Cortes then brought a shackled Moctezuma out into the great plaza in front of the Templo Mayor and made him watch, along with thousands of citizens of Tenochtitlan, as Qualpopoca, his sons and the fifteen other prisoners were tied to stakes, surrounded with bundles or arrows and wooden weapons from the Aztec armouries and burnt to death. According to some accounts, the crowd watched the spectacle in total silence and when the prisoners were dead, Cortes told Moctezuma he could go free. Terrified by the anger of his subjects following this public execution of one of his most senior officers, Moctezuma refused. Over the next few months the Aztec Emperor would gradually lose the respect of his people, culminating in his death on the Noche Triste on 30 June 1520.Thomas, p. 310
