lieve he was rather glad the accident had happened; for, if he had
until then been uncertain whether to kill me or not, he felt, after what
had occurred, that it was not prudent to attempt it.

The gold ring which had been seized from me on the day of our arrest,
and for which I asked many times, as it had been given me by my mother,
was regarded as possessing miraculous powers as long as it was upon or
near me. It was therefore kept away from me, for fear that, with its
help, I might break my bonds and escape.

The Pombo, the Lamas, and officers held another consultation, at the end
of which, toward sunset, several soldiers came and loosed my legs from
the stretching log. My hands, though still manacled, were lowered from
the pillar behind.

As the ropes round my ankles were unwound from the deep channels they
had cut into my flesh, large patches of skin came away with them. Thus
ended the most terrible twenty-four hours[14] I have ever passed in my
lifetime.

I felt very little relief at first as I lay flat on the ground. My body
and legs were stiff as if dead. As time went by and I saw no signs of
their coming back to life, I feared that mortification had set in, and
that I had lost the use of my feet forever. It was two or three hours
before the blood began to circulate in my right foot. The pain when it
did so was intense. Had a handful of knives been passed slowly down the
inside of my leg the agony could not have been more excruciating. My
arms were not quite so bad. They also were numbed, but the circulation
was more quickly re-established.

The Pombo, whether to amuse me or to show off his riches, ordered to be
displayed before me about one hundred ponies, some with magnificent
harness. Mounting the finest pony and holding in his hand the dreadful
_taram_, he rode round the hill on which the monastery and fort stood.

On returning he harangued his men. A series of sports followed, the
Pombo seating himself near me and watching me intently to see how I was
enjoying the performance. First of all the best marksmen were selected.
With their matchlocks they fired one after the other at my two yaks,
only a few yards off. Although they aimed carefully, no one succeeded in
hitting them. I knew they fired with bullets, for I could hear the
hissing sound of the missiles.

Next came an interesting display of horsemanship. I should have enjoyed
it more had I not been suffering agonies all the time. The performance