, for he made them all slaves, and sold them in the islands." The father of Cortez, who was in Spain, and who was a man of much elevation of character, now came forward to aid his son with his influence at court. Implacable enemies were intriguing against the bold Spanish adventurer in the court of Charles V., who had returned from his long absence in Germany, and was now at Madrid. Don Martin Cortez had secured the co-operation of a powerful nobleman, the Duke of Bejar. The young monarch, bewildered by the accusations which were brought against Cortez on the one hand, and by the defense which was urged upon the other, referred the whole matter to a commission specially appointed to investigate the subject. The charges which were brought against him were serious and very strongly sustained by evidence. 1. He had seized rebelliously, and finally destroyed, the fleet intrusted to him by Governor Velasquez, whose authority he was bound to obey. 2. He had usurped powers in contempt of the authority of his lawful sovereign. 3. He had made war upon Narvaez, who had been sent with full authority to supersede him, and had slain many of his companions. He had also refused to receive Tapia, though he was invested with the authority of the crown. 4. He had cruelly, and in dishonor of the Spanish name, put Guatemozin to the torture. 5. He had remitted but a small part of the treasures obtained to the crown, squandering vast sums in schemes to promote his own aggrandizement. 6. His whole system of procedure was one of violence, extortion, and cruelty. It was urged in defense, 1. Two thirds of the cost of the expedition, nominally fitted out by Velasquez, were defrayed by Cortez.