for the strict orders issued to spare the women and children, and also the less hostile wards,31 and for the eagerness of the Tlascaltecs to secure captives as well as spoils, and of the Spaniards to hunt for treasures. The hostile wards had besides been pretty well cleared of inhabitants by the time Cortés returned to his quarters forbidding further butchery. When the amnesty was proclaimed, however, numbers appeared from hiding-places, even from beneath the heaps of slain, while many who had pretended death, to escape the sword, arose and fled.
The pillage was continued for some time longer,32 and as the Tlascaltecs cared chiefly for fabrics, feathers, and provisions, particularly salt, the Spaniards were allowed to secure all the gold and trinkets they could, though these were far less in amount than had been expected.33 When the real work was over, Xicotencatl appeared with twenty thousand men and tendered his services; but Cortés could offer him only a share in the booty for his attention, and with this he returned to Tlascala to celebrate the downfall of the hated and boastful neighbor.34