Prescott, following Clavigero, assumes that the whole was an artifice to liberate the two captive priests, one of whom was indispensable in the event of a coronation. Mex., ii. 338. Brasseur de Bourbourg supposes that the parley was conducted by the party favorable to the Spaniards, and duped by the stronger faction, which never intended to adhere to the arrangement. Hist. Nat. Civ., 321.

‘Como los peones estaban cansados y heridos y atemorizados; ... ninguno me siguió. A cuya causa, después de pasadas yo las puentes ... las hallé tomadas.’ Cortés, Cartas, 134. Where had he left his prudence?

‘Hallé á todos los de caballo que conmigo iban, caidos en ella, y un caballo suelto.’ Id.

With a loss of over twenty men. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 105. This author places all the fighting on the causeway on one day, a Thursday, the day of evacuating Mexico, and the day following the surrender of Montezuma’s body. Herrera, who is far more confused, has a sally on this day in three directions, one being the Tlacopan road; but the operations on the latter route are only partially told, and the rest referred to the third day of the siege. There are also several contradictions to aid in confusing the many who follow him. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. x. cap. xi. Prescott abandons himself to the guidance of Clavigero for the occurrences of these days, but embellishes the narrative with some incidents belonging to the siege of Alvarado.