It was a fearful stroke, and fearfully was it repaid upon the heads of the guilty murderers. On every side the cry of vengeance arose, and its hoarse murmurs came rolling in upon the capital, like the distant howlings of a gathering tempest. Myriads of outraged Aztecs, smarting and chafing under their wounds, and thirsting for a worthy revenge, thronged the avenues to the capital, and demanded the treacherous strangers to be offered in sacrifice to their offended gods. Guatimozin, and many other brave, powerful, fearless chiefs were there, eager to seize the opportunity to chastise the insolent intruder. Day after day, they stormed the quarters of the beleaguered foe, pouring in upon them vollies of arrows, darts and stones, that sorely discomfited, though it could not dislodge them. Every assailable point was so well guarded by those terrible engines of destruction, the fire-belching artillery, that the assailants, numerous as they were, and spurred on by an ungovernable rage, could make but little impression upon them. Nevertheless, they would inevitably have carried the defences, and swept away the little band of ruthless murderers, had not Montezuma interposed, and besought them, for his sake, to desist from their hostile attacks. From regard to his safety, they suspended their active operations, but did not relinquish their settled purpose of vengeance. One means of annoyance was left to them, which would soon have reduced the fortress to submission, had not an unexpected succor arrived. All supplies were cut off from the camp,--already famine began to stare them in the face, and relax the iron sinew and with it the iron will, of the haughty Castilian. They were beginning to be reduced to extremities. A few days more, and the undefended garrison would have fallen into the hands of those merciless avengers of blood, who would have doomed every individual to the sacrifice. At this critical juncture, the all powerful, invincible Cortez returned, his forces greatly increased by the accession of the very band that had been sent against him--Narvaez, who had been commissioned to displace him, having become his friend, and arrayed himself, with his whole company and munitions of war, under his banner. Hearing of the disastrous position of his friends in the capital, he hastened with rapid strides and forced marches to their relief. His progress was unimpeded by any hostilities on the part of Aztecs, or their allies, till he entered the city, and joined his forces with those of Alvarado in the beleaguered citadel. It seems to have been the purpose of the chiefs to permit a free ingress of the entire force of the enemy, preferring rather to shut them up to famine there, than to meet them in the open field.