The Aztec loss was heavy, no doubt; but they can fill up their ranks and take the field again, in a week or two, with a force as large as that which fought at Otompan.

They will not be dispirited, for they will know that it was but an accident which deprived them of victory, and will no longer deem the Spaniards invincible." "It matters not," Marina said, carelessly.

"Cortez will manage things.

Whatever he undertakes, that he will carry out." Late in the afternoon, the army arrived at the barrier across the road that marked the boundary of the Tlascalan territory.

As they passed it, the native allies burst into cries of gladness; and the Spaniards joined in the shout, for to them, too, it seemed that their dangers were at an end, and that they had reached rest and abundance.
Cortez and the leaders, however, were by no means sanguine as to the reception they should meet with.