paths were well known to them, bidding them climb to
the crest of the precipices that bordered either side of the gorge,
and there, at certain places where the cliff is sheer and more than one
thousand feet in height, to make a great provision of stones.

The rest of my army, excepting five hundred whom I kept with me, I
armed with bows and throwing spears, and stationed them in ambush in
convenient places where the sides of the cliff were broken, and in such
fashion that rocks from above could not be rolled on them. Then I sent
trusty men as spies to warn me of the approach of the Spaniards, and
others whose mission it was to offer themselves to them as guides.

Now I thought my plan good, and everything looked well, and yet it
missed failure but by a very little. For Maxtla, our enemy and the
friend of the Spaniards, was in my camp--indeed, I had brought him with
me that I might watch him--and he had not been idle.

For when the Spaniards were half a day's march from the mouth of the
defile, one of those men whom I had told off to watch their advance,
came to me and made it known that Maxtla had bribed him to go to the
leader of the Spaniards and disclose to him the plan of the ambuscade.
This man had taken the bribe and started on his errand of treachery,
but his heart failed him and, returning, he told me all. Then I caused
Maxtla to be seized, and before nightfall he had paid the price of his
wickedness.

On the morning after his death the Spanish array entered the pass.
Half-way down it I met them with my five hundred men and engaged them,
but suffered them to drive us back with some loss. As they followed they
grew bolder and we fled faster, till at length we flew down the defile
followed by the Spanish horse. Now, some three furlongs from its mouth
that leads to the City of Pines, this pass turns and narrows, and here
the cliffs are so sheer and high that a twilight reigns at the foot of
them.

Down the narrow way we ran in seeming rout, and after us came the
Spaniards shouting on their saints and flushed with victory. But
scarcely had we turned the corner when they sang another song, for those
who were watching a thousand feet above us gave the signal, and down
from on high came a rain of stones and boulders that darkened the air
and crashed among them, crushing many of them. On they struggled, seeing
a wider way in front where the cliffs sloped, and perhaps half of them
won through. But here the archers