There is likewise another circumstance which I must not forget to mention. In the battle of the previous day, our musketeers had spent all their powder, and the crossbow-men their arrows; Cortes, therefore, during the night-time, ordered us to collect all the arrows we could find, and to furnish them with fresh feathers and points, of which we had always a good stock by us. With this work our crossbow-men were occupied the whole of the night, and Pedro Barba, captain of that company, never left them for a moment; Cortes himself looking in from time to time to see how they were getting on. When daylight appeared, our camp was assailed by the whole of the Mexican troops from different points at once; but as we were never unprepared for an attack, our cavalry rushed out towards the land side, and we others, with the Tlascallans, towards the lake, and fell so vigorously on the Mexicans that we soon killed three of their chiefs, and numbers of their troops died of their wounds the day following. The Tlascallans behaved with uncommon bravery, and took five Mexican chiefs whom they brought in prisoners, from whom we learnt the exact number of troops which Quauhtemoctzin had ordered against us. On our side we had only one killed, but a great number of wounded. This battle, however, had not yet terminated; for our cavalry, in pursuing the enemy, came up with the 10,000 warriors whom Quauhtemoctzin had despatched to the assistance of the others. Several of the officers who commanded these troops wore our Spanish swords, of which they were not a little vain; and they said it was by our own swords we were to be vanquished. Our few horse durst not encounter so large a body of the enemy, and therefore drew off to one side, until they should be joined by Cortes with the rest of the troops. When our general was informed of their critical position, he instantly sallied out, with the rest of our cavalry, who had remained in the courtyard on account of their wounds, and all our foot, with the Tlascallan troops. A most terrible and obstinate conflict now ensued; but at length, by dint of heavy blows and thrusts, we repulsed the enemy, with considerable loss. On this occasion eight distinguished Mexicans fell into our hands, from whom we learnt that Quauhtemoctzin had despatched against us another considerable fleet of canoes, and other large bodies of his troops by land. These troops he had sent off with the perfect assurance that, coming suddenly upon us, they would complete the victory, after we had been fatigued by such constant fighting, and weakened by loss of men and the number of our wounded. When we heard this we were doubly on our guard, and our general determined to abandon the town on the following morning, and not wait for any further attacks. We therefore made the best use of our time to dress our wounds and repair our weapons.