hing which makes
life seem better worth the living. One may often see how a fearless man
suddenly becomes cautious, and even laughably fearful, when he gets a
dear wife or child to think of and protect; and I doubt if any stirring
boy has come to twenty years without suddenly being reminded, by the
possession of some little treasure, how many things _might_ happen to
rob him of the chance to enjoy it. He sees and feels dangers that he had
never thought of before.

The Spaniards certainly had cause enough to be alarmed for their lives,
without any other consideration; but the sudden treasure which gave
those lives such promise of new and hard-earned brightness undoubtedly
made their apprehensions more acute, and spurred them to more desperate
efforts to escape.

There is not the remotest evidence of any sort that Pizarro ever
meditated any treachery to Atahualpa; and there is very strong
circumstantial evidence to the contrary. But now his followers began to
demand what seemed necessary for their protection. Atahualpa, they
believed, had betrayed them. He had caused the murder of his brother
Huascar, who was disposed to make friends with them, for the sake of
being put by this alliance above the power of his merciless rival. He
had baited them with a golden ransom, and by delaying it had gained
time to have his forces organized to crush the Spaniards,--and now they
demanded that he must not only be punished, but be put past further
plotting. Their logic was unanswerable by any one in the same
circumstances; nor can I now bring myself to quarrel with it. Not only
did they _believe_ their accusation just,--it probably _was_ just; at
all events, they acted justly by the light they had. So serious was the
alarm that the guards were doubled, the horses were kept constantly
under saddle and bridle, and the men slept on their arms; while Pizarro
in person went the rounds every night to see that everything was ready
to meet the attack, which was expected to take place at any moment.

Yet in this crisis the Spanish leader showed a manly unwillingness even
to _seem_ treacherous. He was a man of his word, as well as a humane
man; and it was hard for him to break his promise to set Atahualpa free,
even when he was fully absolved by Atahualpa's own utter violation of
the spirit of the contract. But it was impossible to withstand the
demands of his followers; he was responsible for their lives as well as
his own, and when it came t