Note 770 — Chapter XXIV · FIGHT UPON THE TEMPLE SUMMIT. June, 1520.

Bernal Diaz mentions the death of ten or twelve, but Cortés acknowledges only three score of wounded. On this occasion, apparently, Herrera allows Cortés to gain Tacuba, whither he might have retreated in safety with all his forces and wealth; yet he states that the return fight proved most severe, the fort being regained with difficulty, after the loss of two guns and several soldiers, one taken alive. dec. ii. lib. x. cap. ix. Solis manages to transform the operation into a victory, wherein Cortés stays the slaughter out of mercy. Prescott is quite arbitrary in the use of the chronicles. He combines the incidents of several days into one and transposes them at pleasure, with the sole aim apparently of presenting an exciting description of what the siege might have been. A few facts are elaborated, and the rest sacrificed to style.