Every hour our numbers
grew fewer and our arms fainter, but still we fought on desperately. At
the two last barricades, hundreds of the women of the Otomie fought by
the sides of their husbands and their brothers.
The last earthwork was captured by the Spaniards just as the sun sank,
and under the shadow of approaching darkness those of us that remained
alive fled to the refuge which we had prepared upon the teocalli, nor
was there any further fighting during that night.
CHAPTER XXXV
THE LAST SACRIFICE OF THE WOMEN OF THE OTOMIE
Here in the courtyard of the teocalli, by the light of burning houses,
for as they advanced the Spaniards fired the town, we mustered our array
to find that there were left to us in all some four hundred fighting
men, together with a crowd of nearly two thousand women and many
children. Now although this teocalli was not quite so lofty as that of
the great temple of Mexico, its sides were steeper and everywhere faced
with dressed stone, and the open space upon its summit was almost as
great, measuring indeed more than a hundred paces every way. This area
was paved with blocks of marble, and in its centre stood the temple of
the war-god, where his statue still sat, although no worship had been
offered to him for many years; the stone of sacrifice, the altar of
fire, and the storehouses of the priests.
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