ABSTRACT
The fierce and indomitable spirit of the Aztecs filled the besieged with dismay. A spirit of mutiny broke out, especially among the recent levies drawn from the army of Narvaez. A body of five or six hundred Mexicans, many of them nobles and warriors of the highest rank, had got possession of the teocalli, whence they discharged such a tempest of arrows on the garrison that no one could leave his defences for a moment without imminent danger. Montezuma's death was a misfortune to the Spaniards. Many of the Aztecs, according to Sahagun, seeing the fate of such of their comrades as fell into the hands of the Spaniards on the narrow terraces below, voluntarily threw themselves headlong from the lofty summit. No achievement in the war struck more awe into the Mexicans than this storming of the great temple, in which the white men seemed to bid defiance equally to the powers of God and man.
