Aware that the sight of the sacrifice, purposely intensified for Spanish edification, must have stirred deeply the breasts of the survivors, the Mexicans took advantage of this to attack the camp of Alvarado during the night.
“Behold the fate in store for you all!” they cried, casting in half-roasted pieces of flesh from white and dusky bodies. “Eat, for we are satiated!”
The Spaniards were too well prepared to suffer from the assault, but it added to their sorrows. The lesson had been costly, for about sixty men were lost, with six horses, one gun, and a number of small-arms, while the ranks of the allies had been diminished by from one to two thousand, and this without reckoning the vast number of wounded.31
When Sandoval reached Camp Xoloc and learned the news he burst forth, “Señor Capitan, what is this? Where are the fine counsels and warlike skill which you are wont to exhibit?” With tears springing to his eyes, Cortés replied: “Sandoval, my son, my sins I admit, but I am not so guilty in this matter as I appear. The officer whom I charged to fill the channel failed to obey.” He further intimated that Alvarado might be led by his daring into difficulties, and bade Sandoval watch carefully over the safety of the western and northern camps, particularly for the present, while Cortés was restrained by his wounds.32
The injunction was needful in view of the reoccupation by the Mexicans of the channels from which they had lately been driven, and their harassing attacks, chiefly by night, against the camps and fleets. Alvarado’s camp, as the nearest to the city, was the most exposed, and Sandoval with his tried prudence could be best relied on to counteract the recklessness of its commander in repelling these attacks. Knowing the signal for the sallies, usually a shot, the enemy were warned in time to retire, or to form some trap or combination; so that the charge of the soldiers carried little advantage.