without even striking a blow in their own defence. Fortunately for the invaders, their sagacious and ever-wakeful general had anticipated the possibility of such a scene as this, and had taken some measures to forestall it. His officers, however, were too high-spirited and self-confident to condescend to the cowardly drudgery of carrying out his precautionary measures. They thought only of victory, and the spoils of the glorious city, which they now regarded as their own. In this fearful dilemma, the genius of Cortez did not desert him. When the first shout of battle reached his ears, as he was advancing cautiously along the avenue, he instantly conjectured the cause. Ordering his own column to halt, and selecting a chosen band of his best cavalry, he wheeled about, dashed furiously down the avenue, and put to flight the unarmed Aztecs, who were doing the work of destruction for him, and had then almost succeeded in tearing away the foundations of the great bridge. Making his way through the deserted streets, with the speed of the wind, he came round into the other avenue, where one division of his army was hemmed in, in the manner above described. Charging impetuously upon the gathering crowds of Aztecs, he succeeded in forcing his way up to the chasm, where he stood face to face with his own troops on the other side. Here, in the midst of a pitiless tempest of stones, and darts and arrows, he maintained his stand, while his men, with incredible labor, attempted to fill up the chasm. The work was at length accomplished, though not without the most serious loss to Cortez. Some of his bravest officers fell in that merciless contest with foes who would neither give nor receive quarter. Many were pelted down with the huge stones, that ceased not to rain upon them from all the neighboring house tops. Some were taken by the feet as they labored to maintain a precarious footing on the slippery causeway, and dragged into the canals, either to be drowned in the desperate struggle there, or carried off in the canoes to captivity or sacrifice. Cortez himself narrowly escaped immolation. At length, through the indomitable perseverance of the general, the breach was so far filled up as to make a practicable passage for the troops. A retreat was sounded, and that gallant band, which, a few hours before had rushed in with flaunting banners, and confident boastings of an easy victory, was glad to escape from the snare into which they had fallen, their numbers greatly reduced, their banners soiled and tattered, and their expectations of ultimate success terribly shaken. They were pursued through all their march by the exulting Aztecs, and many a broken head and bruised limb attested the truth of Guatimozin's taunting challenge, that the Spaniards, if they entered the capital again, would find as many fortresses as there were houses, as many assailants as stones in the streets. CHAPTER XI.