m. The king of Spain is doubtless a great
monarch, and I wish to make him my friend, but I cannot become his
vassal."

A few more words were interchanged, when the priest returned into the
stone fortress, where Pizarro stood surrounded by his soldiers. The
priest reported the conversation which had taken place; declared that
the Inca, in the pride of his heart, had rejected Christianity. He
therefore announced to Pizarro that he was authorized by the divine
law, to make war upon the Inca and his people.

"Go set on them at once," said he; "spare them not; kill these dogs
which so stubbornly despise the law of God. I absolve you."

The extraordinary scene which then ensued cannot perhaps be better
described than in the language of Mr. Prescott:

"Pizarro saw that the hour had come. He waved a white scarf
in the air, the appointed signal. The fatal gun was fired
from the fortress. Then springing into the square, the
Spanish captain and his followers shouted the old war cry of
'St. Jago, and at them!' It was answered by the battle cry of
every Spaniard in the city, as rushing from the avenues of
the great halls in which they were concealed, they poured
into the Plaza, horse and foot, and threw themselves into the
midst of the Indian crowd.

"The latter, taken by surprise, stunned by the reports of
artillery and musketry, the echoes of which reverberated like
thunder from the surrounding buildings, and blinded by the
smoke which rolled in sulphurous volumes along the square,
were seized with a panic. They knew not whither to fly for
refuge from the coming ruin. Nobles and commoners all were
trampled down under the fierce charge of the cavalry, who
dealt their blows right and left, without sparing; while
their swords, flashing through the thick gloom, carried
dismay into the hearts of the wretched natives, who now, for
the first time, saw the horse and his rider in all their
terrors. They made no resistance, as indeed they had no
weapons with which to resist.

"Every avenue to escape was closed, for the entrance to the
square was choked up with the dead bodies of men who had
perished in vain efforts to fly. And such was the agony of
the survivors, under the terrible pressure of their
assailants, that a large body of Indians, by their convulsive
struggles, burst through the wall of stone and dried clay,