Their alliance had brought misfortune upon the Tlascalans.

Little more than one thousand out of the eight thousand men who had marched with them had returned to tell the tale.

The rest had fallen in the defense of the palace, in the fighting in the streets of Mexico, in the passage of the causeway, or in the battle of Otompan.
What would the Tlascalans think, when they saw the broken remnant of the army, which had marched out so proudly, and knew that they brought on themselves the bitter enmity of the whole of the people of Anahuac?
Might they not well be tempted to avert the wrath of the Aztecs, by falling upon the strangers, whose alliance had cost them so dearly?
At the place at which they halted for the night, a town of some fifteen thousand inhabitants, they were so kindly received by the natives that these apprehensions were somewhat laid to rest.

The people came out to meet them, invited them to their houses, and treated them with the greatest hospitality.

Here they remained three days, resting after their terrible fatigues.
They were visited here by Maxixca, the most influential of the four great chiefs of the Tlascalans.