We had lived through many dangers that day, the princess Otomie and I,
but one more awaited us before ever we found shelter for awhile. After
we had reached the foot of the pyramid and turned to mingle with the
terrified rabble that surged and flowed through the courtyard of the
temple, bearing away the dead and wounded as the sea at flood reclaims
its waste and wreckage, a noise like thunder caught my ear. I looked
up, for the sound came from above, and saw a huge mass bounding down the
steep side of the pyramid. Even then I knew it again; it was the idol of
the god Tezcat that the Spaniards had torn from its shrine, and like
an avenging demon it rushed straight on to me. Already it was upon us,
there was no retreat from instant death, we had but escaped sacrifice
to the spirit of the god to be crushed to powder beneath the bulk of
his marble emblem. On he came while on high the Spaniards shouted in
triumph. His base had struck the stone side of the pyramid fifty feet
above us, now he whirled round and round in the air to strike again
within three paces of where we stood. I felt the solid mountain
shake beneath the blow, and next instant the air was filled with huge
fragments of marble, that whizzed over us and past us as though a mine
of powder had been fired beneath our feet, tearing the rocks from their
base. The god Tezcat had burst into a score of pieces, and these fell
round us like a flight of arrows, and yet we were not touched.
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