He had drunk deeply of the cup of humiliation, at the hands of the Spaniards; but this last drop filled it to overflowing.

There was nothing for him but to die.
The Spanish leaders tried, but in vain, to persuade him to submit to surgical treatment.

He paid no attention to their words, and they were soon called away by fresh danger from without.
The Aztecs had speedily recovered from their emotion at seeing the fall of the emperor, and a body of five or six hundred of them, including many nobles and military leaders of high rank, had taken possession of the great temple; and now from its summit, a hundred and fifty feet high, opened a rain of missiles upon the palace.

The Spaniards could not effectually return their fire, for the Aztecs were sheltered by the sanctuaries on the summit of the pyramids.
It was absolutely necessary, for the safety of the defenders, to dislodge them from this position; and Cortez ordered his chamberlain, Don Escobar, with a hundred men, to storm the teocalli and set fire to the sanctuaries.

But the little force were three times repulsed, and forced to fall back with considerable loss.
Cortez then, though suffering much from the wound in his left hand, determined himself to lead the assault.