Our Cavalry
Made Several Charges This Day, But Our Great Safety Depended Upon Two Guns
Which Raked The Whole Causeway, And Were Admirably Managed By Pedro Morena,
An Excellent Officer, Whose Services This Day Were Singularly Useful, As
The Whole Causeway Was Crowded By The Enemy.
Before we arrived at our
quarters, and while pursued by the enemy, we heard the shrill timbals and
mournful sound of the great drum from the summit of the temple of the god
of war.
The priests were then sacrificing the hearts of ten of our
companions to their accursed idols, and the sound of their dismal drum,
which might be heard at almost three leagues off, might be imagined to be
the music of the infernal deities. Soon after this, the horn of
Guatimotzin was heard, giving notice to the Mexican officers either to
make prisoners of their enemies, or to die in the attempt. It is utterly
impossible to describe the fury with which they assailed us on hearing
this dreadful signal, though the remembrance is still as lively as if now
passing before me: I can only say, that it was the good pleasure of God
that we got back in safety to our post; praised be his mercy now and for
ever. Amen! We were ignorant of the fate of our other detachments.
Sandoval was more than half a league from us, and Cortes still farther.
The melancholy sight of the heads of our countrymen, and the loss of one
of our brigantines in which three of our soldiers were slain, filled us
with melancholy, and we almost thought that we had reached the last hour
of our lives.
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