He refused all aid from the Spaniards, and tearing open his wounds, expired, frantic with rage and despair. After the death of the Emperor, Cortez found that he could no longer maintain his position; he according quitted it secretly in the night, and marched for the Tlascalan territories. On viewing his troops after several hot assaults, which they experienced on the march, he is reported to have shed tears. Having recruited the spirits of his followers, and mustering the remainder of his forces, he again bent his course towards the capital, determined to perish or conquer. His infantry amounted to 550 men, his cavalry to 40, and he had 9 pieces of cannon; with this force of Spaniards, there marched 10,000 Indian allies, mostly Tlascalans, and on the 28th of December, 1520, the whole army were in motion exactly six months after the evacuation of Mexico. He fixed his head-quarters at Tezcuco, on the banks of the lake 20 miles from the capital. In this city, the natives adhered to his cause, and assisted him in building thirteen small ships, which he launched on the lake. At this juncture, four vessels, fitted out by his friends in Hispaniola arrived with two hundred infantry, eight horses, and supplies of arms and ammunition. He therefore immediately attacked the city on the east, west and south. It was defended by Guatimozin, the new Emperor, with undaunted courage, and Cortez himself was once taken prisoner, but fortunately rescued, though wounded in the attempt. His soldiers who fell into the hands of the Mexicans, were immolated with horrid barbarity on the altars of the god of war. His allies, the Indians, now amounted to 150,000, and his vessels kept possession of the lakes Tezcuco and Chalco. This siege continued with vigour for 75 days, and the town capitulated on the 21st August, 1521, when Guatimozin, the Emperor, was taken prisoner; but the Spaniards had ruined three-fourths of the city in their attempts to take it; they had, therefore, a barren triumph. Cortez stained his victory by ordering the Emperor to be put to the torture, in order to make him confess where he had hid his treasure; which, in fact, he had caused to be thrown into the lake. It would be useless to detail the other proceedings of the army in the conquest of the provinces of the Mexican empire; suffice it to say, that they all yielded without much opposition to the Spanish conquerors.