Augmented forces of Cortez.--The reconnaissance.--Success of the Mexicans.--The conflict continued.--Troops of Narvaez begin to murmur.--The sally.--Cortez obliged to retreat.--The conflagration. --The desperate situation.--The appeal to Montezuma.--He is induced to interpose.--The dawn of the morning.--Attention of the natives. --Address of Montezuma.--He is wounded.--He refuses nourishment. --His death.--Raging of the battle.--The two Mexican nobles.--Escape of Cortez.--Night and its scenes.--Endeavors to intimidate the natives.--Their heroism.--Defiance.--Cortez resolves to leave the city.--The moving towers.--The retreat.--The onset.--Arrival at the canal.--Imminent peril.--Filling the breach.--Slow advance.--The storm.--The causeway.--Multitude of the enemy.--Fury of the attack. --Noche triste.--Separation of the Spaniards.--March to the rescue. --Destruction of a part of the army.--Sorrow of Cortez.--They flee to a temple.--Condition of the party.--March over the mountains. --Value of the horses.--Courage of Cortez.--Shouts of defiance.-- Appearance of the enemy.--Apprehensions of Cortez.--The attack.-- Superstition of the Mexicans.--The capture of the standard.--The natives flee.--Arrival at Tlascala.--Enmity of the Tlascalans against the Mexicans.--New disasters.--New designs of Cortez.--Efforts to collect recruits.--Preparations for building ships.--Remonstrance of his companions.--The foray.--Plunder.--The Governor of Cuba sends ships to Vera Cruz.--Expedition from the Governor of Jamaica.-- Collection of arms.--Equipping the fleet.--The vessels baptized. The force which Cortez now had under his command, if we take into consideration the efficiency of European discipline and of European weapons of warfare, was truly formidable. In the stone buildings which protected and encircled his encampment, he could marshal, in battle array, twelve hundred Spaniards and eight thousand native allies; but they were nearly destitute of provisions, and the natives were rapidly assembling from all quarters in countless numbers. Cortez sent four hundred men out into the streets to reconnoitre. They had hardly emerged from the walls of their fortress before they were assailed with shouts of vengeance, and a storm of arrows and javelins fell upon them. Phrenzied multitudes thronged the streets and the house-tops, and from the roofs and the summits of the temples, stones and all similar missiles were poured down upon the heads of the Spaniards. With great difficulty this strong detachment fought their way back to their fortified quarters, having lost twenty-three in killed, and a large number being wounded.