one who values his life strike at the Inca!" shouted
Pizarro, fearing his valued prize might be slain in the wild tumult.
Fiercer still grew the struggle around him. The royal litter swayed back
and forth, and, as some of its bearers were slain, it was overturned, the
monarch being saved from a fall to the ground by Pizarro and some others,
who caught him in their arms. With all haste they bore him into the
fortress and put him under close guard.

With the capture of the Inca all resistance was at an end. The unarmed
Peruvians fled in terror from the fearful massacre. The soldiers in the
fields were seized with panic on hearing the fatal news, and dispersed in
all directions, pursued by the Spanish cavalry, who cut them down without
mercy. Not till night had fallen did Pizarro's men cease the pursuit and
return at the call of the trumpet to the bloody square of Caxamalca. In
that frightful massacre not less than two thousand victims, perhaps many
more, were slain, the most of them unarmed and helpless. That night
Pizarro kept his word, that he would sup with Atahualpa, but it was a
supper at which he might well have drunk blood. The banquet was served in
one of the halls facing the great square, then thickly paved with the
dead, the monarch, stunned by the calamity, sitting beside his captor at
the dread meal.

Let us now go forward to a still more spectacular scene in that strange
drama, one which proved that the Spaniards had truly at length reached the
"land of gold." The Inca was not long a prisoner before he discovered the
besetting passion of the Spaniards, their thirst for gold. A party was
sent to pillage his pleasure-house, and brought back a rich booty in gold
and silver, whose weight and value filled the conquerors with delight.

Thinking that he saw in this a hope of escaping from his captivity, the
Inca one day said to Pizarro that if he would agree to set him free, he
would cover the floor of the room in which they stood with gold. Pizarro
listened with a smile of doubt. As he made no answer, the Inca said,
earnestly, that "he would not merely cover the floor, but would fill the
room with gold as high as he could reach," and he stood on tiptoe as he
put his uplifted hand against the wall. This extraordinary offer filled
Pizarro with intense astonishment. That such a thing could be done seemed
utterly incredible, despite all they had learned of the riches of Peru.
The avaricious conqueror, dazzled by the m