own the
stair-case. Alcantara sprang to the door and fought heroically,
undaunted by the wounds that grew thicker on him. Pizarro, hurling aside
the armor there was no time to don, flung a cloak over his left arm for
a shield, and with the right grasping the good sword that had flashed in
so many a desperate fray he sprang like a lion upon the wolfish gang. He
was an old man now; and years of such hardship and exposure as few men
living nowadays ever dreamed of had told on him. But the great heart was
not old, and he fought with superhuman valor and superhuman strength.
His swift sword struck down the two foremost, and for a moment the
traitors were staggered. But Alcantara had fallen; and taking turns to
wear out the old hero, the cowards pressed him hard. For several minutes
the unequal fight went on in that narrow passage, slippery with
blood,--one gray-haired man with flashing eyes against a score of
desperadoes. At last Herrada seized Narvaez, a comrade, in his arms, and
behind this living shield rushed against Pizarro. Pizarro ran Narvaez
through and through; but at the same instant one of the crowding
butchers stabbed him in the throat. The conqueror of Peru reeled and
fell; and the conspirators plunged their swords in his body. But even
then the iron will kept the body to the last thought of a great heart;
and calling upon his Redeemer, Pizarro drew a cross with bloody finger
upon the floor, bent and kissed the sacred symbol, and was dead.

So lived and so died the man who began life as the swineherd of
Truxillo, and who ended it the conqueror of Peru. He was the greatest of
the Pioneers; a man who from meaner beginnings rose higher than any; a
man much slandered and maligned by the prejudiced; but nevertheless a
man whom history will place in one of her highest niches,--a hero whom
every lover of heroism will one day delight to honor.

* * * * *

Such was the conquest of Peru. Of the romantic history which followed in
Peru I cannot tell here,--of the lamentable fall of brave Gonzalo
Pizarro; of the remarkable Pedro de la Gasca; of the great Mendoza's
vice-royal promotion; nor of a hundred other chapters of fascinating
history. I have wished only to give the reader some idea of what a
Spanish conquest really was, in superlative heroism and hardship.
Pizarro's was the greatest conquest; but there were many others which
were not inferior in heroism and suffering, but only in genius