Presently scores of houses were in flames, and thick columns of smoke rolled up like those that float from the mouth of Popo.

But many of those who rode and ran from the gates of Axa did not come back thither, for the Aztecs clung to the legs of the horses and dragged their riders away living.

That very day these captives were sacrificed on the altar of Huitzel, and in the sight of their comrades, and with them a horse was offered up, which had been taken alive, and was borne and dragged with infinite labour up the steep sides of the pyramid.

Indeed never had the sacrifices been so many as during these days of combat.

All day long the altars ran red, and all day long the cries of the victims rang in my ears, as the maddened priests went about their work.