472
LA NOCHE TRISTE.
other high personages.[1] The sick were to be carried in hammocks and behind riders.
It is the evening of the 30th of June.[2] Fiery copper has been the sky that day; the sun blood-red and moon-like, turning day to night, when night is so soon to be employed as day. As the hour approaches, a fog sets in, which thickens into mist and denser moisture until, to favor the Spaniards, providence turns it to a drizzling rain,[3] thus to veil their movements, and make substantial the silence of the city, the lake, the distant wood; and thereupon all join fervently in the prayer of Father Olmedo and commend their lives to almighty God.
About midnight the order is given to march.[4] Stealthily they creep down the temple square and
- ↑ Herrera adds a brother of Montezuma, and Sahagun names two sons. Hist. Conq., 33. So does Vetancurt, although he assumes that one was saved. Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 142-3. Ixtlilxochitl gives a longer list, including two sons of Montezuma, and two sons and four daughters of Nezalhualpilli, of Tezcuco. One of the daughters escaped, but it was not the beloved of Cortés, who had been baptized and named Juana. Cacama is not included in the list, because he is assumed to have been stabbed to death before the fort was evacuated. Hist. Chich., 302; Relaciones, 390. With the prisoners' division went Marina, the interpreter, the Tlascaltec princesses Luisa and Elvira, and some other women, protected, says Bernal Diaz, by 30 soldiers and 300 Tlascaltecs.
- ↑ This date is based on Cortés' letter, wherein he places the arrival on Tlascala's border on Sunday, July 8th, after giving a clear account of the intermediate days. Any doubt about this date is removed by the testimony in Lejalde, Segunda Probanza, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 423, wherein the leading captains state that the siege lasted six days. This testimony also clears up the only doubtful point in Cortés' account of the siege operations, where he disposes of the wounding and death of Montezuma in one sentence, and then resumes the description of the fighting in a manner that has assisted to mislead Gomara and many others into extending the stay in Mexico till July 10th. Ixtlilxochitl adopts this date, yet in the Relaciones, 390, 412-13, he states that the siege lasted only seven days. Bernal Diaz places the eve of the departure on a Thursday, July 10th [with Cortés it is Saturday], yet he dates the battle of Otumba just one week later than Cortés. Hist. Verdad., 105, 108. This latter date induces Zamacois to change the date of flight to July 8th. Hist. Méj., iii. 406-7. La notte del 1 Luglio,'says Clavigero, Storia Mess., iii. 135, but his reasons for the date are wrong, and the term he uses may apply also to the night following that adopted in the text.
- ↑ The Spaniards recognized this as a favoring shield direct from God, says Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 473-4.
- ↑ Ojeda was instructed to see that no somnolent or sick person was left. He found one man asleep on the roof and roused him. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. x. сар. хі. Gomara takes the trouble to deny the statement of Cano that 270 men, ignorant of Cortés' departure, were left behind to perish. Oviedo, iii. 551. A later note will explain the cause of this rumor.
