At This Moment Six Mexican Chiefs Seized Cortes,
But By The Will Of God, Christoval De Olea, That Valiant Soldier, And
Another Brave Man Named Lerma Flew To The Rescue Of Our General.
De Olea
killed four of the chiefs with his own hand, and gallantly lost his life
in defence of Cortes, while Lerma narrowly escaped.
Other brave soldiers
arrived at this moment to his aid, among whom was Quinones the captain of
his guards. By these men he was lifted out of the water and hurried off
from among a crowd of the enemy. At this critical moment, Guzman his
majordomo, brought up a horse on which our wounded general was mounted.
The enemy followed up their success with increasing ardour, Cortes and the
shattered remains of his troops, retreating to their quarters with the
utmost difficulty, pursued to the last by the Mexicans.
After our first attack, in which we defeated the enemy and drove them from
their post, we were met by fresh bodies of the enemy, marching in great
parade, bearing rich plumes of feathers and ornamented standards. On
coming near, they threw down before us five bleeding heads, saying these
were the heads of Cortes and his officers, and that we should soon meet
the same fate. They then marched up, and fought us hand to hand with the
utmost valour, insomuch that we were at length compelled to retreat. As
usual, we gave orders to our allies to clear the way, by retreating before
us; but the sight of the bloody heads had done this effectually, and not a
man of them remained on the causeway to impede our flight.
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