Bringing up their pieces of ordnance, the Spaniards set them within
little more than an hundred paces of the gates, and began to batter
us with iron shot at their leisure, for our spears and arrows could
scarcely harm them at such a distance. Still we were not idle, for
seeing that the wooden gates must soon be down, we demolished houses on
either side of them and filled up the roadway with stones and rubbish.
At the rear of the heap thus formed I caused a great trench to be dug,
which could not be passed by horsemen and ordnance till it was filled
in again. All along the main street leading to the great square of the
teocalli I threw up other barricades, protected in the front and rear by
dykes cut through the roadway, and in case the Spaniards should try to
turn our flank and force a passage through the narrow and tortuous lanes
to the right and left, I also barricaded the four entrances to the great
square or market place.
Till nightfall the Spaniards bombarded the shattered remains of the
gates and the earthworks behind them, doing no great damage beyond the
killing of about a score of people by cannon shot and arquebuss balls.
But they attempted no assault that day. At length the darkness fell and
their fire ceased, but not so our labours. Most of the men must guard
the gates and the weak spots in the walls, and therefore the building of
the barricades was left chiefly to the women, working under my command
and that of my captains.
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