Cortes was suffered to rejoin his comrades in the palace of Axa without attack, I do not know why, and on the following day Cuitlahua, Montezuma's brother, king of Palapan, was released by him that he might soothe the people.

But Cuitlahua was no coward.

Once safe outside his prison walls, he called the council together, of whom the chief was Guatemoc.
There they resolved on war to the end, giving it out that Montezuma had forfeited his kingdom by his cowardice, and on that resolve they acted.
Had it been taken but two short months before, by this date no Spaniard would have been left alive in Tenoctitlan.

For after Marina, the love of Cortes, whose subtle wit brought about his triumph, it was Montezuma who was the chief cause of his own fall, and of that of the kingdom of Anahuac..