ken by surprise, stunned by the
noise of the artillery, and blinded with smoke, knew not which way to
fly. Nobles and soldiers were ruthlessly cut down, or trampled underfoot
by the horses, the entrance to the square was choked with the fallen
bodies of men, but the desperate struggles of the masses of natives
driven together by their fierce assailants actually broke down the wall
of clay and stone for a space of a hundred paces, through which the
wretched fugitives endeavoured to reach the open country, hotly pursued
by the cavalry and struck down in all directions.

THE CAPTIVITY OF THE INCA

[Illustration: The friar urges Pizarro to attack the Peruvians]

Meanwhile, a desperate struggle was going on for the person of the Inca.
His nobles surrounded and faithfully strove to defend him; as fast as
one was cut down another took his place, and with their dying grasp they
clung to the bridles of the cavaliers, trying to force them back.
Atahuallpa sat as one stunned in his swaying litter, forced this way and
that by the pressure of the throng. The Spaniards grew tired at last of
the work of destruction, and, fearing that in the gathering darkness the
Inca might after all escape them, they made an attempt to end the fray
at once by taking his life. But Pizarro, seeing this, cried out in a
mighty voice, 'Let no man who values his life strike at the Inca,' and,
stretching out his arm to shield him, received a wound on the hand from
one of his own men--the only wound received by any Spaniard in the
action. The strife now became fiercer round the litter, and several of
the nobles who bore it having been slain, it was overturned, and the
Inca would have come violently to the ground had not Pizarro and some of
his men caught him in their arms. A soldier instantly snatched the
crimson fringe from his forehead, and the unhappy monarch was taken into
the nearest building and carefully guarded. All attempt at resistance
now ceased. The news of the Inca's fate spread over town and country,
and the only thing which had held them together being gone, each man
thought only of his own safety. The Spaniards pursued the fugitives till
night fell and the sound of the trumpet recalled them to the square of
Caxamalca. That night the Inca supped with Pizarro as he had said, while
ten thousand of his faithful followers lay dead about the city.

He seemed like one in a dream, not understanding the calamity that had
fallen upon him. He even