At the eastern end of the platform stood the two three-story chapels, over fifty feet in height, originally dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tezcatlipoca.
Against this the Indians had massed themselves, fierce in their desperation. The Castilians had taken their stand at the other end. It was an awful situation, dire destruction being inevitable to one side or the other. With nerves and sinews strained to their utmost tension, they stood between attacks regarding each other, regarding every motion, anon picking from the other’s number with javelin, dart, or musket, as they were able. It was with difficulty the Spaniards could stand, and there was no railing round the slippery height; but fortune again assisted by unveiling the sun and sending its blinding rays full in the face of the enemy.
Every now and then the soldiers charged in solid phalanx into the centre of the opposite mass, only to be obliged to retire under the pressure of its weight, and to receive the counter-charge, encouraged by wildly gesticulating priests, who flitted to and fro in bloody robes and dishevelled hair.
Aware of the inferiority of their weapons, the natives sought rather to seize hold of the Spaniards, singly or in groups, and with the recklessness of doomed men to hurl themselves with their victims from the dizzy height. In one instance Cortés himself was selected for this terrible fate. Inspired to martyrdom and revenge, two young nobles watched their opportunity, and approached him on their knees, as if pleading for mercy. Ere he had time to consider the situation they had seized him in their arms and were struggling to gain the edge. One moment more and he would have been dashed to death, but by putting forth his whole strength, nerved by desperation, he succeeded in freeing himself from their grasp. Ojeda was singled out for a similar attempt, and would have perished had not a Genoese come to his aid.20